From the One
When tackling a documentary project, the filmmaker undergoes a process parallel to that of creation: being modified by the created work.
When we embarked as a group on the topic of reflecting the happiness of four characters, we ourselves underwent a process of internal confrontation. In attempting to portray the reality of others, we found ourselves questioning our own decisions regarding a topic as universal as happiness.
The creative process not only allowed us to reveal the differences between the documentary’s characters but also showed the chasm that existed between us as creators. When making a project about the lives of others, our own prejudices fuel opinions on the subject. This meant that reaching a consensus simultaneously became a defense of opinions on the subject. Therefore, in response to what I experienced in the research, I decided to draw on my own experience as a documentary subject. Being a character in what I proposed as a creator, I have the dual experience of feeling like the subject of observation and, at the same time, observing myself with a certain narrative distance.
Therefore, the logical process was to subject myself, just as with a character, to the observation and interview of my own search for happiness. In this way, I would return an inner gaze that would reveal the experience of making a documentary.
SYNOPSIS
When embarking on a search where no answer is expected, the path lies in the confrontation with one’s own experience as an author. As an author, we force our characters to open up their world to us, but our prejudices from this side of the camera guide what we observe through our own inner perspective. It is here that, to talk about the search for happiness, I submit to the journey of another character in order to express the opinion that ultimately constitutes the creation of a documentary.
TIMELINE
The documentary maintains a real timeline, which is determined by the linearity of the characters’ investigation and the internal confrontation of one’s own story as a creator. At the same time, we submit to a joint process as creators where our times are confronted when it comes to imposing the documentary’s own opinion. Here, where these times clash, is where we realize the fine line that separates the external being observed and the internal observing.
The documentary becomes a narrative from the present that confronts happiness with the other, and a personal past that narrates what allows us to see as creators. It becomes a self-portrait that responds to an external impulse.
It is a present discourse that constantly recalls the lines that brought us to the moment of creation. It is an opinion that we hold, because the author’s personal history determines the construction of every work.
LITERARY SCRIPT
What are we? Perhaps an evolutionary superior line of a life system we call Earth? We are surrounded by objects. Things, buildings, beings like us, and others not so much like us. We are surrounded by words and a whole world different from the other things around us. A common world. A world where we want to include in our consciousness that which is outside of us wants to tell us. We have a fracture between something that is within and something that is without. Strangely, we stop being the same and become something that is enclosed and sees everything else.
But no, we build cities where we want to be close to others to do things together. To be more productive and able to move faster than the natural time of other living beings. We’re moving somewhere. We always come from there and project ourselves into the future. We’re always moving, in transit.
It seems like there’s something not within us, and we desperately need it. What is that outside thing that we seek with all our will?
We don’t know clearly. It’s one of those words that we can’t all agree on, like a wall.
They’re words for things that aren’t in the world. What are those things? They weren’t there, either because we built them, or because they belong to that which is only in consciousness. Inside. Perhaps all that which belongs to ideas. It’s beyond the physical, in any case. This differentiates us from each other as cultures. The differences aren’t just between us agreeing with each other in our city, but also between towns, people, and cultures. Now I wonder if it could be any more difficult?
Well, yes, not only is everything we try to say with words different among ourselves, but balance, the very way we address the world, also creates differences in itself. And it seems that everything we desperately seek lies here, in this very place. On the border between what’s inside and what’s outside.
It can’t be inside; it’s the minimum, because we’re searching for it. But it can’t be outside either, because we can’t find it. It must be in the way we search for it. Happiness lies in addressing the world. We have to take a journey, and it’s so personal that it’s different for each of us. And this makes it beautiful.
In life, being happy, being fulfilled, is a journey where we encounter others. It’s a journey in itself. And in the encounter with others, we find our identity by realizing our differences.
This isn’t always beautiful, it’s not always balanced and tolerant. There are those who impose themselves without respecting these differences. It turns violent. Wars.
But it’s better not to do it this way. We bring pain, and that really hurts. It hurts us inside. We have to get that pain out, and the way we do it is also the way we address the world. And we ask ourselves the same thing again. We start over. Here is the search for meaning. The question.
Why be happy without knowing it? We want to know that we are happy. We want to be in union with what is outside to feel ourselves. Here, where we are all happy. Whatever we call it, where we disappear into that solitude within our consciences and unite with the rest, with what is outside, in perfect harmony and meaning.
Perhaps the important thing on this journey is not the answer, where we arrive, but how.
