Mateusz Demski
[Black and white picture; a woman holding a camera]
Still from the movie "Barbara Forever", dir. Brydie O'Connor
“‘In the city called loneliness, many wonderful things are created – born of loneliness, and at the same time giving it meaning”, wrote Olivia Laing in her memorable essay, which she devoted to the biographies of great New York creators, recognizing in them chroniclers of urban loneliness. She herself, living for a time in New York, did not consider it a pleasant experience in any way. Fran Lebowitz, writing about this place, opted for witty detail and satire: ‘You know what I hate about New York? There are no deck chairs in Times Square. New Yorkers won’t stand this for another moment, we’re leaving!’
Millennium Docs Against Gravity returns to New York this year. The section devoted to this city has been titled briefly and pointedly, somewhat in the style of Lebowitz and somewhat in the spirit of Laing: ‘New York I love you, but…’. So what is this ‘but’? Something more than a conjunction, a rhetorical pause, a hesitation that works toward tension and suspense. ‘But’ as a gesture of disagreement, complaint, perhaps even accusation. It is impossible to state with certainty – does the New York artist love contemporary New York, or hate it? The only certainty is that they spare it neither words of devotion nor criticism. ‘Life in New York makes no sense, but life outside it makes no sense either’ – I remember such a sentence from one of this year’s films. It is probably an exaggeration, but is there any other place on Earth that provokes such great astonishment, admiration, and opposition? Siri Hustvedt, Meredith Monk, Oscar Isaac, Barbara Hammer. A gallery of great figures! All thrown into the whirl of New York bustle – intellectuals, activists, trackers of urban uncanny phenomena and mysteries. John Wilson confronts them, taking his camera out into the streets, constantly wandering, taking notes, and he has a talent for it. For connecting things that seem distant, for tracing in New York’s everyday life not only what is strange, but rather what is wonderful and uncanny. What he has been working on in recent years is a film about New York, though with a certain twist – instead of focusing on the city, he perversely and with evident delight tells the story of the concrete from which it was cast.
But this year’s selection of films is also about people shown in the face of difficult life choices, experiencing extreme situations: incredible sacrifice in the name of dreams, struggles with paying rent, extreme pandemic isolation, enduring grief after a loved one. Oscar Isaac, preparing for the role of Hamlet at The Public Theater, was dealing with the sudden death of his mother and at the same time became a father. Benita Raphan, an underground documentarian, could not find her place in the city during the pandemic and, faced with haunting visions, took her own life. There are also three young painters here, single mothers who over half a century ago, against expectations, jointly bought an apartment in Brooklyn. The image of New York that emerges from these films is not unambiguous. That is what “New Yorkness” is all about – constant change: something disappears, something new arises. ‘New York is absolutely everything. […] A description of New York is an image of a moment different from the next moment. A description of New York after a week, a month, a year, will be a description of a different city,’ wrote Jan Zakrzewski some time ago in the book “N.Y. N.Y. Nowy Jork” (1980), one of the best guides to this city. However, no one has said anything wiser about New York and New Yorkers than Fran Lebowitz. I will refer to her words, because I will find nothing better: ‘New York is like “The Ring of the Nibelung.” It is one great opera. The affliction of all time!’”
Mateusz Demski – journalist, film critic, film scholar. He publishes, among others, in Przekrój, Przegląd, as well as on the websites Dwutygodnik, GQ Poland, Mint Magazine and Onet.pl. In addition, he contributes as a guest writer to the pages of Gazeta Wyborcza, Tygodnik Powszechny and many other titles. Author of several hundred conversations and interviews with filmmakers awarded at international festivals, including Jonathan Glazer (“The Zone of Interest”), Laura Poitras (“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”), Bong Joon-ho (“Parasite”), the Daniels duo (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) and Ari Aster (“Beau Is Afraid”).
