Sara Cwynar returns to IndieLisboa with another film that works according to the logic of the Internet: ideas interconnect like hyperlinks and associations of terms and searches, going, like Alice, down the rabbit hole. From a Mercedes Benz car, we move on to Benzo(diazepine) and the world is our oyster.
‘It started because I couldn’t sleep.’
From this sleep deprivation comes the delirious ‘Baby Blue Benzo’, which starts with the baby blue Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR – a legendary icon from the 1950s that combines racing performance and elegant design – to delve into insomnia, which ‘corresponds to the necessity of vigilance, to a refusal to overlook the horror and injustice that pervade the world.’ The exclusivity of this car gives it an almost mythical status among enthusiasts and collectors, endlessly fuelling desire and anxiety, while insomnia ‘can cause visual distortion, perceptual alterations and hallucinations’. In 1955, at the same time as the 300 SLR was launched, benzodiazepines (Benzo) appeared, drugs that were recognised for treating anxiety and insomnia. Coincidence or not, the sequence of images in the film establishes a relationship between luxury, desire and beauty – evoked in the figure of Pamela Anderson – and proposes a critical reflection on how visual culture shapes reality and influences human experience. (Margarida Moz)
