The Red Album, or a Poetic Intent (Miryam Charles, 2019)
Added 2019-11-14 03:30:42 +0000 UTC
The second (and far more interesting) of two short films I've discovered this year by Canadian filmmaker Miryam Charles, The Red Album, or a Poetic Intent is a five-minute mini-drama that finds four Francophones of African descent (it's unclear whether or not they are Canadian) repairing to a nondescript house to take stock of a political battle that has failed. Charles has one of the men in face paint, but it is not certain if this is meant to signify a tribal affiliation, a "back to Africa" political orientation, or some form of war paint, since we never really know whether the fight they've lost was rhetorical, organizational, or entailed actual violence.
As part of their retrospective process, they decide to record an album of music. They are seen shuffling sheet music around, working on harmonies, and eventually singing a song with lines like "we no longer dream." It is almost like a form of Maoist self-criticism in creative form. Afterward, the four of them lie on the floor, speaking of their rebel cell like a band, discussing breaking up, and what that would mean for all of them, personally and politically.
Charles has forged a dense, elusive poem about activism and regret, the often unacknowledged emotional toll that it taken when people devote their lives to radical change. So often, it is a life that feels very much like bashing one's head against the wall, or in some cases, having it bashed for you.
