(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
It is said that patience is a virtue. That's what I thought, at least, when I picked out the documentary Now, At Last! – a kind of "slothful minute by minute" – on the program during the film festival Postage Post Doc.
But far from being a test of patience, the film was an astonishingly meaningful, poetic journey in which time somehow did not exist. Soothing jungle sounds and black and white images were abruptly replaced by a comedic color pattern and the song "Unchained Melody". The only visible action consisted of the sloth's slow journey up and down a tree trunk – with interrupted breaks along the way, either taking a well-earned nap or just staring out into the room. Hastiness certainly wasn't.
After the show, I talked to the director Ben rivers and asked where the idea for such a movie came from. "A sloth is the classic example of an animal whose name is based on human traits," he said. "In reality, sloths aren't particularly lazy, it's just us who start from ourselves, as usual, and project our perception of time over to another species of animal. The sloth has actually found a successful way of living, with an innate perspective on time. ”
A political act?
A filmmaker communicates through images; with visual means he directs our attention to what he himself wants to emphasize. What we are exposed to in the cinema darkness affects us in ways we may not immediately notice – it opens something in us. We create our own reality when we choose what we emphasize. When we talk about a theme, we bring it into the world; by giving it attention, we bring it into existence.
The discussions about whether robots are the future or not may be necessary, but do they not also lead to normalization? For every time we talk about Artificial Intelligence , we are one step closer to accepting that such a thing exists among us. What if we do the opposite and place a sloth on the screen? Is it a political act then?
We project our perception of time onto another animal species.
"It's a political movie," Rivers confirms. "But it's also about love. I live in London and have a hectic life, but when I'm in the wild, it's time to slow down. Everyone notices. And it feels good. I like that movies can achieve this, taking you to another state if you just allow it. Some people misunderstood the movie and thought it was making fun of 'slow cinema' – but that wasn't the point at all. The movie may be fun, but this is no joke. "
Split attention
I myself have a girlfriend who asks her guests to put away their smartphone in a basket at the door when they visit. She demands their full attention. When we are constantly connected to distracting digital devices, our attention is split. The head is one place, while the body is left to navigate on its own.
We are becoming increasingly vulnerable; we obey electronic "pling" more conscientiously than our own instincts. Attentive presence means treating one's surroundings with vigilance and respect, using one's senses to read and understand the world. This is how we recognize our own place in it.
The sloth makes me think Heinrich Bölls famous short story "Anektdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral", about the fisherman who prefers to enjoy life rather than working too much. A tourist wakes the sleeping fisherman and asks if he should not go out fishing to make money for a bigger boat so he can earn even more and eventually live a richer life. "That's exactly what I do," the fisherman replies satisfied.
Just like the fisherman, the sloth seems quite happy with life. It has no desire to have power over others, so it is free to live by its own rhythm. Animals often have an almost enviable ability to find their place in the whole. Why can't people do the same?
Form and content
The film's soothing aesthetic invites you to meditate. The aesthetic was always a conscious choice on Rivers' part: “Form and content should always go hand in hand. The worst is film art that doesn't take this into account; as an arbitrary cinematography that looks good, but is completely devoid of any relation to the content. With Now, At Last! I was sure the camera should not move, except during the initial climb. I went to Costa Rica in one's errand, with a clear intention of what and how to film. I filmed nothing else during my stay other than this lovely beast, for the occasion called Cherry. "
Director Ben Rivers
The sloth has its own perception of what time is. Life doesn't have to be a competition, it's just about finding the right place in the world. Here is humanity's weak point. A collective understanding of where we humans are headed might have given us the calm we lack. At the moment, we are trapped in a directional race with ourselves, where "no time" has become a mantra that maintains the illusion that time is something we can lose. The best medicine in a society that has run fast is to slow down. Being attentively present in the face of complexity. Then we may find that the most important resource we have is not money or ten, but attention.
