Seeing Things - short film with wonderful images by film maker Wood Edinburgh International book festival 2021
The highly-respected Scottish novelist has teamed up with artist Sarah Wood to create a new short film made uniquely for Edinburgh. Seeing Things: Art in a Time of Lies, directed and edited by Wood; written and narrated by Smith (one time showing and will not be on-demand). , At the start with wonderful old black and white clips of gangsters.
THIS CULTURE OF LIES is like seeping rain, an aesthetic..
“I RANT AT THE TELEVISION AM I RESPONSIBLE FOR IT? CORRUPT GOVERNMENT. I FEEL SHAME.
INTO OURSELVES AND BEYOND OURSELVES, INSIDE OURSELVES. DARK AND LIGHT. IMAGINATIONS WAKENED – WITH A CHINK OF LIGHT IN THE DARK.
THEY ARE CUTTING THE ARTS BY 50%.”
These cycles come round and round – destroying. World changing too – left EU, end Trump,
“Art is a lie that reveals the truth. What a slippery fish truth is. Little lies become a story.
A lie distracts from the truth and take us down a garden path, politics make lies sound respectable, (do they believe we believe them? Its always about power, lies are sanctioned. We become a slngle self, and persuaded to be tribal. A surface world shunts fast info, and we discard so much of it. “
Questions? Is art simply a displacement activity, a diversion from the ‘real things’ happening in the world? Or could it be that Ali Smith’s achievement is to reveal – with her trademark nimbleness – just how important art can be in helping make sense of a stupid, shameful, schismatic world?
After the screening, Smith talked about her writing and some of the artists who have inspired her with Festival director Nick Barley
Questions: Is fake news new? “Shakespeare’s fake news is ancient: fake news today is faster – radio or t and now in our pockets.“ Split, diverted politics enrage, people under pressure, exclusion lines – becomes fascism. When we must work together.
Stories give us space, of our history, politics, and our dreams.
Pull something light out of the mess, Looking and seeing.
Art is difficult and shocking.
EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL 2021, Ali Smith - https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/ali-smith-art-in-a-time-of-lies
In each novel of Ali Smith’s Seasonal quartet, the narrative closely follows real world events. Brexit, the internment of migrants and the Coronavirus pandemic: each is woven into the fabric of Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer, lending them a keen sense of relevance. But look again at this group of genuinely novel novels, and there are countless references – from other times and other places – to artists and thinkers.
Visual artists Barbara Hepworth and Tacita Dean; filmmaker Lorenza Mazzetti; writers Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare – why do they have such a profound influence on Smith’s characters?
