Derrick Jensen

Reverse Angles

Wenders� brief reply about his reasons for making films is remarkably simple. He appears to either evade the question or answer it what at first glance is a surprisingly simple, understandable, and shallow manner. Wenders says that he makes his first film simply out of a desire to film. This explanation holds for the rest of his career, but what does it mean to film something? Wenders emphasizes film’s connection to capturing things, “rescuing the existence of things.” He appears to want to halt the passage of time, or as he puts it, “the destruction of the world.” Wenders’ philosophy seems to be primarily concerned with time and the nature of time as it relates to the perception of the world. Wenders maintains that as long as moments are captured via the camera, they are saved from death. Perhaps Wenders sees film—as he implies Cezanne saw painting—as a more tangible and permanent mode of remembering, which is what looking at the world-gone-by entails. Memory, it seems, is not sufficient.kkjl He seems preoccupied with the fear that if the world is not recorded, it will be gone forever, and this, he says, is a great tragedy.

The one small segment of Wenders’ letter that confuses me is when he says, “the act of filming is a heroic act (not always, not often, but sometimes).” Given the tragedy with which he treats the notion of the passing of moments, you would think he would give great respect to any attempt at preserving them. Perhaps he gives some moments precedence over others.