Movies

Wolf Gaudlitz is the German guy who got me into the country after that cold night at the border, and he is at “La Source” with his traveling picture show. So it is that one afternoon he mounts his very large movie screen to the side of his truck, hooks up his digital projector and amplifier and speakers, starts his generator, and to an audience of djellaba toting, mutton grilling, mint tea swilling locals (and one would-be bicycle rider), begins showing movies: Turkish movies in French with Arabic subtitles, music videos with no dialogue whatsoever, and at the climax, at the peak of the evening, after we have all been lying on the cold sand on thin blankets for hours and hours and the food is pretty much gone but we are all still huddled around the campfire and wide awake, “March of the Penguins” in German with French subtitles. I finally called it a night around three in the morning, but the film and the party was by no means over.

Movies

Wolf, I found out the next day, spent another two hours after the movie finally ended cleaning up the equipment for fear that the sand would ruin it, so he didn’t sleep at all.

Movies

When everyone else left a few days later, he suggested I play a part in his latest film. He has had some success with his movies on the art house scene and even has one of his films at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and I thought, “what the hell”. For two days I did take after take of walking around, improvising dialogue, saying the most inane things and probably making an absolute idiot of myself. I walked barefoot over rocks and sheep poop, froze for the early morning shots wearing only a pair of shorts, and cannot imagine how my part fits into the grander scheme. It’s coming soon to a theater near you.

Guerara, Algeria