(nostalgia)

I was very happy with both of this weeks films as I found them almost effectively emotionally overwhelming, yet I was drawn to Hollis Frampton's film a little more due to the structure of the film. It draws attention towards temporality and memory, as the photographs that bring up memories burn while Frampton relates his memories and stories. At first I was very confused as to why he spoke of photographs that were yet to come as if they were right there. Whenever he said "as you can see", I became very confused as I could clearly see that the burning picture was not the one he was speaking about, but the one after. At first I thought that maybe this was a delay on the sound itself. Really tough, this is a very interesting way to allow the viewer to remain in a state of both past and present simultaneously. Once a photographs comes up, the viewer is forced to absorb as much visual information as possible before the photograph burns, to nostalgically remember what was said about the photograph, and to try to gain information that is presently being given out to then use for when the next photograph comes on. We are forced to desire the future and be nostalgic about the past, even with photographs that we have possibly never seen before. The final photograph, as he speaks of the last photograph he took outside his studio while the newspaper photograph of the farmer burns troubled me. Frampton speaks of it as if we could see it, he asks us if we can see it, creating in us a desire that will be unfulfilled. What is the role of unfulfilled desire in nostalgia? Nostalgia means a yearning and idolization of the past, a desire for the past that will remain unfulfilled. We end the film unfulfilled, trying to recreate an image in our head that we've only heard of, trying to create a memory from words and experiences that were not ours. This, to me, was very powerful.