0:00:08.353,0:00:10.910
Wondering if we could just, like, get, like-[br]You want to get it on the wall?

0:00:10.910,0:00:13.250
Yeah, just a couple of strips on the wall.

0:00:13.250,0:00:18.731
Growing up between two cultures and two languages[br]allowed me to get some distance from them.

0:00:20.859,0:00:23.850
I feel authentic in one particular milieu,

0:00:23.850,0:00:27.757
but I switch milieu,[br]and I feel just as authentic in that other place.

0:00:28.279,0:00:31.570
And what is that thing that we call identity about?

0:00:31.570,0:00:32.570
Action.

0:00:32.570,0:00:35.000
At a very young age there was an awareness

0:00:35.000,0:00:39.150
of how much identity is in fact a performance,[br]a kind of construction,

0:00:39.150,0:00:44.520
and how much narratives underpin our societies[br]and our cultures.

0:00:44.520,0:00:46.410
Being able to shift from one place to another

0:00:46.410,0:00:51.678
also puts a kind of a focus on the self[br]and this performance of authenticity.

0:00:54.070,0:00:57.182
These are things that bubble around the edges[br]of my work.

0:00:58.043,0:01:01.180
Where it becomes interesting[br]is how to explore that dimension

0:01:01.180,0:01:04.880
without writing a political treatise,[br]or a piece of journalism,

0:01:04.880,0:01:07.950
but rather through understanding that this[br]is implicated

0:01:07.950,0:01:09.708
in personal relationships.

0:01:11.310,0:01:13.339
This is a subject that I keep coming back to.

0:01:14.080,0:01:15.000
(knocking on door)

0:01:26.650,0:01:27.454
(door slams)

0:01:30.897,0:01:31.863
Everything okay?

0:01:32.317,0:01:32.876
Yeah.

0:01:34.810,0:01:35.310
Yeah.

0:01:37.798,0:01:38.580
I'm okay.

0:01:39.082,0:01:42.670
OMER: when I find my subjects,[br]the process involves a lot of doubt about

0:01:42.670,0:01:43.670
ethical dimension

0:01:43.670,0:01:47.700
of what I'm doing,[br]vis-a-vis someone else's story, someone else's life.

0:01:48.031,0:01:48.816
These guys have to be here?

0:01:48.816,0:01:50.349
I didn't realize you'd be filming.

0:01:53.171,0:01:56.082
INTERVIEWER: We can stop if you're uncomfortable.

0:01:57.350,0:01:59.789
The kind of space I create to throw those[br]doubts into

0:01:59.789,0:02:04.189
and shut them away is creating this[br]kind of doppelganger art,

0:02:04.189,0:02:10.000
this sort of double,[br]who becomes the target for those issues.

0:02:10.660,0:02:13.995
What's the difference between you,[br]and someone who sits in an airplane?

0:02:14.857,0:02:17.730
There's no difference between us.

0:02:17.730,0:02:18.730
We do the same job.

0:02:18.730,0:02:20.000
INTERVIEWER: But you're not a real pilot.

0:02:20.940,0:02:21.581
So what?

0:02:21.581,0:02:22.581
You're not a real journalist.

0:02:22.940,0:02:24.670
OMER: All those kinds of roles of someone

0:02:24.670,0:02:30.198
who is listening while at the same time[br]ostensibly forming judgments.

0:02:30.334,0:02:31.421
INTERVIEWER: You sure you're okay?

0:02:31.923,0:02:34.770
OMER: Allow me to externalize doubts,

0:02:34.770,0:02:41.525
and to gain a little bit of distance[br]from a subject that might be very dry or very personal.

0:02:42.310,0:02:48.708
It creates a conversation about[br]the right to take someone's story and change it.

0:02:49.110,0:02:50.110
You don't like it?

0:02:51.353,0:02:52.730
Why don't you ask me a better question?

0:02:53.782,0:02:55.730
OMER: This project is triggered by

0:02:55.730,0:03:00.383
a conversation with someone[br]who is working in the drone program.

0:03:02.655,0:03:06.190
Drones are these unmanned aircraft[br]that are controlled remotely.

0:03:07.099,0:03:11.372
There is a pilot who controls the movement[br]of the aircraft.

0:03:11.731,0:03:15.451
The other person is responsible for all the optics.

0:03:18.966,0:03:20.398
SENSOR OPERATOR: 5,000 Feet's the best.

0:03:21.379,0:03:23.230
You're a lot more sitting at 5,000 feet.

0:03:23.732,0:03:28.250
I can tell you what type of shoes you're wearing[br]from a mile away.

0:03:28.920,0:03:30.746
We have the IR-infrared,

0:03:31.129,0:03:35.670
which we can switch to automatically,[br]and that'll pick up any heat signatures or

0:03:35.670,0:03:36.819
cold signatures.

0:03:38.015,0:03:39.760
I mean, if someone sits down,

0:03:39.760,0:03:42.890
let's say, on a cold surface for a while and[br]then gets up,

0:03:42.890,0:03:44.817
you'll still see the heat from the person.

0:03:45.965,0:03:50.060
It kind of looks like a white blossom,[br]just shining up in heaven.

0:03:50.730,0:03:51.839
It's quite beautiful.

0:03:53.871,0:03:56.280
I mean, heck, if you see somebody

0:03:56.280,0:03:58.313
light up a cigarette on that,[br]that's a huge beacon.

0:03:59.700,0:04:02.483
You're just on a preset path[br]flying a circular orbit,

0:04:03.440,0:04:07.079
watching them as they're smoking[br]from about two to three miles away.

0:04:08.657,0:04:14.160
And the computer will figure out the trajectory,[br]the distance, and the speed,

0:04:14.160,0:04:17.989
and come up with an estimated time[br]that it would take for the missile to impact.

0:04:19.830,0:04:24.161
The pilot will get all the clearances[br]that are necessary to fire.

0:04:25.000,0:04:28.754
He'll release the missile,[br]and I'll guide it in on to its target.

0:04:31.863,0:04:33.076
(knocking on door)

0:04:33.554,0:04:35.848
INTERVIEWER: Hey, what are you doing?

0:04:35.848,0:04:36.723
We're here.

0:04:41.147,0:04:42.147
Everything okay?

0:04:43.127,0:04:43.673
Yeah.

0:04:45.347,0:04:46.347
Yeah.

0:04:47.328,0:04:47.993
Everything's okay.

0:04:47.993,0:04:49.160
So what do you want to talk about?

0:04:50.428,0:04:51.706
INTERVIEWER: That's what I was going to ask you.

0:04:52.041,0:04:53.706
Man, I don't want to talk about anything.

0:04:56.671,0:04:57.911
You're the one paying, remember?

0:04:59.131,0:05:00.161
Not paying that much.

0:05:00.400,0:05:01.314
PILOT: You want to pay any more?

0:05:01.314,0:05:02.314
(bleep)

0:05:03.965,0:05:04.582
INTERVIEWER: You okay?

0:05:04.845,0:05:07.198
Oh, yes, it's just junk food.

0:05:27.694,0:05:33.510
The work offers a restaging of that conversation[br]and several flashbacks.

0:05:34.395,0:05:38.560
Then each flashback,[br]we eventually see a flying overhead shot of

0:05:38.560,0:05:39.295
a landscape.

0:05:39.821,0:05:42.081
That voice that accompanies that shot

0:05:42.320,0:05:47.780
is the real sensor operator's voice,[br]describing his real life and work.

0:05:49.669,0:05:55.039
The work tries to weave together[br]this person's recollections and his conversations,

0:05:55.039,0:06:01.330
reimagining that encounter several times over[br]as a kind of unresolved, repeating piece.

0:06:03.052,0:06:05.819
SENSOR OPERATOR: Usually I wouldn't get home[br]until 10:00 in the morning.

0:06:05.819,0:06:07.850
You jump in the shower,[br]get your breakfast.

0:06:07.850,0:06:12.442
Play some video games for, you know,[br]for four hours and then try to sleep.

0:06:13.949,0:06:16.740
I guess Predator is similar to playing a video game,

0:06:16.740,0:06:18.949
but playing the same video game four years straight,

0:06:18.949,0:06:20.370
every single day on the same level.

0:06:20.370,0:06:21.530
But then you have your moments

0:06:21.530,0:06:24.870
when there's a real emergency going on,[br]and that's just where stress comes into play.

0:06:24.870,0:06:25.960
How do I hit that truck,

0:06:25.960,0:06:28.167
and how far away should I put the missile[br]to get the truck

0:06:28.645,0:06:30.449
so that way I don't have any damage

0:06:30.449,0:06:34.516
to the surrounding buildings or to the people[br]or hurt anybody else's life that's around there?

0:06:35.229,0:06:37.500
And sometimes I make mistakes.

0:06:38.863,0:06:41.080
I mean, there is horror sides to working Predator.

0:06:41.080,0:06:42.196
You see a lot of death.

0:06:43.535,0:06:46.349
I mean, there came a point after, you know,

0:06:46.349,0:06:50.530
five years of doing this that[br]it's just I had to think about,

0:06:50.530,0:06:54.469
wow, there's so much loss of life[br]that was a direct result of me.

0:06:56.119,0:06:57.959
I mean, there was a lot of personal stuff[br]I had to go through,

0:06:57.959,0:07:02.307
a lot of chaplains I had to talk to,[br]and a lot of people look like,

0:07:02.307,0:07:04.996
"How can you have PTSD[br]"if you weren't actively in a war zone?"

0:07:04.996,0:07:09.211
Well, technically speaking,[br]every single day I was active in a war zone.

0:07:09.379,0:07:11.410
I mean I may not have been personally at harm,

0:07:11.410,0:07:13.381
but I was directly affecting people's lives[br]over there

0:07:13.381,0:07:14.421
every single day.

0:07:15.330,0:07:17.661
You know, it's not like a video game.

0:07:19.120,0:07:20.539
I can't switch it off.

0:07:21.185,0:07:22.233
It's always there.

0:07:24.289,0:07:27.639
I'd very much rather think about[br]the work in terms of portraiture.

0:07:27.639,0:07:30.160
We know that somebody who's painting a portrait

0:07:30.160,0:07:35.819
is inevitably going to use a particular style[br]in order to represent the subject.

0:07:35.819,0:07:40.280
What I do in a sense[br]very often are portraits of, in this case,

0:07:40.280,0:07:45.070
the drone sensor operator or laborers in sex industry,

0:07:45.070,0:07:46.840
but because they are portraits,

0:07:46.840,0:07:51.849
there is somebody who's telling their story[br]and telling their stories are increasingly

0:07:51.849,0:07:52.849
interfering

0:07:52.849,0:07:58.234
with a more passive and fluid reception[br]of who these people are and what they do.

0:07:58.834,0:08:02.599
So Julia, what's coming up then[br]after the dogs are taken care of?

0:08:02.599,0:08:03.599
What do you do?

0:08:03.599,0:08:05.900
I'm going to make my breakfast shake, run my bath.

0:08:05.900,0:08:07.220
OMER: The structure of this project

0:08:07.220,0:08:10.470
is literally showing a day in the life of workers

0:08:10.470,0:08:13.325
in the adult film industry.

0:08:14.903,0:08:20.164
I wanted to find a way to connect to a company[br]and to film them filming their film.

0:08:21.982,0:08:25.979
At that point I started to write vignettes[br]that I would combine with this,

0:08:25.979,0:08:30.099
so there's a documentary component to it,[br]and a fictional component of course.

0:08:33.399,0:08:35.800
I wanted to show them simultaneously,

0:08:35.800,0:08:37.669
because I wanted to show how their separate lives

0:08:37.669,0:08:40.760
at some point converge because of their work.

0:08:41.430,0:08:45.158
The four screens represent an attempt[br]to articulate that spatially.

0:08:48.935,0:08:51.130
The work continuously braids

0:08:51.130,0:08:53.980
stories and individuals together,[br]and it pulls them apart,

0:08:53.980,0:08:56.570
and there is kind of a structural dynamic there

0:08:56.570,0:08:59.100
that's about movement and repetition,

0:08:59.100,0:09:00.829
and the potential for seeing beauty in something

0:09:00.829,0:09:04.420
which is as pedestrian as[br]four people driving to work in L.A.

0:09:04.420,0:09:05.763
I mean, how boring is that?

0:09:07.270,0:09:14.529
(music plays over radio)

0:09:16.968,0:09:19.703
I rely on fiction very much for my work.

0:09:20.468,0:09:24.713
Everything That Rises Must Converge[br]is the title of Flannery O'Connor's short story,

0:09:24.713,0:09:28.160
which served as an inspiration[br]for what I was thinking at the time

0:09:28.160,0:09:30.600
and how I was going to approach a particular subject.

0:09:33.374,0:09:34.699
Why I got in the business?

0:09:36.397,0:09:37.300
It's my parents.

0:09:37.970,0:09:38.610
INTERVIEWER: Your parents?

0:09:39.110,0:09:39.610
Yeah.

0:09:40.447,0:09:42.220
INTERVIEWER: Were they also adult film directors?

0:09:42.603,0:09:43.220
No.

0:09:44.368,0:09:45.646
My parents were hippies.

0:09:45.646,0:09:47.556
INTERVIEWER: Oh, so were mine.

0:09:48.010,0:09:49.010
No.

0:09:49.010,0:09:50.288
No, no, no, no.

0:09:50.910,0:09:52.148
My parents were the real deal.

0:09:52.770,0:09:53.894
INTERVIEWER: Mine were too.

0:09:54.324,0:09:57.335
No, dude, it's written all over you.

0:09:57.933,0:10:02.111
Your parents were your typical fair-weather, happy,

0:10:02.278,0:10:03.605
non-threatening flower children.

0:10:03.605,0:10:07.970
OMER: There's one character whose politics[br]is correct on the one hand,

0:10:07.970,0:10:10.470
but he's completely resentful towards his mother,

0:10:10.470,0:10:12.484
who represents this sort of other in the story.

0:10:14.589,0:10:17.648
Reagan democrats, am I right?

0:10:17.959,0:10:18.959
More or less.

0:10:19.270,0:10:21.750
They were hippies,[br]and they lived in a commune,

0:10:21.750,0:10:24.769
and in this commune they were very busy chipping away

0:10:24.769,0:10:29.779
at the hierarchies and the kind of power[br]that underpins society at that time.

0:10:29.779,0:10:31.750
Part of that is sex.

0:10:31.750,0:10:35.850
Part of that is family and its relation to sex,

0:10:35.850,0:10:40.240
so he describes a past where 38 people[br]are sleeping and working together.

0:10:40.790,0:10:43.000
Sex is something that you do with everyone.

0:10:43.000,0:10:44.665
It's your obligation to do it.

0:10:44.665,0:10:46.760
It becomes in a sense, work,

0:10:46.760,0:10:52.038
something that defines that particular society[br]and that children are also involved in this.

0:10:52.349,0:10:54.999
This is something that this character has[br]been through.

0:10:55.190,0:10:59.590
This is the particular conundrum[br]that that person is stuck in and that he represents.

0:10:59.590,0:11:01.116
DIRECTOR: Okay, sexy time, ready?

0:11:01.116,0:11:02.812
This one's got to be the one for all the marbles.

0:11:02.812,0:11:04.490
I feel it in my loins.

0:11:04.490,0:11:05.281
Here we go.

0:11:05.281,0:11:06.066
Please hold.

0:11:06.066,0:11:08.269
And sexy time,[br]and hold on please.

0:11:08.269,0:11:10.010
OMER: When they're acting in front of the camera

0:11:10.010,0:11:13.450
for their film,[br]they're in a genre.

0:11:13.450,0:11:14.450
They're mannered.

0:11:14.450,0:11:15.128
DIRECTOR: Here we go.

0:11:15.128,0:11:15.701
Action.

0:11:16.080,0:11:17.752
He turned out to be 70 years old.

0:11:17.752,0:11:18.752
What?

0:11:18.752,0:11:22.101
Yeah, his picture was from 1986.

0:11:22.640,0:11:24.119
This woman is a goddess.

0:11:24.119,0:11:30.030
She needs to be appreciated,[br]like a fine wine, aged to perfection.

0:11:30.030,0:11:31.060
Just, just.

0:11:31.060,0:11:35.831
OMER: It's a very stylized kind of performance,[br]using a particular language for a particular

0:11:35.831,0:11:36.859
audience.

0:11:37.840,0:11:41.490
They were in a sense the most banal,[br]and that's what I was after.

0:11:41.490,0:11:43.510
–Yeah, but you're just a-

0:11:43.510,0:11:47.209
OMER: It's very, very postmodern in a sense.

0:11:47.209,0:11:48.730
They're not bad actors.

0:11:48.730,0:11:51.060
They're just playing in a particular way.

0:11:51.060,0:11:53.720
It's genre,[br]and I like using these different genres

0:11:53.720,0:11:57.615
and sort of unpacking their languages[br]and playing around with that.

0:11:57.950,0:11:59.298
DIRECTOR: As soon as she starts talking,[br]it's going to move.

0:11:59.298,0:12:00.228
OMER: Okay.

0:12:00.587,0:12:01.087
Tom, do you mind if-

0:12:01.087,0:12:02.416
The first page?

0:12:02.416,0:12:03.822
"Bueno todo estas?"

0:12:03.822,0:12:04.689
Yes, please.

0:12:04.689,0:12:05.689
Okay.

0:12:06.722,0:12:11.013
(actress speaking Spanish)

0:12:14.003,0:12:17.903
This character pulls you into another location,[br]which is a studio.

0:12:18.070,0:12:20.630
She's your guide into this world.

0:12:20.630,0:12:23.970
She reappears when you're lost or bored.

0:12:23.970,0:12:28.029
Her reading of the script and interaction[br]with a director

0:12:28.029,0:12:30.632
constitutes a distant and critical element,

0:12:31.039,0:12:33.970
this other narrative regarding crossing the border

0:12:33.970,0:12:35.199
and migration.

0:12:35.199,0:12:37.267
(actress speaks Spanish)

0:12:37.920,0:12:39.730
But she really said all this stuff.

0:12:39.730,0:12:41.330
Everything stands on something else.

0:12:41.330,0:12:43.250
Everything stands for something else.

0:12:43.250,0:12:44.437
Yes, she did.

0:12:44.437,0:12:45.933
Of course, there's some editing.

0:12:47.225,0:12:50.755
And all that stuff about licking,[br]you know, the wet dog at the beginning,

0:12:50.755,0:12:55.181
and then the wind licking,[br]and cold, bitter bursts.

0:12:55.874,0:12:58.040
Wait, where does it say this?

0:12:58.040,0:13:00.269
When they're on the truck on the way to the border.

0:13:00.269,0:13:01.737
But it's biting, not licking.

0:13:02.957,0:13:03.613
Right.

0:13:05.120,0:13:06.600
It's just a way to stop the flow.

0:13:06.600,0:13:08.841
You know, it makes you think twice[br]about what you're hearing.

0:13:10.300,0:13:14.670
There will be a man and his wife[br]who are undergoing a particular crisis,

0:13:14.670,0:13:17.634
and perhaps a moment of transformation,[br]perhaps not.

0:13:17.634,0:13:19.381
Okay, action.

0:13:20.720,0:13:23.420
These two brothers I told you about,[br]the ones I keep seeing.

0:13:23.755,0:13:26.304
JOSH: You mean brothers, like two Black dudes, or, like?

0:13:27.069,0:13:28.481
They were white, Josh.

0:13:29.007,0:13:30.475
Biological brothers.

0:13:31.360,0:13:32.490
Maybe twins.

0:13:32.490,0:13:34.779
They looked really similar.

0:13:35.449,0:13:36.464
What they find?

0:13:36.464,0:13:37.680
An egg.

0:13:40.000,0:13:41.031
What kind of egg?

0:13:41.031,0:13:42.820
I mean, I mean, like a chicken egg?

0:13:42.820,0:13:44.790
OMERFAST: In order to resolve the crisis,

0:13:44.790,0:13:48.410
they need to produce something,[br]and so they don't produce a child.

0:13:48.410,0:13:51.920
They produce a story,[br]and that story produces an egg.

0:13:51.920,0:13:54.324
This was, like, perfectly oval.

0:13:54.324,0:13:56.396
And it looked old.

0:13:56.420,0:13:57.420
Trust me, Josh.

0:13:57.420,0:13:58.420
It was an egg.

0:13:58.420,0:14:00.217
Plus, they handled it carefully.

0:14:01.102,0:14:05.470
OMER: People always talk about my work[br]in terms of the real and the fictional,

0:14:05.470,0:14:11.290
and that is not interesting to me at all,[br]these notions of truth and the real

0:14:11.290,0:14:16.296
are hugely important for us[br]when we're talking in terms of a process of justice.

0:14:17.374,0:14:18.219
I'm not a journalist.

0:14:18.219,0:14:21.420
My work does not exist in the court of law.

0:14:21.420,0:14:23.050
It exists in the space of art,

0:14:23.050,0:14:27.762
and the space of art allows[br]for ambiguities and for contradictions.

0:14:30.680,0:14:34.040
This whole fetishized notion of truth and ideal,

0:14:34.040,0:14:40.352
which is a lovely thing to aspire to,[br]is in a sense the plaything in the work.

0:14:44.250,0:14:47.740
To think about the work in terms of truth[br]and lies

0:14:47.740,0:14:49.349
or truth and fiction is to kill the work.

0:14:49.349,0:14:51.196
(knocking on door)

0:14:57.772,0:14:59.414
What, what are you doing?