Current OHMA student Carlin Zia shares an early foray into film in this 7-minute interview-based portrait of her father, produced in our fall elective Documentary & Visual Storytelling.

[filmmaker] I guess I’m trying to figure out like how important it is
[filmmaker] to me
Mhm?
[filmmaker] that you live here
Mmm
[filmmaker] in terms of what it
[filmmaker] represents
[filmmaker] about
[filmmaker] the way that I grew up and the
[filmmaker] family that I grew up in
Mmm
[filmmaker] right like it’s – I mean –
How did I come to be here?
[filmmaker] Yeah
I think I have probably a pretty active imagination
from reading a lot when I was a kid.
[background instrumental begins]
One of the things that I’ve always appreciated about certain stories
is when the story has a protagonist that’s in a –
sort of a small space, like an attic garret –
so if you picture –
from the outside you’re looking in and you see a little light
shining in a attic window
and then you look up and you see someone in the window
and they’re reading something or writing something
[instrumental continues]
It’s just a room – it’s a room where you’re, where you’re living.
Now, in those stories
sometimes the person – that is their entire life is they’re living there –
in this situation of course I’m not – I don’t spend all my time here
most of my time is spent at work
but this is this place my, you know,
“home.”
[instrumental continues]
My name is Lee Zia, we are in Virginia at 1303 North Quincy Street
we’re in the house where I rent a room.
This door that you see in the back here with the slats on it
is actually the front door of the house
so in normal circumstances you’d come through this front door
and you’d be in this foyer
and this bookcase – you can see the frame – that actually leads right into the
living room.
It’s been placed here as a way to create a small space that’s separated there
and then you go through this door over there into the rest of the house.
[instrumental continues]
It’s small, probably let’s see, maybe eight feet by ten
and plus the closet
which actually has my computer back there
and so that’s sort of my office.
[reading aloud] Hm, “as shutdown looms republicans work on stop-gap measures…”
[instrumental continues]
It’s a little chaotic
but, it works for me.
[instrumental begins to fade]
What is it they say about people who live on boats,
“A place for everything and everything in its place?”
and in some sense that’s where, where I have, you know,
come to some sort of personal equilibrium about this space.
I’ve been renting a room here for most of the last –
could be at least 15, no –
probably close to 17, 18 years
and I’ve been working at the National Science Foundation during this time.
Most of the time was living back up in Exeter, New Hampshire
and would just come down here during the week to work,
but I’ve been living down here full-time for the last –
probably three close to – actually about four years
ever since my wife and I separated and then we eventually divorced.
I typically leave very early in the morning to go to work
and then come back fairly late at night, so
oftentimes it’s a combination of either eating something at work
or coming back here and having a late dinner,
going to bed, getting up in the morning, and going to work again!
[Chuckles]
I used to think that it was kind of like being a graduate student again
where you just – you’re doing interesting stuff and you’re there all the time.
I mean it’s like being in school, we talked about that right,
I mean I was always learning stuff, and still in what I do now –
the challenge – every day is different, almost, right?
There’s some things are the same, but there’s always a twist,
something new to learn and
and so time passes quickly.
But, you know, it’s one of those things where –
you know, sometimes, you know, life happens, right
and suddenly in the blink of an eye, you know,
you’re all grown up, and you’re in graduate school.
Just as an example. [Filmmaker stifles a laugh]
And you know, I have memories of
playing catch with you
for hours on end in the quad,
and that seems like yesterday, right –
well that was 15 years ago.
It can be easy for people, and you know, myself in particular, to think “oh god” you know
“I wish I had done this” or “I wish we hadn’t done that, or that way” and –
but – you know I can’t undo
the fact that I made a choice to come here –
I talked with mom, we made a choice together –
Did we revisit that choice?
No, we didn’t really talk too much about it –
it just – we became comfortable with it.
[sounds of eating, chopsticks on glazed ceramic bowls]

 

 

 

Carlin Zia comes to OHMA from a literature background, having graduated with distinction in English from Yale College. She brings with her a love of language and narrative and writing, and is excited to get up to speed on social science theory and audio/visual mediums. For the last year she has been working on a project with her Chinese-born grandfather to record his life story, and in so doing to engage more deliberately with her own Asian\American identity. After a couple months she learned that what she was doing was a real thing and it was called Oral History. The rest is ongoing.