The cinetrix would like to invite any LA readers out there to traipse over to Vidiots out on Pico in Santa Monica for a mind-expanding evening tonight. Yes, at a video store. Read on, Netflix nation, and you'll see why indie video stores are still important. But first, a question.
What if someone came along who changed not the way you think about everything, but everything about the way you think?
For filmmakers Kirby Dick [director of Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist] and Amy Ziering Kofman, Jacques Derrida is that person: one of the most visionary and influential thinkers of the 20th century, a man who single-handedly altered the way many of us look at history, language, art, and, ultimately, ourselves.
Tonight they will be appearing at Vidiots to discuss their acclaimed [and newly available on DVD] documentary, Derrida, and the challenges of allowing Derrida's life and thought to "resonate and interact without either being used to simply 'explain' the other."
Up until sometime in the late 70's, I think, he not only had always refused to be filmed, but had, also, categorically refused to ever have his photograph taken. Even though by that time his work had become well established in Europe, most people still had no idea what he looked like. He had, and still has, a firm belief that the cult of personality is, to large degree, ridiculous. But then he started doing more political work, appearing at benefits for public causes. At one time the press was there, and they ended up running a picture of him in Le Monde - but they ran a photo of, I think, Michel Foucault, and erroneously identified it as 'Jacques Derrida.' Well, Jacques has this incredible power hair, and from that point on, realizing he couldn't control the inevitable, he rescinded his own strict media interdiction: 'Well, if they're going to print my picture anyways, it might as well be the right one!'
That's right, he has power hair. Rent the movie to see what that means.
As an added incentive, Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Kofman will be introduced tonight by the man who shares a left hemisphere [terrifying, but true] with the cinetrix, Anthony Miller. It will be nothing short of epic. So come early, stay late.