Brandon Vanbach – Reflections on Catured Meory (2021) – FESCH.TV

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

film by Brandon Vanbach
Special thanks to Guy Bollin, Jack Muth, Julia Ekert, Sophie Cianfarani, and my mother.

Reflections on Captured Memory is a personal rumination on my relationship, or lack thereof, with my mother. When I turned 21 years old in September I discovered a 8mm video tape documenting a trip to Vietnam my mother and I took in 2003. Seeing my mother so youthful and energetic felt like I was watching a stranger, that she was someone I had never met before. Then I realized she was just that: a stranger.
In stereotypic fashion, my immigrant mother raised me with an iron fist, controlling and overbearing, all for the sake of academic success and a prosperous future. Yet, I felt disconnected from her, like her love for me was conditional as if my existence was a responsibility. I knew nothing personal about her and she did know anything about me. But still, I felt myself enthralled to the instinctual and unconditional love I have for her and my memory of her.
Utilizing Hi-8 tape footage, images from a visual synthesizer I built, and excerpts from Ocean Vuong’s novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous to explore different approaches to video and memory connected by personal and emotional registers.

excerpts by Ocean Vuong
music by Hanoi Catholic Youth Choir