Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/framerframedOOOOtrin Framer Framed V // Framer Framed Trinh T. Minh-Ha Routledge New York and London Published in 1992 by Routledge An imprint of Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc. 29 West 35 Street New York, NY 10001 Published in Great Britain by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane London EC4P 4EE Copyright © 1992 by Trinh T. Minh-ha Artwork and Jacket Design by: Jean-Paul Bourdier (detail from The Third Eye) Interior text design by: Karen Sullivan All photo designs by: Jean-Paul Bourdier Printed in the United States of America on acid free paper All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Trinh, T. Minh-Ha (Thi Minh-Ha), 1952- Framer framed / by Trinh T. Minh-Ha. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-415-90561-3 (HB) 0-415-90562-1 (PB) 1. Trinh, T. Minh-Ha (Thi Minh-Ha), 1952—Interviews. 2. Motion pic¬ ture plays. I. Title. PN1998.3.T76A3 1992 791.43'0233'092—dc20 91-42876 CIP British Library Cataloguing in publication data also available Contents List of Illustrations, Filmography and Distribution Film Scripts 1. Naked Spaces—Living Is Round 3 2. Surname Viet Given Name Nam 49 3. Reassemblage 95 Interviews 4. Film As Translation: A Net with No Fisherman 111 with Scott McDonald 5. From A Hybrid Place 137 with Judith Mayne v vi Contents 6. Between Theory and Poetry 151 with Pratibha Parmar 7. "Why A Fish Pond?": Fiction At The Heart of Documentation 161 with Laleen Jayamanne and Anne Rutherford 8. Questioning Truth and Fact 181 with Harriet Hirshorn 9. "Who Is Speaking?": Of Nation, Community and First Person Interviews" 191 with Isaac Julien and Laura Mulvey 10. Professional Censorship 213 with Rob Stephenson 11. When I Project It Is Silent 225 with Constance Penley and Andrew Ross 12. "Which Way to Political Cinema?": A Conversation Piece 243 with Laleen Jayamanne & Leslie Thornton Select Bibliography 269 List of Illustrations, Filmography and Distribution List of Illustrations and Filmography Photo design, layout and story boards: Jean-Paul Bourdier All photos of the filmmaker are also by Jean-Paul Bourdier - Reassemblage, 1982. 40 mins. Color Distributed by: Women Make Movies; Third World Newsreel; MOMA; Idera; Cinenova; Lightcone; Image Forum. Naked Spaces Living is Round, 1985. 135 mins. Color. Distributed by: WMM, MOMA, Cinenova, Idera, National Library of Australia - Surname Viet Given Name Nam, 1989. 108 mins. Color and B & W. Distributed by: WMM, MOMA, Cinenova, Idera, Image Forum, National Library of Australia - Shoot for the Contents. 1991. 102 mins. Color. Distributed by: WMM. Idera. Image Forum. Cinenova Vll viii Illustrations Distribution Cinenova 113 Roman Road London, E2 OHU, United Kingdom tel: (081) 981-6828 Idera Films 2524 Cypress Street Vancouver, BC V6J 3N2, Canada tel: (604) 732-1496 Image Forum Fudousan Kaikan Bldg. 6F 3-5 Yotsuya Shijuku-ku, Tokyo, 160 Japan tel: (03) 357-8023/358-1983 Lightcone 27 Rue Louis Braille 75012 Paris, France tel: (1) 4628-1121 Museum of Modern Art Circulating Film Library 11 W. 53rd Street New York, NY 10019 tel: (212) 708-9530 National Library of Parkes Place Australia Film & Video Canberra 2600, Australia Lending Collection tel: (06) 262-1358 Third World Newsreel 335 West 38th St., 5th floor New York, NY 10018 tel: (212) 947-9277 Women Make Movies 225 Lafayette St., Suite 211 New York, NY 10012 tel: (212) 925-0606 Film Scripts 1 Naked Spaces—Living is Round West Africa, 1985. 135 minute color film. Produced by: Jean-Paul Bourdier Directed, photographed, written, and edited by: Trinh T. Minh-Ha Narrators: Barbara Christian, Linda Peckham, and Trinh T. Minh-ha Distributed by: Women Make Movies (New York); The Museum of Modern Art (New York); Idera (Vancouver); Cinenova (London); The National Library of Australia (Canberra). First published in Cinematograph, Vol. 3, October 1988. 'mq arrnrrl,ng to Western logic and mainly cites l.,u,kcis. me meaium-range voice [italicsj speakss in the first person and relates personal feelings and observations. Words in parentheses are not heard on film; theth* names of nations and of peoples appear as burnt-in subtitles on the lower corner of the film frames.) 3 4 Film Scripts (Senegal) (foola) People of the earth Not descriptive, not informative, not interesting Sounds are bubbles on the surface of silence Untrue, superstitious, supernatural. The civilized mind qualifies many of the re¬ alities it does not understand untrue, superstitious, supernatural Truth and fact Naked and plain A wise Dogon man used to say "to be naked is to be speechless" (Ogotemmeli) Truth or fact The correct vibration. A body resonates to music as does a string. A music that elicits physical response and calls for mediated involvement. It does not simply "play" In such a way as not to impinge on the viewing An African man wrote: Contrary to what some Westerners think, religion in Africa is not a cause for man's stagnation, nor a source of interterritorial conflicts. The more profound a believer the black man is, the more tolerant he proves to be. Wherever intolerance occurs in black territories, they are due to a cause introduced from the exterior (A. Hampate Ba) The circumcised young men beat time with a walking stick while chanting They are holding in their hands feminity, water, and light Building as dwelling On earth, under the sky, before the divinities, among mortals, with things. They dwell in that Naked Spaces 5 They neither master the earth nor subjugate it They leave to the sun and the moon their journey And do not turn night into day They do not make their gods for themselves And do not worship idols They initiate mortals into the nature of death (Sereer) The circle is a form that characterizes the general plan of the house, the granaries, the court, the shrines, sometimes the rooms, the village , the tomb, the cemetery (Mandingo) life is round This is not a fact. Not a data gathering. air, earth, water, light. The four elements that explain the creation of men and women in African mythol- ogies. earth-born and earth-bound dusty grey-white bodies made out of clay stark naked children. "she made a hole and breathed air into it: a child is born" (Jaxanke) The sun, the calabash, the court, the arching sky Everything round invites touch and caress The circle is the perfect form you'll never spread doubt in their mind by convincing them of seeing 'yes' Naked Spaces 7 when they already saw 'no/ when all that they perceived was a hut or a mud shelter They went away the way they came For many of US/ the hut is the tap root of the function of inhabiting. A universe elard)6 ^ °UtSlde the universe' lt possesses the felicity of intense poverty (Bach- she said: man, woman and child line / sun / star / calabash cover turtle / big snake / fox calabash they help the plants to grow. you ask me: "what is the use of these paintings?" they help the plants to grow they promote germination (Bassari) Every illness is a musical problem "Music has a magical, energizing and creative power. The mere shaking of a cow bell is enough to make people drift into a state of excitement. It is then said that "strength has entered them." Elders who can hardly move in daily situation without a cane would emit war cries and dance frantically to the sound of music. Farmers who feel tired and lack enthusiasm will be fired with desire to work in the fields upon hearing the drum beats or the chants of the masks." "Even if you have eaten and are full," a man said, "you have no sustaining strength to plough the land vigorously and endure the hard work if no music flows in you." (Soninke) Space: even when close I feel distance "Whether a house is lively or not depends on the way it breathes Naked Spaces 9 Houses and humans are both made out of small balls of earth" Music rests on accord between darkness and light (Mauritania) (Soninke) Listen in the wind to the bush sobbing: it is our beloved dead's breathing. The dead are not dead (Birago Diop) People of the earth The reason two deers walk together is that one has to take the mote from the other's eye (proverb) A sense of time, not only of hours and days, but also of decades and centuries A sense of space as light and void Space has always reduced me to silence A space that speaks the mellowness of inner life Scantily furnished, devoid of concealment or disguise "The truth appears so naked on my side. That any purblind eye may find it out" (Shakespeare) A house that breathes That encloses as well as opens wide onto the world We often took our own limits for those of the culture we looked at All definitions are devices Naked Spaces 11 Color does not exist, being first and foremost a sensation She would often sing while she worked The air filled with her voice The song scanned by her regular snifflings First and foremost a sensation Do you see the same color when the light is red? Color blinds. Some greyness has to remain for clarity to be Nice colors are called 'shades' Red attracts and irritates, while bright yellow is bound to hurt.