Do you have the courage to point the camera every day, at everyone around you?
Reid Davenport is a filmmaker. He also happens to be a visibly disabled person.
What does that mean? As you begin to understand in I Didn’t See You There, it means time and again, people gawk at you, in crosswalks, on the subway. Sometimes they try to help (when it’s not needed). Other times, they just stare. Or even honk. And it’s fucking annoying.
In his film, Davenport turns the gaze on everybody else. In the style of Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson or Chantal Akerman’s News From Home, Davenport creates a film shot entirely from his first-person lens. The result is an aggravating portrait of what it’s like to be an unwilling participant in our culture’s rude curiosity and spectacle of the “other.” Davenport’s camera reveals what it’s like to be looked at, but not seen.
Davenport spoke with No Film School after the film’s premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival to talk about making his feature documentary.
Author: Oakley Anderson-Moore
This article comes from No Film School and can be read on the original site.
