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Maya Daisy Hawke Shares Masterclass Films Proof of Self and Notes on Notes
“A cutting room is a place where you see things that haven’t been seen before and may never be seen again,” says non-fiction editor and filmmaker Maya Daisy Hawke in Proof of Self, one of two masterclass short films (alongside Notes on Notes) that she’s made available to watch on Vimeo. “It’s where a certain amount of magic happens and where the truth gets buried—because ultimately once it’s been captured, it’s no longer real.”
Proof of Self is 24-minutes long and partially explores Hawke’s nagging suspicion that she was “living in a spy novel” while editing the 2022 doc Navalny, which won Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards this year. In the 15-minute long Notes on Notes, there’s a moment where Hawke holds her Oscar and films the intersection of Hollywood and Highland as other award winners walk by while armed officers stand guard.
Instructive, insightful and innovative, these masterclasses on Hawke’s filmmaking practice—from the difficulty of writing voiceover, to questions of ethically capturing unaware (and potentially unconscious) subjects, to relying on drugs for being “creative on command”—are well worth a watch.
