Why Was I Born
Marlon Gonzalez, in person - 2008, 17'26, 35mm, Super16, Super8, San Francisco
Why Was I Born is a film about how introspection influences the way we communicate with ourselves and with each other. The title is a question one might ask themselves when they are alone and wondering about their life. The two parallel stories focus on two unrelated individuals. While tape recording a love letter, a man in his apartment imagines a musician who was never recorded. This thought leads to memories of a past relationship. In the second part, a young woman on a bus remembers a street musician she saw once. His story recalls her own feelings about the early parts of her life. When they both end up on the noisy city streets their simultaneous self-reflections reach a level of intensity that transports them to a place where they can feel comfortable in dissonance. Unable to communicate at first with spoken language they attempt to communicate through music.
Marlon Gonzalez was born in 1978 in New Jersey. He moved to San Francisco in 1996 to study illustration at the Academy of Art. He switched to film directing in 1998 and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2001. He is interested in finding an honest translation of blues and jazz to film.