blog - gObama 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
(Berlin, Germany - 1.30 a.m. local time)
I was checking out the build up of the stage at the Victory column last night. Hundreds of workers and media crews are setting up their shop. This is gonna be huge - so huge that I realized that I am too unimportant for getting media creds as an independent filmmaker - although I applied on time. Mos def!
So, I was looking at alternative ways to film this event freestyle. Security was tight because a freak drove through the barriers with his car and spilled red paint over the place. Aparently he was from Heidelberg and protested against his unemployment. As you can see on the left picture, it is not rain but water from scrubbing the streets. I guess he made his point and is in psychiatric care now. He’ll be missing the speech though...well.
Since even German giant broadcaster ZDF got only 2 little stands and raisers on the media platform, there is no reason to take all this too personal. God willing a door opens and I can get some good shots of Obama. But maybe its is beside the point - to be among the people of Berlin will keep this real. Getting a sense of the vibes on the ground is what its all about. Media pictures are the same. Want to keep it real? Berlin is ready:
http://current.com/items/89131424_obama_vox_pops_in_berlin
I listened to a BBC discussion on radio cycling through town yesterday. Guess what the topic was? Why are there no good jokes or serious personal criticisms about Obama in the media? Well, people called in from all over the world and had their say. The bottom line was something like Obama is a symbol of hope and change - and after the fuck up of the Bush years, everybody projects on him positively. And since he is not president yet - he can be anything for anyone. Black, Brown, White, Asian - Kenyan, American - Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Atheist... He is a ready mix of the Black Atlantic. A futuristic RoboCop on a gigantic American billboard advertising the second phase of the New World Order. But nobody should forget that billboards get plastered over with new product every week. Maybe the empire is crumbling? Don’t get me wrong here. I absolutely love that Obama speaks in my home town.
