LETTERS NOT ABOUT LOVE
Producer, Director and Editor: Jacki Ochs
In 1983, American poet Lyn Hejinian met Russian poet Arkadii Dragomoshchenko in Russia. In 1988, filmmaker Jacki Ochs initiated a five-year correspondence between the two. 'Home,' 'poverty,' 'window' are among the everyday words the poets discuss measuring both the gulfs and likenesses of their cultures. This dialogue — combined with [a meticulous montage of] striking images from the U.S. and Russia — captures the experience of watching two artists thinking. As they examine their lives and countries, the film becomes an exhilarating meditation on [the relationship between] language, culture and the art of mutual understanding.
Placing An Order:
A VHS copy of Letters Not About Love may be purchased directly for Home use by ordering directly from the Human Arts Association's online catalog.
Events:
Anthology Film Archives
Organized by Andrew Lampert and Bill Brand Results You Can't Refuse: Celebrating 30 Years of BB Optics Screening Series will feature a Human Arts Association evening Wednesday evening April 12th by screening Continental Drift and Letters Not About Love as a double header. The series takes place at the Anthology Film Archives and was supported by the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program in the Department of Cinema Studies at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.
Reviews:
MICHAEL ONDAATJE, author of The English Patient
The delicate merging of private maps — home, grandmother, local weather — in this intimate and formal correspondence of two poets, one in America, one in Russia. How a kettle whistles there, how a sun floats here. A beautiful and moving film.
LAURIE ANDERSON, performance artist
Letters Not About Love is a gorgeous meditation on the mysteries of language and place. Using a written exchange between two writers who riff on definitions of one and two syllable words, Ochs has created a fascinating double portrait of the United States and Russia, which emerges through evocative images and stories. Jacki Ochs has made a truly beautiful and original film.
PETER DEBRUGE and RENE PENALOZA-GALVAN, Daily Texan
Ochs' images perfectly complement the vocative texts without being too literal. Their seamless conjunction gives the illusion of watching the writer's consciousness play upon the screen.
Both intellectually and emotionally appealing, Letters Not About Love is a rich, dense documentary that dares its audience to blink.
Bio:
Jacki Ochs has been making films since 1976, including works in both experimental and documentary genres. Several films have been broadcast worldwide. Awards for her work include the John Grierson Award for Best New Director and the Blue Ribbon from the American Film Festival, the Special Jury Prize from the Sundance Film Festival, premieres at the New York Film Festival, Mannheim Film Festival and Cinema du Reel, and a Certificate of Merit from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a NYFA Fellowship, a NYSCA grant, a Massachusetts State Arts Council grant and two MacDowell Colony Fellowships.
