Secrets

"Back then, I don’t think I really knew what intimacy was, but during the making of this film, I understood that I didn’t want to steal anything from these people. I wanted to reach a state of intimacy with them that was genuine and to be honest about what I wanted to do. Although neither did I want to completely ruin the magic of discovering things together by explaining too much. The trust and intimacy was a process and the friendships grew as I continued to film with them. We would do creative things together or I would help them out with certain things. It was really special. But saying that reduces the process, somehow, since I’m sure most documentary filmmakers experience that in one way or another. But I think doing those creative things together gave them insight into what I was trying to do, making me less “the enemy behind the camera” who was trying to steal things from them, and more like a collaborator."

image and words:

Alma Har'El on Bombay Beach

Weekends

The Melbourne winter comes with a vengeance and the only solution is to retreat inside for a weekend with a handful of friends, while rain pounds the window, as guisados and stifados and stews simmer on every burner of the stovetop, and slide in DVD after DVD, open beer after beer, bottle of wine after bottle of wine, fall asleep on the couch and wake up, bleary eyed and do it all again.

True and Truth and Truer

"It’s all true. I don’t know what truth is, though. 
I think it’s a lot truer than I intended it to be."

Alma Har'el on her film 'Bombay Beach' which I would like to see very, very, very badly.