by Barry Michael Cooper
17 February 2010
17 February 2010
Six years ago, I used to walk around Baltimore and New York City with an inexpensive Fuji Fineshot SLR, and just film stuff. Not necessarily looking for a narrative, but just life in action: homeless Vietnam Veterans in Times Square, seagulls at congregating on the roof Mondawmin Mall in Baltimore, the clouds, dudes getting pulled over by five-o on St. Paul Street in East Baltimore and getting arrested, puffs of white steam oozing from street corner storm drains, a newscast of a young American soldier in Iraq going in on a stunned and appalled Donald Rumsfeld. Getting my Stan Brakhage/David Lynch on.
These seemingly unrelated items became a cohesive micro film a few days into the new year of 2005, when I was listening to a track by the UK musical collective known as Zero 7. The track is titled "Over Our Heads", which was fitting for me, because I still couldn't figure out why George W. Bush was the leader of the free world. The answer was in GOD's Hands, and way over my head.
