Getting There (LA Weekly) Sept 23-29, 1983

​Excerpts from
“Getting There”
By Gloria Ohland
 
After a sneak preview of some of the videos that will be shown at the American Film Institute’s third annual National Festival this weekend, I was struck again by the power of the medium and the way it can be used to challenge our perception of reality.  I’d forgotten because of all the drizzle and pap that is served in neatly cut-up hour and half-hour portion on TV. What a criminal waste of time and energy, a seemingly intentional effort to lull the American public into a land of no-thought.
 
…this year’s non-fiction winner in the student competition.
Gunshot, by Shari Cookson and Adam Bleibtreu, is the story of five gunshot victims, a simple video of talking heads with absolutely no gimmicks or sexy sensationalism; it is, nonetheless, riveting.  Shari got the idea for the video after the shooting of John Lennon. “Gun control was a big issue, but we didn’t want to get into a moral discussion of whether or not to carry a gun – we wanted a very personal account,” says Adam. “We just wanted to convey the point that when you get shot, it hurts, and it stays with you.”
 
The tape of interviews with the victims is edited in such a way that the tension buids – “I said, ‘you got the wrong guys, we don’t have any money,’ and he said, ‘maybe that’s not what we came here for’” …”the tension was so thick you could feel it like soup”… “when he shot me the hole just seemed to get bigger and bigger” … “I felt like a target, just something to shoot at, to have fun with.” The videotape brings home a truth about guns and violence that I’ve never before encountered in the media. So why can’t we see this stuff on TV?”
 
LA Weekly
September 23-29, 1983
 
Transcribed by: S Cookson