The Making of the Americans
About
"The words in the film are taken from Gertrude Stein's 'The Making of Americans.' The subject of the passage is repetition, the idea that there are threads of similarity woven into the identites of 'every kind of men and women,' and that the device of repeating with variations can be used for the gradual uncovering of these essential qualities. Stein's words are dissected and reconstituted in the film according to a strategy suggested by the text, being themselves repeated with 'subtle variations coming clear into ordered recognition.' Generally, I suppose, we were trying to make a film in which the subject, the method of organization and the means of presentation were all equivalent, so as to bring about a particularly intense coherency." –Graham Weinbren
