If anyone had showed me a part of the documentary “Strange Powers” at any other time outside the environment of a class trip to the Film Forum, I admit that I probably wouldn’t have given it much of my attention. I would have written it off as something esoteric to a group of people that I was most definitely not part of and would have gone on to more familiar, and comfortable, realms. However, after having to see the film as a whole, I found, unexpectedly, a lot that I could take from it.
The atmosphere of the Film Forum greatly complemented the subject matter of the film. The theater, located on an isolated and seemingly quiet street, had a calm and passive aura. For the 90 minutes that we were inside, it seemed that we were isolated from the rush of cars and people that are so characteristic of the city. It was as if we were in our own little world, and getting a look at the world of Stephen Merritt in the meantime.
This world was of a type that seemed very different from my own. There was a lot of spontaneous creativity and rugged individualism. Stephen was not inclined to fit into any predestined categories and insisted on continuously making his own. He made his own rules, and this is what made his music so different as well. I admired his courage, as well as his talent. His use of unexpected items as instruments reinforced the feeling of going outside the ‘norm.’ When he claimed that he was disliked because he was gay and had a Chihuahua, I respected his ability to be honest, most of all, with himself.
I found myself mesmerized by everything I saw. The lifestyle of the band, as well as their approach to the process of ‘music-making’ was all new to me. It was almost like an alternate reality because try as I may, I couldn’t make it fit my previous structured ideals about what life was usually like. Their laid back manner was refreshing and I was surprised that I wasn’t resisting it as much as I would think that I would. The greatest thing that I was able to take away from the film, was exactly this freedom to view the world without planning out what it is I would see.
