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By Kate Garner

Gillian Wearing’s Self Made is a difficult film to understand, let alone categorise. Its form is far from straightforward, alternating between documentary, drama, social experiment, performance project and art piece. The content itself isn’t any clearer, exploring the gamut of emotions from A to Z and back again: sadness, anger, aggression, regret, loneliness. You name it, it’s here.

In 2007 Wearing placed an advert in the newspaper: “Want to be in a film? You can play a character or yourself. Call Gillian.” With the guidance of method acting coach Sam Rumbelow - a man with an extraordinary ability to engage with his subjects - the doc follows the seven successful applicants as they learn to channel certain aspects of their character into one short film, or “end scene”. The themes and emotions dealt with in the films vary from person to person: Lian examines the effects of her father’s rejection; Lesley considers her failures to form long-lasting relationships; James confronts the traumatic memories caused by childhood bullies; Dave explores his attitude towards mortality; and Asheq challenges his latent capacity for extreme violence. Needless to say, no two films are the same. Some are deeply poignant. Others are downright disturbing.

I can appreciate what it was that Wearing and Rumbelow were seeking to achieve in Self Made. Encouraging participants to focus on a specific character trait, and giving them the creative means by which to express and explore them, the process offers an opportunity for emotional release. Lian’s experience aptly demonstrates this. In her film, she assumes the role of Shakespeare’s Cordelia, equating the cruelty of King Lear to that of her own estranged father. Her performance is moving and wholly convincing. As a direct result of the experience, she goes on to forgive her father’s past behaviour, working to rebuild the relationship between them.

But is it abusive – even dangerous - to use people in this way? As one member of the audience put it, to “drag out” and hence expose the emotions of profoundly troubled individuals? Asheq’s sequence raises particular questions about the ethics behind the project; in his film, he viciously – and for no apparent reason - attacks a pregnant woman as she walks by. I struggle to comprehend the benefits for Asheq. Should he have even been allowed to indulge in such an act of pure violence? Although it is a fictional scenario, instances of Asheq’s volatile temper can been seen throughout the documentary. Dave’s frenzied disposition is equally disconcerting. Yet according to Rumbelow, such concerns miss the fundamental point of the experiment; that by confronting our darkest fantasies, feelings and desires, one is able to view human nature in all its glory/ghastliness.

I watched the film at Manchester's Cornerhouse, and in the Q&A that followed the screening Wearing discussed the concept of “front stage” and “back stage” personalities as the film’s leading motivation, the former referring to the performance we present to the world and the latter to the moment when these “social masks” are removed. Indeed, the contradictions between outward appearances and internal realities will never cease to fascinate. With this in mind, perhaps the documentary intended to blur the distinctions between how one acts and feels; how one seems and how one truly is. If this is the case, where does reality end and fiction begin? Now that is the question.

Self Made can be seen at limited UK screenings during autumn 2011. Click here for tour details

 

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