Final Project Treatment - Rough

Pulling from our class discussion on documentation where we talked about the disenchantment of a parent, I want to do a project that reiterates the essence of that idea from my own personal experiences.  I have found that a big factor in the coming of age narrative is the acknowledgement of reality.  As a kid, I found great admiration in my father who could do no wrong.  He was a perfect being.  But after my family went through some tough situations, and I grew up a bit, I came to the realization that he was far from perfect.  Not being a bad person--just a misguided one.  And it’s been a struggle ever since to compromise my uninhibited love for him and also my constant critique of the decisions he makes and how he governs his life.  I can see where he is flawed now, and there are things about him that I cannot stand.  Yet, I need and love him more than I can say.

So, the project I want to make encapsulates this idea of disillusion of a parent in a child’s mind.  I will do so through a compilation of short videos or vignettes.  I will start by making a list of memories that are particularly important to or significant in my understanding of my father throughout my life.  Then, from there I would shoot small ten second videos of my father over the course of a few months when he is not aware that he’s being filmed -- and use these videos as representations of the individual memories and the emotions I associate with them.  

This also pulls in another concept I’ve been thinking about which is the impermanence of memory.  I am confused and troubled by the flightiness of my memories, and have come to find that a lot of the things I remember may not even be accurate and there’s literally no way of finding out what the actuality of the event is.  I remember something one way and another person remembers it differently and there’s no reconciliation between the two who both believe their are right.  So using my own skewed memories as a guide for the project content is also subjective.  I could be incorrect, but that’s the point.  

There’s a duality to man.  People disappoint you, they let you down, they impress you, they love you--and you love them.  There are so many emotions swirling around our relationships and clouding our minds and complicating our daily interactions.  I want to capture the nature of my father.  See him at his best and his worst and almost come to no conclusion. It’s merely a presentation of a subjective fact.