SFiFF: 1000 Journals (The Documentary)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Streams of consciousness just flows. People connecting by agreeing on disagreeing. Holding on to the moment. Immortalizing thoughts in a time capsule of infinite importance. This is the gist of what 1000 Journals is about.

Many excited people showed up to the screening of the documentary “1000 Journals” at the Kabuki Theatre this Saturday afternoon (April 26th), as part of the lineup for the San Francisco International Film Festival. Not only were they there for the documentary, but for the treat that came in afterwards, which was an up-close and personal look at some of the journals that have returned from their around-the-world trip.

Are you lost already? Thought as much. A bit of a backstory: In the year 2000, Someguy (a San Francisco based artist) thought it would be great to send out 1000 blank journals to the world. The journals’ purpose was to be filled by strangers, until someone would mail it back to Someguy again. How would people find him? Well, they would be observant enough as to read his instructions in the cover.

Obviously many journals were lost in their journey, but the ones that were found by “obsessive/responsible” people would be mailed to other “obsessive/responsible” people. So, you can say some journals have had accidental random journeys (and will not get back in years), while others were meticulously shared by people who believed in Someguy’s cause to the point of joining his online community about… yes, you guessed it, “journaling.”

Andrea Kreuzhage’s movie shown at the festival exposes the journey of many of these journals, and the thoughts of the people who have been touched by them. It shows that sometimes humans need something to believe in, and how that belief doesn’t need to be anything grander than life (post-Nietsche mentality?), but just a simple traveling book that has no other value than the one we assign to it.

Which brings us to the paradox of this situation. The original concept of random journals is about anonymous self-discovery and serendipity, yet the journals have evolved into such celebrities that people would kidnap someone for the sake of getting to them. They have turned into little bibles of post-modernity that testify the fact that people sometimes don’t get it.

So, what’s next? The journals that found their way back will possibly be exposed at the SFMOMA, where curators do not want them to be doodled on by museum crawlers, while Someguy will fight for the journals’ right to be man-handled by audiences. Quite possibly, as the Tragedy of Commons begins hitting the journals, and malicious people start to take advantage of these art pieces, the journals will end up locked up behind glass. There’s nothing wrong with this contradictory end, since irony sometimes is what gives an art piece it’s finishing touch.

Wanna learn more about 1000 Journals? Visit their sister site 1001journals.com in which every member of the community can make their own journal, and share it with the world. This lack of “limited-edition” finality makes this second project more meaningful. It liberates the journals from the shackles of their “celebrity-ness,” and makes them be more about a personal experience, and their relation to the global community.

For the full image gallery of the event, please visit the whole set at Flickr.

-Alex