1
"THE INVISIBLE WORLD"
- Mundo Invisvel -
SKY BELOW
Glory to God. Hallelujah!
You're ashamed of Jesus'name!
You laugh at Jesus'name
because you are not free.
On the day you free yourself...
you'll no longer feel
ashamed of the name...
who gave up his life for you!
You're mortal!
Today you're alive,
but tomorrow you don't know...
and you're already dead!
You may be rich,
you may have college education...
but someday you'll die!
Your college education
won't keep you...
from dying!
Someday you'll die!
And if you're not prepared...
Praise the name of Jesus...
If you're not prepared
to face death...
what will become of you?
I can't be ashamed
of Christ's Gospel...
because Christ's Gospel
transforms life!
Praised be the name of Jesus...
forever be praised the
name of Jesus Christ.
Man is ashamed of the Gospel
because a man who isn't free...
has to be ashamed,
because he's a slave to sin!
Man isn't ashamed to kill...
man isn't ashamed to steal...
man isn't ashamed of
prostituting himself...
but man is ashamed
of the name of his Creator!
One day everyone shall
attend Christ's tribunal!
And shall be held accountable
for all they've done in this life.
Who gave you life?
Who created you in
your mother's womb?
Who begot you in
your mother's belly?
It was Jesus Christ...
king of kings and
lord of all lords.
You may say: "he's crazy".
But I'm not crazy for drugs.
I'm not crazy for whores.
I'm crazy for Jesus Christ!
You're crazy for drugs!
You're crazy for crime!
You're crazy for lies!
I'm crazy for Jesus!
If we are crazy, we are
crazy for the Lord.
Thank God.
And we are victorious in
the blessed man...
that is Jesus!
We are victorious
in Jesus'name.
THE PEOPLE IS
BEING DECEIVED
While looking at
So Paulo's Graffitis...
Theo Angelopoulos crossed
paths with a performative preacher.
Almost invisible to the eyes
of the crowd...
The preacher is a contrast
to the exterior world...
Colorful and unredeemed.
COLORFUL CA So Paulo's Cemitrio da Consolao
functions as usual for 364 days...
but on november 2nd...
even the rattling bones
of this necropolis get to...
kick back and unwind,
celebrate, each one in his...
own fashion, the
holiday of the dead.
It'a national holiday.
But why?
Maybe for everyone to realize
they are still alive.
TEKOHA
Indians!
Are you Indians?
Indians!
Are you an Indian?
Indians!
Indians!
- Are you an Indian?
- Are you an Indian?
Indians!
My God, an Indian!
Are you an Indian?
Indians!
- Are you an Indian?
- Are you an Indian?
Indians!
Indians!
Are you an Indian?
Indians!
- My God, an Indian!
- Are you Indians?
No, we just look like them.
Indians?
Are you Indians?
Indians?
Are you an Indian?
Created in 1892,
in an exuberant forest...
Trianon Park in So Paulo,
still conserves trees...
from its original woods.
In 2008, the Guarani-Kaiow indians,
actors from Birdwatchers...
had the opportunity to visit
the park for the first time.
They immediately recognized
the gigantic tree species...
Cedar, Pau-Ferro, Jatob,
Jequitib-Branco and Sapopemba.
FROM VISIBLE TO INVISIBLE
- Hi Leon.
- Nice to see you.
- Great to see you.
- So, everything's OK?
Just a sec...
Hello, can I
call you back?
OK, I'll call you back...
- So! What a great surprise...
- The surprise is all mine!
Yes, so...
l'll call you in five minutes.
I can't talk right now. See ya.
- Man!
- What a surprise...
meeting you here, like this...
in So Paulo, out of the blue.
- How are things in Portugal?
- Oh, they are...
it's ringing.
Sorry. I'll call you later.
Kisses! Bye!
Ok, ok, ok...
Kisses, bye!
So, do you...
do you miss Portugal?
Very much! How are
things over there?
Hello.
Hello! So l'll call
you in five minutes, ok?
Kisses...
- Give me your number.
- Jot it down.
It's 324555764.
- That's yours.
- That's mine.
Oh Ricardo!
What a surprise!
So, how are things
in Portugal?
Some better, others worse.
Worse? In what way?
People think
differently now, Leon...
we've lost our values...
there's also a certain contempt
for ethics, therefore...
A consequence of today's
world, isn't it, Ricardo?
Exactly! Exactly!
You know what?
It's this lust for power...
war dressed as
an enigma, it's...
But our longevity
is increased.
That's true! Thanks to medicine.
Longevity increases
and so does mortality.
AIDS, pollution, the air
that we breathe...
Hatred, wars...
But what about the main
thing: What about love?
Love! Love!
Love! Love...
Love increases
the practice of sex...
of betrayals...
Don't you thing the world is
going down the drain, Ricardo?
It seems so.
But Leon, what can
we do to save it?
Right Ricardo, what
can we do...
to save the world?
The artificiality and consumerism
of modern society...
steals away our privacy
and tranquility...
under the serene consensus
of international law...
and in the name of what
we call - PROGRESS.
THE TRANSPARENT BEING
This call is being
transfered to voicemail...
Cssia, this is Las.
Call me...
as soon as you can
because I wanna...
talk to you about
the actor's work.
I'm making a short
film which is a part of...
a feature film called
"Invisible World" and...
I wanted to talk to
you about the actor's...
point of view when
he's in scene.
Ok? Return my
call when you can.
CASSIA KISS
actress
I consider myself to be in
the most beautiful...
profession in the world, but
also the hardest one...
because I have to work a lot.
I recognize that
an actor must have...
discipline,
must be organized...
must develop
an intelligence...
that makes
the character think.
And then live the character.
I must be prepared, I can't go
somewhere I do not know.
I have to prepare the ground...
and it's a lot of research.
A lot of intuition also
goes into it, of course.
You sense something
intuitively...
you have to start somewhere.
It might be not be that,
but it keeps transforming.
I'm lucky that
I like to meditate...
to sit down and meditate...
in order to educate my body,
to make an exercise...
and Buddhism brings me
a lot of this...
it brings me peace,
the peace I need...
I need silence...
One of the main aspects of
Zen practice is that...
we access supreme knowledge,
illumination, satori...
the awekening, which has a lot to
do with the non-ego concept...
COEN ROSHI
monk
When I have a very strong,
very powerful idea of myself...
I'm wanting to become very
visible to the world...
We are in a net, interconnected,
to everything and everybody.
When I separate myself,
it is impossible.
I can't cut myself away
from reality.
I can't clip it with
scissors and say...
"I'm here, the rest of the
world is over there"
We are interconnected.
You know we say that the monk must
be fully conscious of his body...
from head to toes.
The arm doesn't walk
by itself.
You're conscious of it.
So you pick things up
delicately, without extra noise.
You know a well-trained monk...
when his walk
isn't false or noisy.
He's not saying:"I'm here".
He becomes invisible.
If you pay attention to him...
If he's handing out a booklet.
The books of liturgies...
if he's too conscious of himself,
everyone will look at him.
And they will drop the book.
He's not important.
The book is important.
The aesthetics of the performance
is built over this exercise.
It is a joke, an entertainment...
and the actor, at the same time...
discovers his breathing,
his body...
he acquires a
conscience of his body...
through these exercises
that use this basis...
of balance and imbalance.
LEE TAYLOR
actor
I think Oriental philosophy...
Zen...
treats things
in a way that...
for the art of the actor,
it's fundamental, you know?
To understand in that way.
Because, I'll say it again,
art is in this terrain...
of the mysterious,
the invisible, the ineffable.
And the actor's art is to
embody this invisibility...
to make the invisible visible.
To make it visible through
my body, my speech...
through my instrument,
that which is invisible.
I just remembered what
I was going to say about Yoshi.
In "The Invisible Actor"
he says...
he says that...
the actor must never face
things as an exercise.
Nothing that he'll
do as an exercise.
Because if he does
that, he won't learn.
He has to...
now I forgot
the exact word he uses...
but he has to live that, I think...
I'm adding this word, but...
he has to live that experience.
YOSHI ODA
Actor and director.
For instance, people say...
and Yoshi himself
talks about plainness.
Plainness is not doing
the naturalistic aesthetics.
It's not that.
But it is being natural.
And what's being natural?
It's being one
with your breathing.
So that I can do anything,
anything in scene.
But my breathing has
to be one with all this.
And it's all tied together, right?
It's all linked.
Body, voice, breathing, feeling.
It's all linked, it's all one.
And it's the breathing
that ties it all together.
That's what we say in Zen.
It's not something you'll read
about and grasp intellectually.
It's a comprehension
that encompasses the whole body.
And body and mind are a unity.
Intellectual comprehension
is insufficient.
It gets in the way sometimes.
It can get in the way if you don't
allow yourself to become.
It's hard to work with thought...
with rationality
interfering in the moment.
Antunes has a drawing,
something he makes, this big,
the mind and he puts a dot that he
says is the computer, the brain.
He says all the information...
my rehearsal, my learning,
my technique...
it's all there,
in that dot, in the brain.
But when I'm creating...
I forget that.
Because it has to be
diluted inside the mind.
While you're doing an exercise,
you're learning a technique.
When that becomes yours,
it becomes art.
It's not a technique
anymore, it's art.
This search for truth...
when you reach
for this truth...
how can you be sure
that you reached it?
Listen...
I'll try to answer.
It's hard.
It's hard,
but I think that...
it's when I disappear.
I'm under the impression, that
it's exactly when I disappear...
When the ballerina dances,
if she's dancing...
she's not a good ballerina.
There's still an ego that dances.
I'm doing it.
When this "I" disappears...
art manifests itself
in its fullness.
You're only an instrument
of this manifestation.
So, when I feel like that...
when I feel I didn't do the
show, but it was done...
I didn't do the character,
but it was done...
that's when I think
theater happens...
and this sensation
is indescribable, it's addictive.
This story investigates
the work of actors...
based on the concept of transparency
in acting, theme of the book...
"The Invisible Actor",
by Yoshi Oda.
FABLE
PASOLINI IN HELIPOLIS
I'm worried.
I'm worried because...
We've been to Berlin,
we've been to Paris...
we've been to the Bronx,
in New York...
and then you wrote me a letter
in which you talked about this...
extraordinary treatment
about current So Paulo.
That it traverses today.
In my opinion...
I asked you to make this trip...
Because I don't believe there
is any country today in the world...
more prepared to reveal
the force and the violence...
of a reality
in transformation...
like this one
Brazil, So Paulo.
And Jesus guides me
Through the paths of peace
My light is Jesus
And Jesus guides me
Though the paths of peace
I ask you for this water
That you have
It's live water, my Lord
I thirst, I hunger for love
Together with me
The sheep shall have peace
They shall rest
Because in So Paulo,
here, as you can see...
in this reality there is sorrow...
in this reality there is
sorrow and poverty...
And a noise, also...
but there is also the
aspiration to the spirituality...
and transcendence
that you seek.
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Listen, Baldi...
I think that, yes,
we talked about Berlin,
we talked about Paris...
the Bronx...
but after so many years,
I think that...
civilization, and the new world are here.
- Do you agree with me?
- Yes. I'm not completely...
Let me reflect...
but it could be
the right thing...
to make this project
about So Paulo.
Here in So Paulo,
in this favela.
Perfect!
Terrific!
Wonderful!
Tain, right?
Tain, hi, Tain!
Tain, I baptize you
in the name of the Father...
of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.
The Third World begins there.
See? Where those boys are...
From there to Africa, to Asia
There is the third world.
Look at those boys,
Look at them carefully...
It's a particular, special world
It's the Third World...
So Paulo will suffer with traffic
of a big city, modern up to the spasm...
with its suspense bridges,
its tall buildings...
and the vast and alienating crowd,
which passes by indifferently...
in front of the
spectacle of death.
But in this world
of steel and cement...
resonated (or returned to resonate)
The word of God.
THE ADVENTURES
OF THE INVISIBLE MAN
I'm still the target
And feeling invisible
Oh, mirror on the wall
what do I see?
I cannot accept
or understand
Can you sign it for me?
The drama tires me and
The desire
And I hope to forget
This anguish hurting
My senses.
The will...
He was like this ever since
he was little, you know?
He was psychic.
Yes, he got to a place,
here, for example...
he looked and could already
see the local spirits.
- And are there always spirits?
- Oh, always!
And ghosts, always.
We are limited to our dimension...
but there are others,
parallel, dimensions.
With the creatures
that live in them...
there are ghosts,
invisible people...
creatures from other planets.
And how does he manage to
communicate with all these people?
We grew up together.
I always saw him talking to
people that only he saw...
playing, getting beaten.
So do you know what
neighbors started doing?
They started asking
for his help...
to talk to their beloved,
their dead relatives.
Today we're going
to the new mall.
You'll see how wonderful.
They have everything there.
The things that exist in Europe
they have them here as well!
You'll see when
I take you to Paris.
- Are we going to Paris?
- I already told you that...
you won't be surprised at all.
How silly,
we're not in Goinia...
your family is far, far away...
we're in So Paulo...
nobody knows you, cool down.
- C'mon.
- Let's go.
People prefer to ignore the
existence of these other realities...
which is a shame, because
if they were interested in them...
or, better yet, if they tried to
communicate with this other side...
I'm sure they'd be happier.
Waldemar, do you know
what I think?
I think the world where you live
with your cousin is overpopulated!
Fuck, the world is crammed, man!
It's hard enough to communicate...
and you wanna communicate
with people that don't exist!
Dead people!
Communicate with the living, man!
And there's something else!
You're saying when I go to the john...
there are 18 people looking at me?
There are things l'd rather not
do in front of other people.
And if you wanna know something,
I don't believe in any of this!
Now, if that that exists
and they see me, man...
l'd rather not see them, get it?
Nobody understands more about
marriages in this country than I do.
I've been telling you
it's 200 people for months...
and now you say
you didn't know anything...
that they thought it'd be 150.
Oh, go to hell, will you?
It's no use. I don't know, these
people don't know how to work.
If they can pull a fast
one on you, they'll do it.
Listen, sincerely, you know what?
You know what?
It's people who don't give a
damn, who live in the clouds...
who don't have anything
to worry about in life.
Is everything ok, daddy?
Don't worry,
we're gonna manage it.
I'm sure your mother will solve
it in the best possible way.
In two or three days
l'll be with you again.
Let me see the stone.
This is what I call
a visible proof of love.
It's beautiful.
I'm working full throttle!
When you get here, you'll see.
Of course you're gonna like it.
The result is surprising.
We did well
by choosing my option.
It's a team work!
Don't talk like that.
Seriously, now, I consider this
one of the best hypotheses.
Of course, because if he denies...
Yes, exactly!
OK, let's cheer.
And when do you arrive?
Oh, so we can have
dinner tonight?
Oh, great, Arthur,
I miss you so much!
No, I can't stand this
virtual world any longer.
I can't live like this, I need
to meet you, feel your smell...
grab you, kiss you...
Me too.
The most important is not what
you hear, but what you see.
You're pretty, a good dancer,
I can't see any problem.
The problem's that
everything's wrong.
I'm off-key, the arrangements suck,
I don't know, not 1 original note!
Originality doesn't exist!
I've worked for more than
20 years as a manager...
and I don't know a single
original musician.
Music is a recycling industry.
Of course there are
original artists, Max.
But they're not
the ones you represent.
But that's not your fault.
It's mine.
This is not the kind of music
I wanted to be making...
but I don't know any other.
But you're selling so much!
Nobody's selling anything
and you're selling a lot!
The problem is
that it's all shit.
I'm selling shit
and they're buying shit.
Nothing makes any sense.
Everything's empty
and no one sees it.
Sign that for me will you?
Here you are.
OK, let me take it.
Sorry, sir, you have to sign
the receipt, over here.
OK, go in.
Excuse me.
Here you go.
You didn't see anything, OK?
Wait, wait, wait.
Take 300 more.
But stay and look.
53, huh?
Ever seen anything like it?
Look how rock hard it is,
look at it. Ever seen this?
Not even in a 25 year old boy.
Look!
Look!
Look! Look, now!
Look, look at this potency!
I'd never seen
you like this, Dinho!
You're Marlene Dietrich incarnate!
A real woman!
So female that
I end up being put off...
What's this?
This is only for the party.
By midnight my beard grows
and you'll see who your cat is.
Do you want a drink, miss?
No, thanks. I'm going.
Oh, how wonderful...
how wonderful my love!
Yes, yes, yes, yes!
I love you!
I love you!
Oh, how wonderful!
Arthur, you're wonderful!
Your voice makes me crazy!
Of course it does. Yes...
Your flowers arrived.
Yes, they have just arrived.
And when do you get here?
Tomorrow? You swear?
Let's have dinner because
we can't keep on like this.
My God, there's a woman standing
on the window ledge, up above.
It's your spirits, Waldemar.
No, I think that...
She's gonna jump.
Calm down, Fries.
Calm down, Fries.
Ouch!
Thanks.
Where did I hit upon?
On the garbage container, ma'am.
Oh, there's a garbage container!
It wasn't there yesterday.
Must be because of the works.
And I haven't gotten
used to not seeing yet.
It's very recent,
I had an operation that went bad...
and I lost my eyesight.
I have to get used to it,
have to use a cane.
My dog... Fries!
Fries.
Oh, Fries!
You're very generous.
- What's your name?
- Jos.
Good night, Jos.
The city of So Paulo, with its
extreme contrasts, its dynamism and...
'the hard concrete
of its corners'...
is the ideal setting to
follow the life of a man...
missing from his own story.
Even you?
Even you?
I'll say it. Go.
Action.
My name...
is Kreuko.
When I was...
doing chemotherapy...
there were twelve chairs.
Every fifteen days...
we'd go...
and meet.
Suddenly, we'd notice...
that someone was missing.
The nurse would say...
"They are no longer with us".
And so...
I decided...
to go crazy.
Go crazy...
and think that I was a character...
out of a Thomas Mann novel.
Shut up, chatterbox.
Turn down the music.
It's serious.
I'm serious.
Because it's true.
In The Magic Mountain...
all those people
with tuberculosis...
were just waiting to die...
and would count...
those who appeared and
those who disappeared.
I'd think of constructive things...
like a play...
in which nobody saw Romeo...
because he was
a horrible cripple...
with dangling eyes.
And hadn't had a
woman in a long time.
This is the actor
who played Romeo.
And Juliet, a beautiful girl...
a wonderful actress...
that everyone
in the audience desired...
the only illuminated one on stage.
There was the balcony scene...
and when Romeo finally appeared...
he was some terrible monster.
A miserable crippled guy.
Which any bad actor could play.
The only thing
that had brought him
out on to the stage
was his own ugliness.
And his own
miserable and solitary life.
All types of edifying things
like this, I would think about...
during my chemotherapy sessions.
Suddenly the scene would change...
with the ugly monster...
now playing...
Richard III...
in the monologue...
during the unending night...
where he seduced the widow...
in front of her husband's casket.
It all ended with a kiss.
When the lovely
woman would kiss...
that ugly beast.
Lunatic children...
plastic civilizations...
more practical tendencies.
Fantastic.
TRIBUTE TO THE
CINEMA AUDIENCE
Forgive me, oh Lord,
for being spirituous...
mediocre and a coward.
Forgive me, oh Lord.
For not wanting to
see or to know...
Forgive me, oh Lord.
I simply escaped.
For the little love left in me.
Forgive me, oh Lord.
You disappointed us.
Why are you doing this?
When I saw you yesterday,
you seemed happy.
I was. Yesterday.
Here we are.
Welcome home.
I'm your son, remember?
I still remember daddy
going out to eat.
And he came back.
No kidding. Seriously.
The capitalists turned
off the gas...
but you'll get
it all back, right?
I was away for a long time.
This sling is a symbol.
So that it can hit
all the liars that...
govern us with it.
And if it can't, we'll help to
break all the ministry's windows.
See how this works?
On the right, on the left.
This is our program.
Sucker! Son of a bitch!
Get lost bastard.
I don't use drugs.
Come, Kinga.
Kinga! Kinga!
What have I done?
What an idiot!
I'm with you. Look,
daughter, I'm here.
I told you not to go.
Isn't there another
hospital in this town?
- Mom... Look.
- What?
No!
This project was born
from experiencing from the stage...
the reaction of the audience
in the theaters...
which makes visible
what is not seen...
in the dark rooms
of the cinemas.
I know that is non...
of your business.
Then tell another...
story.
The restaurant bill.
Very good!
Why is the letter M...
the letter N here?
That isn't the letter N.
Which letter is this one?
- V.
- That's right.
I saw that I had lost it.
TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE
Do you wear glasses too,
Ythamara?
To see is when we come
closer to the blackboard...
when you are in school...
We are going to do
something else.
We are going to
paint this drawing.
What is that drawing?
A rectangle.
Pay attention Tadeu...
so it won't go off the circle.
We are going to paint
inside the circle.
- Im painting it.
- That's right! Do it neatly!
Good... its good.
Paint it, paint it, paint it...
Are you done?
- My painting is going to be so pretty...
- Just the circle!
I'm finished, now I'm going
to wait until it is dry.
Which color
do you like the most?
Purple.
How is it to see?
Like that.
How?
Seeing, with your eyes.
If you don't know how to see,
you go near something...
and then you can see.
Miss, I want to speak too!
To see is when you can't see...
then you go near something
and you can see.
I'm going to use
the light green.
Does light green grass exist?
What's that?
Who is that over there?
- Me.
- Yes.
- What about now?
- It's you!
Good golly!
- Who is that one in pink?
- Who is that one in pink?
That one in the dress "is me"!
Ythamara look, it's you.
Look Ythamara!
- Can you see it Ythamara?
- I can.
Now me!
Look, It's me!
Look, my hand, here.
What do you see?
Me.
It's really you!
Cool, isn't it?
Can you see yourself
on the little screen?
Yes.
The Santa Casa Hospital
of So Paulo...
is an organization
from Portugal.
It was born around
the year 1500.
This building we are right now
is more than 120 years old.
The Santa Casa treats patients...
with or without resources...
with a health
insurance or not...
they are treated
with no distinction.
This service of recovering
and rehabilitating...
the visually challenged child...
is dedicated to children
who have some residual vision.
Who have a vision
that doesn't exceed 30%.
This was a range of people
with visual problems...
who weren't assisted before.
Because, the totally
visually challenged...
which does
not perceive light...
there are
specials schools...
where they go to
learn Braille, etc...
This range of patients,
with partial vision...
was not assisted.
Dandara is six years old.
She is an albino child.
Dandara was really small when
she first came to the treatment.
So we've started a work
of teaching her...
to realize she had
a residual vision...
and also, how to use this
vision the best way possible.
- Like that...
- Like that, very well!
Pull it by the other side.
Alright...
Red, right?
That is the red one...
We always do that
through playful activities...
because they are kids.
Oh my God!
Oh my God!
You scared me!
- What a fright!
- Right...
She has understood
that her sight
gives information to her...
and she really has
to use that vision.
Let's see, Dandara?
Its Santa Claus!
- Let me see...
- Its Santa Claus!
And from a distance
with the magnifying lens?
Let's try to see Santa Claus
from a distance?
A doll fell on top of him...
A doll fell on top of him...
And there are lots
of toys on the ground.
And there are lots
of toys on the ground.
And there's a Christmas tree.
And there's a Christmas tree.
Let's look with
the magnifying lens?
Ok.
Which color are the shoes?
Let's take a look.
Dandara!
They are children that had
their cataract surgery done here.
We have surgery
for congenital glaucoma...
for strabismus etc.
However we have
a limit in our work...
which is the nervous tissue.
The ladies upstairs...
are the ones that receive
the children to help them.
It's a very hard
and sacrificed job.
Through the financial
point of view as well, I mean...
the payment is not compatible...
with the sacrifice they do.
Is there a part missing?
It must be on the floor, right?
I can't find it...
Did you find it?
Look over here,
see if you can find it.
These are the common causes
that are sent up.
We say "sent up" because
they are out of our hands...
from the ophthalmologist hand
who cannot do anything else...
and we send them up to
the angels up there.
Ouch...
Are you hurt?
- Are you hurt?
- No.
No? Wait. Let me
adjust the chair.
You have to look where the chair is
before you sit down.
Even though we try
to defend ourselves...
trying to make a shell,
to help you to go along...
Because if you take all
the patients'problems home...
you will deteriorate emotionally
quite easily, right?
So we have a shell.
But this shell sometimes is
punctured, mostly with kids.
TWO YEARS LATER
What day is today?
Dandara,
pay attention, Dandara!
What day is today?
Let me see first!
Joy, Joy.
Joy, Joy.
A while ago, Yasmine, Ythamara
and Dandara would have...
ended up in schools
for the blind. Thanks to...
the pioneering program
developed by Dr. Silvia Veitsman...
from Santa Casa's ophthalmology
department, teaching kids...
to use their residuary
vision from early on...
all three of them now
go to regular schools.
YEREVAN - THE VISIBLE
YEREVAN
Capital da Armenia...
Yerevan means "the visible".
I first came to this city
over 20 years ago.
When I visited this square...
then under communist rule.
I saw something that wasn't
so visible to the outside world.
The sign I am holding asks...
in Armenian- if anyone has
seen this man.
"This man" is my grandfather...
it was my mother that
made me promisse...
to one day go back to Armenia...
and find out how her
father disappeared.
After the death of his wife...
my grandfather lived
in New York.
He left behind his daughter,
my mother...
with her grandmother
in Armenia.
These are images from a film
made in the United States in 1919...
only four years after the start
of the Armenian genocide...
which killed
over a million people.
This silent film, the first ever
to show acts of mass murder...
and extreme atrocity has been lost.
Only these images survived.
A reel about 20 minutes
long was found.
I'm not sure what my grandfather
would have felt if he ever saw...
these images.
The story of what happened to him...
is still a mystery.
Sweeping across the
Armenian territories...
he returned to Marash,
his home town...
to rescue my mother, his daughter,
and my great grandmother.
He took a ship, but never arrived.
More than 50 years later,
someone told my mother
that my grandfather
had come close to save them.
On his way to Armenia, he was...
stopped by the Turkish troops...
and executed as an American spy.
Sarkis Chadarevian
was not able to...
to liberate his
daughter and mother.
Now I find myself
in this same square...
where I was
over 20 years ago...
In 1988 I went to the
Tashkent Film Festival...
We heard there that a giant
strike was going on in Yerevan.
A big part of our delegation
in Tashken, in Uzbekistan...
asked for visas to go to Armenia.
I used the excuse of
wanting to research...
in the film archives about...
silent Armenian films.
I intended to photograph
the strikers...
protesting silently in
the Lenin Square.
As soon as I got to Yerevan...
I took 36 diapositive shots
with my old camera Nikkormat.
After that, I had a
terrifying week in Yerevan...
imagining I would also
disappear - like my...
grandfather - on the
way to freedom.
"Back to the future",
I used to say...
returning from a communist
country at that time...
I arrived to Paris
with my precious film.
I gave it to a press agency...
and the next day my pictures...
and the Armenian strikers
were on the front page of...
54 worldwide newspapers.
The boy I photographed...
was no more
than 10 years old in 1988.
Now, over 20 years later,
he should be around 30.
What had happened to his friends?
Why didn't I know
about these deaths?
I remember seeing some of...
these images on the internet.
I don't remember what the
demonstration was about.
I just remember the square.
And realizing that I had been
there many years before...
in another forgotten uprising.
There was a photograph
I had not shown.
But now I realize
it was the one...
he was looking for.
This music is called "Yeraz".
In Armenian, it means "dream".
In this invisible
and visible city...
there are many dreams.
Dreams of a mountain, Ararat...
just outside the border,
but so present...
and visible.
And this dream about
finding someone...
who might know
something about a...
Lost man, my grandfather.
Silent strike, silent film...
forgotten genocide,
forgotten uprisings...
lost movies...
Anything to be closer to the past.
Anything to affirm my belief...
in the power of images.
Any resemblance to any person
living or dead is purely coincidental.
The Armenian genocide
by the Ottoman empire...
will be remembered in 2015
on its 100th anniversary.
This genocide is not recognized by
the Turkish government even today.
It was a planned process
of ethnic purging...
in which approximately...
1.5 million armenians
were murdered.
Recovered by (c) dCd / September 2018