Gabriel Diamond & Myong Suk
Gabriel Diamond is a filmmaker and dancer. He created the Vulnerable Rally to foster radical connections between strangers through empathy. He co-founded a blindfolded contact improv movement modality to allow people to experience deep states of trust and surrender.
Myong Suk lives alone in an apartment on Albany Hill. She misses her grandson. She misses the classes at the YMCA. She loves walking, especially by the Berkeley Marina, along the water. She misses the random interaction she used to have with strangers. Now people mostly avoid each other. One of her favorite things is watching BTS music videos. She loves the dancing. She took a contact improv class with her daughter Erika. She misses being in contact with people. Mostly what she longed for was to hug her grandchild Wakes.
Connection
Process
Even though there was total freedom to do anything I wanted (it was a gift after all) I felt so much pressure to make something good, meaningful, moving, impactful; both to Suk and to anyone who watched the process. When Suk told me of her longing to hug her grandchild, Wakes, I was stumped. Nothing I could ever make could give her the feeling of the person she loves most in her arms. Suk told me about her friend from the YMCA who’d she’d referred to the Artists and Elders program and who’d had a doll made for them. She talked about how much it touched her friend and how thoughtful the artist was to have picked up on that subtle longing for something lost from her past. Anything I could do would be cheesy. Going into the project I tried not to have anything preconceived, but there was this image I had of me dancing outside her window.
It would be a dance to honor her longing, sending her blessings and encouragement. Then I discovered she lived high up in an apartment building. So that wasn’t going to happen. Then I thought maybe Erika could film Wakes and send me the clips and then I would edit them together and show the video to her as she sat by the Bay. If hugging Wakes wasn’t possible, at least seeing him send her hugs could be a proxy. I’d film her reaction. Then the ideas for the signs came. I could tell her how I felt about my imperfect gift, and I could offer an imperfect prayer. This was the best gift to give. Now I want to start a side business helping estranged people reunite and repair their relationships by making films of them sharing handmade signs and doing dances of prayer and sorrow and regret and love for each other.
