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The Stillness in the Room (2007)
8:30 minutes | b&w sound | 16mm film released on video
A memento mori of sorts, The Stillness in the Room explores 19th century English death and mourning rituals within a framework of time, growth and decay. The film draws upon the regimented mourning procedures set fourth by Queen Victoria, characterized by a strict dress code which included the black "weeping veil--" a veil of black crepe worn during the first year of grieving. In the film, the veil is a dominant trope that serves to reveal fragments of imagery, ritual, and emotive experience. The films edits are also fluid and malleable like the veil. Much of the film was put through various processes of decay, thereby physically implicating the subject of the film in its physical structure. The "Stillness in the Room" is generated through a subtle, quiet soundtrack that incorporates components of Emily Dickinson's funeral poems.
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5 Cents a Peek (2007)
6:33 minutes | b&w sound | 16mm film released on video
5 Cents a Peek is a filmic interpretation of a poem by Sharon Olds wherein the circus becomes a metaphor for a woman's performance in, and for, the world. The film incorporates animation, archival circus footage and distortions of the female form to explore ideas of performance, spectatorship and the male gaze. The eye is a reoccurring trope in the film, referencing the spectator/audience looking at the subject and the subject looking inward at herself. Because the circus is a spectacle whose very existence derives from performance and illusion, the performative and illusory aspects of the film are exaggerated. The audio of the film draws upon this concept, wherein the narrator stops and starts the poem over and over thereby making the practice and performance of the poem evident.
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Passing (2007)
1:20 minutes | b&w | sound | 16mm film released on video
Passing is a short film that explores the idea of passing (passing time, passing histories, and passing away). To create the film, self-portraits taken in an abandoned home were used as a stage to re-inhabit and reinvent through single frame animation. Mark making, collage and sound engender a new history in the spaces of a vanishing home.
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Souffle Sur le Miroir (2006)
(Breath on the Mirror)
9:14 minutes | b&w/color | sound | 16mm film and DV released on video
Souffle Sur le Miroir (Breath on the Mirror) was made during a four-month residency in Pont-Aven, France. The film seeks to explore how space, culture and geography influence dreams and how consequently those dreams can be reinterpreted through varied technologies. During their residency in the Summer of 2005, Sarah Friedland and Vanessa Woods interviewed residents in the town of Pont-Aven about their dreams. Of 15 the interviews taken, five were selected and reinterpreted using 16mm film, video, still photos, slides and animation.
Souffle Sur le Miroir (Breath on the Mirror) explores the notion of reflexivity, of the dream as a fundamental reflection of the internal. The mirror reflection is the paradigm of an imaginary order. The labyrinth of images in Breath on the Mirror push the idea of how varied human dreams are, seeking to conflate the space between lived reality and dream; or what is real (breath) and what is a reflection (the mirror).
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What the Water Saw (2006)
2:34 minutes | b&w/color | sound | 16mm &35mm film released on video
What the Water Saw explores a mystery at the depths of the sea. The film is structured to mimic the ocean's moods, creating a varied psychological space for the viewer. Equally important, the visual construction of the film moves between form and formlessness. This play between form (appearance) and formlessness (withdrawal) echoes both the ocean's tides, and the idea of light and dark, or creation and destruction (death).
Formally, What the Water Saw combines negative and positive black and white footage with densely painted 35mm film. The ocean's depths are simulated through the build up of layers created through extensive re-photography and post-production techniques. Embedded within these layers lies the core of the mystery, which is obscured and revealed through fragmented bits of light. The layers also function as a metaphor for looking through the recesses of history and memory in an attempt to understand a forgotten past.
