Dark Spring takes its starting point from the final scene from Unica Zürn’s autobiographical coming-of-age novel. Dark Spring was Zürn’s last book, published in 1970, the same year as her suicide (which the book is thought by many to foreshadow). Projected in two adjacent channels, the imagery alternates between wide-angle objective shots and tight point-of-view shots as the young female protagonist’s voice struggles, humorously at some times, tragically at others, against that of an imposed male narration. Title cards interrupt the images, telling a seemingly separate story about my relationship to the book and my own memories of childhood.
WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first Conscientious Objector in American history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Knokke, Belgium. A small mundane coastal town, home to the beau-monde. To compete with Venice and Cannes, the posh casino hosts the second ‘World Festival of Film and the Arts’ in 1949, organised in part by the Royal Cinematheque of Belgium.
After a self-destructive lifestyle nearly kills her, tormented young Anne learns to open up and let go of her traumatic past through a new found passion for boxing.
"Panic Attack!" is a hand-drawn animation from the point of view of a woman having a panic attack. I wanted the transitions between reality and her imagined fears to be seamless, so there are no edits -- it is one continually transforming drawing.
