For many colleague film-makers, Jon Jost is a figurehead of what is known as ‘independent’ film-making. With a 16mm camera in one hand and a microphone in the other – a film crew cannot really be any smaller. But a way of producing alone is not enough to make an interesting film. Jost’s oeuvre may have been subject to major changes over the years, one constant factor in his work is his intelligent approach to a variety of themes, some with political overtones, and a special eye for rhythm and montage. Who apart from Jost could appreciate to the full the blessings of the small digital video?A first expression of this is his London Brief. The word brief has several meanings including ‘letter’, ‘file’ and ‘short’. The film is perhaps best characterised as a video letter or report on London seen through the eyes of a film-maker. Jost isolates the word ‘Look’ from the underground signs – ‘Look Left, Look Right’ – and invites the viewer to look too. The lens of his camera is pointed at e.g. an amusement arcade, underground stations, the British Museum and skaters in a park, and for each subject he chooses a different and subtle form of image manipulation. Stop-motion, multi-split-screen, double images and delays of (supposedly) well-known London sights provide a fresh way of looking at things. Jost is also a brilliant cameraman, by the way. Mind the Gap.
