Features > Impressions The Dance Enthusiast's Brand of Review/Thoughts on What We See
IMPRESSIONS OF: "wind and tree," a film by Abe Abraham
Published on May 23, 2011
Photo by Jaqlin Medlock
IMPRESSIONS: wind and tree, a film by Abe Abraham
Sunday May 15th, 2011 at 7pm at the Tribeca Screening Room – part of The Tribeca Film Festival
wind and tree directed and choreographed by Abe Abraham
Dancers: Megumi Eda, Abe Abraham, Mina Lawton, Jake Warren, Caitlin Mundth, Kevin Petite
Ritchie Abraham, Kelly Bartnik, Korhan Basaran, Liesbeth Demaer Ingenito,Miquel Edson Banket,
David Gonsier,Grance Ann Greyson, Ane Groteig, Deborah Lohse, Scott Lowe, Marcus Phillips, Elisabeth Rainer
Director of Photography: Peter Masterson, Editors: Abe Abraham,Francois Bernadi, Producers: Abe Abraham, Ane Groteig, David Marden
Music:" Does He Who Looks for the Truth..." ;"Can I Be Forgiven?" ;"Can Light be Found in the Darkness" by Gustavo Santaolalla
"After Celan" by David Darling and Ketil Bjornstad
"Triadic Memories" written by Morton Feldman performed by Louis Goldstein
©Christine Jowers 2011, for The Dance Enthusiast
Like travelers wandering in a dark cave, we are on an adventure, guided by a camera that works as a flashlight. I see limbs, yes, arms, veins, a head emerges, then an elbow, an eye is revealed. The flashlight shifts. Whoosh. Our point of view fluctuates. Is it fear, surprise, or an abrupt fluttering wind that has changed “everything”? We are thrown into new perspectives not knowing why or where we are going.
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| Photo by Jaqlin Medlock |
I sense a line of bodies, a chorus of abstract yet oddly familiar shapes. I imagine traveling in the dark through a Klimt painting, meeting form upon form swimming together, yet unable to see the whole picture. I am traversing a world where parts- lines, curves, shadows and the designs they create-express more than the whole. Familiar elements take on a new identity. Skin perhaps could be a huge landscape dotted with freckles that are really flowers; scapula rise like soft hills from the land; and the spine seems to be a very particular, spiky and beautifully constructed staircase within that. It is all so new.
I hear hissing, panting, growling like dogs, perhaps I also hear people making love- grunting, thumping. Sometimes the world vibrates in reaction to the breath sounds. This adds to the mystery .
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| Photo by Jaqlin Medlock |
Where am I? What is this place? The camera flits so hurriedly that my stomach rises, my thighs tighten, and my spine pushes firmly into the back of my seat. Then stillness. I focus on the slow minute twist of a head, awestruck that such a small movement can, in this context, seem a grand regal gesture. Forearms act as magnificent curtains opening and closing to reveal or hide a most startling, expressive, unblinking eye. When we finally see whole bodies (or at least two naked torsos) with uncovered faces, they seem surreal. A moving head, face covered by palms and firmly outstretched fingers, seems more comforting than these “alien” human torsos that move fitfully, grabbing at themselves, or fall along slow arcs. Our guide has placed such strong emphasis on the unidentified parts, seeing a whole torso in action makes our hearts race.
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| Photo by Jaqlin Medlock |
wind and tree does not live on a far removed screen giving us a story: rather, the piece, acts as a vessel, drawing the audience viscerally into its enthralling mystery. We are connected to the poetry of the body, and to the wonder of the thousands of stories that exist even in the smallest gesture.
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