Towards an Intact Future

Artist Statement

I grew up as a person with a lot of privilege: white, American, able-bodied, college educated, cisgender, housed. It wasn’t until the last few years that I realized the extent of the exploitation and oppression people face every day from the systemic structures upheld by the government and the police. Exploitation is an every day experience. Despite this, despite living in a society in which alienation is encouraged, we are still able to create intimacy with one another, which amazes me every day. This film is an exploration of these ideas.

I chose to write a memoiristic essay, because I constantly find myself drawn to the personal and familial stories of others. Sharing our stories with each other is an intimate act. Storytelling has always been used as a form of communication and resistance.

I created a visual track that is supposed to represent monotony, this dizzying cycle we find ourselves in, which we cannot break free from; the cycle of this society, whose structures are built to reproduce themselves and keep us from realizing our desires.

The most challenging part of this project was the audio, both the technical skills in recording and editing, as well as the difficulty of listening to my own recorded voice over and over again. Over the course of this project, I became proficient in Final Cut Pro, which was really rewarding

Artist Bio

Emily Weisberg was born and raised in the wild places of Western Washington. She is a senior at The Evergreen State College, where she studies photography and anti-colonialism studies.

Emily learned to write poetry on the shores of the Olympic Peninsula when she was five years old, and hasn’t stopped writing since. She began studying photography when she was fourteen, and specializes in photojournalism, portraiture and conceptual work. Her photojournalism work has been published by the international news journal The Palestine Monitor. This past year, Emily was awarded the Rachel Corrie Memorial scholarship in recognition of her Middle Eastern solidarity work.