FilmVomit

To clarify, I went to a semi-private screening of David Gatten’s work this past Friday- hence the repeated Gatten-related posts. He showed three films- Secret History of the Dividing Line, The Great Art of Knowing, and How to Conduct a Love Affair- in that order. The Great Art of Knowing was followed by a break during which the rest of the audience discussed the first two films. I took that opportunity to sit in the hallway and shake and consider the implications of the work I had been so graciously presented with. I cannot think of any way to address this piece other than in the form of a letter directly to its creator, so you will have to bear with me. Please, feel free to leave off here if you feel so inclined, with the knowledge that the film was good enough that I could not think for a good thirty minutes.

David,
Please know that I mean no disrespect to your other work when I say that The Great Art of Knowing is the most exceptional piece of cinema I have encountered since my first experience with Hart of London or Passage Through: A Ritual. I have not had my faculties so thoroughly removed nor my paradigms so thoroughly shifted since seeing those films.
Your epistemological pondering is, or seems, so thoroughly convergent with my own that I have trouble addressing it appropriately, but I will give it something like a reasonable attempt.
The greatest art of knowing, it would seem, is knowing when an awareness of it is appropriate. There are the hard things, written down in books as a catalogue of information. And there are the soft things, lodged someplace between the diaphragm and the lungs, that you cannot breathe without, or perhaps must breathe in spite of. The contrasts between hard knowledge and soft are endless, and exceptionally permeable- at so many points hard knowledge mingles with soft, in a passionate pursuit of understanding. And yet there must be a line- at which point does hard knowledge no longer play any part? It is easier, of course, to excoriate the hard knowledge from the flesh. Soft knowledge is the flesh itself and cannot be removed.
I am certain that I will have more thoughts on this at some point in the future. Until then, I cannot wring my brain further without doing permanent damage.
With all my affection.
Libi

David Gatten Film