2024 | Italy, United Kingdom | Short

Leisure, Utopic

  • English French 2 mins
  • Director | Beatrice Gibson
  • Writer | Bernadette Mayer
  • Producer | Beatrice Gibson

STATUS: Released

This film is currently not available.   

Interior, dim light: a young boy sits at a desk, his mother at his side; he reads a text printed on a sheet of paper placed in front of him. Exterior, sunlight: the end of a meal in the garden, hands clearing away plates, another child hiding his joy behind a strange mask of white fur, which gives him the appearance of a creature from another world. This short film is the first in a series of adaptations by Beatrice Gibson of Utopia , a book published in 1984 by the New York poet Bernadette Mayer. Chapter 4: "The Arrangement: of houses and buildings, of birth, of death, of money, of schools, of dentists, of birth control, of work, of air, of medicines, etc." » From this utopian program in the form of an inventory, the boy reads the development by Bernadette Mayer in an updated version to include other reasons for arrangement: "There is no Instagram, Twitter is what birds do...". The boy reads, sometimes he stumbles over the words, his mother helps him, guides him. The desynchronization of sound and image frees the voices and faces, magnifies their presence: listening, attention, play, joy. The sensuality of 16mm acts like a luminous caress, an embrace. Leisure, utopia: the articulation of the two words states a double credo. 1: utopia, in any case as thought and written by a non-binary female poet like Bernadette Mayer, is a matter of everyday life, a form of life, here and now, one thing after another. 2: utopia is, or should be, child's play. Rarely has the revolt against the world order been expressed with such a mixture of power and simplicity. It lasts two minutes, it seems very small, a home movie , but it is vast, intense and beautiful as the world could be.

Childhood Filmmaking Filmmaking Family
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