where I’m at—cinema, books, et al.
In the last couple of days, I have been immersed in Akira Kurosawa’s autobiography titled, Something Like An Autobiography. I believe, it was written a few years after he directed Kagemusha, which was actually the very first Kurosawa film that I watched over a decade ago. Earlier this summer, I visited Varanasi with my family and went to Harmony The Bookshop at Assi Ghat and picked out two books that my father decided to gift to me. One of them is this, and the other one is Sartre’s War Diaries.
Reading this was a feeling of hiraeth because it transported me to my parents’ home where I was surrounded by the comfort of family and books. And while I was working my way through Kurosawa’s life in words, I ended up watching two more of his films, those being: Seven Samurai and Stray Dog.
The kind of personal perspective I was able to glean as I read the book and watched his films is an inimitable experience. It was almost as if I was able to “feel” the films as they were being made and Kurosawa’s vision itself.
To me, it has become unequivocal and undeniable that Kurosawa was unabashedly earnest, stoic, and a prolific screenwriter and film director who had great faith in his actors and never shied away from openly showing his gratitude to his mentors and the people who helped him realize his stories despite the repercussions of the World Wars and the American propaganda that the Japanese were so resistant towards.
It was only natural to me to download Kurosawa’s entire filmography and make plans to acquire a poster of Kagemusha (I am still saving up for this). By combining literature with visual art, a truly rewarding experience was yielded. Going forward, I will always make it a point to supplement films with literature written by the respective directors. Here is an incredibly moving speech by Kurosawa upon receiving an honorary award at the 1990 Oscars:
There was a great deal of World War consequences that made film-making difficult in Japan, especially with its strained economy and imminent loss in World War II with the atomic bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki which made me wonder about the state of affairs of the world during the 20th century. I was wary of documentaries and their propagandist tendencies—having taught a film course just last year to a class of 200 first-year students at university and so I didn’t quite know where to look for information.
However, this lack of direction was coincidentally and quickly resolved by my ever-resourceful supervisor who has been going through the first draft of my dissertation. He pointed out that I do need to know how nation-states were formed in Europe and North America and insert a page or two about it in one of my initial chapters.
Moreover, he kept mentioning this book titled Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder and waxed lyrical about how he felt like it was truly the voice of God and that was enough for me to download the audiobook. It was a huge file well over 500 MB and I began listening to it during my bus commutes and household chores but I gave up almost instantly. It was too dense for me to absorb simply by listening. There were too many dates, numbers, a lot of information, and masked ideologies for me to grasp it properly, and so, I ended up buying a physical copy of it. The reading so far has been slow and difficult as every page is fraught with millions of innocent peasants being killed and starved to death and I fully expect it to be challenging until the end. What I really admire about Snyder’s writing is that not only is it factual, but also extremely lucid, easy to grasp, and extremely well-researched and objective.
I never considered myself to be someone who would enjoy historical non-fiction but I am beginning to think that revisionist history could be my new source of excitement and joy—especially if it is written by Timothy Snyder. As I make my way through the book, I am slowly compiling a list of films based on the World Wars to supplement my understanding of the war and also understand the role of cinema when war was all that the world witnessed and remembered. Once I finish compiling the list, I will probably put it up here.
On a lighter note, my friend Niloofar and I recently watched Certified Copy by Abbas Kiarostami on my projector last weekend with a huge spread of various cheese, red wine, bureks, fruits, dips, pita, dark chocolate dipped pecans, and cookies. One can tell that she and I are too Asian to simply settle for popcorn and chips. Here’s a beautiful still of the film being cast on my wardrobe doors by my projector:
Actors William Shimell and Juliette Binoche in Certified Copy by Abbas Kiarostami.
a new cinephilic obsession
“I am not very good with money.” is an understatement and a euphemism. I discover plenty of innovative means of dissipating my modest source of income in a matter of minutes and I feel no guilt. I am excited because I truly believe that my expense is justified and absolutely worth it. And with that, I discovered a newfound love for collecting original posters and scene cards of films that I love. Naturally, my first acquisition had to be something from Stalker. While I couldn’t get the 1979 poster because my pockets are not deep enough to indulge my madness, I did get a French scene card from 1981 when it was shown in France. It took a while for it to arrive from New York but it came last morning and I braved a visit to the nearby post office in the rain to collect it.
The scene card looks so new that I had apprehensions about its original production. It looks nowhere near 40+ years but this worry was quickly dispelled by the accompanying authenticity certificate that came, watermarked, and signed by the owner of Posteritati. I’d have to make a trip to the nearest Dollar Store in the next couple of days to have this beauty framed. It has Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy and Anatoly Solonitsyn as Stalker and the Writer respectively in a scene from The Zone when they make their way to The Room.
Here’s a photograph of the scene card and the certificate of authenticity:
a cinephile’s latest acquisitions
When I wished to watch Nostalghia by Tarkovsky, I dawned upon a much-belated realization that my Criterion Channel subscription is not adequate for all the films that I want to watch. To begin with, Nostalghia was the only film by Tarkovsky that wasn’t available on Criterion. It was truly bewildering to me, especially because it is perhaps his most well-known film for the Western audience.
Of course, I resorted to other ways of acquiring the film and finally got around to watching it. But it did make me realize that I should perhaps start storing my favourite films on my laptop for days when I decide to pause my subscription or head off to a remote place with a spotty internet connection for a weekend. My laptop, on the other hand, is in its death throes in terms of space and I know it will give up on me the moment I download more than 6 GB of data. The only solution that presented itself to me was procuring a Solid State Drive (SSD).
And so, I went online and looked for a reasonably priced SSD with 1 TB storage capacity and an SSD converter. I found a Chinese brand called Fanxiang that was selling it for 52 CAD which was a lot lower than a lot of other SSDs with the same storage capacity. My dream of creating a collection of my favourite films was finally on the verge of being realized. In my excitement, I threw in a copy of The Stanley Kubrick Archives by Taschen with the hopes that the purchase of this book would push me to finally start watching Kubrick’s films. Of course, my excitement did not end there. I decided that I must have a physical copy of Sculpting In Time despite having a PDF of the same. Why shouldn’t I buy physical copies of my favourite books when I’m doing something similar with my favourite films? With that rhetorical question, I placed my order and rested my case.
Today was the day when my newly purchased belongings arrived and I duly formatted my new SSD and copied three of my favourite films. I will begin watching Kubrick as soon as my schedule gets freer. I did watch Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai a couple of nights back and I will be reviewing it soon, but for now, enjoy this little flat lay of my most recent cinephile purchases.
Today’s spoils
a fall photowalk
My friend Niloofer messaged me a night before to tell me that there was a photowalk that the university photography club was organizing the next afternoon and asked if I’d like to be a part of it. Knowing that I needed to take photos on my Konica Auto S3, I took the offer immediately and turned up where all the other photography club members had gathered. Within ten minutes, we made our way to the Medway Valley Heritage Forest and lost ourselves in conversations about Tarkovsky’s cinema, vintage film posters, and Persian poetry amidst the beauty of Canadian fall colours.
Soon after, as I made my way into the tall grasses of the trail, I was photographed and immediately told of it by a fellow photographer. Very quickly, Jaytee and I became friends and I introduced her to Niloofer who turned out to be a fantastic subject for a photoshoot because of her Iranian features. We shared conversations about our university degrees, the work we do, our interests, and opinions about Canada as we munched on M&Ms that the exceptionally organized Jaytee had packed along with her camera gear. I am glad I came out of my home and actually touched grass, felt the sunlight on my face, and the wind in my hair, and made a new friend. It was a really good day. Perhaps the last day of warmth and sunlight of this year.
Here are 8 of the fantastic set of photos that Jaytee took of Niloofer and me. More of her work can be found here.
film fantasia
During the pandemic years (2020-2022), when I was home with my parents and had so much time in hand, I had the urge to dabble in film photography. Very promptly, I bought a Lomo LC-A+ camera and lots of rolls off the Lomography website and tried shooting with it. And I got them processed last week. Yes, it took me about 2-3 years to get it to a film lab. And no, I don’t use the Lomo LC-A+ anymore. There were issues with the winder and I had to send it to Hong Kong for repairs and then it broke again, so I had to deem it to be permanently out of commission. However, the photos on this post are the ones that came out of the LC-A+ and I quite like them. These photos are from my daily jaunts that I took next to the Satluj river with my parents while I was with them in 2021. The film roll that I used was the Lomography colour 100 ISO. I have to say, for someone who was using a film camera that was not merely a point-and-shoot for the very first time, these photos came out extremely well.
I did end up doing my due diligence for an actual film camera. I specifically wanted a rangefinder and I have no idea why I was so hell-bent on getting one despite the overwhelming popularity of SLR cameras in film photography. I really wanted a Leica M6 but of course that would have meant giving up an arm and a leg. Other options that were attractive but hefty in terms of price were the Minolta CLE and the Konica Hexar AF. Finally, I came across the Konica Auto S3. Granted, I couldn’t get a fully mechanical rangefinder. But I did get a great lens (the Konica Auto S3’s lens has been compared to Leica’s Summicron 35 mm lens on the internet) for a relatively reasonable price.
To me, these photos are really evocative of my evenings by the river. Spring sunsets were truly glorious there and the tranquility was unparalleled. I would always carry a book with me to read but I’d never get around to reading it because I would be so taken by the operatic sunsets and my camera that reading would no longer be an option. This river bank was truly a succour for my soul during uncertain times. And for this very reason, Satluj would always have a place in my heart.
I’m still experimenting with my Konica Auto S3 which I have named Sauron. Quite literally the “Eye” that sees it all. I’ve been in the process of composing photos but there’s nothing that is worth putting here so far. In due time, as I hone my craft, more photographs will populate this space. For now, I will keep experimenting and learning.
