Silly as it is to imagine his films getting into a mainstream field, Jem Cohen nevertheless had something of a breakthrough with his last feature, Museum Hours, a small-scale, low-volume drama that was both wise enough to put the utmost faith in atmosphere and human interaction and strong enough to avoid blunders in doing so. The man’s next feature, Counting, jumps around the globe with an omnibus structure to measure the massive breadth of human experience; judging by the first reactions, it’s accomplished something significant.
The first trailer will give you an idea of its scope, taking us from the streets of New York to a garbage depository in the Middle East, even sprinkling in a spastic cat along the way. (The Evens’ “Minding Ones Business” is a perfect companion — droning but laser-focused, single-tracked but multi-tiered.) Counting looks like engrossing, even breathtaking filmmaking.
Have a look below:
Synopsis:
In fifteen linked chapters shot in locations ranging from Moscow to New York to Istanbul, Counting merges city symphony, diary film, and personal/political essay to create a vivid portrait of contemporary life. Perhaps the most personal of Cohen’s films (Museum Hours, Chain, Instrument, Benjamin Smoke), Counting measures street life, light and time, noting not only surveillance and overdevelopment but resistance and its phantoms as manifested in music, animals and everyday magic
Counting opens in New York on July 31.