“Even you, Ear, can't listen in the toilet!”

– Ludvik

“I'll take you to the horses. I'll take you to the Moon.”

– former NASA employee talking to his granddaughter

“On old long syne my Jo, On old long syne, That thou canst never once reflect, On old long syne”

– Robert Burns, Auld Lang Syne (1788)

“War is declared! Down with monitors and punishment! Long live rebellion! Liberty or death! Hoist our flag on the school roof! Stand firm with us tomorrow! We'll bombard them with rotten old books, dirty tin cans, smelly boots and all the ammo piled up in the attic! We'll fight those old goats on commemoration day! Onward!”

– Tabard, one of the students

“When you work with the cosmos, suddenly you get ideas for how to treat some visuals, like some images that had no intention of being in the film. That’s the freedom of the independent. Normally when you’re making a movie, it's almost pre-set, what elements will go in, so it will have “a unified structure”. But for me, I shoot so many things impulsively, that once I start editing a movie, suddenly there is an imperative for this obscure shot to come in here … or there. You keep juggling until you find on organic flow. You don't have a script, you just do it by feel. You're surprised that audiences like it.”

– Kidlat Tahimik, via

“That very night I found myself in totally different circumstances.”

– Don Roque Busqueros

“These are not pretty stories but they need to be recorded.”

– Odette Robert

Thomas Reichman follows bandleader and musician Charles Mingus in those tense hours on November 22, 1966, right before he's forced to evict his #GreenwichVillage studio.

“I pledge allegiance to the flag–the white flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of America. When they say “black” or “negro,” it means you’re not an American. I pledge allegiance to your flag. Not that I have to, but just for the hell of it I pledge allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. The white flag, with no stripes, no stars. It is a prestige badge worn by a profitable minority.”

– Charles Mingus

Between the banter (“This is the same gun they shot Kennedy with”) and magical moments between the giant and his little daughter, we see and hear Mingus perform at Lennie's-On-The-Turnpike in Peabody, Massachusetts.

Filmed on campus of the University of Michigan and inspired by Alain Robbe-Grillet's concept of characters being born at the start of the film, and dying at the end.

 

Outside of this framework, the characters do not exist.