COMMUNE
A certain kind of perspective on [the terrible community] has to be taken up, a “thief’s gaze,” which from the interior of the apparatus materializes the possibility of escaping it. Sharing this gaze, the most lively bodies will bring about that which the terrible community, even in spite of itself, blindly exudes: its own dissolution.
-Tiqqun, Theses On The Terrible Community
COMMUNE is a film about Olympia, Washington, and was a gift to the people there. It’s a street-level exploration of the Olympia social commons—a shifting space that erupts on street corners and bubbles up from an underground well of potential. Through casual interviews with strangers, the film dives into the depths of desire and unveils new uses of the spaces Olympians all share. The use of film opens an experimental gateway. Olympians who would not otherwise talk to each other see themselves for the first time through the same mirror. It was meant to be a looking glass, a lens, and a thief’s gaze directed at Olympia’s own “terrible community.”
A terrible community constitutes itself in opposition to an opponent and, in that opposition, closes in on itself and begins to rot. Some say that Olympia, once home to ELF cells, the diffuse network of Port Militarization Resistance, and a broad community of anarchists, has become little more than a stale, dusty closet, a cafe-to-show circuit, a green-washed, gentrifying haven of the left. In short, a terrible community. COMMUNE is an experiment. On the negative side, it exposes that Olympia runs business as usual despite its high activist-per-capita ratio and radical reputation. But the film also reveals the existence of many different communes, spreading on their own, outside of anarchist or radical circles.
We are now ready to share this film with you. Even if you do not live in Olympia, COMMUNE is a lens through which you can look at your own terrible community and what lies just outside of it. You think you’re alone, but there are people all around who share your angers and desires. If you don’t know that it’s because you haven’t yet spoken to them. Go find them.
There is magic in Olympia.
It is bottled.
(note: the symbol of Oly-based “Magic” kombucha is common knowledge in Olympia.)
Click here for entire playlist as a URL.
(UPDATE: Olympia’s new City Hall set ablaze during construction, July 2010.)
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Sunday May 27, 2012 in Seattle:
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Friday April 13th, 2012 in Portland:
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May 2010 in Olympia:
Hey Lettrist,
You made/ helped make this film? It’s pretty cool – I watched it through earlier.
Wit
Yes this film was made by myself and some comrades in Olympia, who had started a “Free Space Project”. The film explores the life of the city in terms of the duality between the “commune” and “terrible community” concepts developed by the Tiqqun writers.
The “commune” comes from The Coming Insurrection:
http://zinelibrary.info/coming-insurrection
“Terrible Community” comes from Notes on the Terrible Community:
http://zinelibrary.info/tiqqun-theses-terrible-community
Anarchists in Oly also translated and published the first English copy of Tiqqun’s “The Theory of Bloom” — about this one: one of the Tiqqun writers said it is their most important work. Bloom is really interesting but I admittedly don’t get what they’re saying so much it makes me think of singularities and self-consciousness in a group setting. Here’s a review of the Bloom text on (A)News –
http://anarchistnews.org/?q=node/10696
There’s many translations of other Tiqqun texts available –>
http://zinelibrary.info/search/node/Tiqqun
The thickness of the film (not a “plot” per se but an obvious tension) becomes apparent to me in part 4. But it tends to trail off afterward, especially after the interview with the worker at the movie theater. The flow of the film could have been better there. These are things that stand out to me.
How can you tell the story of the commune and the terrible community, and gentrification, through montages and casual interviews? How do you manipulate the footage to tell a provocative story? These things are obvious when you get a picture of the entire social milieu all at once (as we try to do in the film) but interviewing just one person doesn’t drive that point home. As one of the people in the film said, how do we make the social milieu more connected? Another person said “communication.”
I saw a 50 minute film a while back where high school students in Los Angeles passed a video camera around and made videos about their private lives at home. Then when filmmakers put the footage together you could see how all of the kids came from broken homes and ghettos. Individually, all you saw were immature, self-absorbed adolescents. But in the amalgamation of it all, you could see how the social apparatus of their society was stratifying their lives. (Well maybe that’s what I got out of it…) But that kind of filmmaking is really interesting to me. It’s experimenting with social communication and connecting the planes of separate social territories.
Yeh, I liked plethora of perspectives that develops through the casual interviewing. I think one of the problems of the film is the apparent attempt to shape these. This only becomes obnoxious once: early on, when the camera is focussed on two old men looking up at the new City Hall and text starts flashing at you. It’s like Brecht on speed, but completely lacks effect for me. Or should I say, “affect.”
I like it best when the film becomes more impressionistic – when there’s the “interview” with the drunk black man early on; when the camera takes in the architecture of the city; when the camera occasionally opens out and you see people moving around. Sometimes the Tiqqun text works nicely with this, but, again, sometimes it seems to overburden or overdetermine the viewing and interpretation.
I’m not quite sure about the Tiqqun writing: I’ve downloaded a couple of the texts for a bit of a read. I’m suspicious of it at the moment.
Still, I was impressed by the film overall, and it was good to watch. I wonder if you guys had in mind some idea of trying to militate against “easy” or “contemplative” enjoyment… lol. But I did enjoy it, all the same.
Best,
Wit
Thanks for the comments. I agree there shouldn’t be any obvious or overt attempts to shape any of those interviews, except through contexts. But the context is tricky too, because placing one interview after another will give you an impression already that shapes the following sequence. You just have to be aware of that, and use it in a way that flows well but does not overburden the viewer. The point is to weave a story through the interviews. I would say half of the Tiqqun quotes were unnecessary.
Brecht on speed! – that’s what we were going for. But it’s also an inside joke that we were playing the role of Stalin’s “people’s filmmakers” and making “propaganda for the masses.” So having the text flash really suddenly in Arial Black, telling you explicitly what to do next, was a joke to me the way it was presented — as if it were an overt attempt to brainwash the audience. If nothing else, the “affect” the words have are to serve as reminders of a subterranean social war.
But it was too much of a joke, that part, so I wouldn’t want to do that again. I’d much rather have people contemplate given a few visual cues than to jolt them around with abrasive cuts and noises.
Hah, now I’m in on the “peoples’ filmakers” joke it is funny, but it’s hard to know in context whether that bit was serious or not. T’was a really interesting watch, so, pleasure is all mine.
Had any more thoughts about that Blog circle? I bet Sam from Revolutionary Boredom would go in on it. I’m not sure who else though – - -
Hat from Utopian Discourse (http://utopaedia.wordpress.com/), perhaps? He always has an interesting perspective.
You probably have a few other friends who blog who’d join in? Personally, I don’t know many people in England interested in radical politics (perhaps only 10 who I’m friendly with), and none of the few I do know blog. Perhaps we could look at one of the Tiqqun texts first? Or I have a few links/articles relating to Athens that might be worth consideration, chiefly: this analysis by a Greek friend from Athens.
Either way, it’s good to chat – - – see you : )
Wit
Thank for the information lol : short.my
Thanks for this film. Just… thanks. It’s one of my favourite films of all time, certainly in the documentary category. I hope you never take the video down, because I’ve seen it about 5 times and still recommend it to every radical I know.
“Even if you do not live in Olympia, COMMUNE is a lens through which you can look at your own terrible community and what lies just outside of it. You think you’re alone, but there are people all around who share your angers and desires. If you don’t know that it’s because you haven’t yet spoken to them. Go find them.
There is magic in Olympia.”
I live in the UK, and had no idea about Olympia until COMMUNE. It’s so validating to hear these perspectives, so awesome to see communal groups and people who know what’s up. Thanks for opening my eyes ever wider, and I’ll continue to share your work with others.
Wow, just wow – your comment made my night. I definitely think this documentary will continue to be relevant as the years go by. The online appreciation has mostly come from UK interestingly. I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of Olympia – the population is around 45,000.
There are open spaces in the documentary. Literally, but also as in drawn-out pauses in the film. This is good for people to think. It allows for drawing your own conclusions, based on assumptions the viewer has to come up with. And so in that way, to get what you need (what you are looking for) out of it. At least … that’s what I hope it does.
Thanks for sharing this one. If you’re in the Northwest of the US drop me a line
PS there’s a book called “Nihilist Communism” by some pro-revolutionaries (their phrase) in the UK. It’s entirely materialistic, and they go after what they call “consciousness raising” which in my opinion is also wrong. This takes the conclusion in a stagnant, self-destructive direction. But it is something that could validate perspectives in a similar to this documentary. Cheers
The food for thought is certainly provocative. Some interviews are almost too good to be true, such as the story of the guy at the courthouse. The prosecutor hungry for ‘notches on his belt’ pursues cases with scant regard for the accused or the good of the public.
So many corrupt and controlling facts emerge from that story, it serves as the only example necessary to highlight multiple issues.
Good documentaries and writings that encourage people to deconstruct not only what they expect from institutions but also whether those institutions exist to liberate or enslave them (the answer is invariably the latter). Bad documentaries stop one step short of enlightenment, suggesting viewers campaign for fairer enslavement rather than liberation.
Chances are I’ll end up writing about it in depth, in which case I’ll link from here!
To our friends who have appreciated this film:
After COMMUNE we are working on a new film called METROPOLIS. Please share this info with your networks because we are trying to raise some cash for this one. It will be much more in depth and we will be working on this a lot.
Here is a basic video description of what we’re doing:
This is the site where we are raising funds:
http://igg.me/p/96662?a=26776
… what subject?
I think M3nt1c1d3 is probably spam. I seem to get 3 comments like this a day:
“ur blog is wow. here is viagra. thankyou”
Wit
lol @ viagra