Vid: Shake It Out

[mresundance]

Shake it Out by mresundance
Song and Artist: "Shake it Out" by The Manchester Orchestra
Primary Source: The New World
Length: 04:42
Summary: "I felt the Lord begin / to peel off all my skin." An allegory.
Contains/Warnings: Vidder chooses not to disclose.
Crossposts: Tumblr
Betas: ladymajavader, echan, and lola who all helped shape and strengthen this vid tremendously. Thank you!

For the 2012 Vividcon Challenge Theme, "Transformation".

Anonymous comments are enabled! I encourage people to comment honestly. I would love to discuss this vid.

Please use the mediafire links before the permanent link.

Permanent link (right-click save): 103 MB wmv

103 MB wmv @ mediafire
48 MB wmv @ mediafire

https://vimeo.com/44082326

Password: pocahontas

Also on Youtube: http://youtu.be/T5wvRupIorU

Lyrics

Shake it out, shake it out
God,
I need another, and another, and another, and another --
I can feel it now
I felt the Lord in my father's house.

And I could see, I could see
Standing we were seventeen -- make it clean --
I am the living ghost of what you need
I am everything eternally

God, just speak.

'Cuz I'm done being done with the funeral,
At least for now.
Are you tired of being alone, are you tired of being alone?

Shake it out, shake it out
God, I need another and another for the other wasn't wanted
And I heard it out
I felt the Lord in my father's house.

And I can see, I can see
Standing you were seventeen, make it clean
I am the living ghost of what you need
I am everything hypocrisy
Can't you see?

'Cuz I'm done being done with the funeral,
At least for now.
Are you tired of being alone, are you tired of being alone?

I felt the Lord begin
(I swear, I'll never go)
To peel off all my skin
(Don't stop, don't nothing, don't ever, no)
I felt the weight within
(I swore, I swore you'd go)
Reveal the bigger mess
(That you don't know)
That you'll never fix.

Notes

Quick nod to obsessive24, who gave me her blessing to use a song she had already used, basically. Oh I know, songs are free game anymore, but I always like to be polite.

Also a further nod to lolachrome, who has gone above and beyond the normal call of duty, first in her excellent beta advice, second, in reading over my notes and providing input and advice there as well. She rocks.

I have enclosed the notes in a PDF document file. It's rather long (~2,300 words), but it explains some of the ideas that went into this vid. It also explores some of the process of making the vid.

ETA. Removed the link to the PDF. If you are dying to read it for some reason, message me or comment here with a way I can contact you and I'll send you the link.

The shortparts version of the notes:

1. This is an allegory. It might work better if you think John Smith = Europeans, Matoaka (Pocahontas) = Native Americans.

2. Like an allegory, this narrative greatly simplifies very complex ideas. It is one of the unfortunate limits of both the choice to use allegory, and the structure of a vid itself. I have only five minutes to make a coherent point of some kind.

3. The target audience for this vid is white European Americans. Mainly because, I don't necessarily think Native Americans are the people who need to "hear" this message. They heard it, unfortunately, loud and clear, ages ago.

4. I am a white dude and this vid, despite my best efforts, remains a European perspective on colonization in the Americas.

5. Because the vid is a European perspective on colonization, and is targeted at European Americans, the primary goal is simply to provoke. I wanted the vid to provoke a reaction, and to provoke discussion about a topic which is too often glossed over, or actively ignored, in American culture.

So that's it. Comments and critiques of any kind are lovely.

Comments

[pharis]

I can't put together much of a response right now because I have con brain, but this was amazing and was one of the standouts of the con for me. Really affecting.

[mresundance]

I am jealous of your con brain!

Thank you. It means a lot that were able, even through con brain, to collect some thoughts on the vid and deposit them here. :)

[ljc]

I really love the idea of this, and the song choice is PERFECT. Where did you find an accoustic version?? I now need it IN MY LIFE.

[mresundance]

I originally heard the song in obsessive24's vid Loki vid Shake It Out (http://obsessive24.livejournal.com/412797.html). I believe I did a google search for the song and I found it floating around the interwebs somewhere.

obsessive24 did a very nice edit for the song, but I used the unedited version, mostly because I NEEDED ALL THE SPACE I COULD GET for this vid.

And thank you thank you!

PS. PM me if you can't find the song.

[kass]

This vid totally blew me away. It's amazing.

I love the way you combined footage from this recent movie about Pocohontas with external footage from a variety of places (the old woodcuts, the old photos, etc) -- that was incredibly effective, and dark, and very powerful. Someone noted yesterday at the challenge show that John's transformation is bittersweet, while Pocohontas' transformation is devastating, which I think is right on.

Anyway. This is fantastic. Holy wow.

[mresundance]

Thank you! I'm glad everything worked in symphony to create something coherent. I was very worried that the vid would not communicate its message effectively. I'm glad that it did, however disturbing that message might be.

[sheafrotherdon]

I love the recurring imagery of the noose in the early scenes, suggesting what's to come, and the connections you draw between the transformation of Pocahontas' body / outward appearance with the tragedy of the boarding schools. The images of violence done against Native people are really well done - forceful, matched to the swell of the music, crossing time and place, suggesting so much about racism, genocide, and hatred.

I'd love to hear more about the early scenes, from your perspective. One the one hand they seem to suggest that there was promise of coexistence through love - yet John Smith made up his romance with Pocahontas, and the recent film perpetuated a damaging myth about the settlement of Virginia that was based on those fabrications. It may be that I'm viewing those scenes too simplistically? Love to hear your thoughts.

[mresundance]

I am of two minds about the early scenes, really. I didn't think I was doing an allegory when I started this vid, and the portions you mentioned are the parts I vidded before I thought this was more or less, allegorical.

I did vid early portions of the vid focused on the romance. I do like a bit of romance and I do like the pairing in the film.

That doesn't mean it's not problematic, or that the source isn't problematic.

I don't read the film as being literal truth. It's a work of fiction and sacrifices "literal truth" in favor of exploring emotional truths -- which is the job of fiction on some levels.

I know there is a goodly chance Smith did fabricate some of what happened, or, at the least, his account portrays his own perspective and is limited in that way. (It depends on who you ask, as far as the scholarship goes. Some people have said he made it up; others have made convincing arguments that he was too unimaginative for that, really, that he was the type of person to go in and get the job done and not get overly fussy about things. I feel awful I don't have any of my sources on hand to cite either.)

As for perpetuating a damaging myth . . . I see what you mean. I get livid about things like this too. But at the same time, a part of me -- the part that creates fiction and creative work -- knows that stories have many purposes. Even the stories where we blatantly lie about something have a purpose. Whether or not it's real, or fabrication, the fact that people continue to believe a story or tell it usually says something about how that story fulfills our emotional needs as human beings.

Why keep telling the myth of John Smith and Pocahontas? Probably because we need to believe in something better in ourselves and what happened. That such a thing could happen. Maybe it's a lie on a factual level, but on an emotional level, the need to revisit the story is, perhaps, more about hope.

For me, it's about hope as well. There is the hope there, that things could have been different. That our human relationships and connections could have forged some kind of coexistence. There is that element in the vid and I don't think it's necessarily abhorrent to hope and to wish, even knowing the truth.

But . . . I know it's problematic on many levels, and I know that my take on it can be problematic too. Hence "I'm of two minds about it", because it's not simple.

I hope it answers your questions.

[annaalamode]

I was not expecting a vid that made me think so much. Very thought provoking and the accomplished editing serves the vid well.

[mresundance]

Thank you. I am glad it made you think! That was part of the vid's purpose. :)

[hollywoodgrrl]

So, I have recently done a Terrence Malick-athon and finally saw The New World which I really liked. I am also not the right person to really delve into the topic with, I'm sure you'll get some good and meaty responses to it here. I just wanted to say that as I saw this in the Challenge vidshow I guessed that it was yours based on the look of it which means you've developed a unique style and that is awesome! :)

Ok before I run away there is one thing I do want to add. The line you chose as your summery was the best moment in the vid. It was beautiful and harrowing (as was that part of the film) and for me personally it was actually more powerful than the external source. (I really loved Jewel's cousin, ok!)

[mresundance]

I love love love this movie to pieces. I love the visual style and I love the structure and the use of voice-overs and how it works like an extended visual poem and not like a regular film. And Colin Farrell's hair. *ugh* :P

I think a lot of people guessed it was mine. I got some Tweets which were like I WONDER WHO MADE THIS VID and I was "LOL". But thank you! :D You should know that you really did help me a lot with developing parts of that style when you beta'ed for me a few years ago.

It sounds wrong to say I enjoyed that moment ("peel off all my skin") but it was one which screamed to get out and coherently into the timeline.

And everybody really loves Jewel's cousin, okay? She's adorbs and great in the film.

[bop_radar]

I really liked this piece very much, though I'm more interested in the emotional narrative than all the aca/theory. While I did read it as an allegory (as you framed it as such) I was also interested in the personal narrative between the characters (which I read purely as fiction--but agree with you above when you say we tell stories for a reason). In that fiction, I did read hope for something better in Pocahontas's character's yearnings and attempts at connection, something human, irrespective of race ... so I found her ultimate 'transformation' all the more tragic. Whether you believe the historical reality of the story, I think it's interesting that myths of love between coloniser and colonised exist. Here I got a real sense in THIS version of a human connection and longing between both parties to transcend their identities (even if briefly). Their social (political) selves betrayed their personal selves is how I read it. And I agree with hollywoodgrrl that the line you chose as your summary is the most powerful moment in the vid for me.

[mresundance]

Heh, I have realized that I like being in a middle space between aca/theory and the creative/emotional thing. Sometimes I create as an emotional outpouring; but more and more I create to solve intellectual and emotional problems which I can't grasp any other way. But I think a lot of creative people do that -- you included. Sometimes you just have a feeling, or something which bugs you, and you can't put your finger on it except to maybe vid it, or write it, and then it becomes clearer. Or not. :P

Here I got a real sense in THIS version of a human connection and longing between both parties to transcend their identities (even if briefly). Their social (political) selves betrayed their personal selves is how I read it.

Heeh, that is a groovy reading. I think I like it better than my own reading. I do think it's allegory, but it's really incomplete, because I'm bad at simplifying people that much. So some of the personal connections and motivations still come through, and I'm glad you saw that.

The more important question is, however: why must we be so far from VVC?

[hesychasm]

This was a really powerful vid, and well put together -- I thought the external clips and shots worked *very* well with the content from the movie. Like Morgan Dawn I thought the school photos were the most emotionally affecting -- the upward panning just gave this impression of the sheer numbers of people affected, and the fact that this has reverberated through generations.

Thank you also for providing notes about your thoughts and intent behind the vid, and for hosting a really thoughtful discussion about it.

[mresundance]

Oh thank you for watching, for leaving the detailed comment, and contributing to the discussion. :)

I have nothing to add except I am very happy that your found it powerful and well put together, and found some of the external source emotionally involving.

[vonniek]

I found this deeply affecting. Interestingly enough, there was a Stargate:Atantis vid in the premieres, "Masters of War," which also dealt with colonialism (I can't remember whether you were at VVC but if you weren't, that vid is here). A good compare-and-contrast discussion fodder. :)

The love story at the beginning of the vid is portrayed with such beautiful lyricism, it's tough not to feel drawn to it while recognizing all the problematic aspects of that relationship. John Smith meant well, but that doesn't matter, does it? The Europeans come, full of their vaunted adventurous spirit, and they stomp around, marvelling in wonder and thrilling discovery, unaware or uncaring of the havoc they wreak. I was reading someone's con report yesterday and he/she said this about your vid (I wish I wrote down who did, because it struck me as very astute). This love affair between John Smith and Pocahontas -- how for him, it was bittersweet but for her, it was catastrophic.

Thanks for putting so much thoughts and struggles into this vid. It's very much appreciated.

[mresundance]

Oh man, I wasn't at VVC this year, unfortunately, so thanks for the link. That vid was really riveting and powerful, though I am only vaguely aware of SGA canon.

And thanks for the thoughtful and detailed comment. I have nothing to add except it's a little overwhelming to have people be so supportive of this project in general. I thought it might be just the opposite, but I guess it's just proof that VVC is kinda awesome. :)

Thank you again!

[futuransky]

This vid blew me away at VVC, as you know from Twitter! I don't know the source, but it just felt like the underlying counternarrative to all the stories fandom tends to celebrate––the heroic Americans, the fighters, the colonizers of space. And I often love those stories –– but watching your vid (after many many Avengers vids) made me think about how all these American stories are transformative works of the genocidal encounter you are restaging here.

Post-con, I have some more complicated thoughts to work out, spiralling from the vid, and I really must see the film to understand how much you are working with and how much against it. I did wonder whether you had in mind the contrasting colonial origin myths of Pocahontas and Malinche, a girl's romance vs a woman's betrayal...

I find the moments of romance, of the white man's power over the young Native woman's body, the weight of history under the tenderness to be almost unbearable; with the shift at "peel off all my skin" I felt a change in her perspective to include her whole culture and its losses, and that was when the vid really overpowered me.

Also I am thinking about the urge to remix historical tragedy in the context of the argument made by this great piece by a Native scholar: The Water Keeps Flowing by Elizabeth Turgeon.

[mresundance]

Apropos icon is apropos!

This vid blew me away at VVC, as you know from Twitter! I don't know the source, but it just felt like the underlying counternarrative to all the stories fandom tends to celebrate––the heroic Americans, the fighters, the colonizers of space. And I often love those stories –– but watching your vid (after many many Avengers vids) made me think about how all these American stories are transformative works of the genocidal encounter you are restaging here.

Yeaaah, I can see how that works, however unintentionally simply because I had no control over the other vids at the con this year. :) But I think it's a reflection, certainly, of larger cultural issues in the US and Europe to some extent: how we frequently re-write the narrative of the glorious conquerors.

I love the Avengers, but call me cynical when they have to make Steve stick up for the Christian God in the movie. I know it's in character, but really, marrying Americanism/American patriotism to Christian religious fervor makes my skin crawl, because it's that exact same fervor which was used to justify colonizing and massacring indigenous people in this country.

a girl's romance vs a woman's betrayal...

Hm, yes, there is much more of that in the film, I think, but the betrayal aspect I think is there. It has to be.

I find the moments of romance, of the white man's power over the young Native woman's body, the weight of history under the tenderness to be almost unbearable

Oh wow, that was, in some part, what I was shooting for and I'm really humbled? slightly baffled? overwhelmed (that's the word) that it seems to have worked.

I read that article this afternoon and I really, really, really fucking loved it. Thanks for linking it! Because Turgeon is right. And it's really the worst kind of escapism, IMHO, to use speculative fiction or science fiction in such a way -- to as a further tool of white man's guilt, or an effort at redemption for something which . . . there is no redemption for. There is nothing we can do about it. Horrible as it is, it is done. Real life doesn't offer reset buttons and while the job of spec fic is to expand our ideas of what reality is or can be, still. It just feels like a crime to use the genre (or fiction in general) in such a way, when spec fic can offer us so many opportunities to honestly examine big questions, rather than falling back into . . . the same ol' same ol'.

Thanks for the super detailed comment. :D Would you like me to email you a draft of the longparts version of the notes?? It's a bit rambly, and not scholarly, and 2,300 words, but it gives more details if you have time and are interested.

[chaila]

Holy shit wow (<-- I thought you were entitled to my first response, which was exactly that!) I was saving this until I had time to really watch it, and it's really kind of amazingly done. I haven't seen the source so I don't know if it portrays the tragedy as tragedy on a grand scale, on a genocidal scale, as emphatically as you do, and not as the tragedy that they simply couldn't be together; he lost her, but she and her entire race lost everything (your use of external source makes me...suspect it doesn't, but perhaps this is unfair). As everyone has already said, the shift in focus on the lines "I felt the Lord begin to peel off all my skin" and everything after was really powerful and a lot sharper than I might have expected. The scrubbing and the lacing (and this section together with the ending shots with Pocahontas in full English dress, juxtaposed with those shots by the fire, make me think there's a ton going on here with the sexualization of "exotic" Native female bodies too?). Your use of external source was really effective to widen the perspective, to show the enormity of what was stolen. I will have to read your notes as well because there's a lot of stuff worth unpacking. Just, excellent vidding here.

[mresundance]

I think the film hints at the tragedy on a grand scale, but it is something which is in the future and we only get a glimpse of it in the film. So no, it was hinted at.

I still would have used external source, especially the woodcuts and the like though, because the number of artistic depictions of Native Americans getting slaughtered by Europeans which are contemporary to the time are . . . disturbing. But it makes it harder to argue with the reality of genocide when the artwork is often contemporary, ie, the colonizers too celebratory snapshots of their "good work" (uuuuuuuuuugh).

I basically threw down some of the parts you mentioned first and built the vid towards that on some levels, to make that moment coherent and emotionally involving. So yay! I think it worked. :)

with those shots by the fire, make me think there's a ton going on here with the sexualization of "exotic" Native female bodies too?

Yes, it is possible. I hadn't thought of that directly, I'll admit, when I was making the vid, but it is one way to look at some of the way her body is regarded in the vid. I more or less wanted to equate it with the landscape and the way Europeans saw the land and the Native Americans similarly -- something wild, untamed, innocent even, which required "civilizing" on some level. But sexualizing her is definitely a component of the whole equation.

As for the fire . . . that part was just a recollection of an earlier time for the characters, a more primordial time in their relationship, perhaps, when things had not yet gone to crap. (Hence the fire. A little light in increasing darkness?)

Your use of external source was really effective to widen the perspective, to show the enormity of what was stolen. I will have to read your notes as well because there's a lot of stuff worth unpacking. Just, excellent vidding here.

Ahhhh, cool. I can send you the PDF file of the notshortparts notes if you like, but I'm sure it's a) riddled with typos and it's definitely b) 2,300 words of my ramblange. But if you want it tell me where I can send the link.

And thank you very much for the detailed comment here.

[jetpack_monkey]

Man, you really went for the *pain* here. Such a shameful history made more bitter in a sort of mournful anger.

Exemplary work that is hard to watch, but watched it must be.

[mresundance]

I just wanted to be done with all the myths about colonialism and go for a sucker punch on what it actually was and is. So glad it worked, even if it's painful!

Thank you. :)

[rhiannonhero]

This was astounding. The end moment, as she walks away, the damage done...wow. Beautifully realized vid. Thank you.

[mresundance]

Thanks for watching and commenting. Glad it had an impact for you!

[goodbyebird]

Very impressive and thought provoking vid. Thank you for sharing.

[mresundance]

Sorry I missed this comment earlier! Thanks for stopping by to watch and comment.

[shallowness]

This is a really powerful vid.

[mresundance]

Thank you. I'm glad you found it powerful.

[obsessive24]

Finally got around to doing my VVC feedback, and I'm going to be honest here: I really enjoyed the vid up to the incorporation of external images. Personally I felt that the source from the film itself were sufficiently powerful to carry the same weight as the external images did, so the external source at times felt quite forced to me, almost with the sense that you as vidder is starting to dominate over the vid itself, if that makes sense. I suspect some of this is cultural disconnect - I have some knowledge, but it's not the same as having grown up in the culture and being immersed in the histories and the narratives - but it's my 2 cents for what it's worth. :) I think it's a beautifully put together vid, and the coda is particularly striking. It's a minority opinion to be sure, but I would have liked to see it as a "clean" TNW vid, without the external source. I think it would have been a quieter vid, but probably just as powerful.

[mresundance]

Thanks for stopping by to comment, but I'll be honest too: the point of this vid was not to be subtle, nor quiet.

And it would have been just as powerful, because it would not have been in people's face so much. Your suggestion would have had it's time and place, but not for this vid. Because your suggestion probably would have meant that people could more easily put the vid aside and dismiss the larger ramifications. It would have been much easier for people to walk away and deny larger cultural responsibility for genocide, because it was just a vid which focused on the film, rather than the bigger picture.

The point of the vid was to put in people's face to such an extent that they would be bothered by it, and could not dismiss or deny it. That it would override our general capacity for denial and denying responsibility.

Based on what I heard, it did its job.

Usually I would go with a more subtle approach, but this vid was not about that, and it was not the appropriate way, for me, to build this vid.

So respectfully, I will disagree. The point of the vid was to be loud and clear in its message, not subtle.

[futuransky]

Hi! I am writing at extraordinarily short notice to let you now that I am planning to screen this vid at the WisCon vid party... tonight! Because I think the audience here will be as utterly blown away by it as I was. Um. Please let me know ASAP if this is not okay?

[mresundance]

It's cool! Do it and enjoy!