Jem Cohen 2006: An Interview
2006 | 01:47:26 | United States | English | Color | Mono | 4:3 | DV video
Collection: On Art and Artists, Interviews, Single Titles
Tags: Documentary, Documentation, Experimental Film, Film or Videomaking, Film Theory, VDB Interviews


In this 2006 interview, filmmaker Jem Cohen discusses his early interest in art, his family’s welcome antipathy towards commercialization, and his unconventional, anti-mainstream film practice. In particular, Cohen discusses his film This is a History of New York, and how this piece exemplifies his interest in the “territory of sensation” rather than simple visual descriptiveness. Cohen concludes by discussing the role of archiving in his practice, and how compulsive documentation of the quotidian and unexceptional can result in the empowerment of the everyday.
Interview conducted by Kate Horsfield in September 2006, edited in 2013.