Savannah College of Art and Design
Water Journeys
The Cine-Files, issue 11 (fall 2016)
Ennuri Jo
Graduate Student, School of Cinematic Arts, USC
My interests as a scholar of cinematic media include onscreen depictions and metaphors of water and consequently their social and ecological implications. This video was borne out of the realization that many of the texts I was drawing from, and the materiality of water itself, were in fact conducive to an audiovisual, and even cinematic, realization. My goal in using the video essay form was to have the visual texture of the onscreen rivers and oceans as well as the journey-themed narratives create not only a poetic work but also have it reflect the theories they involve. The ideas, like the issues themselves, are complex. This video is not meant to be the last word and yet, the combination of its materials can prompt new ways of thinking. Working with the video form allowed thoughts and problems that otherwise would have remained separate to flow and ebb together, sometimes allowing flows of thought and other times forming opposing currents.
References
A Movie. Directed by Bruce Conner, 1958. Canyon Cinema, 1969. DVD.
A Movie by Jen Proctor. Directed by Jen Proctor. Vimeo, 2010. https://vimeo.com/11531028.
Atwood, Margaret. The Penelopiad. New York: Canongate, 2005.
“The Dangerous Boat Ride to Greece through the Eyes of a Syrian Refugee Girl | UNICEF.” YouTube. November 4, 2015. https://youtu.be/UDy8_8L3s0A.
Edouard Glissant: One World in Relation. Directed by Manthia Diawara. Third World Newsreel, 2010. DVD.
The Ister. Directed by David Barison and Daniel Ross. Icarus Films, 2004. DVD.
Leviathan. Directed by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Véréna Paravel. The Cinema Guild, 2012. DVD.
Planet Ocean. Directed by Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Michael Pitiot. Terra Films, 2012. YouTube. https://youtu.be/eH1s9GCqPKo
Stamping the Water. Directed by Song Dong. Lhasa River, Lhasa. 1996. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/117237976