NOT EVEN FOR A MOMENT DO THINGS STAND STILL filmmaking team enjoys award-winning SXSW experience
Jamie Meltzer’s documentary short Not even for a moment do things stand still enjoyed one of the best platforms for a film to debut and make its world premiere – at Austin’s SXSW film festival in March.
In September 2021, artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg covered the National Mall in a blanket of white: one flag representing each life lost to COVID in the United States. Her goal was to both show the epic scale of COVID deaths in America, and to simultaneously express that behind each number there once was a real, living person, now gone. Not even for a moment do things stand still provides an observational glimpse into this exhibit, dropping into intimate moments of people honoring their loved ones, and interrogating the role of mourning and closure during an unfolding tragedy.
The film is an arresting piece that places you in the environment created by the art installation, allowing you to witness and hear the conversations of people there to take a moment to think about, memorialize, to allow themselves to “say goodbye”, and yes – to grieve over the loss of those close to them due to COVID. The film ever so subtly brings home the reality of the cost in lives of the virus that political debates for the most part lose, as a number replaces the vast amount of human beings who died.
The sound of hundreds of thousands of tiny flags whipping in the wind literally surrounds the audience as they watch loved ones, co-workers, friends, and neighbors console one another or get lost in their thoughts and memories as they plant their own flags in honor of someone close to them. The power of those images and sounds are undeniable, as the SXSW audience discovered.
Following the film’s first screening, producer and In America: Remember artist Suzanne Firstenberg and director Jamie Meltzer next headed to The Bullock Museum for a talk entitled, New Perspectives: Artists Reflect on Loss and Discover Humanity. The talk aimed to discuss Texas connections and contributions to In America: Remember, since there were (obviously) a number of Texas residents who were victims of COVID, and to explore the role of mourning and closure during an unfolding tragedy that has impacted all Americans.
The talk focused more on the art installation itself, but also was a reaffirmation of how Firstenberg’s work fused with Meltzer’s work as a filmmaker to create a piece that didn’t simply document what was literally on the ground, but fulfilled the ambition most documentarians have – of providing a keener insight into the impact of the art (in this case), and to capture moments, sights, sounds, and emotions that one could easily miss in the moment as they are overwhelmed by the scope and enormity of what was created there on the grounds of the National Mall.
At the conclusion of the talk, a woman in the audience approached Firstenberg to talk further about her personal connection to the subject, having lost someone to COVID. She was emotional, and it was a moment and a conversation that the artist has come to expect since she has had a number of those conversations due to her creation of In America: Remember. Observing it as it happened – even from a respectful distance – was an immediate reminder of how art like that, and a film like this, can connect with us, touch us, and inspire a deeper look inward as to how we truly feel about things like the pandemic and how it has impacted us. Firstenberg’s care and empathy, which was already clear from the discussion on stage, were (and are) heartening to see and hear and added another layer to the SXSW experience.
At SXSW’s Filmmaker Awards, held at the famous Paramount Theater, Jamie Meltzer and Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg were on hand to experience the wonderful moment when your name and the title of the film gets called to receive an award. In giving the film a Special Jury Prize for Visual Reflection, the jury stated, “In a simple, yet profoundly moving way, Not even for a moment do things stand still allows us to sincerely reflect on the lives we have lost over the past two years. The poetic visual language gives us a new perspective on a sadly familiar topic of love, life and loss.”
With one more screening to go, director Jamie Meltzer had to go home, so producer Annie Marr and producer and In America: Remember artist Suzanne Firstenberg took center stage to speak on behalf of the (now) award-winning film at its second SXSW screening at Alamo Drafthouse.
It was a nice moment for the film’s producers to be front and center and handed the microphone to talk about the film (that doesn’t always happen for producers). It was also an important moment for Firstenberg to talk to the film audience and expand on her perspective as the artist whose work was the subject. Similar to the experience at the Bullock Museum, Firstenberg was later approached by an audience member who lost someone to COVID. They talked about how the film – and her art – had touched them. It was a very appropriate way to punctuate the filmmaking team’s time in Austin and at the film festival.
