1 00:00:08,353 --> 00:00:10,910 Wondering if we could just, like, get, like- You want to get it on the wall? 2 00:00:10,910 --> 00:00:13,250 Yeah, just a couple of strips on the wall. 3 00:00:13,250 --> 00:00:18,731 Growing up between two cultures and two languages allowed me to get some distance from them. 4 00:00:20,859 --> 00:00:23,850 I feel authentic in one particular milieu, 5 00:00:23,850 --> 00:00:27,757 but I switch milieu, and I feel just as authentic in that other place. 6 00:00:28,279 --> 00:00:31,570 And what is that thing that we call identity about? 7 00:00:31,570 --> 00:00:32,570 Action. 8 00:00:32,570 --> 00:00:35,000 At a very young age there was an awareness 9 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:39,150 of how much identity is in fact a performance, a kind of construction, 10 00:00:39,150 --> 00:00:44,520 and how much narratives underpin our societies and our cultures. 11 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:46,410 Being able to shift from one place to another 12 00:00:46,410 --> 00:00:51,678 also puts a kind of a focus on the self and this performance of authenticity. 13 00:00:54,070 --> 00:00:57,182 These are things that bubble around the edges of my work. 14 00:00:58,043 --> 00:01:01,180 Where it becomes interesting is how to explore that dimension 15 00:01:01,180 --> 00:01:04,880 without writing a political treatise, or a piece of journalism, 16 00:01:04,880 --> 00:01:07,950 but rather through understanding that this is implicated 17 00:01:07,950 --> 00:01:09,708 in personal relationships. 18 00:01:11,310 --> 00:01:13,339 This is a subject that I keep coming back to. 19 00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:15,000 (knocking on door) 20 00:01:26,650 --> 00:01:27,454 (door slams) 21 00:01:30,897 --> 00:01:31,863 Everything okay? 22 00:01:32,317 --> 00:01:32,876 Yeah. 23 00:01:34,810 --> 00:01:35,310 Yeah. 24 00:01:37,798 --> 00:01:38,580 I'm okay. 25 00:01:39,082 --> 00:01:42,670 OMER: when I find my subjects, the process involves a lot of doubt about 26 00:01:42,670 --> 00:01:43,670 ethical dimension 27 00:01:43,670 --> 00:01:47,700 of what I'm doing, vis-a-vis someone else's story, someone else's life. 28 00:01:48,031 --> 00:01:48,816 These guys have to be here? 29 00:01:48,816 --> 00:01:50,349 I didn't realize you'd be filming. 30 00:01:53,171 --> 00:01:56,082 INTERVIEWER: We can stop if you're uncomfortable. 31 00:01:57,350 --> 00:01:59,789 The kind of space I create to throw those doubts into 32 00:01:59,789 --> 00:02:04,189 and shut them away is creating this kind of doppelganger art, 33 00:02:04,189 --> 00:02:10,000 this sort of double, who becomes the target for those issues. 34 00:02:10,660 --> 00:02:13,995 What's the difference between you, and someone who sits in an airplane? 35 00:02:14,857 --> 00:02:17,730 There's no difference between us. 36 00:02:17,730 --> 00:02:18,730 We do the same job. 37 00:02:18,730 --> 00:02:20,000 INTERVIEWER: But you're not a real pilot. 38 00:02:20,940 --> 00:02:21,581 So what? 39 00:02:21,581 --> 00:02:22,581 You're not a real journalist. 40 00:02:22,940 --> 00:02:24,670 OMER: All those kinds of roles of someone 41 00:02:24,670 --> 00:02:30,198 who is listening while at the same time ostensibly forming judgments. 42 00:02:30,334 --> 00:02:31,421 INTERVIEWER: You sure you're okay? 43 00:02:31,923 --> 00:02:34,770 OMER: Allow me to externalize doubts, 44 00:02:34,770 --> 00:02:41,525 and to gain a little bit of distance from a subject that might be very dry or very personal. 45 00:02:42,310 --> 00:02:48,708 It creates a conversation about the right to take someone's story and change it. 46 00:02:49,110 --> 00:02:50,110 You don't like it? 47 00:02:51,353 --> 00:02:52,730 Why don't you ask me a better question? 48 00:02:53,782 --> 00:02:55,730 OMER: This project is triggered by 49 00:02:55,730 --> 00:03:00,383 a conversation with someone who is working in the drone program. 50 00:03:02,655 --> 00:03:06,190 Drones are these unmanned aircraft that are controlled remotely. 51 00:03:07,099 --> 00:03:11,372 There is a pilot who controls the movement of the aircraft. 52 00:03:11,731 --> 00:03:15,451 The other person is responsible for all the optics. 53 00:03:18,966 --> 00:03:20,398 SENSOR OPERATOR: 5,000 Feet's the best. 54 00:03:21,379 --> 00:03:23,230 You're a lot more sitting at 5,000 feet. 55 00:03:23,732 --> 00:03:28,250 I can tell you what type of shoes you're wearing from a mile away. 56 00:03:28,920 --> 00:03:30,746 We have the IR-infrared, 57 00:03:31,129 --> 00:03:35,670 which we can switch to automatically, and that'll pick up any heat signatures or 58 00:03:35,670 --> 00:03:36,819 cold signatures. 59 00:03:38,015 --> 00:03:39,760 I mean, if someone sits down, 60 00:03:39,760 --> 00:03:42,890 let's say, on a cold surface for a while and then gets up, 61 00:03:42,890 --> 00:03:44,817 you'll still see the heat from the person. 62 00:03:45,965 --> 00:03:50,060 It kind of looks like a white blossom, just shining up in heaven. 63 00:03:50,730 --> 00:03:51,839 It's quite beautiful. 64 00:03:53,871 --> 00:03:56,280 I mean, heck, if you see somebody 65 00:03:56,280 --> 00:03:58,313 light up a cigarette on that, that's a huge beacon. 66 00:03:59,700 --> 00:04:02,483 You're just on a preset path flying a circular orbit, 67 00:04:03,440 --> 00:04:07,079 watching them as they're smoking from about two to three miles away. 68 00:04:08,657 --> 00:04:14,160 And the computer will figure out the trajectory, the distance, and the speed, 69 00:04:14,160 --> 00:04:17,989 and come up with an estimated time that it would take for the missile to impact. 70 00:04:19,830 --> 00:04:24,161 The pilot will get all the clearances that are necessary to fire. 71 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:28,754 He'll release the missile, and I'll guide it in on to its target. 72 00:04:31,863 --> 00:04:33,076 (knocking on door) 73 00:04:33,554 --> 00:04:35,848 INTERVIEWER: Hey, what are you doing? 74 00:04:35,848 --> 00:04:36,723 We're here. 75 00:04:41,147 --> 00:04:42,147 Everything okay? 76 00:04:43,127 --> 00:04:43,673 Yeah. 77 00:04:45,347 --> 00:04:46,347 Yeah. 78 00:04:47,328 --> 00:04:47,993 Everything's okay. 79 00:04:47,993 --> 00:04:49,160 So what do you want to talk about? 80 00:04:50,428 --> 00:04:51,706 INTERVIEWER: That's what I was going to ask you. 81 00:04:52,041 --> 00:04:53,706 Man, I don't want to talk about anything. 82 00:04:56,671 --> 00:04:57,911 You're the one paying, remember? 83 00:04:59,131 --> 00:05:00,161 Not paying that much. 84 00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:01,314 PILOT: You want to pay any more? 85 00:05:01,314 --> 00:05:02,314 (bleep) 86 00:05:03,965 --> 00:05:04,582 INTERVIEWER: You okay? 87 00:05:04,845 --> 00:05:07,198 Oh, yes, it's just junk food. 88 00:05:27,694 --> 00:05:33,510 The work offers a restaging of that conversation and several flashbacks. 89 00:05:34,395 --> 00:05:38,560 Then each flashback, we eventually see a flying overhead shot of 90 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:39,295 a landscape. 91 00:05:39,821 --> 00:05:42,081 That voice that accompanies that shot 92 00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:47,780 is the real sensor operator's voice, describing his real life and work. 93 00:05:49,669 --> 00:05:55,039 The work tries to weave together this person's recollections and his conversations, 94 00:05:55,039 --> 00:06:01,330 reimagining that encounter several times over as a kind of unresolved, repeating piece. 95 00:06:03,052 --> 00:06:05,819 SENSOR OPERATOR: Usually I wouldn't get home until 10:00 in the morning. 96 00:06:05,819 --> 00:06:07,850 You jump in the shower, get your breakfast. 97 00:06:07,850 --> 00:06:12,442 Play some video games for, you know, for four hours and then try to sleep. 98 00:06:13,949 --> 00:06:16,740 I guess Predator is similar to playing a video game, 99 00:06:16,740 --> 00:06:18,949 but playing the same video game four years straight, 100 00:06:18,949 --> 00:06:20,370 every single day on the same level. 101 00:06:20,370 --> 00:06:21,530 But then you have your moments 102 00:06:21,530 --> 00:06:24,870 when there's a real emergency going on, and that's just where stress comes into play. 103 00:06:24,870 --> 00:06:25,960 How do I hit that truck, 104 00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:28,167 and how far away should I put the missile to get the truck 105 00:06:28,645 --> 00:06:30,449 so that way I don't have any damage 106 00:06:30,449 --> 00:06:34,516 to the surrounding buildings or to the people or hurt anybody else's life that's around there? 107 00:06:35,229 --> 00:06:37,500 And sometimes I make mistakes. 108 00:06:38,863 --> 00:06:41,080 I mean, there is horror sides to working Predator. 109 00:06:41,080 --> 00:06:42,196 You see a lot of death. 110 00:06:43,535 --> 00:06:46,349 I mean, there came a point after, you know, 111 00:06:46,349 --> 00:06:50,530 five years of doing this that it's just I had to think about, 112 00:06:50,530 --> 00:06:54,469 wow, there's so much loss of life that was a direct result of me. 113 00:06:56,119 --> 00:06:57,959 I mean, there was a lot of personal stuff I had to go through, 114 00:06:57,959 --> 00:07:02,307 a lot of chaplains I had to talk to, and a lot of people look like, 115 00:07:02,307 --> 00:07:04,996 "How can you have PTSD "if you weren't actively in a war zone?" 116 00:07:04,996 --> 00:07:09,211 Well, technically speaking, every single day I was active in a war zone. 117 00:07:09,379 --> 00:07:11,410 I mean I may not have been personally at harm, 118 00:07:11,410 --> 00:07:13,381 but I was directly affecting people's lives over there 119 00:07:13,381 --> 00:07:14,421 every single day. 120 00:07:15,330 --> 00:07:17,661 You know, it's not like a video game. 121 00:07:19,120 --> 00:07:20,539 I can't switch it off. 122 00:07:21,185 --> 00:07:22,233 It's always there. 123 00:07:24,289 --> 00:07:27,639 I'd very much rather think about the work in terms of portraiture. 124 00:07:27,639 --> 00:07:30,160 We know that somebody who's painting a portrait 125 00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:35,819 is inevitably going to use a particular style in order to represent the subject. 126 00:07:35,819 --> 00:07:40,280 What I do in a sense very often are portraits of, in this case, 127 00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:45,070 the drone sensor operator or laborers in sex industry, 128 00:07:45,070 --> 00:07:46,840 but because they are portraits, 129 00:07:46,840 --> 00:07:51,849 there is somebody who's telling their story and telling their stories are increasingly 130 00:07:51,849 --> 00:07:52,849 interfering 131 00:07:52,849 --> 00:07:58,234 with a more passive and fluid reception of who these people are and what they do. 132 00:07:58,834 --> 00:08:02,599 So Julia, what's coming up then after the dogs are taken care of? 133 00:08:02,599 --> 00:08:03,599 What do you do? 134 00:08:03,599 --> 00:08:05,900 I'm going to make my breakfast shake, run my bath. 135 00:08:05,900 --> 00:08:07,220 OMER: The structure of this project 136 00:08:07,220 --> 00:08:10,470 is literally showing a day in the life of workers 137 00:08:10,470 --> 00:08:13,325 in the adult film industry. 138 00:08:14,903 --> 00:08:20,164 I wanted to find a way to connect to a company and to film them filming their film. 139 00:08:21,982 --> 00:08:25,979 At that point I started to write vignettes that I would combine with this, 140 00:08:25,979 --> 00:08:30,099 so there's a documentary component to it, and a fictional component of course. 141 00:08:33,399 --> 00:08:35,800 I wanted to show them simultaneously, 142 00:08:35,800 --> 00:08:37,669 because I wanted to show how their separate lives 143 00:08:37,669 --> 00:08:40,760 at some point converge because of their work. 144 00:08:41,430 --> 00:08:45,158 The four screens represent an attempt to articulate that spatially. 145 00:08:48,935 --> 00:08:51,130 The work continuously braids 146 00:08:51,130 --> 00:08:53,980 stories and individuals together, and it pulls them apart, 147 00:08:53,980 --> 00:08:56,570 and there is kind of a structural dynamic there 148 00:08:56,570 --> 00:08:59,100 that's about movement and repetition, 149 00:08:59,100 --> 00:09:00,829 and the potential for seeing beauty in something 150 00:09:00,829 --> 00:09:04,420 which is as pedestrian as four people driving to work in L.A. 151 00:09:04,420 --> 00:09:05,763 I mean, how boring is that? 152 00:09:07,270 --> 00:09:14,529 (music plays over radio) 153 00:09:16,968 --> 00:09:19,703 I rely on fiction very much for my work. 154 00:09:20,468 --> 00:09:24,713 Everything That Rises Must Converge is the title of Flannery O'Connor's short story, 155 00:09:24,713 --> 00:09:28,160 which served as an inspiration for what I was thinking at the time 156 00:09:28,160 --> 00:09:30,600 and how I was going to approach a particular subject. 157 00:09:33,374 --> 00:09:34,699 Why I got in the business? 158 00:09:36,397 --> 00:09:37,300 It's my parents. 159 00:09:37,970 --> 00:09:38,610 INTERVIEWER: Your parents? 160 00:09:39,110 --> 00:09:39,610 Yeah. 161 00:09:40,447 --> 00:09:42,220 INTERVIEWER: Were they also adult film directors? 162 00:09:42,603 --> 00:09:43,220 No. 163 00:09:44,368 --> 00:09:45,646 My parents were hippies. 164 00:09:45,646 --> 00:09:47,556 INTERVIEWER: Oh, so were mine. 165 00:09:48,010 --> 00:09:49,010 No. 166 00:09:49,010 --> 00:09:50,288 No, no, no, no. 167 00:09:50,910 --> 00:09:52,148 My parents were the real deal. 168 00:09:52,770 --> 00:09:53,894 INTERVIEWER: Mine were too. 169 00:09:54,324 --> 00:09:57,335 No, dude, it's written all over you. 170 00:09:57,933 --> 00:10:02,111 Your parents were your typical fair-weather, happy, 171 00:10:02,278 --> 00:10:03,605 non-threatening flower children. 172 00:10:03,605 --> 00:10:07,970 OMER: There's one character whose politics is correct on the one hand, 173 00:10:07,970 --> 00:10:10,470 but he's completely resentful towards his mother, 174 00:10:10,470 --> 00:10:12,484 who represents this sort of other in the story. 175 00:10:14,589 --> 00:10:17,648 Reagan democrats, am I right? 176 00:10:17,959 --> 00:10:18,959 More or less. 177 00:10:19,270 --> 00:10:21,750 They were hippies, and they lived in a commune, 178 00:10:21,750 --> 00:10:24,769 and in this commune they were very busy chipping away 179 00:10:24,769 --> 00:10:29,779 at the hierarchies and the kind of power that underpins society at that time. 180 00:10:29,779 --> 00:10:31,750 Part of that is sex. 181 00:10:31,750 --> 00:10:35,850 Part of that is family and its relation to sex, 182 00:10:35,850 --> 00:10:40,240 so he describes a past where 38 people are sleeping and working together. 183 00:10:40,790 --> 00:10:43,000 Sex is something that you do with everyone. 184 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:44,665 It's your obligation to do it. 185 00:10:44,665 --> 00:10:46,760 It becomes in a sense, work, 186 00:10:46,760 --> 00:10:52,038 something that defines that particular society and that children are also involved in this. 187 00:10:52,349 --> 00:10:54,999 This is something that this character has been through. 188 00:10:55,190 --> 00:10:59,590 This is the particular conundrum that that person is stuck in and that he represents. 189 00:10:59,590 --> 00:11:01,116 DIRECTOR: Okay, sexy time, ready? 190 00:11:01,116 --> 00:11:02,812 This one's got to be the one for all the marbles. 191 00:11:02,812 --> 00:11:04,490 I feel it in my loins. 192 00:11:04,490 --> 00:11:05,281 Here we go. 193 00:11:05,281 --> 00:11:06,066 Please hold. 194 00:11:06,066 --> 00:11:08,269 And sexy time, and hold on please. 195 00:11:08,269 --> 00:11:10,010 OMER: When they're acting in front of the camera 196 00:11:10,010 --> 00:11:13,450 for their film, they're in a genre. 197 00:11:13,450 --> 00:11:14,450 They're mannered. 198 00:11:14,450 --> 00:11:15,128 DIRECTOR: Here we go. 199 00:11:15,128 --> 00:11:15,701 Action. 200 00:11:16,080 --> 00:11:17,752 He turned out to be 70 years old. 201 00:11:17,752 --> 00:11:18,752 What? 202 00:11:18,752 --> 00:11:22,101 Yeah, his picture was from 1986. 203 00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:24,119 This woman is a goddess. 204 00:11:24,119 --> 00:11:30,030 She needs to be appreciated, like a fine wine, aged to perfection. 205 00:11:30,030 --> 00:11:31,060 Just, just. 206 00:11:31,060 --> 00:11:35,831 OMER: It's a very stylized kind of performance, using a particular language for a particular 207 00:11:35,831 --> 00:11:36,859 audience. 208 00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:41,490 They were in a sense the most banal, and that's what I was after. 209 00:11:41,490 --> 00:11:43,510 –Yeah, but you're just a- 210 00:11:43,510 --> 00:11:47,209 OMER: It's very, very postmodern in a sense. 211 00:11:47,209 --> 00:11:48,730 They're not bad actors. 212 00:11:48,730 --> 00:11:51,060 They're just playing in a particular way. 213 00:11:51,060 --> 00:11:53,720 It's genre, and I like using these different genres 214 00:11:53,720 --> 00:11:57,615 and sort of unpacking their languages and playing around with that. 215 00:11:57,950 --> 00:11:59,298 DIRECTOR: As soon as she starts talking, it's going to move. 216 00:11:59,298 --> 00:12:00,228 OMER: Okay. 217 00:12:00,587 --> 00:12:01,087 Tom, do you mind if- 218 00:12:01,087 --> 00:12:02,416 The first page? 219 00:12:02,416 --> 00:12:03,822 "Bueno todo estas?" 220 00:12:03,822 --> 00:12:04,689 Yes, please. 221 00:12:04,689 --> 00:12:05,689 Okay. 222 00:12:06,722 --> 00:12:11,013 (actress speaking Spanish) 223 00:12:14,003 --> 00:12:17,903 This character pulls you into another location, which is a studio. 224 00:12:18,070 --> 00:12:20,630 She's your guide into this world. 225 00:12:20,630 --> 00:12:23,970 She reappears when you're lost or bored. 226 00:12:23,970 --> 00:12:28,029 Her reading of the script and interaction with a director 227 00:12:28,029 --> 00:12:30,632 constitutes a distant and critical element, 228 00:12:31,039 --> 00:12:33,970 this other narrative regarding crossing the border 229 00:12:33,970 --> 00:12:35,199 and migration. 230 00:12:35,199 --> 00:12:37,267 (actress speaks Spanish) 231 00:12:37,920 --> 00:12:39,730 But she really said all this stuff. 232 00:12:39,730 --> 00:12:41,330 Everything stands on something else. 233 00:12:41,330 --> 00:12:43,250 Everything stands for something else. 234 00:12:43,250 --> 00:12:44,437 Yes, she did. 235 00:12:44,437 --> 00:12:45,933 Of course, there's some editing. 236 00:12:47,225 --> 00:12:50,755 And all that stuff about licking, you know, the wet dog at the beginning, 237 00:12:50,755 --> 00:12:55,181 and then the wind licking, and cold, bitter bursts. 238 00:12:55,874 --> 00:12:58,040 Wait, where does it say this? 239 00:12:58,040 --> 00:13:00,269 When they're on the truck on the way to the border. 240 00:13:00,269 --> 00:13:01,737 But it's biting, not licking. 241 00:13:02,957 --> 00:13:03,613 Right. 242 00:13:05,120 --> 00:13:06,600 It's just a way to stop the flow. 243 00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:08,841 You know, it makes you think twice about what you're hearing. 244 00:13:10,300 --> 00:13:14,670 There will be a man and his wife who are undergoing a particular crisis, 245 00:13:14,670 --> 00:13:17,634 and perhaps a moment of transformation, perhaps not. 246 00:13:17,634 --> 00:13:19,381 Okay, action. 247 00:13:20,720 --> 00:13:23,420 These two brothers I told you about, the ones I keep seeing. 248 00:13:23,755 --> 00:13:26,304 JOSH: You mean brothers, like two Black dudes, or, like? 249 00:13:27,069 --> 00:13:28,481 They were white, Josh. 250 00:13:29,007 --> 00:13:30,475 Biological brothers. 251 00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:32,490 Maybe twins. 252 00:13:32,490 --> 00:13:34,779 They looked really similar. 253 00:13:35,449 --> 00:13:36,464 What they find? 254 00:13:36,464 --> 00:13:37,680 An egg. 255 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:41,031 What kind of egg? 256 00:13:41,031 --> 00:13:42,820 I mean, I mean, like a chicken egg? 257 00:13:42,820 --> 00:13:44,790 OMERFAST: In order to resolve the crisis, 258 00:13:44,790 --> 00:13:48,410 they need to produce something, and so they don't produce a child. 259 00:13:48,410 --> 00:13:51,920 They produce a story, and that story produces an egg. 260 00:13:51,920 --> 00:13:54,324 This was, like, perfectly oval. 261 00:13:54,324 --> 00:13:56,396 And it looked old. 262 00:13:56,420 --> 00:13:57,420 Trust me, Josh. 263 00:13:57,420 --> 00:13:58,420 It was an egg. 264 00:13:58,420 --> 00:14:00,217 Plus, they handled it carefully. 265 00:14:01,102 --> 00:14:05,470 OMER: People always talk about my work in terms of the real and the fictional, 266 00:14:05,470 --> 00:14:11,290 and that is not interesting to me at all, these notions of truth and the real 267 00:14:11,290 --> 00:14:16,296 are hugely important for us when we're talking in terms of a process of justice. 268 00:14:17,374 --> 00:14:18,219 I'm not a journalist. 269 00:14:18,219 --> 00:14:21,420 My work does not exist in the court of law. 270 00:14:21,420 --> 00:14:23,050 It exists in the space of art, 271 00:14:23,050 --> 00:14:27,762 and the space of art allows for ambiguities and for contradictions. 272 00:14:30,680 --> 00:14:34,040 This whole fetishized notion of truth and ideal, 273 00:14:34,040 --> 00:14:40,352 which is a lovely thing to aspire to, is in a sense the plaything in the work. 274 00:14:44,250 --> 00:14:47,740 To think about the work in terms of truth and lies 275 00:14:47,740 --> 00:14:49,349 or truth and fiction is to kill the work. 276 00:14:49,349 --> 00:14:51,196 (knocking on door) 277 00:14:57,772 --> 00:14:59,414 What, what are you doing?