Today while reading the CNN website (in a state between sleeping and waking I always mindlessly jump up and down between the NOS and CNN websites, which are both free) I came across an article about deep fake videos – videos about events that never took place, with the potential to distort reality in an almost untraceable way. Even if these were traceable, then the public would still be reeling from its impact, the damage already been done, so tracing would be in vain.
Not entirely unexpectedly, this article included a shot that powerfully portrays modern history: the tank man on the square of Heavenly Peace in 1989. Every now and then this shot crosses my retina and every time it seems like a film, with its own plot, story, hope, sadness, conflict, trade-offs of the characters, etc.
In reality, this moment only lasted a few seconds. Even so, would it be possible at all for a human being – from the age of say, eight years old – to place this movie out of context?
A man with 2 bags stands in front of a tank, the frontmost of 3 tanks in total. Absolute display of power from an invisible hand, controlled by an invisible protagonist, a soldier I presume, a boy, about 20 years old? 23? 25?
Compared to the steel monsters with caterpillar tracks that vibrate with every movement, the man with his 2 bags seems insignificant, small, lonely. But not helpless. And not weak. He manages to tame the steel behemoths in front of him from the first act and from that moment on he is in charge. This man is so heroically great that the viewer almost feels sorry for the tank, its driver, the role he has been assigned by a choreographer who never existed.
Though the latter is not something the Chinese state wants you to believe.
Written on January 29, 2019