Few film genres have been as under-represented as the essay-film. Combining many elements of the documentary film with a personal narrative discourse, the essay-film hybridizes two familiar genres, in turn, spawning its own distinct style. This Project and the film, The Past, the Will, & a Brick (available on DVD in the Media Center of Love Library), explores the construction and importance of the essay-film, as well as the methodologies of some of the genre's most notable filmmakers. Combining participatory, poetic and reflexive methods of documentary filmmaking, and using the country of India as a visual backdrop, The Past, the Will, & a Brick is a personal meditation on meaning and memory, identity and change.
