the nonfiction films of Harvard's SENSORY ETHNOGRAPHY LAB (Sweetgrass, Leviathan, Manakamana etc)

Leviathan I found physically distressing.

Interview with the makers of Manakamana, much more my cup of tea:

Spray: I think we were interested in the mood—I don’t quite know how to describe it. Some of it is obvious: something about a texture and how people interact, and that’s harder to pin down. For example, the couple that you see twice: there’s something very melancholic about their interaction, but I don’t know if it’s this stress that comes across, but also their faces. I always think of “American Gothic” when I see that couple for some reason.

But it was really difficult because our shots are so long, so every time we would change the order it would dramatically alter the experience of the film. And then at one point we had the four-hour cut—

Velez: And Lucien [Castaing-Taylor] was like, “Why would you cut any of it?” [Laughs.] But there’s also an internal rhythm, which, to me, comes from theater. There’s an idea that inside of a theater scene there needs to be a change in the emotional balance. If scenes don’t have shifts—emotional shifts, shifts in energy level, these sorts of peaks and valleys inside of them—they don’t feel alive. And so, for instance, the shot with the couple with the chicken, the third shot: it starts quietly, and there’s no dialogue in the first three-and-a-half minutes, and the audience is like, “Holy shit, we’re going to be watching another totally silent shot.” And then suddenly they start talking. And there’s the line about their ears popping, which I think is the funniest line in the movie.

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2014/05/film/structures-of-feeling

according to my brother, an early cut of Leviathan used Mastodon's Leviathan as its soundtrack

Leviathan I found physically distressing.

so did i; i think it's impossible not to. you have to sit toward the middle, i think. were you up in front?

i was worried Manakamana would be an example of "less in less" and a bit of a trial but it was actually quite endearing and enjoyable

i think some of the claims made for this group of films are a bit outsized, but to be fair it's not the filmmakers themselves making those claims.

if you haven't seen "sweetgrass," morbs, i'd very much recommend it. then i'd recommend watching it while listening to the commentary, which is fascinating.

"structure of feeling" is a concept from raymond williams (the media and communication theorist/philosopher) and i've never understood what it means.

I did see Sweetgrass, sans commentary. Haven't seen the one about the auto shops in Metsland.

wait, what is this? it sounds interesting. this is the leviathan about men who work on boats?

more about the dying fish flopping around on them

yeah the men on boats are just part of the mix (literally and figuratively).

if you can get your hands on a DVD of sweetgrass, the commentary is really great and fills in a lot of the ellipses in the film itself. really deepened my appreciation of it.

the auto shops one, Foreign Parts, is also terrific and at least as of a few months ago was on Netflix.

right but it's the same leviathan then?
that movie was great

i'd like to see some of these others

Foreign Parts might be my favorite out of the whole bunch, maybe just because I'm a city guy.

I'm unaware of another film named Leviathan, except for an upcoming Russian film that hasn't even made it to festivals yet.

I was toward the back for Leviathan, wearing an outpatient protective mask. Did p much nothing for me.

I'll watch anything the SEL release. Sweetgrass was very close to being my ideal documentary film.

sweetgrass is a grand pastoral
leviathan is a bosch
manakamanakamanakanaka is pretty funny really

to be clear, they're all different directors

no, lucien castaing-taylor directed both sweetgrass and leviathan

co-directed i should say

I should def catch up with Sweetgrass.

it's on netflix instant i believe

MANAKAMANA now on Netflix streaming

and video stores if you believe in such things

<3 this movie, even if Leviathan hits my sweet spot more.

Rewatch value goes to the goats, tho.

i'm still fussily not-totally-1000% on these guys, yet, but found stretches of this really special & was kinda swayed into it by the end. the musical, tuning sequence was really beautiful.

nb i can't imagine watching this at home.

haven't seen a second time, but prefer the three metal bros and the two ladies eating ice cream.

i'm gonna have this playing on a loop in the background while i work methinks

Sweetgrass is one of my favorite movies of the past 5-10(-15?) years. The excerpt of Leviathan I saw did not convince me to go in on the full length. Manakamana I wanted to see, but never got around to.

manakamana was great! we were dying at the ice cream sequence. i haven't seen so many walkouts of a movie in a long time. god, everyone might as well be on meth the way they can't bare to sit and watch something pretty and agreeable for two hours.

and it's not like it wasn't clearly advertised for what it was. i want to see these other films now. and the joanna hogg films that yall are talking about in that thread.

http://dafilms.dk/event/203-sensory_ethnography_lab/

Most of their films, including a bunch of shorts, Manakamana, Sweetgrass, Foreign Parts and the new Iron Ministry, is still streaming over the weekend.

i didn't know about some of those films!
I don't think i can watch them on a computer screen tho; the ritual of being in a theater is what calms we enough to open to them.