Before We Collide

A short film shot on a Nishika N8000 analog lenticular camera consisting of over 800 photographs pieced together. In a haunting encounter, the film captures our fragmented perception of time during the pandemic while exploring the dynamics of mutual support. We are made aware of earthly transience (mono no aware) in a time when the earth seems to stand still.

The analog GIF was created between lockdowns in London, UK and features the dancers Hannah Mason and Paris Fitzpatrick. The latter was recently nominated for the Times Breakthrough Award for Dance 2020. Before We Collide does not give the impression that it is made for me, you, or anyone for that matter. It simply exists as an artefact that can be witnessed, like found footage of a ghostly apparition.

The piece is an assemblage of photographs, each taking a position in the structure of the film. Every image is known to us only in relativity to the next. The experience alludes to the structure of memory, anchoring itself in fragmented snapshots that only reveal the passing of time once assembled together.

Within the GIF, two people find themselves above a London high rise. They mirror one another as they come into a new sense of being. Wearing their new-found way of moving, they are pulled to one another, as if by force. A negotiation of support unfolds as two frames become one. The global COVID-19 pandemic has turned touch into a precarious act, fracturing relationships we used to depend upon for support. Desiring to rebuild trust, the characters participate in a game of give and take.

In the pursuit of unconditional support, he lifts her up onto his shoulders as she softens, allowing herself to fall fully into the stretch of someone else’s limbs. They settle in a balancing act and reach stasis by simultaneously moving apart, creating a line between the two. It seems as though this constellation could stay, suspended, forever in time.

The characters collapse and fall into themselves. As one of them turns to address the audience, there is an awareness that this piece is a story about all of us. Even a document with no audience will leave its witness touched. Smoke dissipates, carried by a breeze, representing the impermanence of all matter and experience.

Essay by Helena McFadzean