23 November 2010

Putty Hill+Life 2.0


'Putty Hill' is a semi documentary film made by Matthew Porterfield, about a young man - Cory - who dies from an overdose in a poor suburban community.
As spectators we don't know much about Cory but by depicting the everyday life in this community and by using a form of documentary interview technic, one of the ideas is - I suppose - that we should get to know him and the community better.
Unfortunately - though the people depicted in this film mostly are themselves in this fictional narrative - we don't seem to get to know neither Cory nor the inhabitants better as they in a way disappear in a form of verfremdung-effect.
The idea of a voice over or a interviewer also seems very obsolet, used at least since the 1960's and doesn't bring us nearer the subject(s) or contribute to something new or innovative in the way it's used.


This is a film I felt should have been made many years ago when one first started talking about the cyber world, Second Life-communities and avatars. Why?
Well in a way the subject feels somewhat obsolet and I must say that the grafics and the world within wich the people in the film live their 'second' - or 'first' life (in some cases) - does not impress on me.

For some it seems as a way to get connected to others and - as one couple in the film - try to find out if one are meant for each other or not. On the same time this is a more 'innocent' way of committing adultery, as is also the case with this very couple.
For others this world has become the important world where they can create a life and a 'meaning' of their own, reaching a level of societal status and income, impossible to reach for them in 'real' life.
This is obvious in one of the cases, where a woman creates her own business and becomes succesful as an entrepreneur but only in cyber world.

Another way of using this world is to create an avatar that in a way resembles who you really want to be in real life or how you perceive yourself in the innermost of your psyche.
In this film this part is represented by a man who in the cyber world is a young girl in her teens. It's being depicted as his way of sublimating and realizing his subcounscious traumas.
The problem with this is that it seems as if one have to choose between this or that life and that living in both isn't possible, at least if you get possessed by your avatar.

When meeting in real(?) life the couple mentioned above confront the same problems as every other couple, meaning that when the 'honeymoon' is over, the everyday life and it's different conflicts come to the surface and the questions of whether or not it was easier to live together in the cyber world is raised. Did they make a good choice in leaving their families or not?

For the entrepreneur-woman, the life in cyber world confronts problems when someone steals her ideas and dump her prices, as can happen in 'real' life.
Besides this, everything around her in 'real' life falls apart. It's dirty in her room, she stays with her parents and brothers, not liberating herself from the family bonds, she becomes more and more gross, eating fast food and drinking coke.
Maybe she'll die premature caused by this living but if she's happy, that's her problem.
Furthermore, the family is happy as she earns more than them, up til the economic problems in her second - or first - life arise.

For the man who hides himself under the disguise of a young girl, this game serves the purpose working through his fathers molestations when he was a kid, at least according to him.
During this process he looses the greatest love of his life, with whom he has lived for some time.
He decides to destroy his avatar but when his daily life with his woman no longer functions and they go separate ways, he returns to the Second Life, thus becoming his 'first'.

Director: Jason Springarn-Koff.

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