People go through life with forgotten dreams. They bravely contend another day when something goes off the rails. A man disappears into the woods. A season is lost. Lovers overcome time. Hardly noticeably, the rules of the world shift. And suddenly new paths open up in people’s minds – Lisa Gertsch
Scenes of lives and cinema, surrealistic, absurd, comic, touching and mostly magical make up the sequences of Lisa Gertsch’s Electric Fields. These fields, both in the meta-tastic way that films are now consumed via electric bits bombarding computer screens and in the real/fictional way that humans/characters are uncertain, sometimes driven bits of electrical energy animating destinies, relationships, the world, are what Lisa Gertsch delights in exploring. And don’t forget: An electric field is the physical field that surrounds electrically charged particles: the greater the charge of an object, the stronger its electric field.
A dead man re-animates whenever the radio is turned on. Here the dead, those who no longer hold that spark, are charged by electrically generated radio waves – and a Chopin Nocturne. The life-giving force of music. Or is it a radio (the object) or radio (the medium) that generates that field?
Once the radio is finally turned off and the old man is laid to rest, his son lights out for the woods, no reason, no direction.
A woman comes into an old-fashioned instrument repair shop with lamp that never turns off. The culprit is its light bulb, which glows with an inexplicable electric power.
A woman applies for a corporate job, frustrating Miss Matters, the interviewer, with her nonchalant and very non-corporate responses to the interview questions. So much so, that Miss Matters defenestrates herself.
A man falls asleep in his garden, wakes up 40 years later, says goodbye to his plants and walks into a lake, disappearing as a storm comes in, building in energy and force, documented in a long and steady shot.
In a rural restaurant a young woman listens to a an eccentric older woman who tells of her travel adventures. The young woman suddenly finds herself in a bar in Rome. As the night progresses she explores the Eternal City, eventually falling asleep in a small public square. She wakes up to see starlings murmurating in the sky above her, creating beguiling, shifting patterns, fields of birds, stunning in their shifting beauty.
A woman meets a man for a bittersweet rendezvous in a classy hotel knowing that this will be the last night they will ever spend together. They speak of life and love. They make love. As her field of attraction diminishes, she leaves with a longing glance at him lying naked, asleep in bed.
The son who has gone into the forest emerges and wanders to a small town. He finds a small bar where he quietly orders a beer. A woman comes in, orders an aperitif, and she melodramatically (in French, no less) subjects him to a drunk harangue.
“How are you? Do you find that an easy question to answer? ‘How are you doing?’ You know how I used know that I was doing fine? When I had music in my head. (Sings a melody intently). I used to hear melodies all the time. It was like a radio of my unconscious. And when I felt bad, the melodies disappeared. All of a sudden. Silence in my head. After some time… The music always came back. Until… until one day it didn’t come back. You never know when that might happen.” She says goodbye to the bartender, whom she calls Moustique, She downs her drink and departs, leaving the man to ponder this brief encounter.
Fields of attraction and repulsion, unexplained phenomena and motivations, strange and wonderful explorations. And the radio!
Turn Your Radio On
Come and listen in to the radio station
Where the mighty Hosts of Heaven sing
Turn your radio on, turn your radio on
Turn your radio on, turn your radio on
If you wanna hear the songs of Zion
Coming from the land of endless spring
Get in touch with God, get in touch with God
Turn your radio on, turn your radio on
Turn your radio on, turn your radio on
And listen to the music in the air
Turn your radio on, turn your radio on
Heaven’s glory shared, Heaven’s glory shared
Turn your lights down low, turn your lights down low
And listen to the Master’s radio
Get in touch with God, get in touch with God
Turn your radio on, turn your radio on
Come and listen in to the glory land chorus
Listen to the glad Hosanna’s golden radio
Turn your radio on, turn your radio on
Turn your radio on, turn your radio on
Get a little taste of love eternal
Get a little Heaven in your soul
Get in touch with God, get in touch with God
Turn your radio on, turn your radio on
Turn your radio on, turn your radio on
And listen to the music in the air
Turn your radio on, turn your radio on
Heaven’s glory shared, Heaven’s glory shared
Turn your lights down low, turn your lights down low
And listen to the Master’s radio
Get in touch with God, get in touch with God
Turn your radio on
– Albert E. Brumley
Lisa Gertsch’s 2017 short film Fast Alles (Almost Everything) was her stunning debut film – a story of a couple dealing with the increasingly burdensome and tragic dimensions of the husband’s struggles with dementia. It can be seen at this link https://filmstudieren.ch/en/fast-alles.