Chan' s Tin Drum Trilogy

Chan'> s Tin Drum Trilogy is new media, a collage of inspirations. Satire, art and Chans's video ambiance realism. Some from red states including his home state Nebraska would call his work anti-American and pornographic. Others may find his documentaries z-grade. His narrative would not play well at a McCain- Palin rally, here in Tucson today. (March 25, 2010) Palin is stumping for McCain. Deirde Boyle articulate lecture and essay Sleeping with the Enemy:Paul Chan's Flirtatious Tin Drum Trilogy, was insightful. Chan's work is exploratory in the documentary genres. Chasing the boundaries of blurry out of focus video recording. My own taste's chases the more classical form of the "documentary". How do we mix and match Pauline Kael and Robert Mapplethorpe in the context of Chan's work. Oskar in The Tin Drum was an innocent character, reacting to forces around him, he was living the nightmare of Nazi oppression in WWll. Chan is a bystander, a voyeur of the political disaster of Bush, Chaney and Rumsfeld. As the Iraq genocide was unfolded and ignored by "W", documentaries were begging to made, distributed and watched. It is hard to glorify the work, because it is so lopsided and reactionary, alienating the red republicans and independents. But I digress into the "peace maker" documentary, explaining, discussing, outlining. Letting the images be the narrative, without objectification, closing the gap between red and blue.