ELSEWHERE: A COLLABORATION François Bucher Katya Sander Valerie Tevere Alex Villar CATEGORIES (CHECK ONE) MEDIA: (FILM AND VIDEO) ( ) Experimental ( ) Experimental Documentary ( ) Animation ( ) Non-Traditional Narrative (x) Media Interdisciplinary ( ) Other Film/Video VISUAL ARTS: ( ) Painting ( ) Sculpture ( ) Works On Paper ( ) Installation ( ) Photo-Based Work ( ) Contemporary Crafts ( ) Visual Interdisciplinary ( ) Other Visual Arts WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING BEST DESCRIBES THE CURRENT STATUS OF YOUR PROJECT? (x) Development / Research ( ) Production ( ) Presentation PROJECT COMPLETION DATE: Fall of 2002 PROJECT TITLE: Elsewhere ONE SENTENCE DESCRIPTION: We are seeking to investigate the image of the U.S. as it is projected outside of its Borders. We will travel to Colombia where we will produce an experimental documentary about the United States’ image elsewhere and how it pertains to the conflicts of countries like Colombia. 1. TELL US ABOUT YOUR PROJECT: Our project departs from a reflection on current political events and the politics of representation in documentary practice. While we are focusing on the relation between Colombia and the United States, two events have informed our project. One is the recent conflict between the Israeli army and the Palestinian population. The other is "Here and Elsewhere" — a film by Godard and the Dziga Vertov group, that combines footage of the Palestinians at war (elsewhere) in relation to their representation in the media as perceived by a French family (here). Rather than documenting today’s dramatic political situation in Colombia in relation to its portrayal in the American media, we are going to the opposite: to document how the United States appears portrayed in the Colombian media, as well as in Colombia’s cultural and educational institutions. We are basically going to Colombia to make a documentary about the United States. More precisely, we are going to the "periphery" (elsewhere) to look from the outside toward the "center" (here). We feel that our varied background — Colombian, Danish, Brazilian and American — and our cross cultural experiences will help keep the dialogue open. Especially during two different phases of the project: the workshop in the University of the Andes and the curatorial revision of the collection of the Bank of the Republic. The end result will be a video documentary that will compile these experiences. Also, there will be a web forum for dialogue and a publication. 2. IN WHAT ARTISTIC AND/OR CULTURAL TRADITION DO YOU WORK IN? We are drawing both from experimental ethnographic documentary practice and contemporary critical discourse. From the developments in documentary practice, we have acquired an awareness of the impossibility of neutrality in the presentation of world events. We have learned the lesson from an ongoing scrutiny of the mechanics of representation. From the standpoint of critical discourse, we subscribe to the notion that objectivity is a myth. Therefore we have opted to develop our project as a collective dialogue. 3. IN WHAT SPECIFIC WAYS DOES YOUR WORK CONTRIBUTE TO THE EVOLUTION OF THIS TRADITION? We believe that our main contribution lies in the combination of resources and adaptation of alternative methodologies. We are compensating for the unidirectional character of the video documentary by proposing its presentation in conjunction with a web-based dialogue. Also, we are assuring that the dialogue will be made tangible by its documentation in a publication. We have adapted Paulo Freire’s radical pedagogy from its utilization in the context of illiteracy to the understanding and analysis of visual cultural production. And we have reversed the usual documentary practice of "looking" as a strategic way of mining the territory of the "master." Our main contribution to the documentary practice is however easily summarized: To move away from our subject instead of closing in on it, as a strategy.   4. WHO ARE THE IDEAL AUDIENCES FOR YOUR WORK? HOW MIGHT YOU REACH SUCH AUDIENCES? We are interested in bring the work to a large audience both in Colombia, the U.S. and internationally. Given the experimental nature of the video work, we are aware that we will find more predisposed audiences among artists and filmmakers. That is precisely why we have conceived of the video in conjunction with a web forum and a publication. Utilizing multiple mediums will allow us to employs different levels of language and with that reach various audiences.