Flame Schon

Snow Advisory

(The Earth’s Dream)

I started these thoughts
from the simplicity of where it was shot
and suddenly realized that the landscape
is the star of the movie.
The ‘location’ is the story
The land itself & also the land as metaphor.
I didn’t write a story and then ‘scout locations’;
the ‘locations’ had burned themselves into me
begging for a story.

Now it makes sense and it’s easy to write
(because the location is the ‘story’—
the land itself & also the land as metaphor)

And the further realization that over this long stretch of time living here
I’ve become attuned to this landscape
& stoned on its stony beauty—
and its evocative-ness? -ity?
ummmmm
the numinous rockscapes of northern New Mexico

Snow Advisory was shot in ’99
at Plaza Blanca in Abiquiu
and at Tsankawi Caves right near Bandelier National Monument
near the Jemez Mountains and the infamous Los Alamos New Mexico.
These 2 ‘locations’ are really the principal players in this story.
Plaza Blanca—with the towering lingam where we see the 3 women running
with the golden egg while being pursued by unknown forces
in a helicopter
—a place that Georgia O’Keefe was fond of
—overwhelming at all times of the day.

I shot there at dusk with Sabine and her pet wolf
at near dusk
using a blue filter

The dream cave, the womb of all imaginings
was an off limits cave
that we had to shoot in surreptitiously.
These caves were inhabited by long ago native tribes.
On the walls are some petroglyphs—
we see the hand petroglyph which in the context
looks possibly menacing.
There are also caves within caves . . . & dark.
I went there alone before sunrise to shoot the empty cave with the sunlight
and the red feathers.
And I also went to Plaza Blanca before dawn to shoot the sunrise
in the shot where the golden egg
zooms towards us
and breaking apart
disintegrates.

The landscape itself is the earth dreaming.

(so, “it’s all about location”)

In other words
the ground is the ground. Snow Advisory
(The Earth’s Dream)

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