Multo.com :: Visual Magic

Art & Apathy Shoot – Coca-Bleach-Chemic-Alley

Can I describe the smell of the desert? How does bleach, ammonia, paint thinner, and Draino sound? (my nose hairs are burning).

I saw how the desert has become industrialized. How Bedouin populations are forced to live in prescribed reservations to receive tax paying services. Its complex – I don’t understand it all, but I saw, and smelled, enough to make me ill.

Despite the nauseating smells of progress, the chance to shoot Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, the desert, the Dead Sea and the cliffs of Masada from a helicopter was thrilling. And breathtaking, literally and figuratively. I don’t know nearly enough about this region (thank goodness Nirah is an anthropologist and Jessica has been researching for this movie for over a year). I am learning directly, viscerally. With us was a jewel of a man who will teach us to sing. I’ll write more about him then. And, of course, the pilot – a family friend of Nirah’s, who gave us more than an ariel tour – he gave us history and another perspective to consider.

More soon.

:) melissa