Following Bo Burnham’s recent Emmy win for his Netflix special Inside, a tweet was floating around pointing out that if Burnham could win such a prestigious award simply by being stuck inside his home and coupled with a $4,000 camera, then surely no one else was prohibited from such a feat. After all, the cost for entry was so low! You probably have a home! You probably have a device that records video! Go forth!
But obviously, creativity is far more complex than simply having tools at your disposal. You could have access to the greatest arsenal of audio-visual technology in the world, and it wouldn’t mean anything if you didn’t have both creativity and talent. Burnham isn't just a guy with a camera; he is someone who had spent pretty much his entire adult life honing his craft and, as you can see from Inside, he has a few more tools than just a fancy camera. But more than that, he had the creative impulse. He felt the need to create. He looked at the adversity of his circumstances—being stuck in his home due to the raging COVID-19 pandemic—and used it to make terrific art.
In that vein, you can look about ten years earlier to Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb’s This Is Not a Film, which also shows a filmmaker in captivity. Unlike Burnham, Panahi was literally confined to his home by house arrest as he awaited a verdict on whether he would have to endure a 20-year-band on writing and directing along with a six-year prison sentence. The stakes are much higher for Panahi and his circumstances are drastically different, but like Burnham, he responds to his adversity with his talent and creativity. That’s not to say that this is the only way to respond to these circumstances, but that this is how two filmmakers decided to look at the hand they had been dealt. They chose to pick up the camera they had and started questioning their boundaries and what it means to make a film in their respective confines.
For Panahi and Mirtahmasb, that means an act of sly rebellion and testing the limits of what constitutes a film. For example, if Panahi is simply reading and describing a screenplay he’s already written, is that filmmaking? Is the simple act of picking up a camera make someone a filmmaker? Where’s the line and who gets to draw it? Does that line belong to the filmmakers or to an authoritative government? Whatever the answer may be, Panahi and Mirtahmasb feel the need to keep going with their unique documentary even though as Panahi’s case shows, the consequences can be dire if the government decides that such an act is against the law.
This Is Not a Film is a powerful reminder that we cannot take this creative impulse for granted. It’s not a matter of tools and space. It’s a matter of thoughtfulness and understanding your craft and what makes a film a film. Burnham and Panahi & Mirtahmasb get this. They’re not just making a film to make a film, but more importantly, they’re making a statement. They have something to say. This Is Not a Film is well worth hearing that statement.
This Is Not a Film is on Criterion Channel until September 30th.