Experimental short film and installation, 2018
Body All Eyes is a requiem to the skies, in which archaic myths of flying through time and space collide with the technological world. A firmament that once belonged only to Gods and their messengers, the birds, is now dominated by flying machines and satellite surveillance.
Technological development has brought with it airplanes, satellites and drones with all-seeing eyes observing the earth. Previous definitions dissolve and what signified a supernatural communication and exchange between spiritual beings, is now replaced with a commonplace flow of information. Body All Eyes takes up this meeting between the mythic transcendental and the constructed mechanical, presenting the bird as a disappearing witness and emissary in the sky. In the 8mm split-screen film associations are allowed to move freely, crisscrossing like in an avant-garde puzzle. Bird masks of the Pacific Northwest indigenous people from following tribes: Kwakwakaʼwakw, Makah, Haida, Tlingit and Gitxsan, merge with details of airplanes, zoological collections, birds, control towers, flight simulators and aerial footage. A masked acrobat, creating a performative exchange between human, animal and machine, leads the viewer through a torrent of images into a mysterious world, that undulates in a weightless state between air and metal, heaven and earth.
Original filming format: 8mm film, duration: 14:39, single channel video, 2018
CREDITS
Director and cinematographer: Saara Ekström, editor: Eero Tammi, sound design: Heikki Kossi, Pietu Korhonen / studio: H5 Film Sound Ltd, choreography and acrobatics: Oona Kivelä, foley artist: Heikki Kossi, camera operators (acrobatics): Teemu Lehmusruusu and Saara Ekström, lighting (acrobatics): Ville Tanttu, thanks to: Thom Vink.
Production support: Pro Artibus Foundation, The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, AVEK / Tuuli Penttinen-Lampisuo
SCREENINGS and EXHIBITIONS – a selection:
2020 Amnion, Ars Nova Museum, Turku, Finland – exhibition
2020 Love & Anarchy IFF, Sight and Sound: screening with Heikki Kossi, Finland
2020 FLIGHT, Mostra Internationale Festival, Genoa, Italy
2020 Revolutions Per Minute Film Festival, Boston, USA
2020 Melbourne Short Film Festival, Australia
2019 33rd Festival Les Instants Vidéo, Marseille, France
2019 The Non-Human Animal, Uppsala Art Museum, Uppsala, Sweden – exhibition
2019 23. Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, Jihlava, Czech
2019 Bogoshorts, Bogotá Short Film Festival, Colombia
2019 Edinburg IFF, Black Box, UK
2019 World Premiere at Sheffield Doc/Fest, UK
2018 Gallery Sinne, Helsinki, Finland – exhibition