Why do we point the camera at places, people, and things in our lives? Is pointing the camera at someone exploiting them? Is pointing the camera at oneself narcissistic?

Last April I traveled back to Boulder, Colorado, my home town, to visit an ex-boyfriend of mine from approximately ten years ago. The core reason we broke up was that he chose the life of being a junkie over our relationship. I found him through a friend of his online and then came to have a somewhat intimate email relationship with him in the few months prior to my visit.

I tried to overcome the exploitation of his situation by giving him the camera and having him point it at me while I told personal stories relevant to our relationship and its termination. I tried to avoid a self-important narration and private observations of the story by making it about both of us.

five minute clip: bad compression: