March 26:

Interviews:

This week I tried to interview people from the streets, and I can't say that I've been very successful. It seems like nobody has 5 minutes to answer simple questions. Of the 20 people I asked, only one person agreed to be interviewed, he was from Minnesota and had been living in New York for only three weeks.

I think it was a valuable interview, as he was the only stranger I could bring to talk. I was rudely turned down by a few people. I was even refused by a priest, who said he was late for mass talk.

I think even this unsuccessfulness was successful in a way because it is an indication of how busy people were.

Instead of strangers, I didn't sit still and interviewed two Turkish friends.

This week, I'm planning on going up to the Bronx and compare the willingness of people to be interviewed with people in Manhattan.

Documentaries:

Today I watched 3 documentaries in a row two of which I'd like to talk about.

The first one is Close Up by Abbas Kiarostami, which was about an unemployed man who acts as if he is a famous filmmaker, and gets involved with a family. It was very interestingly shot, and it was very touching.

The second film that I watched was All Roads Lead to the Sea by Sarah Teitler, my Experimental Documentary professor. It was about Cuba, and the people of Cuba and their lifestyles. I found it very close to me personally because there were people who talked about the sea, and how the sea calmed them. There was this man who talked about moving to Madrid, and how he realized the importance of the sea after he moved away from it. Also, he talked about things that he missed, of little things such as his worn out mattress, how he missed the wires that stuck out from it. You miss these silly things because they have certain memories and nostalgia attached to it. I have a very similar experience, and I understood what he was trying to say fully, and it was very touching.