Output details

Poised

I made a 28-minute film exploring the physical and emotional dynamics of a group of young female divers. Portraying the girls on their own, interacting with each other, and under the rapt, imploring gaze of their coaches, my use of the camera combined extreme close-up with oblique detail to illuminate their intensity of focus and their idealisation of grace and ‘flow’. Looking beyond the arc of the dive itself I considered its metaphorical, even metaphysical, resonance as a rite of passage between different states.

Poised was commissioned as one of four artist-scientist research collaborations and developed following my dialogue with Dance Scientist Elsa Bradley.

Produced by Film and Video Umbrella, for the past twenty years the UK’s foremost commissioner of moving image work by leading contemporary artists, Everything Flows was an exhibition at De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea (2012) supported by a ‘Large Arts Awards’ by the Wellcome Trust 2011.

Poised was shown in Spectrum Shorts at the International Rotterdam Film Festival (2013) and was selected for distribution by The British Council Short Film Scheme 2013.

Talks included On Balance: Panel Discussion with artists and scientists, chaired by Quentin Cooper at the De La Warr Pavilion 21 July 2012; In conversation with Gareth Evans at the De La Warr Pavilion 29th July 2012; In Conversation with Steven Bode at the Raindance Film Festival on the 6th October 2013, as part of 25 Frames - a programme of screenings and events celebrating 25 years of Film and Video Umbrella – including a screening and discussion about Poised.