Come and See · Nov 13, 11:13 AM

Nick was in town playing a show at the Parkside Lounge, where I met Wez who told me about Speakeasy Cinema which is presented by Collective Unconsciousness and Matt Kohn. The rules are that a person involved in the film industry presents his or her favorite/least favorite/interesting/confusing film to an audience who has no idea what film will be played until they lift the curtain. Last night Ian Olds presented, Come and See, a Russian film that takes place in 1943 and portrays a young Russian Jew in the midst of the SS coming to wreck shop in and around his village. This is now my favorite war film.
There’s a part at the end when, after the German soldiers round up and kill every Russian in a small town, then afterwards the Russian army catches this troop. While the German leader is denying who he is and his accountability in the massacre, one proud German stands up and says, in Russian, that there are certain races of people that don’t deserve to exist. This was a powerful statement because I have been thinking a lot lately about the degree to which a person believes what he or she says. Sometimes I say ridiculous stuff (I try to reserve this for family and friends) because I need to hear it being said, to sort of try it out to see if I do believe it or not. That wasn’t (totally) the point of what this German soldier was saying though. The way he said it made me think about someone I recently heard say that he’s glad he will no longer be working with talent. The context of this statement is that the person who was working for a talent agent who represented actors got a new job where he would be raising financing for independent features. Did he mean what he said or did he hear a jaded, veteran agent speak these words and then his non-jaded but wanting to fit in self, repeated them? Did this young German soldier really believe that certain races of people don’t deserve to exist? Maybe yes, maybe no. Did this guy really think that actors are so terrible (compared to financiers…I don’t know)? Maybe yes, maybe no. This idea brought the film from a distant Russia to NYC, November 12, 2007. Who is thinking for him or herself? Who should we listen to?
There will always be people who buy that a race of people doesn’t deserve to exist because someone with an agenda or someone who is ignorant told them so. There will always be people who buy that you have to wear certain boots, hang at certain spots, and associate with certain people to be accepted in a particular world (and they’re right, you do have to do certain things to be accepted in certain circles). The funny thing is that the people who have told you that this is the way to think and live don’t take notice of you, and if for some reason the person commanding the army or the presidents of two major clothing companies who decide to hold off on making silk the material of the season until next season because one has found a cut rate distributor for next season, happen to catch a glimpse of someone outside their circle, he or she would probably turn away and move on. But why get down on the people who persecute others, no matter the level at which he or she is doing it? Maybe they’ve got nothing against you personally; you don’t even register on their radar. Who and what do you care about? Why? Come and See shows that you can be great despite the inherent opposition.

Ian is currently making a documentary in Afghanistan. Here he is talking about the live rounds of ammo they used in Come and See as well as the real slaughter of a cow.

— Albin

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