The Brig
- The Brig, 1964
Jonas Mekas
USA 1964
16mm, b/w, sound, 64min.
In 1964 Jonas Mekas is an audience member at a performance of the play „The Brig“, written by K.H. Brown, staged by the „Living Theatre“ of Judith and Julian Beck. „The Brig“ is a barrack used for detention in Central Japan in 1957. In this very confined space, US-American military prisoners are being tortured with strict, senseless rules of behaviour, the goal being “to completely humiliate the prisoners both physically and psychologically, to turn them into pure reaction-machines“ (Frankfurter Rundschau, 27.11.1964)
It was the night of the last performance, the Living Theatre was to leave the space the next day. But Jonas Mekas was so impressed by the play, that the collective decision was made to do a filmshot spontaneously and in greatest haste:
„The next day I brought the film and my equipment. The theater had already been locked by its owner. We brought the ensemble and the material inside through a coal-hatch, late in the evening...
There was no time for testing either light or equipment... I had three 16mm Auricon cameras with 10-minute magazines... Every ten minutes, the performance was stopped to switch the cameras...
I was inside the prison, among the actors, constantly getting in their way, obstructing their usual movements and the course of the performance. My intention was not to record the whole play, but to capture as much of the action as my „reporter's“ eyes could see... I had to dodge the actors; I had to pay attention to the action and to what was being said; I had to make instant decisions about my movements and those of the camera; I knew there was no time for thoughts and considerations; there was no time for re-shoting, mistakes were out of the question: I was a circus-artiste on the wire, way up in the air...
One of the ideas I was pursiuing was the application of the so-called cinéma-vérité-technique to a staged event. I wanted to undermine some of the myths and mystifications of cinéma-vérité: what is truth in film?“ (Jonas Mekas)
