Amber Bemak

Interview By Changjuanyong Liu

Amber Bemak is a feminist, experimental, documentary filmmaker who currently teaches at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. She was born and raised in a Buddhist family, and has spent over seven years living in Tibet, India and Nepal. Many of her works are focused on themes of cross-cultural encounters. In college, she decided to become a filmmaker and has been devoted to the medium ever since. She has worked as producer, director, cinematographer, editor and sound designer on over thirty films with various media organizations. Her work has shown nationally and internationally in places such as the Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, the Rubin Museum of Art, and Sculpture Center. Additionally, she has taught film theory around the world in locations including Kenya and Mexico.

This interview was conducted via Skype on November 5, 2017.

Clark (Changjuanyong) Liu: When did you decide to become a filmmaker?

Amber Bemak: I was in college. I was thinking about my major, and I couldn’t really figure out what my major I should be. I was in my third year of college, and I had to take a video production class for a general education requirement. I took that, and I loved it. I just fell in love with film, and then I started doing it all the time.

CL: I realize most of your work is done in the Nepal. Would you mind telling me a little bit about why and what makes Nepal so intriguing?

AB: I have done a lot of work in Nepal, and I have also done a lot of work in India. I have also done a feature in Tibet and China. I worked in Nepal as a personal videographer for my guru and his family for a long time. So that was the kind of work I did in Nepal. I made another feature film, When The Iron Flies, that was shot in Nepal and India, but the truth is that I just lived between Nepal and India for seven years. The work that I was doing was just where I was living. It wasn't that I found Nepal intriguing particularly. It’s a long story about why I lived in those countries for so long. But I was just kind of working where I was.

CL: It there any similarity between Nepal and India?

AB: Yea, there are some similarities. Nepal used to be India. They are both predominantly Hindu, and I think Nepal has more Buddhists influence than India. There are lot of differences as well. Nepal is so small, and the government is more disorganized.

CL: Do you consider yourself a feminist?

AB: I am definitely a feminist. I believe feminism is a beautiful idea.

CL: What is your definition of a feminist?

AB: I think of feminist is someone who is trying to support women in a lot of different ways. There are so many ways to be a feminist. I know feminism is getting a bad reputation these days in a lot of ways. But I am still inspired by intersectional feminism, and thinking about the way that feminism can provide a bond for dealing with depression for all types of people.

CL: What do think of the social status of women these days in America, Nepal and India?

AB: I think all over the world, the social status of women is still not that great. Especially the older I get, the more adult that I get, I found that it is really just all levels. Even in my field, the art world, my work is constantly censored and hidden because it deals with the female body which seems like that should be really OK at this point, but it is problematic for people still. I see that in my work, and I see that in my life as a professor. There are all sorts of issues that arise for me as a female professor dealing with the institution, dealing with the department, dealing with students, dealing with tenure...... stuff that you guys probably are not aware of, but it is actually surprisingly hard to be a female professor. I am talking about about cisgender women at this point, I'm assuming that that's what you're talking about. I think trans women have a whole other set of issues that are equally difficult all over the world.

CL: I heard you are very interested in Buddhism. What is your understanding of Buddhism? Is there any connection between Buddhism and Feminism?

AB: I think there are lots of connections between Buddhism and gender theory. I was raised as a Buddhist, even though I am a white women from the United States. My parents practiced Buddhism. I practice Tibetan Buddhism. I have been practicing Buddhism mostly all my life for about 25 years. I have been meditating. Buddhism is about putting yourself in another's place, and trying to imagine yourself as the other person, so I think feminism in a way requires that, and it is about that. Being a filmmaker also requires that you really need to understand and embody, even if your dealing with fiction films with characters, you need to know to be that person in a way or feel that when you editing or shooting. Gender theory and Buddhism have a lot of in common, because they both deal with this idea of “there is no solid self”. Basic gender theory is about performing gender. There are many different genders that you can put on at different points. Buddhism is also about performing the emptiness.

CL: What is the theme of the experimental piece Air Planes Dance? What is it trying to express?

AB: I made that piece a while ago, maybe five years. I was in a collaborative process with my lover who screwed me over, so it is sort of like I was dealing with that through making the work. I also made it while thinking of failure. I made two or three films when I lived in India and Nepal, and this is the second one. It is a way of recording the second half of my time there, but it is hard to explain exactly in what way. But it deals with loneliness and incessant travel. Having lovers, friends, meeting people and then leaving, it really is the essence part of my personal life in film, in a way.

CL: In the film Listening, I feel like the content is more like a documentary, but the shots are very experimental. I think it works really well. How did you manage to blend to genres together?

AB: I started by studying documentary and ethical representation in college. More and more, I started to investigate the form of documentary and get more involved with thinking about forms and thinking about how to disrupt traditional documentary form. There is traditional documentary, but in the art world or film world, documentaries are pretty experimental at this point. I was just tapping into all of that. My experimental films are getting more and more abstract. If you see my senior thesis in college, it was a little bit experimental. Then I made The Listening in grad school, and it was a little bit more experimental. And now, it's just very experimental. I’m still dealing with this skeleton of documentary always.

CL: Thank you so much for participating in this interview, it was nice to get a chance to learn more about you and your work.

AB: Thank you and take care.

You can find a link Amber Bemak's webpage here.