An Interview with “D’être ou pas être” Filmmaker Houda Eletr

What draws you to this hyper-digital aesthetic in your film? 

I’ve always felt like the internet and all things electronic resembled death to a certain extent. The immortality of certain aspects of the internet and media today remind me of my own (daunting yet humbling) mortality. So with that my goal with the look of my film was to capture an essence death through artistic distortion of reality almost forcing viewers to feel sucked into this virtual hyper eccentric version of grief. 

There is a heavy usage of on-screen text in your film. What do you like about incorporating this rather than relying entirely on images?

With a difficult topic like grief, I think that relying entirely on images would’ve done a great job at making an audience feel the true sadness behind grief, but words felt like a process and that’s what grieving is. I wanted the audience to have a lot to digest. Like a visual representation of a grieving brain, spiraling but it makes sense. 

Toward the end of your film, there is an image of an American flag that says "There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people". What connection do you see between politics and the act of making an experimental film like this? Do you see your work as a filmmaker as inherently political?

As an Arab-American I feel that all my art with forever be political. Plus I make art for people who live in a society entirely functioning through politics. I think it would be a waste to ignore politics when it comes to art. 

What do you hope to do next? (Any themes you want to continue exploring, genres you want to work in, mediums you want to experiment with? etc...)

I hope to make more hyper artistic and politically charged works of art for this world.