Ethics of the Mortuary

Immediately after class I felt angry at Stan Brakhage's The Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes. While Brakhage was confident that the images he filmed were “gentle” in comparison to his own experience in the morgue, I felt that they were assaulting. While the film was slow and there were beautiful moments, formally, I regarded the film as aggressive and at times violent. Thinking back to Genevieve's introduction of Brakhage it is hard for me to think of his work outside the characterization of him as a Romantic. And it is hard to look at the subjects of his films as metaphorical, especially in conversation with Regarding the Pain of Others. I do not think that Stan Brekhage's introduction, or the images in The Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes, offer any solutions to the questions posed by Sontag. However, while I felt like the video was mighty problematic, I don't just want to write a scathing review, because that's not really productive, and I feel like the movie deserves more attention.

While the two approaches seem diametrically opposed, the poetics of Sontag and Brakhage collide on a practical level. Sontag would, most likely, be exceptionally skeptical of Brakhage's techniques and approach, she never offers an alternative practice to the spectacular as mode of social change. Despite her critique, shocking images often provoke some type of action. Invisible Children sends aid money to Uganda. The campaign was successful in that there is now more money going to assist people in need than there was before they made their documentary. The question of ethics become more of a cost/benefit analysis, is the exploitation, the process of turning humans into symbols, worth the aid we send?

Perhaps this is an over simplification, but to me, one of Brakhage's main goals of this film –and the whole Pittsburgh Trilogy—was to redeem people whose jobs are essential but under appreciated. So the ethical cost/benefit analysis here becomes, is the non consensual use of a person's body, the transformation to allegory or metaphor, worth fostering appreciation for medical examiners? This tension between the two practices is complex, it intersects. There are endgames that are almost essential, but the means are messy. Literally.

Brakhage doesn't simply sacrifice the agency of unidentified subjects in his film though. He offers glimpses into their lives, vaguely identifying them. Age, clothing, and hairstyles are displayed. A woman's dress is examined for blood stains. These are routine procedures, common and necessary in the life of the medical examiner. They help to humanize the living. But this Machiavellian 'ends justify the means' logic is refuted by Sontag. She demands accountability for the dead on whom Brakhage profits. This would undermine his project though. The tension isn't easily relieved.

I obviously do not have an answer. And like Genevieve said, there isn't an easy one. And while the tension is complicated, I don't think Brakhage should be excused from interrogating issues of aestheticizing violence.