The Red Chair
June 1, 2009
Anne Loyer and I stomped all over London, Boston, and New York City carrying armloads of of video equipment and dragging The Red Chair. Like detectives, we were following a web of stories from one person to another. And when we found each person, we handed them a flyer that explained why they should take off their clothes and tell us a story:
Tell us that story. You know, the one about how you got that scar; about why you can never trust a dentist; about how your grandmother got her last wish in the most unexpected way. Tell us why you stopped taking your dog’s medication; how you lost your one true love; how you got him back. Tell us that one that starts with a bad haircut and ends in a jail cell. Tell us why you always look embarrassed when somebody says the word “kumquat”. Tell us how you finally found your mother.
And that’s how we got a whole web of interconnected strangers to get physically and metaphorically naked and and tell us a story in The Red Chair.
At first I was worried that we were just going to get a bunch of self-centered “craziest thing that ever happened to me” stories. But I think the nakedness changed how people felt. Almost everyone told stories of life, death and family. All together, they make a power network of narrative.
All this footage has never had a good edit. But tis collection of rough cuts give some sense of the stories:
done
I’m not sure this film will ever be finished. Anne and I broke up a while back and the ownership of what remains is not clear. That’s ok. The future holds boundless new ideas and projects.
