director's statement

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

'The Day After' was not a film I expected to make.

I was deep in the mire of trying to figure out what my next feature project is and could be.

And then the 24th February 2022 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine happened ...

Waking up to a changed world the next morning I found myself drawn to making a long, glacially slow soundtrack of controlled feedback. In that moment it seemed to be the only response I could make, a moment when any words I could write seemed utterly insubstantial and meaningless.

The following week I started to repeatedly process, re-process and re-process moving image through the equivalents of the analogue and digital techniques I was already using to extensively smudge, magnify, stretch, warp and layer the score. I was aiming to push sight and sound beyond any narrative or recognisable form towards pure abstraction.

'The Day After' is not a political or consciousness-raising film - there are plenty of individuals and institutions who are much better informed and aligned than myself to direct and inspire acts of kindness and awareness. Rather, this artwork is just one person's individual attempt to prayerfully and quietly lament the brutally unleashed tragedy and insanity now laid before us.


Friday 17 June 2022