House of Sound

I can't really say what drew me to it. 

A hand-drawn cardboard CD case on a small shelf in the back of the bookstore. The duo-tone building depicted there with no signage to reveal its identity. A label on the back. House of Sound. Handing out Joy. An impulse purchase.

A black and white movie on the dvd inside the case, the name handwritten with a sharpie. A short film by an artist named Vanessa Renwick. I put the dvd in my computer, with no idea what to expect.

The presence of absence.

Hemingway wrote a long short story once called "The Big Two-Hearted River" about a solitary man's camping and fishing trip on the Upper Peninsula of northern Michigan. It is famous because while the author never mentions it, you come to realize that his real subject is the War, and the detailed rituals he describes his character partaking in are part of the unspoken healing process of a wounded veteran soldier returning to a childhood idyll.

Renwick seems to be employing a similar strategy here, as the over ten minute film consists of a beautifully choreographed series of static and tracking shots of a vacant lot that has been fenced in amidst a spare neighborhood of other vacant lots and an occasional house.

From the voiceover dialogue of a nostalgia-tinged conversation that might be a radio show, we come to learn the subject of her film is a long-gone record shop in the black neighborhood of North Portland that was called The House of Sound. Ending with a composed rap by a hip-hop artist called WONE, the film moves from slightly boring to hypnotic to deeply moving as you dial in deeper and deeper to the mood she weaves and the sense of place, of loss, and of celebration.

For some reason watching the movie had the profound effect of making me desperate to see the building that comes to be defined by its absence. Here are the only few images I was able to find online.

  

 

According to the film the owner of the store had an amazing gift for putting on the vinyl that his customers would want to hear and purchase. He'd see someone coming from down the street and by the time they came in the door he'd have selected just the right cut of soul or R&B or Motown or later Funk to make them walk out the door with a stack of new albums. Also a pioneer in the art of mix tapes, the bootleg 8 tracks from the House are legend.

I can't really say what drew me to it. 

But thanks to Vanessa Renwick for capturing the sweet soul of this North Portland landmark in a way that a more conventional documentary could never hope to achieve.

william
 
 

 

Comments

[Diane]

So much of Savannah looks like this--a throwback to Walker Evans. A reminder of the grinding poverty and racism that exists here. But, right now, I am captivated by the pretty, by the greenery and the loving care that has been lavished on beautiful old architecture.

http://magpiepie.blogspot.com/

[Richard Herskowitz]

This is a nice post about a terrific film. I saw and admired it in the Portland International Film Festival a few months ago. Hope you don't mind that I re-posted this on Vanessa Renwick's Facebook page.

[Vanessa Renwick]

Hey, thanks a zillion for the very kind words, and Richard, thanks for alerting me to them.
I am off to Berlin to share the film and some other works of mine in the morning.
Vanessa
p.s. the link was toast...the correct link for me is odoka.org