Fallgame

fallingame (2013 digital 4min  58 sec)

A group of children play on the hillside they appear to participating in a ritual or dance. The illusion almost collapses as the children begin to laugh and their positions falter. The introduction of the masks generates an occult or mythical dimension revealing a darker parallel world. There is no dialogue although fragments of an Old Catholic rhyme are repeated intermittently. Essentially though fallingame has a narrative the short work expresses rather than explains. The rural Scottish landscape and costumes suggest romantic and gothic undercurrents. Although the fallingame borrows from early 19th centaury cinema in terms of staging and monumental composition. The film is more akin to pastiche, mimicking the aesthetics of 60s British horror films a part of my own childhood.

fallingame was part of a group exhibition ‘State of Un-Play’, Bucharest, Romania. July 2013, Inaugural ArtLacuna film Festival, London May 2013, 5th Cairo Video Festival, Sept 2013.