Critical Point

'Critical Point' was my second commission by SparkedEcho to research and create a short film for the Kent based digital festival, Electric Medway 2021.

The film started with research in to a moment back in the 1960's when a young mother lost her life after falling in to a 'Dene hole' - an ancient mine shaft - after the cover fell in. This tragic moment showed that man-made intervention can affect the environment many years in to the future.

The geographical focus was Strood in the Medway area. Research involved online searches, visiting the archive centre to acquire information and images, and on location filming. The film included a large amount of animation and ‘re-animation’ in the form of bringing old archive images back to life.

Returning to the idea of climate change, the commissioned film responded to the festival theme of ‘Synchronised’ and sub-theme of ‘disrupted reality’ in a number of ways. First, this was an experiment with dual channel and split screen video where both parts go in and out of synch throughout the film. This visual interpretation of the theme allowed detailing of similar scenes and the juxtaposition of opposing or contrasting scenes. Another response was through time by linking past to present with the pairing of events or objects such as windmills - which were a feature of the landscape during the 1800s - and comparing their natural power gathering capabilities with modern day turbines.

The idea of climate change was emphasised through the contrast of the present and a dystopian future world over video screens in a scene at Broomhill Park, a local green space and nature reserve which also includes a reference to the Bosch painting ‘Magpie on the Gallows’ in this sequence; a reference that alludes to an event that has already occurred.

The film also features a 'digital' poem connecting the past and future to the present by way of social media and, in turn, its piling up of digital waste.