From an email exchange with Mani Kaul

"The value of an image or a sound (in the cinematographic system) is not in what it is; rather, it is in what it is not."


"When the most important (the most hidden idea) is found (or even sensed), the film will show how rich people are in their minds and hearts, and not how rich the film is in its forms and ideas."


"You will have to think for the film a sequence of scenes and for each scene a sequence of shots that are repeatedly informed of this question on account of their various juxtapositions. Not just raise the question at the end of the film in an epilogue. The question then will simmer between shots. In other words you should not attempt to make a single shot 'say' a thing. Rather, use differences between two or more shots to make the audience raise the question. The difference may in extreme situations amount to a contradiction."


"The relationship between images, between sounds and between images and sounds alone determines the content ( a world view or if you like the question) for the film. Keep only necessary images and necessary sounds. The necessity is on account of their mutual relationship."


"Do listen to others (I being one of the others for you) but strictly follow your own impulse. The project of any film is to find oneself in the making of it and not to merely fashion an cinematic object of high emotional or intellectual kind that is external to oneself."


RIP