Jem Cohen made this short film for Renew Media to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their Media Arts Fellowship. The film has an license under Creative Commons. It’s very simple- one static shot with people moving in and out of the frame. But it’s still recognizably Jem Cohen- a poetic observation.
I saw Jem’s 1996 film Lost Book Found when I was in school, and it completely changed how I thought about making videos. Lost Book Found is an intimate, layered portrait of the unseen or unnoticed corners of a city. The film, which Cohen shot over five years while working as a roasted peanut vendor on the streets of New York, centers around a mysterious notebook full of detailed lists and descriptions of locations, objects and events.
I was intrigued by Cohen’s working method- the idea that he would first set about amassing an archive of completely unplanned, unscripted film clips, and then begin to sift through them to see what kind of narrative might emerge, was really exciting to me. He took on the role of visual anthropologist- collecting bits and fragments here and there, patiently building a library of information, until he could examine the pieces together to decipher the messages they had hidden in their depths.
Jem wrapped up work on six collaborative films with Patti Smith earlier this year, including one called For Walter Benjamin. Uh, rad.
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