la réponse à la lecture: Week VI

In his lecture on the Diary Film, how does Jonas Mekas distinguish a written diary from a film diary? In what ways do his films document both objective reality and Mekas’s own subjective reality? Why are “non-professional” techniques important for this filmmaking process?

Mekas mentions its easier to write in a written diary at the end of a day because one has time to think back on that day and reflect on it to come up with an entry. A film diary, however, does not give you this option as you have to record reality as its taking place.
In Walden, this idea comes into play because we see random images basically of his documented life, much like a diary. However, nondiagetic music is added along with the visuals being sped up very montage-like, making it border on the subjective/objective line. In one way, it’s very much like a film diary of Mekas’s life events, but it also has an experience aspect to it. The party sequence, for example, is filmed in "party vision" basically. Its shaky and sped up, much like many of my recollections of parties end up. This was one of my favorite scenes of Walden because of that fact.
“Non-professional” techniques work very well for this process because its not about professionism, its about the person filming and their personal choices of shots. A professionally shot diary would be campy and almost look like it was a joke. Diaries are supposed to be completely unprofessional and more personal than anything.