Karen Bell

I should lay things out a bit first so that they make some kind of sense. This piece is an autobiographical documentary about an experience I had at the Philadelphia Independent Media Center (IMC) during the Republican National Convention. To give you a little bit of background, the IMCs are collective media spaces initiated by local community activists to cover large scale actions or protests of a particular event (RNC/DNC conventions, World Trade Organization meetings, Zapatista bus tour, etc), and serve as a clearinghouse for all manner of local (and out of town) media-makers who gather and assemble media products covering the protests at the moment they are happening.

I came to work at the Philly IMC through another organization I was interning for at the time in NYC. I am also a community studies major and my work with this organization was part of my 6 month field study requirement for that major. Last quarter I wrote a 35 page thick description of my 5 day experience in Philadelphia, from which this project is excerpted. The project is also being supervised by an advisor in the Community Studies department and is my attempt to combine both of my majors.

My aims:

--highlight the importance of trust, self-critique and dialogue with regards to activist media production through the example of this experience in Philadelphia, which I will reconstruct in various ways. I also hope to evoke a sense of this importance not only in the vein of activist/documentary production, but also with regards to any sort of media-making, and beyond, into day to day interpersonal relationships.

--critique myself and my own motives and assumptions in taking on this project. Problematize the process of constructing this piece, but without completely surrendering meaning.

--to make the piece emotional and uncomfortable, but without rendering Orlando as a victim, denying the reality that he is active, working with his own network of video groups, continuing to produce his own work; his participation in activist media is not contingent upon participation at the IMC.

--to show that these issues are not insurmountable.

What I have already:

--5 sit-down interviews conducted in NYC on High 8. All of the transcribed material you’ll see below comes from these interviews.

--some archival video footage within the IMC space (random cutaways of people working).

--video programming from the IMC satellite TV broadcast during the convention.

--3 video pieces I edited at the Philly IMC

What I need to do/obtain:

--reconstruct the specific experience I’m excerpting from the thick description.

--interview myself

--obtain more archival video footage

Feedback I’m looking for:

--what makes sense. What is confusing.

--where I can cut down the talking heads. (I’m very attached to all of this material!)

--am I meeting my aims?

--any input for creatively presenting this material (especially visuals!)

--any other input you see fit!

Treatment (thus far untitled)

In close-up, a harsh white light illuminates a lone microphone in a hyperreal, dark endless expanse. There is a hint of feedback. A voice calls, “If you can hear me, clap once.” *clap!* There is a flash of archival video footage inside the IMC of people working. “If you can hear me, clap twice.” *clapclap!* Two photos pass by, one of ORLANDO, and another of TOM. In an editing bay, a TV screen glows blue. A tape is popped into an adjoining VCR. The intro to the IMC Crashing the Party satellite TV show begins to play, giving exposition on the IMC. The camera dollies in until the TV screen fills the frame. The intro freezes on a specific frame. The same voice gives the group’s mission statement at the microphone. “Indymedia is a collective of independent film organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage. Indymedia is a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of truth.” Cut to VCR. The videotapes are switched. Orlando’s interview tape is popped in and begins to play.

ORLANDO: “Well, I go to Philadelphia for the August protests against the republican national convention and it was my first time, like confronting racism to an extreme.”

Tapes are switched. Karen’s interview is popped into the VCR and plays, explains her own initial impressions of Philadelphia. (not recorded yet, so no details here. Questions: How will this interview play out? Will it be actual or staged, with me simply reading my fieldnotes of the experience? Who would/should conduct the interview if actual?)

Within the hyperreal space, like the earlier microphone shot., Karen sits at an editing bay. Her back is to the camera, clicking away at a project in progress.

Cut to TV screen within editing bay (not the hyperreal reconstructed space). Orlando’s tape begins to play.

ORLANDO: “What I see in Philadelphia was that when there’s a great outpouring of white activists, the media can exclude the fact that there are black people there, that certain issues that people have been talking about since the 1940’s and 1930’s still exist. You know, so when there’s an outpouring of white folks and they can talk about things like environmental issues, they can talk about animal rights, more than to talk about the basic human rights that people have been fighting for for more than 100yrs. So those things are kind of really really tricky. We need to have animal rights, we need to have environmental rights, but how do we balance that out with the basic human rights that people are fighting for for more than 100 yrs? When you find a great out-turn of white folks then they kind of don’t get the message, so we go to Philadelphia with the idea of building a people of color Direct Action Network. We say, ok, we’re people of color. We’re going to separate ourselves from the general movement, and we’re going to work together with these people as activists to make sure that our point get across too. And the bunch of us was arrested before we even got started. It was really really upsetting to the extent that I can do no better than laugh when it come up because its so upsetting. That we were arrested in great numbers even before we were protesting because we were people of color walking the street, in the morning when an event is supposed to take place. I still don’t understand some of the things that are going on. Its so upsetting that its blinding. So I dunno Karen, I don’t know if I can give you straight answers. It’s a hard thing to balance out.”

Pause tape. Cut to Karen at hyperreal editing bay, a bit larger in the frame, her back still to the camera. She is still plugging away at her video piece. The miked voice speaks,

“If you can here me clap once. If you can here me clap twice. 420 people have been arrested thus far today. There are still actions going on in the streets, if you can make it out there. Check in with dispatch.” Karen continues to edit.

Cut to VCR. Pop in tape labeled “TOM” Overlay archival images within the IMC space—still photo of the door, video footage of people working.

TOM: “Well, you know, the IMC is just a reflection of what is going on in society. Although the IMC has a pool of people who like to consider themselves liberal and progressive, that doesn’t eliminate the fact that there is racism and sexism and all of the inherent isms. So to do an open campaign for people of color may not be the easiest thing because the truth of the matter is that people of color, black people, white people, don’t always mix. That’s just the way it has been in this culture because of racism. People see things from their own particular perspectives. So although consciously I don’t think people want to be considered racist or think that they are doing racist things, unconsciously there are things that are still there. I can mention just little things. You go to the desk and try to get in, and its easier for some people to get in as opposed to others. The only reason I am able to get in is because people see me going in everyday. But I remember that first day and I could feel that tension. I worked at the door, saw how some people, “I’ve never seen them, they’re people of color, I don’t know,” and people don’t have to say it. You feel it, you sense it. If you’re at the door, and you’re a person of color you go, “Oh, I can’t believe this is happening to me, even here. This is the last place this should happen.”

Pause tape. Pop in Karen interview.

KAREN talks about how she felt that there were moments that she wasn’t taken seriously by certain people in authority positions, but that she had no trouble getting in the building, and no one questioned her right to be there.

Pop in Tom tape.

TOM: People in decision-making roles, generally are white. Generally were men too. And although the people on tape were people of color—it’s a reflection—the people putting their lives on the line are generally people of color. You know, people fighting for welfare rights, for political prisoners, and for Mumia. They’re young people, old people, old activists. And many of them are people of color. In the media world, its still very white. In the computer world, its very white. It’s a privilege, it’s a luxury to some extent. For many people of color, having a camera is great, but you know what, that’s not changing nothing for me and for my community. I have to go in day by day and struggle with what’s happening in my community, struggle with the poverty, the ignorance, the lack of education, the lack of health care. So producing a program, its like, “Yeah.” Fighting for issues of globalization don’t necessarily connect to me the same way because I’ve got so much localization I have to deal with. I’m just dealing with crossing the street without being arrested. You see white kids running around with cameras and having a ball. And the police are harrassing them. But ultimately, they know they’re going to get out, and they’re not going to have the same kind of abuse, feel the same kind of strain that people of color have to deal with. That’s not to say that white people aren’t getting abused, because they are; there’s no question about that. Its just a different mindset. It’s a different perspective. And to have sensitivity trainings about it—I don’t know. But yeah, I don’t know what else to say about it. I think there was a great article that was written talking about trust. I think the issue of trust between people, working together to some extent—there’s still an issue of trust that’s not been resolved. And as long as its not going to be resolved, and there’s a lack of communication and honesty in the communications, I mean, you’re going to have people like—and I feel for my man Orlando—who are going to be like, “Why should I give a fuck?” You’re going to lose people that way. Especially inside these cooperative independent media centers. You may not lose them out in the streets, because there’s a connection. But inside the media centers, you know…”

Cut to visual of a hardcopy of the thick description.. The visual is close enough to read the print. It reads: Karen walks across the room, comes across Orlando.

In the hyperreal space, Karen walks from the editing bay over to a section of carpet. Each point is highlighted by a single bright light, while the rest remains in darkness.

Cut back to a close-up of the script. It reads:

Orlando says, “I’m going home. This place is getting me down, its fucking oppressive.” They sit down on the carpet.

In the hyperreal space, Karen and Orlando sit down on the carpet.

Cut back to script. Camera follows finger as person holding script skims down the page: “white corporates who think they know best how to liberate black people.”

In the hyperreal space, Karen and Orlando remain in 2 shot, seated on the carpet, their backs to the camera and faces obscured.

Cut to TV/VCR, popping in the Orlando interview tape.

Cut back to 2-shot of Karen and Orlando seated on the floor, as Orlando’s voice from the interview tape is heard.

“And it was like my first time—I would go in stores and people would mumble stuff, and people would make me wait longer for stuff that I go there to buy—but it was the first time that I hear people say that they don’t want niggers in the R2K part of the IMC where they’re working because they do fundraising for it. And that was so shocking to me. That was like devastating. I cried so much. I came back to New York, and I was telling Jamal, “man, this shit was rough, so much rougher than I thought it would be like on an emotional level. Because I grow up in a 99% black country, so I don’t know racism to that extent. People are standing in front of your face and saying stuff, or totally ignoring that you’re there. You know, you’re there to be a part of the movement that they are a part of. You know, to have your own voice and say things for yourself. And people are telling you, literally, that you’re too foolish, or you’re too dumb to even talk for yourself. You know, that you’re a distraction to the general movement when you come out and represent people of color in that sense.”

Back in the hyper-real space. In a two-shot seated on the floor, back to the camera.

Karen is absorbing these words. Internally a monologue begins (perhaps the soundtrack will be represented in my interview that has yet to be conducted, or perhaps read from my thick description—I haven’t decided yet—the words here are from the latter document): KAREN: “An environment that is unthreatening to me, is oppressive enough to him to prompt him to leave. My gosh, what does that say? And why did he choose to talk about this with me? Does he think I am open, and feels he can confide in me? Does he think I am someone who especially needs to hear what he has to say? Am I unknowingly part of the problem? Is he hoping I will do something in response? What can I do? What do I say?”

Suddenly, the microphone voice calls excitedly: “If you can here me, clap once! A police officer is in the building!” A male voice yells, “Somebody shut the door!” Someone complies and goes into the hall to confront the situation. The din immediately quiets. People are standing around, gaping. No one is doing anything. Karen gets up from Orlando and the carpet, that crisis now on hold, replaced by a new one. She runs over to the editing station, and begins stuffing tapes into her bag: mini-dv select tapes, DV-CAM tapes, video masters of finished segments, anything with a label. The bag is overflowing. She begins to stuff her pockets with the rest of the tapes.

Cut to archival footage of live TV broadcast within the IMC space as police enter the building. The TV host comments upon the police in the outer corridor.

In the hyperreal space: Relief. No more police in the building. Karen returns to the carpet where she and Orlando had been sitting together. He is gone.

Cut to TV/VCR with Orlando interview tape.

ORLANDO: “Its easy to tell other people’s stories. Like it’s easy to come and say “Karen, what’s your name, and what you doing.” –kind of questioning you about yourself. But what I also try to get them to do is to get them to question, to ask themselves those same questions, which is very uncomfortable, even for me. You know, I do it, I do it every day and I continue to do it, but it’s a hard process. But I don’t think you can go too far if you don’t do it in life, in career, whatever you do. If you don’t know who you are and where you stand, then you’re not going to know which direction to take and what to push.”

Karen interview, seated facing the camera in the hyperreal space she has constructed. I do a self-critique with regards to motivation for making this video, my assumptions therein.

Cut to TV/VCR. Tom interview tape is popped in.

TOM:“Well, I think its easier when you’re on the progressive camp to say that it’s the other people who are these things. And not say “its me,” or at least “partially me.” And you have to say the same thing for people of color, who can be very closed-minded and not---sort of like, “Look, this has been my experience, and at this moment, I’m not willing to have this dialogue, because you know, its not worth it to me.” A lot of black people I know, a lot of black people feel that way. Its easier not to deal with the shit. “You don’t come home with me, you don’t live in my community, so once I get there, once I get back home, I don’t have to deal with you. I may have to deal with you at the workplace, but there’s a certain superficiality I can deal with in the workplace, move on, do what I have to do, and then when I get back home…” And I think that’s a reflection of our society. And again, I’m generalizing. There are definitely a lot of genuine people, I think, a lot of---there are people who do a lot of brave things, not just outwardly politically, but internally, in their own personal lives, making commitments towards, and making friendships and solidarity with all types of people and cultures, who really do want to make a change. So I’m not saying that doesn’t exist either. But I also know that its not a commitment for a lot of people either.”

Orlando tape pops back in. Karen is heard offscreen within the diegesis of the tape playing on the TV.

KAREN: “So this is my question: To what degree can I be involved in media activism without taking away from the agency of people of color. I’m trying to figure out what role I can have, how I can be supportive of the issues that you take on, without taking away, without co-opting—you know what I mean?”

ORLANDO: “Yeah, I know what you mean. But those are not things that I explore too much. “I don’t look on this world as black and white. This world has so much different kind of people. Its so bad to look at the world as black and white, and ignore all the other people that exist. So I don’t look and say, “Ok, how can I work with white people, and how can I accept and use the help of white people without making them take my story and tell it the way they want to tell it, and to pretty it up the way that want to do it.” I never look on it that way. I look at it as, “I have a story I want to tell. And yes, I need help to tell my story, because I maybe can’t balance it out to get it across to your brother and sister maybe as you can. But I think now as you say that, that the only way that I see the help of white people coming in handy into a black movement is to organize in their own community, to organize in their own community where we can’t go. Because if we go there we’ll be fucking killed in the first place. You understand? Its to organize in their own family, to talk about what things are not right in their own families that are taking part in the doing. That’s where I see the help being effective.”

Cut to a close up of a phone being dialed. Ringing is heard, then the beep of an answering machine. A message begins to be said by myself , addressed generically to anyone who will listen.

KAREN: “Hi, um, its Karen. There’s something that I’d really like to talk to you about. I’m not very sure how to go about it because I’ve never really done it before. And I may fuck it up and ask the wrong questions or completely stumble all over myself. but I’d like to try it anyhow.”

Pause tape. Replace with Tom interview tape.

TOM: “I think the issue of trust between people, working together to some extent—there’s still an issue of trust that’s not been resolved. And as long as its not going to be resolved, and there’s a lack of communication and honesty in the communications, I mean, you’re going to have people like—and I feel for my man Orlando—who are going to be like, “Why should I give a fuck?” You’re going to lose people that way.

Close-up of the microphone in the hyperreal space. “If you can hear me, clap once. *clap!* “If you can hear me, clap twice.” *clapclap!* The photos of Tom and Orlando come up again. If you can hear me, clap three times.” A photo of Karen and Orlando together jumpcuts into tighter close-up.

The beep of an answering machine is heard.

KAREN: “Hi, its me again. This thing I wanted to talk about with you—I won’t lie to you, its going to be really hard. And it may make you feel really outraged, and guilty and ill. But we really need to do it. I can’t believe the wonder people I’ve missed out on having in my life because I couldn’t talk about this stuff.”

Orlando’s interview pops back on screen.

ORLANDO: “My whole life is unpleasant. My whole life is punishing, punishing to even think about. How do I get people to sit down and listen to these terrible stories? Its hard. Nobody wants to face the terrible things in life. Everybody’s striving for beauty, striving for love and glamour and those things. Nobody wants to deal with those fucked up things that happen. If I did have a choice, I don’t think I would deal with them. But how do I tell those stories and get people to listen?”

Back to answering machine.

KAREN: “So call me back when you have a chance. It would be really great to talk.”