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see me
A film by Alexander Sargent
Starring Julia Erickson & Patric Palkens
Featuring an original composition by Katie Jenkins
Costumes by Bekah Nettekoven Tello
Commissioned by Chamber Dance Project
Sometimes, it takes us years before we are ready (and able) to allow the people we love in our lives to see us for who we truly are. Sometimes, we don’t get to choose, and have the curtain pulled back on us unwillingly all at once. And sometimes, we choose to hideaway, and to never be seen by the people we love in our lives - sometimes even leaving those people in service to our fear, without ever even giving them the chance.
To see, and to be seen, to speak and to listen, to love and to be loved. This is the essence, the very contract of our human existence. These are things we all struggle to find balance with, yet it is none other than through the mastery of these states that we are able to live a whole and fulfilled life.
As a society, our idealogical pursuit of perfection has taken us far in our material lives, yet these same principles that are instilled into us are also actively fraying and sometimes even tearing apart our relationships. “Unlimited options” and an endless catalogue of bodies make us feel like we have a real chance at meeting “the one”, only so long as we just keep looking!
Ultimately, “the one” is not a person you meet - it’s a person you choose. It’s rather effortless (and of course delightful) to meet a person and to be attracted to them, to have fun and do all sorts of things and to see all the potential in one another. But, as time goes on, the list of problems you become aware of with the other tends to grow, not shrink, and within a few years most couples find themselves reckoning with the many things they didn’t have the courage, strength, or need to say at the beginning, and one by one the hard truths come out and the relationship must either bear the weight or fall.
In the beginning, we dress our partner in our ideals. We wrap them in our hopes and sit them down on the shores of our aspirations, watching for the glorious sunrise surely soon to come. Yet before we know it, we look over to find our beloved has discarded our tenderly woven garments in order to dance naked around a nearby fire being that is tended to by a satanic cult of witch-mermen, and at one point you even swear you saw your amor kissing one of them too…
But eventually our mate tires of their bloodcurdling rituals and turns back our way once again, having exhausted their satanic energies, and they are ready to sit quietly by our side once more. Yet no sooner have they sat back down have we POSU (packed our shit up) and made promptly for the exit, all the while shaking with grief and rage at how this monster you mistook for a lover could have cast your care aside in favor of madness and mania.
Yet, the madness eventually subsides. And though mania is a delightful weekend activity, it ultimately has limited ROI. But now the dust has settled and you are gone, too busy crying in the car to see that your partner has understood their folly, and is looking for you to see if you want your other flip flop back. But it’s too late now and the moment has passed, and these two lovers will be nevermore.
Anyone who has been in more than one relationship knows this tale.
Yet, the madness eventually subsides. And though mania is a delightful weekend activity, it ultimately has limited ROI. But now the dust has settled and you are gone, too busy crying in the car to see that your partner has understood their folly, and is looking for you to see if you want your other flip flop back. But it’s too late now and the moment has passed, and these two lovers will be nevermore.
And so See Me tells us a story we almost all have lived, but specifically it is a story that I have lived, and it was a story whose lesson was so important to me that I made a film about it, and you know what it is they say about the making of films:
“Films! Ya only make em’ when you have to”
My deepest thanks and gratitude to Julia and Patric for your artistry and your grit. Thank you to my incredible mom Sandra Sargent for the gift of shooting on location at the one and only Moor Green Estate, and to my dad Steve Sargent for the use of his famous Nissan Sentra for this film. Thank you to my sister Riga Sargent for her assistance in special effects production, and to my fabulous husband Omar Salas who helped to shlep hundreds of pounds of equipment between NYC and VA to make this possible. Thank you to Katie Jenkins for your energy and your music always, and thank you to Diane Coburn Bruning and Chamber Dance Project for the opportunity to make this film.
From my heart to yours, with love, happy Valentines day <3
- Alex
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