I liked it very much. Thanks Nathan.
fantastic Nathan. a work indicative of much talent.
I see hints of antonionism in your interest of outsiders, on top of your camera which decides to imply instead of enforce. Furthermore, Louis Malle would be jealous of your lack of editorializing. Outside of numerous influences, you have a cinematic voice of your own, and I hope you heed this realm of cinema as opposed to making more works like OBJECT, OBJECT, VERB and Mare. Not to undermine those films, but I see more auteurship in Innocence than imitative auteurship in the previously mentioned.
cheers. I do hope others are watching these films.
NEH, I’ve loved everything I’ve seen from you so far, so I’ll be sure to check this out tomorrow!
I liked it, it was easier than hanging out with the kids but harder than being a kid right along with them. I’m not a big fan of the interviews at the end, I like the fly-on-the-wall action as is, though the “I thought it was gay I thought it made me sound gay and I don’t understand why anybody likes it” comment was hilarious (I like that kid, he’ll go far).
Thanks for sharing this, by the way. Hopefully I can get a video up over the next couple of days, but first I’m really interested in seeing what all is uploaded here by real auteurs as opposed to the public freewall that is YouTube.
—PolarisDiB
Ladies and Gents post these comments on the film wall!
this is a better place to maintain a discussion though, is it not Luis?
Middle ground:
Ladies and Gents post these comments on the film wall, as well!
sounds good.
Yeah thats what i meant sorry Ladies & Gents. Good work to all by the way. Let’s keep playing!
Way to build up on such simplicity. Very tenacious and sharp filmmaking.
Great framing and cutting. The title is ironic, I suppose. I would have called it “White Trash” or the “Death of the Dream that was America”
Loved it, Neh.
My comments from the film wall:
I’m jealous of your cheap free camera. Do more of this, sir. If need be I can come over and act obnoxious in the park if you want, but do more.
Nathan Earl
GARAGE, Screening Room: INNOCENCE
http://theauteurs.com/garage/projects/2/films/15
Part of the GARAGE Screening Room project, in addition to providing a platform for emerging filmmakers, is about talking with those budding auteurs & about their motives for producing a particular work.
INNOCENCE
a documentary by
Nathan Earl House
The idea, for over a year, was to take the three little cousins on my father’s side to a local park & document both the bullying & the fascination of the youth. A lack of equipment & the inability to commit vehicular manslaughter left me waiting until i could co-ordinate such a project. After that year, two of them had hit puberty, & i came to realize that the three little cousins on my mothers side were a far more extreme insight into the middle-American family. The two eldest were wholly corrupted before double-digits: disobedient, malicious, jaded, & cursed with such fluent machismo it was an almost graceful imitation of what they clearly though the American male was supposed to be.
At some point within that year, i met Jon Cournoyer, the Senior Director at the St. Louis Art Museum; he enjoyed my work, & after finding out that i had no camera, was shocked & helped purchased the cheapest DV camera on the market, which was also on sale at the time. Double win. He is therefore credited as producer; without him this film would never have taken shape.
Cut to a breezy late-summer afternoon in August, which i believe was the day before the boys were to start a new school-year. I had taken them to the park before & seen them run amok, which i found amusing. So i brought my new camera & a clear head. The only direction i gave them was: “Do what you do, have fun; i’ll just try to keep up.” So we did. After about three-hours of documenting their rough-housing I was a minute or so away from having filled the one-hour DV tape & the sun was coming down. The youngest, Jack, the most endearing, the only true innocent, said the closing line. I pulled my eye away from the camera, shocked. I looked to the others & said: “Okay, that’s the ending. We’re done.” And we walked home. The last minute of the tape was then filled by the middle-child, Zack, filming chaotically, with wild zooms on neighbors, mailboxes & trees. The day was done & i’d finally finished the film that’d been brewing in my head for a little over a year.
The next day I went on vacation to California for a week, to visit a friend who recently had a nervous breakdown & needed some support. I didn’t look at the footage until the plane-ride back to the midwest, & edited it almost in its entirety on the plane.
Cut to a little over a year later, Christmas weekend; i show the kids the film, they watch, eyes wide, both amused & annoyed by themselves. In their looks I can see an attempt to grasp who they are. Especially the two eldest. It strikes me that I should do impromptu interviews with the FLiP camera i’d bought a few days prior. Such is the supplement post-credits.
Thank you for reading.
Thank you for watching.