25
June
14:00
Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast
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aemi & Docs Ireland present: Voice Recognition

25 June 2023 / 14:00 / Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast
This is a still from the film 'Music for Solo Performer'(2022) by Jenny Brady. The image consists of two overlayed pictures, set against a large black background. In the front image, there is a woman undergoing EEG analysis. She is lying sideways on a white pillow, wearing a blue top. The woman has dark hair, light skin, and her eyes are closed. Various attachments secured with tape can be seen across her chin, temples, and forehead, with wires coming out of them. To the right of the frame, there is a cream-coloured wall, while to the left of the frame, there is a black area behind her. In the underlay image, there is another section of the same type of wall, displaying large red EEG analysis waves across its centre. At the bottom right corner of the frame, there is partially visible text in large black print that reads "EEG", with a dark area above it. The overall image has a vintage quality and colouring.

Jenny Brady, Music for Solo Performer, 2022, image courtesy of the artist

Each year aemi presents a programme of moving image work by artists and experimental filmmakers at Docs Ireland, aiming to call attention to the diverse ways artists and experimental filmmakers are continuing to deftly expand, enrich and challenge the conventions of the documentary form.

In this programme of remarkable new work from artists Jenny Brady (Ireland), Miryam Charles (Haiti-Canada), Dan Guthrie (U.K.), Jacqueline Holt (U.K.-Northern Ireland) and Sofia Theodore-Pierce (U.S.A.), ideas around voice and lineage are explored through connections to the body or instances of disembodiment. While experiences of disempowerment permeate the works gathered here, they are enacted as loving dedications or expressions of gratitude for those who have made or shaped us.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with featured artists Jenny Brady and Jacqueline Holt.

Film information
Jacqueline Holt, Nothing much happening here, 2022, Northern Ireland, DCP, 16 minutes
Dan Guthrie, black strangers, 2022, U.K., DCP, 8 minutes
Miryam Charles, Chanson pour le Nouveau-Monde (Song for the New World), 2021, Canada, DCP, 9 minutes
Sofia Theodore-Pierce, Exterior Turbulence, 2023, U.S.A., DCP, 11 minutes
Jenny Brady, Music for Solo Performer, 2022, Ireland, DCP, 20 minutes
Running time: 64 minutes

Jacqueline Holt, Nothing much happening here
Everything is process, life keeps tripping up previously made plans. I get a new camera and decide to make some test videos before I make the ‘real thing’. I set things up in the morning over the course of a week, writing in bed, recording in bed, testing the exposure. Moving downstairs and in a sort of acknowledgement of the diversion from the original idea, I sort through my ‘research’ into piles of read and unread books. Common themes are Margaret Tait, Ireland, animals, ageing, and mobility. Aspiration cleft into the attainable now and the yet to come into being future.

Dan Guthrie, black strangers
After seeing him mentioned on a Bishop’s Transcript held in Gloucestershire Archives, Dan goes for a walk in the woods in search of Daniel, a man buried in Nympsfield on the 31st of December 1719 and described on the document as ‘a black stranger’. Whilst walking, Dan talks directly to Daniel, speculating about the parallels between him and his namesake and wrestling aloud with the problems that come with trying to read the archive at face value and fill in its gaps. black strangers was co-commissioned by LUX and Independent Cinema Office, using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Miryam Charles, Chanson pour le Nouveau-Monde (Song for the New World)
Following the disappearance of a man in Scotland, his daughter recalls words chanted before nightfall.

Sofia Theodore-Pierce, Exterior Turbulence
Seizure dreams, horses, and long distance conversations from bed. Loose reenactments from Marguerite Duras Baxter, Vera Baxter. A year of stormy weather and temporal rupture recalled in fragments. Featuring my mother and other star crossed lovers.

Jenny Brady, Music for Solo Performer
Part-homage, part-sequel, Music for Solo Performer is a filmic reimagining of composer Alvin Lucier’s work for amplified brainwaves, drawing connections between the 1969 composition, speech synthesis and the passing of the filmmaker’s mother. Brady’s disparate assemblage of found sound and image – including EEG analysis, a Jerry Lewis Telethon and the first pizza ordered via synthesized voice – combines to form a densely concentrated transmission of cinematic pleasure, meditating on the relationship between illness and technology with pathos and care.

 

                 


Images:

This a still from the film 'Chanson pour le Nouveau-Monde (Song for the New World)' (2021) by Miryam Charles. It features a large bush adorned with pink flowers and green leaves. In the foreground, a semi-transparent layered image reveals two children sitting on a carpeted floor, engaged in play. On the left side of the frame, a young boy with dark hair and dark skin is faintly discernible. He is wearing a long-sleeved blue t-shirt. On the right side of the frame, a young girl with long dark hair and dark skin can be seen more prominently. She is sitting sideways to the camera and is dressed in a white dress with a blue square pattern design. Additionally, towards the far right of the frame, a white dolls house with four large windows is visible within the overlayed image.

Miryam Charles, Chanson pour le Nouveau-Monde (Song for the New World), 2021, image courtesy of La Distributrice and the artist

Miryam Charles, Chanson pour le Nouveau-Monde (Song for the New World), 2021, image courtesy of La Distributrice and the artist

This is a still from the short film Nothing much happening here (2022) by Jacqueline Holt. In the image, a woman is seated sideways on a green yoga mat, which is placed on a burgundy and cream carpet. She has light skin and is barefoot, wearing a long-sleeved dark- coloured t-shirt and dark leggings. Her legs are stretched in front of her, and she leans forward onto them, holding a book with both hands titled 'Your Pets' Past Lives & How They Can Heal You' by Madeleine Walker. The book's cover features a horse and the silhouettes of two dogs. Surrounding her on either side of the mat are various other books, with indiscernible titles. One book, titled 'BIRD BRAINS' by Candace Savage, is partially displayed at the bottom front of the frame.

Jacqueline Holt, Nothing much happening here, 2022, image courtesy of the artist

Jacqueline Holt, Nothing much happening here, 2022, image courtesy of the artist

This is a still from Dan Guthrie's short film 'black strangers'(2022). The image depicts a man seated facing the camera on a low wooden branch in a forested area with dry leaves, foliage, and debris scattered on the muddy ground. In the frame, only his hands, feet, and lower legs are visible as he reaches forward, holding onto two pairs of shoes positioned on the ground. He is wearing a long-sleeved black top, black socks, and dark trousers. The shoes he is holding consist of men's lace-up black boots on the left side of the frame and black trainers on the right side. We can see sunlight filtering through the background behind him.

Dan Guthrie, black strangers, 2022, image courtesy of the artist

Dan Guthrie, black strangers, 2022, image courtesy of the artist

Sofia Theodore-Pierce, Exterior Turbulence, 2023, image courtesy of the artist

Sofia Theodore-Pierce, Exterior Turbulence, 2023, image courtesy of the artist



Supporting and Exhibiting Artists' and Experimental Moving Image in association with LUX, the Irish Film Institute and Temple Bar Gallery + Studios. Supported by the Arts Council.