What Is Real By Vera Examination

What Is Real? from storycentre on Vimeo.

The title screen of What Is Real by Vera has an eye catching colorful image (though I can’t tell what it is) and instrumental music begins to play. There is a fade to a black screen. The music gets softer and Vera uses a voice over technique. I hear birds, water and a little tribal music in the background. I feel drawn into a natural setting. When Vera begins her narrative there is a beautiful image of a tree (you only see a portion of the tree’s bark) and transferred onto the tree are what I believe are Vera’s ancestors. I love this image because it signifies her connection with her roots. I then hear what sounds like a tribal community in the background. Vera sys she believes all of us are born with the memories of all of our ancestors and their memory are in our blood and transcends time and space. She says modern life overshadows this. The story covers a massive span of Vera’s life in a short amount of time and it is difficult for me to feel a strong sense of flow. Nonetheless, I still like and appreciate the story. There is a fade to a black screen then images of trees and the sky taken from the angle of someone looking up at them. Vera discloses having visions to her mother of someone bring horses down to water. Her mother could not see them, but a few hours later there they were. Then there is an image of horses, but the previously mentioned trees are transferred onto them and then the trees reappear. I think the horses were not a clearly visible image because only Vera could see them. As an adult Vera’s mother acknowledged her visions and disclosed she had them too. There is an image displayed of a multi-paned front door window that has almost a kaleidoscope effect, but then you are able to see clearer. The trees reappear and then there is a fade to a black screen. Vera then skips to going to college and working on research about the history of a reservation. There were two books that had conflicting information about the reservation and she did not know which one was true. The image technique displays pieces of the room at a time until the whole room is visible. The camera then zooms in on books on a shelf. Vera describes seeing a large transparent man in the door way and the book she believed held the truth feel to the floor. The images used here are kind of gray and cloudy. Vera then begins to speak of when she was being guided as a social worker to help clients. There is an image of Vera as a social worker set against the initial tree she uses or a similar with the tree turning around slowly in the background. She speaks of her clients getting upset that she knew things about them they did not tell her and told her boss. Her colleagues began to call her a witch. Vera lost her ability to see the images. Vera is on a journey to find out who she is. Finding out her original name is pivotal in her search for self. Vera incorporates lots of family photos in her story. I find this comforting and helpful in finding your true identity. The story closes with music that has birds and the ocean in the back ground with a drum and shakers playing.