Invisible Woman
Aug. 5th, 2009 08:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingbootBehind every great man...
I've been a bit ill over the last 24 hours; weirdly, my creativity is sparking up and more than one new project is waking in my head. Not that I know how to carry these through of course; they're just randoms in my head.
Amie Huguenard. I learned this name last night on watching Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man, a film based on the life and footage of Timothy Treadwell. Treadwell was an amateur wildlife enthusiast, with a special interest in the Bears of the Alaskan peninsula. He would spend summers there, getting phenomenally close to the bears. The last two seasons he was joined there by his girlfriend, Amie.
In 100 hours (I think) of footage in which Timmy bounces from friendly foxes to growling grizzlies (he bestows them monickers like 'Mickey' and 'Mr Chocolate') Amie turns up twice, momentarily, once with her hair and hands obscuring her face, once with a mosquito net covering her. We never get to see Amie properly let alone know her, though some sources do cite other footage, claiming she sits close to some bears and is very uneasy at their proximity. Again, not seen. But in the end, she can be heard.
One night at the end of the season, when food was unusually scarce, a visitor found Timmy's camp. The camera wasn't on, but the audio was. Herzog's documentary doesn't play the recording, but it is described to us: Timmy moaning and telling Amie to run away... and Amie hitting a grizzly bear with a frying pan, fighting for her life (and his) for 6 minutes.
6 minutes.
What was at the heart of her then? They say she was deeply in love. Was this what made her stay and fight? Or primal shock/fear? Or nowhere else to go in the middle of the night? Was there ever the moment of realising that Timmy's way might not be her way? He is quoted as believing(some say wishing) to die eaten by bears, considering it an honour. On a shamanic level, there's a sense in it, though I wonder if he knew what he was wishing for. But Amie?
She didn't want to die, clearly.
It's such an irony that we barely see her and her words are reported to us. Invisible Woman, not exactly waltzing with the wild. I went to bed on this thought and woke this morning, wondering where Amie's documentary is.
I've been a bit ill over the last 24 hours; weirdly, my creativity is sparking up and more than one new project is waking in my head. Not that I know how to carry these through of course; they're just randoms in my head.
Amie Huguenard. I learned this name last night on watching Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man, a film based on the life and footage of Timothy Treadwell. Treadwell was an amateur wildlife enthusiast, with a special interest in the Bears of the Alaskan peninsula. He would spend summers there, getting phenomenally close to the bears. The last two seasons he was joined there by his girlfriend, Amie.
In 100 hours (I think) of footage in which Timmy bounces from friendly foxes to growling grizzlies (he bestows them monickers like 'Mickey' and 'Mr Chocolate') Amie turns up twice, momentarily, once with her hair and hands obscuring her face, once with a mosquito net covering her. We never get to see Amie properly let alone know her, though some sources do cite other footage, claiming she sits close to some bears and is very uneasy at their proximity. Again, not seen. But in the end, she can be heard.
One night at the end of the season, when food was unusually scarce, a visitor found Timmy's camp. The camera wasn't on, but the audio was. Herzog's documentary doesn't play the recording, but it is described to us: Timmy moaning and telling Amie to run away... and Amie hitting a grizzly bear with a frying pan, fighting for her life (and his) for 6 minutes.
6 minutes.
What was at the heart of her then? They say she was deeply in love. Was this what made her stay and fight? Or primal shock/fear? Or nowhere else to go in the middle of the night? Was there ever the moment of realising that Timmy's way might not be her way? He is quoted as believing(some say wishing) to die eaten by bears, considering it an honour. On a shamanic level, there's a sense in it, though I wonder if he knew what he was wishing for. But Amie?
She didn't want to die, clearly.
It's such an irony that we barely see her and her words are reported to us. Invisible Woman, not exactly waltzing with the wild. I went to bed on this thought and woke this morning, wondering where Amie's documentary is.
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-05 12:17 pm (UTC)I had heard of him, even read about him a little - and never of her. I wonder how many Invisible Women stories there would be, if someone wrote them down? The ones you find tend to be unbearably bleak, or dark and funny (a la "The World's Wife) - but I find them compulsively interesting.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-05 12:33 pm (UTC)Yes, invisible women, bleak, dark and funny...there's a horrible humour in this story too. According to transcripts, as the bear attacks Timmy, it is startled off by Amie, who then goes over to her beau (she's a physician's assistant) to help him. The bear returns and forces her back towards the tent, and then starts dragging Timmy away. It seems she may well have actually followed the bear beating it over the head with the frying pan...
Invisible women. How to find their stories, let alone tell them?