Addressing the Audience

While not all film viewers have the chance to see both Neil Goldberg's video My Parents Read Dreams I Had About Them as well as Althea Thauberger's 35mm Northern, Both film's address a form of authorship. Their differences are similar yet profound, as Goldberg's video uses an obvious form of direct address, while Thauberger collaborates so much with her production team that authorship can feel undefined.

Northern's notion of anonymity stems first from its format. Unlike Thauberger's other 4:3 gallery works that feel as if they are on a "after school special" or even a confusing "music video," Northern is on 35mm, and when presented on a larger screen, or even just a tv, its wide angle and defined image make it feel as if the body's in the long pan are more realistic than the dead dog in her other work A Memory Lasts Forever. The arrival of a helicopter insinuates that this group of people is involved with something from a long distance away, unknown to the viewer. The lack of information along with the mass dramatic horizontal climb show even more aspects of collaboration that force the viewer to be lost in the action on screen.

All in only 8 minutes, the same duration as Goldberg's video, which will be abbreviated as MPRDIHAT ( My Parents Read Dreams I Had About Them) for its obviously direct title as to what the film will be about, as well as direct ownership of whose dreams and parents are in the film. MPRDIHAT performs a confusing act of telling dreams, usually kept secret, at least from the all knowing parents, to that exact point. If a viewer was at all confused by the title, the simple two subject interview with a friendly hairy arm, couldn't have made it more obvious what was happening. This is Neil's dream, and his film, and his experience. This narrow scope allows room for the question "What would happen if I did that?." Once every viewer has reached this point, they have started developing their own film.