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At the start of this documentary, Director Rene Daalder (Massacre at Central High) seeks to find answers to the questions surrounding the bizarre life and work of Dutch conceptual artist Bas Jan Ader and the circumstances surrounding his even more bizarre death. What initially seems like a doc with a small scope, Here Is Always Somewhere Else quickly unfolds into a small epic, focusing on multiple themes ranging from European emigration to the boundaries of artistic expression.
The lives of Daalder and Ader followed quite similar trajectories until Ader’s was cut tragically short in 1975 when he was lost at sea as he attempted to cross the Atlantic ocean in a 12-foot dingy. Both migrating from the Netherlands to the U.S. as young men, it was Ader’s widow who approached Daalder about making a documentary about her late husband.
Understanding that it would be impossible to remove himself from the film, Daalder explores his own artistic journey as he takes many steps back in order to get as broad an image as possible of what made Ader tick.
Interviewing Ader’s friends and family from both The Netherlands and Los Angeles, where he lived out the last ten years of his life, Daalder attempts to reach some definitive conclusions as to what Ader’s influences and motivations were.
Very much a prodigal son, it was Ader’s parents’ hope that their child would grow up to be a minister as his father was. Although somewhat confined by an upbringing defined by Calvinism, Ader’s parents were nevertheless enlightened and decent people, harboring Jews from the Nazis in their church during WWII. When they were found out, Ader’s father was shot and killed.
It was when Ader initially traveled to the U.S. as part of an exchange program that he grew to love this land across the sea. His desolation upon returning to his homeland is reflected in his work “Here Is Always Somewhere Else,” in which Ader roams about the shore line, gazing longingly out to sea. While he would achieve moderate success in L.A.’s artistic community, he would again experience the same sense of ennui as he settled into the predictable life of the average American suburbanite, married and holding a steady job as an art professor.
As Daalder explains, gravity became Ader’s preferred medium. It was his preferred medium in the sense that he would frequently allow himself to be completely victimized by its effects in his short films. Whether letting himself fall from the limb of a tree over a creek, or taking a dive into a canal on his bicycle, or simply falling limp off a chair, the reoccurring theme which seemed to emerge from Ader’s work was of simply letting go and embracing the unknown.
His cross-Atlantic voyage then would have been, and perhaps was, the ultimate act of letting go; letting go of his past, letting go of his mundane present, letting go of everything which was familiar to him in favor of the ocean’s mystery and solitude.
Although Daalder frequently shifts focus throughout Here Is Always Somewhere Else, the documentary rarely feels disorganized or chaotic. Daalder’s self-reflection is welcomed as it provides a counterpoint to Ader’s story and offers added context for the viewer.
While Daalder most certainly demonstrates a respect for Ader and his work, he does not hold the artist up as a deity, as a simple devotee of Ader may have been tempted to do. Where it would have been easy to go into this documentary with the premise that Aader’s death was reflective of a selfless sacrifice for his art, Daalder instead makes the brave choice of demonstrating that Ader’s masterpiece was nevertheless emotionally devastating to his wife and best friends.
Out of all the questions that Daalder poses throughout this documentary, his ponderings on where the line is drawn between sacrificial art and glamorized suicide is perhaps the most intriguing. And while he may not offer a definitive answer to this question or the many other questions surrounding the life of Ader, it is the questions themselves which shed light on this visionary artist.
The newly issued DVD release of Here Is Always Somewhere Else comes as a two-disc set, with the second disc exclusively devoted to the film and video works of Bas Jan Ader. While it is likely that the seven featured performance, each of which is only a few minutes long, could well have fit onto the same disc as the principle feature, fans of Ader will appreciate this gesture of reverence.
Apart from the videos depicting Ader falling in a variety of ways, the second disc also features what is arguably Ader’s most famous work “I’m Too Sad To Tell You,” in which the artist simply weeps in front of the camera for three minutes. Watched directly after the feature, these videos may feel repetitious, as they are all shown in near-entirety during the documentary itself. If for nothing else, however, this second disc is useful for demonstrating to those unfamiliar with the work of Ader what the essence of his art was.
Additional extras found on disc one include a Q&A with Daalder and Ader’s widow, Ruby Sue, held at the film’s premiere. The Q&A proves insightful as Daalder explains how he struggled with arriving at an over-arching thesis for the documentary until he was contacted by a sailor who claimed to understand the motivations of Ader more than anybody else. Daalder also explains how the input of this sailor helped to give the film an emphasis on the significance of the ocean, which Daalder felt was otherwise missing from the documentary. Appropriately, Daalder’s struggle of trying to balance the artistic focus of the film with a focus on the ocean parallels Ader’s own struggle of attempting to marry his art with his desire to become one with the ocean.
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