Ah,Liberty!

16mm anamorphicTo name an attitude black and white suggests reduction, but in this rural, ethnographic portrait the artist unravels a thousand tones of each. How long does it take until this overflowing bath becomes a lake, until the simple forest drive (there is nothing simple here) tranforms these children into airborne angels of light? There is a tender brutality at work here, nothing is polished or smooth or well rounded, instead the advventure of seeing is undertaken ready to fall and bruise, to be wounded by its search. And it is from this necessary wound that the artist joins in with the life of a family grown wild out of doors with the horses and chickens. For its compassion, its refusal of the sentimental, its quick witted montage and dramaturgy of the everyday, the Tiger Award goes to Ah, Liberty!” (Jury Statement, Rotterdam International Film Festival 2008)A family’s place in the wilderness, outside of time; free-range animals and children, junk and nature, all within the most sublime landscape. The work aims at an idea of freedom, which is reflected in the hand-processed Scope format, but is undercut with a sense of foreboding. There’s no particular story; beginning, middle or end, just fragments of lives lived, rituals performed.Funded by London Artists Film and Video Award.Tiger Award Best Short Film – International Film Festival Rotterdam 2008Best Experimental Film – Curtas Vila do Conde Film Festival 2008Best ExiS Award – ExiS, Seoul 2008The Badass Spirit of Blackhawk Award – ICE, Iowa 2008Best Film - Second Prize – Onion City Film Festival, Chicago 2008Special Mention – Videoex, Switzerland 2008