Fugitive Images (2013-2019) Selected Works by Andrea Luka Zimmerman – The Evergreen Importance of Community and Erasure

Second Run have been spoiling me over the last few weeks. Hot off the heels of their incredible release of Days and Afternoon: Two Films by Tsing Ming-Liang, they’ve released Fugitive Images – Selected works by Andrea Luka Zimmerman. They’ve upgraded their previous DVD release, which Mark Cunliffe eloquently covered back in 2017, with a brand new Blu Ray release including four of Zimmerman’s feature films; Taskafa, Stories of the Street (2013), Estate, a Reverie (2015), Erase and Forget (2017) and Here For Life (2019). My year has been defined by a rekindled interest in non-fiction and thankfully this stunning set satisfied my appetite for more thought-provoking real world stories. 

Taskafa, Stories of the Street positions us with Taskafa, one of Istanbul’s many street dogs, who is cared for and looked after by a local collection of people. Zimmerman (they/them) collaborates with the late John Berger, whose novel King gave them a key into the story and whose text is used in voiceover through the film. The film introduces the dangers of erasure, one of the key themes in Zimmerman’s work, as they travel from Karaoke to Hayirsiz ada, the island where in the 1800’s, tens thousands of dogs were exiled to die in an attempt to clean up the streets. Zimmerman compassionately captures a sense of community – one haunted by its history and united in an attempt to care for the stray animals that populate Istanbul. The film has a bit of everything; human acts of kindness, beautifully observed moments of the dogs wandering the streets and a willingness to trace and confront historical animal abuse.

In Estate, a Reverie, Zimmerman turns the camera on the Haggerston council estate in which they had lived since 1997. In desperate need of repairs, but neglected and eyed for redevelopment by the council, the film is an impassioned protest against the erasure of community and the dangers of gentrification. The film is made in collaboration with the other residents and the results are nothing short of stunning. Within two films, it’s clear how much value Andrea Luka Zimmerman places on the importance of community. This is thoughtful filmmaking that captures the texture of real people, collaborating closely with them to vividly realise their stories. Zimmerman creates a grand sense of history – collating wide-ranging stories, mapping generations born under the same roof and the immediate here and now to allow us to understand the make-up of the estate. My heart breaks at the reality for those left behind, rehoused without thought, in favour of what? It’s a film that is always mining for human truth and thinking about the human cost. As with the best films that capture the human spirit, there’s so much warmth and love packed in, bursting out from within the bleakness. This is one of the most powerful films I’ve seen this year. I absolutely loved getting to know all of the residents, this is a film made with urgency and with great care and it stands out as one of the most special films I’ve experienced in 2024. 

Erase and Forget tells the story of Lt. Col James Gordon ‘Bo’ Gritz, a famous American soldier during the Vietnam War who was the inspiration of Rambo. In the hands of another filmmaker, this could have been a straight biography, but in the hands of Zimmerman it’s a piercing look at Hollywood mythology and the making of heroes to justify an enemy. I think what’s so impressive about Erase and Forget is how Zimmerman constructs the film; playing with fragments of history and experimenting with role-play and re-enactment to try and find meaning within Gritz’s quite incredible life-story. If being the inspiration of Rambo wasn’t quite enough, Gritz also led a covert military operation partly funded by William Shatner and Clint Eastwood, ran for president and trained Americans in strategies of counterinsurgency against the incursions of their own government in the Idaho backlands. It sounds like the narrative of a Netflix documentary, and yet Zimmerman’s is far more thought-provoking, leading their audience to question the structures which create War Heroes to garner public support and normalise violence. Zimmerman is less interested in presenting Gritz’s outrageous narrative for our viewing pleasure and more so in piecing together for themselves how his story became re-purposed for Gritz’s country’s gain.

Zimmerman’s experimentation with blending fiction and non-fiction becomes more overt in Here For Life, which is co-directed with theatre maker Adrian Jackson. The film focuses on the story of ten marginalised Londoners, who dance, steal and eat together. While the film blends fiction and non-fiction techniques, Zimmerman insists that they perceive Here For Life as a work of fiction, made in collaboration with non-professional actors. I found it personally very exciting to experience a unique piece of work that you absorb as a viewer without quite knowing where you stand. The non-professional actors address camera, stage conversations, re-enact stories from their lives, before putting on a piece of performed theatre at the end. In the fascinating booklet which accompanies this release, of which Zimmerman writes and explains their thoughts and process, they muse on “the need to tell stories in ways that refuse crude categorisation.” As I read this, I literally went back and deleted a few sentences I’d written, reconsidering my own need  to put Here For Life in a designed box. Part of my beguilement is the fact I haven’t seen many things like it before. As always, what matters most to me about films is how I feel them. I felt Estate, A Reverie in my chest and it stayed with me for weeks after watching. I’m not sure all of Here For Life worked for me on that level, but there are moments of absolute magic. There’s that specific human, lived-in texture I adore to the actors in the film, whose faces tell stories themselves. Ultimately, it’s always exciting to watch a filmmaker wading into new territory and I think this is a film I’ll feel compelled to revisit in the future. 

I know I often harp on about the joy of labels introducing me to new directors, but the act of discovering a new filmmaker never stops being miraculous to me. I absolutely love this release from Second Run. As ever, they continue to carve out opportunities for under-appreciated filmmakers to have their work seen by a larger audience. Zimmerman is a thoughtful, sensitive filmmaker who is pushing boundaries. Their interest in the importance of communities and the work they do to highlight the dangers of erasure feels urgent. They are brilliant and inventive and, if you are unfamiliar with their work, I would encourage you to pick up this set and get stuck in. It’s great to find a new filmmaker to root for and I eagerly await the release of their new film Wayfaring Stranger. Beyond the features there’s a wealth of fascinating short films, the incredibly insightful booklet and behind the scenes footage that helps you understand their process. 

Jimmy’s Archive – Fugutive Images: Selected Works by Andrea Luka Zimmerman