Return to: ATA Film & Video Festival 2008: Program 1

Case Histories in Psychotherapy

“Case Histories in Psychotherapy” follows the progress of Richard, an Everyman who began the psychotherapeutic process in a previous film, “Not Too Much Remember.”

Questions with Tony Gault

Elizabeth Wing: Richard is a stellar example of constructed identity -- the individual fragments relate humorously at first, commenting on one another, until they are made to conflate into a person (or persona). The picture we have of the subject is built on emotional logic. I see also that you're a professor in mass communications & journalism studies. Could you tell us a little about how your academic interests influence the way you make films?

Tony Gault: I've always been fascinated by movies because, to me, they reflect human consciousness in such a compelling way. They mimic my experience as a human experiencing the world...not only in waking life (as I see, hear and feel immediate reality) but also in how I experience it between my two ears, thinking about it, constructing scenarios about the past and future. Then there's my dream life...moments stitched together by some ethereal unknown power. Movie imagery and sound reflect how I experience the world in these ways. I see images, hear sounds, feel emotions in movies just as I do inside my head.

What's especially fascinating to me is that movies create a sense of remove from consciousness. They let me observe consciousness at work from a distance. This sense of distance is important to me because I believe that humans who aren't willing to examine the nature of their consciousness are doomed to be ruled by its nastier elements. I'm thinking, in particular, of human tendencies like greed, arrogance, dishonesty, fear, etc.

Richard, in "Case Histories In Psychotherapy," is just a doppelganger for me. He loves to stitch together scenarios from bits of reality to prove the world is collaborating in some grand conspiracy against him (see his first film, "Not Too Much Remember" 2004). And to compensate, he builds an elaborate fantasy of control - over women, over bosses and co-workers, even his own death through suicide. Richard, as portrayed in "Not Too Much Remember" and "Case Histories" is ego gone insane.

My individual tendencies in this psychological arena are much more subdued, but it doesn't take a genius to see how these problems exist on a national and global level. Isn't ego run amok responsible for the self-destructive path humans are on? My guess is that it will ultimately destroy us unless we examine the nature of consciousness - in ourselves, in all living things and in the universe as a whole.

EW: How many psychotherapy training films did you look through before you found Richard?

TG: Finding Richard didn't take long. He was waiting for me in a dark closet at the institution where I work. I'm just glad I recognized him.

EW: In particular, I'd like you to tell us more about the film's coda, with children in an art class, and the soundtrack that invokes the phrase "the world can yet be saved".

TG: One of the main concerns of "Case Histories" is how media infiltrates collective consciousness. The footage of Richard comes from a documentary. He is a real person who exists, yet he is swallowed up by a Hollywood narrative ("Strike Force" - an 80s cop show that stars Robert Stack). It's primarily because this TV show exists (and has evolved from a long history of media violence) that Richard becomes such a violent, nasty character. We spend incredible resources creating and consuming this negative bullshit. Imagine how the world might change if we devoted that energy to children and their creativity.

Tony Gault is currently working on a film about language and how it influences our perception of reality. He also hopes to be selected for President Bush’s manned Mars expedition.

Last updated 09/09/2008.