Teaching Jake about the Camcorder, Jan 97'

 

Thumbnail by Brian David Gilbert

 So far, every post I have made on this blog has been about the forms of film found online on YouTube. I am happy to say that I'm not breaking that streak yet. Also, you should definitely watch this one before reading as I will be going into my theories on the film and summarizing the entirety of it. Teaching Jake about the Camcorder, Jan 97'

    Teaching Jake about the Camcorder, Jan 97' is a short film by Brian David Gilbert and Karen Han. They're a duo that have been making short form films and music on the internet for a long time within a ride range of genres. Generally, the pair focuses on comedy and some lifestyle type videos, but I think the standout piece from the duo is the aforementioned film posted on March 3rd, 2021. 

    The film is focused almost entirely on an old CRT TV playing a tape with the camera slowly zooming in on the screen until it's all that we can see. The tape itself is a recording of a man, Jake's father, teaching him how to use a camcorder. He starts off by praising Jake, saying he's going to be "[the] next Steven Spielberg," before turning towards a dark hallway and calling out to his wife. Wanting to show her Jake's prowess with the camcorder. Jake eventually starts zooming in and his father comes in to help. It's at this point that Jake's father instructs Jake to "[N]ever press the rewind button or else you might record over a precious memory," the tape ends with the father commenting "Are you sure I never taught you this before?". Then the tape rewinds. This time Jake's father has different facial hair and when Jake begins zooming in, a figure is visible behind his father. After the line "Are you sure I never taught you this before?", Jake's father pauses, looking pensively to the side before again, the tape rewinds. Halfway through this repetition, Jake's father speaks directly to the camera. Addressing the viewer as Jake. Commenting upon how happy he is to see him all grown up. He finishes the address by saying "I don't know why-" he is cut off by the tape rewinding once again. In the next repetition, when Jake's father looks down the hallway to call to his wife to come and see Jake with the camcorder, instead of the empty dark hallway, the pitch-black figure from earlier is there. Jake's father curses at the figure. Asking who it is and why it's in his house, the tape rewinds. The figure is gone, and we continue as usual. Until Jake begins zooming in. His father then once again addresses us directly. He doesn't know why we keep rewatching this old tape. He says that he enjoyed our time together but that reliving it through the tape won't bring him back. He pleads to us to stop watching the tape. The tape rewinds. Barely any time passing before Jake's father pauses, looking behind the camcorder's view and making quiet horrified noises. The camcorder slowly turns to see what has Jake's father so terrified and we see... a small, stuffed rabbit. When the camcorder turns back Jake's father, he is gone. The gaze of the camcorder instead focusing on the dark, empty hallway. The tape rewinds. Now Jake's father is holding the camcorder. He once again pleads to us to stop watching, that he doesn't want us to get stuck. He pleads for us to say something before realizing that we, the viewer, are not Jake. The tape rewinds. This time, when Jake's father goes to adjust the zooming on the camcorder, he stops. Instead opening his mouth and letting out a quiet scream that slowly grows louder, the noise continues as the tape rewinds. On the final repetition, Jake's father gives him the camcorder once more before giving him a quiet "attaboy," and then exiting. Disappearing quietly down the dark hallway.

    Now that you know what happens, I want to talk about some interpretations I have regarding the film. The first of which is simple. The idea that it's about grief and Jake's grief specifically. This makes a lot of sense at a surface level. Jake's father even specifically mentions that watching this tape won't bring him back which to me implies death more than abandonment. In this reading, I tend to view the dark figure as a manifestation of death. Cancer is the first idea that comes to mind to me. It lies dormant in the background at first and then becomes a kind of dangerous intruder. Before Jake's father is gone without a trace. What this reading does not account for, is that the possibility that the viewer is not Jake. Even though we are addressed as him, Jake's father comes to doubt this conclusion right before the last two repetitions. That strikes me as really important as, if we follow along with his conclusion, the viewer becomes an intruder. This tape is not meant for us. And we become voyeurs into this personal message. Does that mean that the dark figure is us? An intruder in the home? Gazing in on something never meant to be ours in the first place.

    These two readings are interesting, but I don't think either is completely correct. Truth be told, I don't think any reading of this piece is completely correct. There are simply too many disparate elements that make it up. My final reading of the piece is what it has to say on memory. In a way, the video itself is a demonstration of how memories change and deteriorate. Through the constant rewinds, the tape distorts more and more. Colors become washed out and the lighting becomes harsh and bright. And that's without accounting for all of the differences between each repetition. Just one rewind in and we can't even recall how the dad's facial hair looks. Every detail of this experience is shifting. Going opposite to how a family video should work. What's supposed to be a timeless encapsulation of an experience becomes malleable. The dark figure is perhaps a manifestation of that. An attempt to retroactively place some kind of warning or reason as to why Jake's dad is gone. Is that why when Jake's father is terrified of something unseen, all the camera captures is a stuffed toy? Because there was nothing truly there? Are we, as the viewer and as Jake, adding in those details to a memory so they fit our narrative? This reading also accounts for what Jake's dad says to us. He directly states that rewatching this old tape won't give us the answers to anything. He doesn't want us to get stuck in the past and yet here we are. Stuck. Constantly pouring through a memory often does nothing but distort it. Our perception upon the tape perhaps acting as a corrupting force. None of these shifts change the ending though. No matter what, Jake's father is gone. We do not know why. We can never know why. He will always walk down that dark hallway and leave us alone. The end is the only part untainted by memory. 

    Of course, there is so much more to this film than anything I could encapsulate here. In its sub ten-minute runtime, Teaching Jake about the Camcorder, Jan 97' manages to evoke more emotions than most feature films while still making me desperate for answers that won't come. You should watch it and I'd love to talk to you about it afterwards.