Still Static

How to cope with a horrific event? In Still Static, filmmaker and visual artist Adam Kaplan presents two people who have experienced something ghastly. One is a cameraman who says he was “at the wrong place at the wrong time.” He was filming at a gathering, probably a party, when suddenly something happened that caused all hell to break loose. The cameraman describes in detail the human misery he witnessed. The images, flashes and visions were burnt into his retina, and the impact on his life has been huge. He has become someone else, and has never left home since. The camera continued running throughout, so there’s a video tape of the horrific scenes. A woman who was present at the same gathering plays the tape every evening. The magnetic tape is gradually fading, she remarks, or is it her own deteriorating condition that she's talking about? When memory wears away, is it progress or decline? (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)