Notes on the Other

Asia Pacific Premiere

On July 13, 1924, Ernest Hemingway was in Pamplona, Spain when he saw a wounded man lying on the other side of the street. He became consumed with the feeling that he was that man, seeing himself in the near-dead Spaniard who had been attacked by bulls. “I am him,” Hemingway later wrote. Having tapped into such empathy, he was able to develop characters and become a hugely successful novelist.

Each summer in homage to his talent Ernest Hemingway look-a-likes compete in Key West, Florida. For a day, they take on his persona, challenging us to question the reality of our own existence. How fascinating it would be to see what we cannot observe ourselves. Inspired by the photo of the wounded Spaniard in 1924, the film uses relatively simple means to generate curiosity for alternate perception, to step outside of ourselves to contemplate the world in a different way, if only for a little while.