What lead to you producing the film, Ec(h)o?
I have been thinking about this for a long time. I wanted to write about the elements, to make a film about Air, Water, Earth and Fire, and how these elements are suffering under Climate Change, and how this effects our world. I was also thinking about making my film multisensory, so I could address all the senses but also make the work available for all abilities. So, there is animated text on screen as well as sound. This is also my longest film poem, but while it is 16 minutes long, the poem in the film is only three lines long. It is a haiku.
And how were you able to make the film?
Luckily, last year, I received an award from the Arts Council, a Digital Artists Development Award, which was a large amount of money and so I was able to realise my ambitions.
Why film poetry?
I have a background in script-writing and film-making. I started to make films myself, I made two documentaries and I was always fascinated by visual storytelling and art films. The medium of film for visual art started to interest me and I thought that exploring experimental film-making would be a good idea. It was something I could create myself with a small team.In film poems you bring text, sound, and moving image together to create something new. I didn’t need a big team, I could produce them myself. Some of the films I made in the past, I made without any money. I just asked people to get involved. But this film I was lucky in that I was able to create something that without money would not have been possible.
The ring of fire an audience can see at the end of the film required pyrotechnics, a cameraman and a drone camera operator. I couldn’t have done any of that without the funding I received. I learnt a lot about producing and had a wonderful team: Frankie White, John Fitzsimons, Ryan O’Rourke, Tom McFarland. They all brought something to it and I am very grateful.
I think this is the most ambitious of my film poems so far.
Why is Climate Change such a big issue for you?
Nature came into my work through the Lockdown. I live near Kilbroney Park, in Rostrevor, and when the Lockdown happened, I didn’t have a chance to go anywhere, so I went for walks. I was walking around my local area, and I collected footage and I started to think a lot about nature.
On Kilkeel beach I found evidence of sea pollution, but because it was lockdown, nature came to us and made itself noticed. One morning a cow sat down on my drive-way, another day a squirrel came and munched in the bird feeder. The birds sang happily and loudly. It felt to me that the Earth wanted to be heard and made itself noticed. This made me aware of the beauty as well as the danger.
Around that time, I made a film poem, Axis Mundi, in which the same poem was translated into 19 different languages and the translators read it in their native language. This became the soundtrack of the film, while we shot the rest on Spring Equinox Day. I asked the cameraman, John Livingstone, to shoot a 360 degree pan every hour of the day on that day, when the night and day are supposed to be the same length on the northern hemisphere.
This was also on Rostrevor Meadow, near my home and it was amazing to see how the landscape changed through the hours. Juxtaposed to this, we “travel” around the world in 19 languages in 12 minutes. Axis Mundi was supported by the southern Arts Council and the northern Arts Council. That was the first time I really started to engage with nature in my work. I then moved on to make this film. It is called Ec(h)o and it is playing with words, echo and ecology.
Echo is the nymph in mythology who has to continually repeat what she hears from others and eventually she just becomes her own echo, and I thought this is what is happening with Climate Change. The idea is that everyone who is talking about Climate Change is just constantly repeating themselves and no-one reacts. There is not enough being done to save the planet.
There are four elements shown in four minutes each starting with air, then water, then earth and finally fire. Again, the time frame, although it is fluid like a thought process, and much of the footage was collected over a year, feels like a day, as we start in space at daybreak and finish at night. The Mourne Mountains, where I live feature strongly and Carlingford Lough, of course. Nature is shown in its glory, but in each element there is jeopardy, the danger of damage.
