Saturday 9 January 2016

Directions: Self Portrait 4

This is probably the strangest video I came across whilst researching self-portraits. Here it is:


This is a self-portrait directed by Dana Nehdaran. Similar to my other research, I do not know who this person is but I did learn a bit about them from this video. The video is pretty much a timelapse of his head and beard being shaved. But there is still a story being told.

What did I like about it?

I liked how the video told a story. I think it is a story of transformation because by the end I feel he looks like a different person. The film is very abstract. It feels like the man in the video is being broken down and torn apart. His facial expression is very blank. His shirt is removed. At times the camera focuses on the mirrors behind him, to show you hair being removed from the back. At the end of the video a white sheet is placed over him like he is trying to hide his new look, and then he fades away as though he is a ghost. I also think this makes it seem as though he is breaking down. Finally if you look closely you can see that the lighting gets darker throughout the film and I also think this shows how he is falling apart or being broken down.

I think this is a very interesting piece of work. From what I can gather it tells the story of a rough time in life. Maybe the effect of a close death or a break up, or maybe, because of the head shaving, he is telling the story of a cancer patient. These are all things to think about. The film is very interesting and I think the story behind it is a matter of interpretation.

What I can take from this film is that a lack of narration and any movement at all can still be effective in telling an interesting story, something I can consider when planning my own self-portrait.

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