Life catches up with imagination

This is a story of a film project that came true. Only not in the way I had planned.

I have been developing an idea for my next film for about six months now. The premise is that each scene was going to be shot with a static camera and an identical field of view. Each scene would be very still, but nonetheless alive with some small motion. Trees in the wind. An abandoned street scene. A mostly empty beach with figures in the distance.

To get the right sense of emptiness, I would have had to shoot at 5am on a Sunday morning. Film-makers and field recordists are well used to that! But then the virus came along to make that task much easier.

The film had one further key element. On each shot would be superimposed a giant black circle roiling like the sun.To my surprise this black circle is now everywhere. What I imagined for my film has come true, though not in the way I imagined.

The concept was a response to climate change and political stagnation. The circle represents the ever-present unknown, the other we must learn not to fear, a darkness that must come before radical change. It was a black hole of sorts. But not empty, instead generative and full of potential. 

Now we are living in that moment of change, when some things must fall into abeyance so that others can rise. The fire burns away the forest; new life flourishes.

For the last few of years I've been using images such as these in my presentations, to accompany research on ideologies of nature and concepts of place. This week I saw reflections of this idea on social media pages and websites.

Life catches up with imagination. I look forward to what happens next.

This post is in support of #blacklivesmatter.

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