A reflection on filming in rural Senegal and a critique of the anthropological I/eye. The film “denotes something more than an exceptional spirit of observation; let’s say by all means a kind of amorous enthrallment.
- Alberto Moravia, L’Expresso
With uncanny eloquence, Reassemblage distills sounds and images of Senegalese villagers and their surroundings to reconsider the premises of ethnographic filmmaking. By disjunctive editing and a probing narration, this 'documentary' strikingly counterpoints the authoritative stance of the National Geographic approach.
- Laura Thielen
Superbly crafted and visually exquisite... In its form and content, it critiques both western science and documentary traditions.
- Pat Aufderheide, The Village Voice
Sweetly weird... in questioning all the presumption of ethnographic filmmaking
- Jim Hoberman, The Village Voice
Captures a glimpse of beauty and death without wallowing in the scenic exoticism so fatal to the National Geographic format.
- Kathleen Hulser, The Independent
A work (that) carries a critique of its own pronouncements and challenges any investment in pompous profundities.
- Barbara Kruger, Art Forum
A highly innovative work, provoking continual questions.
- Daryl Chin
Para este pequeñísima biografía de Trinh T. Minh-ha voy a omitir la palabra feminista porque me parece un adjetivo tan estúpido como machista, aunque se repite en todas las páginas en las que he encontrado información sobre la directora.
Creo que el término es usado con poca seriedad, para referirse simplemente al interés de Minh-ha en el trabajo de mujeres en distintas áreas.
Nació en Hanoi, Vietnam, 1952. Creció durante la guerra de Vietnam. Cuenta con estudios en música en el Conservatorio Nacional de Música y Teatro en Saigon, Etnomusicología, y Literatura Francesa en Estados Unidos.
La película no trata a las mujeres en Senegal con superioridad sino como un igual. “I do not intend to speak about. Just speak nearby." Porque talvez hablar sobre significa interpretar y saber algo que las mujeres filmadas no se han percatado, porque hablar también puede significar dar simposio.
"At the core of Trinh's interrogation is the demystification of otherness or, more broadly, the application of binary logic in society's (and in partcular, western society's) examination of non-native cultures."
Con imágenes muy cercanas de las mujeres en la práctica habitual de sus oficios, no es que el cuerpo quede a un lado, pero se vuelve algo natural como lo es para ellas mismas, y entonces nos fijamos en cómo hacen lo que hacen, talvez sin preguntarnos por qué.
“Stressing the observer's objectivity, circles round the object of curiosity. Different views from different angles.”
"By not taking a fixed or preferred position herself in her film, Trinh does not allow the viewer to comfortably follow her. Every viewer has to put effort in her/his own exploration of different ways of seeing the people in the film. The aim of Trinh to “just speak nearby” results in a multitude of stories and perspectives. Each viewer can create her/his own relationships to these.
Trinh does not only bring her many perspectives into the film; Reassemblage sets up a conversation between its viewers, the filmmaker and the people in the film. The techniques that Trinh has chosen to do this do not make it very easy to watch because the film is despite its constructed nature fragmented, and it requires work to bring these fragments together. Trinh leaves it for a large part up to the viewer to create a synthesis from the observations and reflections she offers, unlike for instance Ivens who in for instance Rain offers a clear synthesis of his observations and the perspectives he developed to the spectator."
Esa África de pobreza y hambruna que hemos visto hasta el cansancio, no es ésta que nos muestra Minh-Ha. Será talvez por eso que varios describen el documental como un cine-poema.
"Stereotypical images of famine and disease are subverted through shots of healthy children at play and women milling grains that are cross-cut against shots of emaciated animal carcasses splayed on a deserted landscape to underscore the disconnection."
En A critical cinema: interviews with independent filmmakers explica que el nombre de la película viene de volver a crear un montaje donde la visión occidental no sea una de superioridad, sino de buscar nuevos ángulos a algo ya visto.
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