A Place to Be

A Place to Be is a dialectical exploration of two specific locations and urban conditions, one on the interior, the other on the exterior, while the soundtrack moves back and forth between ambient sounds and music (Satie’s piano music for instance). In a first segment a static image is shown of an intersection in a crowded city centre, the corner of Canal Street and Sixth Avenue in Lower Manhattan, New York. The traffic moves steadily according to an almost algorithmic pace. This exterior shot is contrasted with an equally distant and impersonal image of a couple in a living room, speechless and overcome by emptiness. Time passes. The man leaves the room and a while later he is found outside. The action is stripped down to the point at which it comes close to being simply a series of references to the conventional narrative arc. The characters have a merely figurative meaning within a broader context, which explores the notions of space and time.