“What’s the beef?”

Probably for our own benefit rather than yours

1. jonah 5.17.07 / 2am

   Hey, I’m just writing because I couldn’t disagree with you more about the film. Did you watch the same film that I did? It was poignant and sensitive and there WAS a scene where the Mesa residents went to the food bank! You say “sure the community is off-the-grid and anarchic to a great degree but you can’t go there and miss the tremendous sense of creative and social rythm and, perhaps, mission.” The thing is you can’t walk away from that film without thinking that the members of the community DO have a rhythm and a purpose. The film ends with Stan, the Mesa pig farmer saying “it’s all about love.” i really don’t believe that you watched the movie, or I don’t think you’d say any of this. Me, I’ve seen the film…just played in Maryland where I live, and I loved it.

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2. jonah 5.17.07 / 2am

   Yeah…by the way, you call the film a short…it’s actually over an hour! I really don’t think you saw the film…maybe the trailer.

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3. waldfischbach 5.17.07 / 3am

   uhhh… Yes, I did see the film and I’m impressed, but amazed, that you came away with the impression you did. You’re right. there is a food bank scene – may bad. Yes… it is an hour, just about as long as a reality TV and just about as many sweet and sour bits and pieces. I don’t think there is something venal going on – maybe it was a budget thing. But I have a major problem with the treatment/approach towards both the film’s subject and it’s structure. Stan’s comment at the end was just too neat a little bow to tidy things up.

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4. Branding the Summer of Love « What’s the beef? 5.20.07 / 10am

   [...] general reasons but also because of my reaction to the short film, Off the Grid, mentioned in my previous post. I’m posting this now and will return to add comments [...]

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5. Mike Ryan 11.19.07 / 1am

   OFF THE GRID:LIFE ON THE MESA is not a good film. In fact it is poorly made, and superficial. I don’t like to add negativity in general to the world but there is so much good work out there that doesn’t get the attention that it deserves that I think its important to be honest about work that just doesn’t deserve the screen space it has been granted. It is also worth pointing out lazy work so that others, filmmakers included, perhaps may realize that they need to do better. Now that cameras and edit systems are available to everyone, film literacy is more important than ever. So for all you aspiring documentarians out there I think its important that you look at other, real documentaries so that you can become fully educated as to why SURVIVOR and MTV REAL LIFE formal tropes are deceptive and dishonest . If you don’t want to read my further explanations as to why OFF THE GRID:LIFE ON THE MESA is a bad film then please at least go out and rent a real film that deals with this subject matter, try DARK DAYS (great soundtrack by Dj Spooky) or CATS OF MURAKAMI or LONG GONE or others listed at the end of my rant….

   First of all, the title. What can you say about a title that misrepresents the film and its subject? OFF THE GRID:LIFE ON THE MESA is a colloquial term for a very significant political/ecological/architectural movement in this country. It refers to a way of living that transcends political and economical classes, there are large amounts of people, hippies, anarchists, right wing racists and libertarians who have chosen to find a way of existing that is completely outside of the corporate dominated culture and economy. This film is not about that movement or social/ecological/utopian phenomenon. This film is about a hobo/homeless encampment which happens to be situated where there is no running water or electric power, a situation that most homeless people deal with all over the country every day. Unfortunately, the homeless “community” captured in the film is quite common, they exist outside and inside practically every city in this country. These hobo communities are all populated by mostly veterans,elderly, poor , alcoholics and drug users, the mentally unstable, young runaways and the willing hippie outcast (some of whom may have bank accounts). You could have walked out of the MOMA screening tonight and found the exact same group of people sitting on the stairs of the church on Fifth Ave. So its not a film about the OFF THE GRID movement because it did not explore the diverse culture of that movement. The people in this film who are living ‘off the grid’ are doing that only because they were forced out of TAOS and in this desert area there is no power. The film does not examine the true issues connected to life off the grid; various methods of water storage and gathering, waste disposal, solar panel power storage, etc… The film is about a group of hobos…. Thus the title is misleading. As for this group of hobos having guns, there is a militant aspect to the OFF THE GRID movement, Ruby Ridge being the most memorable but here this is not the case. Since the filmmakers grew up in LI they do not know that out west owning guns is quite common and nothing special. There, everyone owns a gun. The film treats gun ownership here as some sort of outlaw badge…Again another example of sloppy filmmaking.

   So lets say you want to make a doc about your local homeless encampment. You walk to the edge of town or you crawl down under the interstate overpass and you turn on your camera and start asking people why they are living under the bridge. Some may tell you how they ran up credit card debt and got evicted, some may say that the ‘man’ tried to tell them how to live their life and they like the freedom under the bridge, how do you go deeper than just recording those first responses? The answer to that question is what determines what your film will be about. Just turning on the camera and letting people talk and showing that people live under the bridge alone does not make a documentary, it makes a tv news segment on MTV. What are the issues connected to life under the bridge? VA hospital politics, this countries attitude toward mental illness, issues connected to modern definitions of “problem children” the alienation of modern consumer driven culture etc. etc. take your pick…The point is you need to PICK YOUR POINT OF VIEW AND INVESTIGATE ALL SIDES OF THAT ISSUE…You just can’t crawl under the bridge turn on the camera and think you’ve made a documentary worthy of peoples time and attention.

   There is a real skill to interviewing people. Some people do it well, some poorly, but if you are a documentarian at some point you must do it and have a strategy about how to probe into a person’s true psyche or philosophy. Turning the camera on and letting someone make a statement about who they are or what just happened is MTV reality tv it is not documentary filmmaking. You need to spend time in discussion with a person so you can get a sense of how they speak and what they feel about a whole bunch of other situations to know who they really are. In this film there were no real interviews, beyond the two or three line declaratory sentences by the subjects, most of which were superficial, boasting rants, there was no probing by the filmmaker that would have led the subject to a more honest exchange with the camera.

   If you are interested in any of the subjects that this film touched on I urge to rent one of the following films to see what a real documentary is like…it is an amazing form and one that can really open your eyes to new worlds and perspectives….when it is done well.

   LONG GONE—–hobos, young and old riding the freight trains. The filmmaker focuses on two subjects and stays with them for a long time, we get to really know these people and why they have chosen to live their lives in the boxcars and rail yards.

   CATS OF MURAKAMI—–One woman, the filmmaker, asks an old homeless man why he is sleeping on the street. The answer takes many years to understand, over that time period the filmmaker is drawn into a relationship with him and his past and the current economy and culture that looks upon him as trash.

   COMMUNE…a great film that looks at an old hippie commune (living off the grid) that still exists today, as told by one of its youngest members.

   DARK DAYS—–the subculture of the MOLE PEOPLE who live under Manhattan. the film sticks with a couple of characters and we follow them as they try to surrvive in this unstable city environment. Great soundtrack.

   CHILDREN OF GOD…..a young survivor of an ‘off the grid’ cult returns to confront his parents and ‘elders’ who still live in the group in remote Brazil. A personal tale of one persons investigation into his alternative lifestyle upbringing.

   SEVENTEEN…the definitive film about teen runaways, filmed in Seattle pre- grunge… a must see for anyone who was touched by the young teen runaways in OFF THE GRID:LIFE ON THE MESA

   Watch any one of these film and you will understand why OFF THE GRID is a poorly made superficial film.

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6. sandrar 9.10.09 / 9am

   Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. Cheers! Sandra. R.

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