Tessa Hughes-Freeland
2021Blank City
Celine Danhier
Amos Poe, Ann Magnuson
In the years before Ronald Reagan took office, Manhattan was in ruins. But true art has never come from comfort, and it was precisely those dire circumstances that inspired artists like Jim Jarmusch, Lizzy Borden, and Amos Poe to produce some of their best works. Taking their cues from punk rock and new wave music, these young maverick filmmakers confronted viewers with a stark reality that stood in powerful contrast to the escapist product being churned out by Hollywood.
Blank City
Dirty
Tessa Hughes-Freeland
Annabelle Davies, Alyce Wittenstein
Inspired by and loosely based on the introduction to Blue Of Noon by Georges Bataille, the title was taken from the name of the main character. It is a short portrayal of one person's descent into a state of degradation. In spite of her affluence, Dirty is rendered helpless in the hands of those she sought to patronise. The shifting points of view of this film allow the viewer to experience the protagonist as she is seen by herself, and how the world sees her.
Dirty
Do You Love Me Like I Love You (Part 6: The Good Son)
Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard
Nick Cave, Mick Harvey
A short film to accompany the reissue of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album The Good Son (originally released in 1990). The result is a determinedly human portrait of the unique body of work produced by the band over the last 25 years, told through those who have lived and loved the music, including close collaborators.
Do You Love Me Like I Love You (Part 6: The Good Son)
Rhonda Goes to Hollywood
Tessa Hughes-Freeland
Rhonda Goes to Hollywood functions in a similar fashion, exploring the very existence of Hollywood's stars as merely social constructions. The film follows Rhonda Zwillinger as she reenacts glamour poses in her camp/trash bedroom, and as she walks down Hollywood Boulevard. This is intercut with found footage (depicting various stars, such as Elvis, Bardot, Marilyn etc), which, like that in Play Boy, is re-photographed and fucked up so that the celluloid itself is as much of the film's theme as the images it depicts. The film thus positions the ironic glamorous stances of Rhonda as part of a series of repetitious gestures which serve to signify glamour and stardom (for example Rhonda's star on the Boulevard), while film stardom itself is shown to be a transient myth.
Rhonda Goes to Hollywood
Instinct
Tessa Hughes-Freeland
Originally one side of a live multiple projection, INSTINCT mixes irrationally convergent imagery. An iconography of the intangible and intuitive, time lapses as elemental aspects of the female psyche. Psychedelic disorder and repetition, visual collage suggests a alternative syncretism.
Instinct
Rat Trap
Tommy Turner, Tessa Hughes-Freeland
A no-holds-barred portrait of addiction, RAT TRAP is an unflinching portrayal of a junkie injecting heroin cut with footage of (already expired) rodents being tortured and maimed, all underscored by a fiery guitar rock solo, painting a grim picture of numbing daily grind, dependency, and domestic urban squalor.
Rat Trap
Do You Love Me Like I Love You (Part 1: From Her to Eternity)
Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard
Nick Cave, Mick Harvey
A short film to accompany the reissue of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album From Her to Eternity (originally released in 1984). The result is a determinedly human portrait of the unique body of work produced by the band over the last 25 years, told through those who have lived and loved the music, including close collaborators.
Do You Love Me Like I Love You (Part 1: From Her to Eternity)