CAULEEN SMITH

May 31, 2007 at 4:38 PM
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CAULEEN SMITH

Cauleen Smith plays with memory, time, language, and visibility to unburden stereotypes. Concurrently her work classifies fresh symbols and systems. Her work uploads traditional euro linearity and turns it out through deformation and the visual depiction of diasporan lived experience.

Cauleen Smith, 2007.

Name: Cauleen Smith
Profession: Filmmaker and teacher
City of Birth: Riverside, California
Tell us about your current project:
I got in a jag on The Shakers and their fascinating "gift drawings". The Shakers are a quintessentially American phenomenon. They could not exist anywhere else. In studying the drawings, I learned that they would "receive" songs and dances from African spirits and Native American spirits. This was my way “in” (so to speak) to feel comfortable to engage with some of their imagery, movements, and spiritual practices. I'm not that into the furniture—I mean it's gorgeous and all, but I'm more of a bread and butter Eames girl, you know? So anyway, I'm making a series of film loops in collaboration with choreographer Julie Nathanielsz, that "receive" cues from The Shaker dances and combine them with contemporary "rituals" that I've observed in my experiences here in the US as well as from my travels in Nigeria. It's not a dance movie, but I need the figures in this film to move with the efficiency of dancers. So why not just work with dancers rather than actors? That's about all I can say about it right now.
What is your current obsession?
Besides The Shakers, I am quite taken with information I received from a woman at a bar who told me that she has a wealthy friend who has a television set embedded in her bathroom behind a mirror which can only be seen when the TV is on. In her bathroom she has this. What does she watch in there? CNN? Dr. Phil? Does she put on her mascara while catching up on Grey's Anatomy episodes? I am amazed.
Where do you find your inspiration?
My films are very dependent on location. I've made several films that were basically love letters to specific locations or neighborhoods in Los Angeles, and a couple more while I've been here in Austin. It takes a lot of time to know a place, a landscape. I always feel like I've learned something once certain characteristics of the land and place—geological and architectural alike—begin to signify as something more to me than a rock or a building. I am also quite the physics dilettante. Physicists have created beautiful metaphors that enable us to understand the time-space-continuum and our place in it. I also like to know the origins of words. And I like it when dissimilar humans transmit the same frequency, thereby reminding me of how similar all humans in fact are. It's easy to forget that when one listens to Air America Radio four hours a day. (This one does do that.)
What’s the one thing that everyone must know about you?
I detest talking on the phone. I only do it if I must. The phone is a wonderful logistical device. It saves and compresses time and space. This is great and has transformed lives all over the world. But I find absolutely nothing reassuring about a disembodied voice. I much prefer the printed word and, of course, the face-to-face.
Who do you love?
I'm not telling who I love, they know. But these are people and things that I seriously, deeply, and madly adore.
(In no particular order at all).
Joseph Eichler, Barbara McCullough, Philip K. Dick, Elizabeth Alexander, Sergei Parajanov, Minnie Riperton, Charles Burnett, Clair Denis, Sesame Street, Julie Dash, Thelonious Monk, Ntozake Shange, DSM-IV-TR, Mayor Willie Brown, Bill Viola, The Sweet Smell Of Success, Shirley Clarke, Maya Deren, David Hockney, Koi Nagata, Malik Sidibé, Sun Ra, John Singer Sargent, Otto Preminger, MF Doom, IKEA, Gwendolyn Brooks, The Clash, Haruki Murakami, The Iranian New Wave, Florida Highwaymen, R.M. Schindler, Henri Plaat, Doug Aiken, Lois Warren, Food & Wine Magazine, Bob Thompson, Talib Kweli, William H. Johnson, Warren Ellis, Anthony Braxton, Thomas Dolby, Hans Richter, Nona Hendryx, Ellen Gallagher’s films, Cindy Sherman, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, Pieter Claesz, A. Van Jordan, Joseph Cornell, George Clinton, Beyoncé, Bill Greaves, Eric Dolphy, Leah Gilliam, Dan Graham, Michael Smith, Janine Antoni, Pipilotti Rist, Carrie Mae Weems, Howard Suber, Kira Lynn Harris, Octavia Butler, UCLA posse, SFSU posse, The Shakers, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Patti Smith, Jimi Hendrix, Nollywood, Laure Prouvost, Stan Douglas, Michael Mann, Steve McQueen, Joseph Beuys, Bruce Nauman, Albert Einstein, Paul Robeson, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Toomer, Chico Hamilton, Paul Thomas Anderson, the City of Los Angeles, Lagos-Nigeria, Lorna Simpson, A Tribe Called Quest, James Brown, Brahms, Yo-Yo Ma, Air America Radio, Nina Simone, Audre Lorde, Joan Jonas, Dogons of Mali, Samuel R. Delaney, and Carolee Schneemann.
What was your biggest fork in the road?
Moving to Texas or remaining in Los Angeles, a city for which I hold fierce affection. I did the right thing, coming to Austin. I'm ready to move on again. But this is no longer a fork—it's a track, or a blade, or a quest, or a razor, but not a fork.
What was your biggest break?
Receiving a Rockefeller Foundation Media Arts Fellowship when I was twenty-seven. That money made a lot of things possible. Without that money Erika, you would not be asking me to answer this email survey.
What’s your favorite libation?
Makers Mark. Even my students know I love that stuff. Is that bad? Am I a bad teacher?
What do you do everyday without fail?
Drink water. Other than that, it's up for grabs. But, to be more candid, I do write something every day. I'm not constantly writing things that I'd deem significant in any way whatsoever; nothing I'd ever show, or read aloud. But the practice of writing is a bit like drinking water: gotta do it, or else.
Are you addicted to anything? Anyone?
Uh, none of your business.
Do you recycle? And if so, what?
Not so much recycling going on over here. I'm a sampler, a biter, a thief, and a pretender, but not a recycler. I don't use found footage. I have too many images in my head that need to be exorcised. But, if you're speaking in literal terms, like plastic or paper, sure, I love recycling. Recycling Is Fun. I also turn off the water faucet when I brush my teeth, then back on to rinse. I often turn off the shower while I apply conditioner through my hair, then turn it back on to rinse. And once I set the record in my household for the most re-uses of a paper coffee filter – six times!
What are you reading right now?
A Jimi Hendrix Biography - the 4th one I've read. And Craig's list - Boston.
What’s your favorite website?
Code Z Online: www.codezonline.com
Surrealism or op art?
Surrealism.
Mondrian or Man Ray?
Man Ray is incredibly important to me as a filmmaker. His experiments and sense of play still inspire me. But Mondrian is a soul brother. It wasn't what he painted for me, but how he painted it. Each stroke mattered. I love craft like that. And I would love to have had a chance to peruse his jazz LP's.
Who are you currently channeling?
Buddha. I'm trying to decrease my attachment to the material because only so much stuff is gonna fit in my station wagon.
PVC or canvas?
PVC.
Pharmaceutical of choice?
Aderall is the greatest drug ever created. I wish I could convince a doctor that I needed to take it.
Fresh squeezed or concentrate?
Fresh.
Platforms, stilettos, or wedges?
You really can't just ask me that one question about shoes. Shoes require a completely separate survey. Please let me know when you generate that survey, and I would be happy to participate in that one as well.
New talent of choice?
I don't think I get this question. Is it somehow related to American Idol?

Cauleen Smith earned her BA from San Francisco State University’s School of Creative Arts and her MFA from The School of Theater-Television-Film, UCLA. After five years at the University of Texas, where she acquired a longing for season and rude people, Cauleen will begin teaching at the Massachusetts College of Art in the Fall of 2007. Her short films are distributed by Canyon Cinema and her feature length film, Drylongso, is available for rental exclusively at Hollywood Video nationwide. Visit Cauleen’s website at:
http://www.nbpc.tv/afrogalacticpostcards/index.html