Aftermath

Aftermath (2006) is a film made by three collaborators: Rosemary Butcher (choreographer), Cathy Lane (composer) and Cathy Greenhalgh (cinematographer and director). It is a 1- minute film played in either a cinema or gallery environment as installation. The film uses colour, cinematography and editing in new recombinative ways. The film deepens and broadens the interdisciplinary research and shared language that was begun with their previous collaboration Undercurrent (2001). The director was inspired to explore the somatosensory and affective dimensions of perception of material phenomena on the cinema screen; in part her influence derives from recent critical approaches to the tactile in film (Marks, Sobchack, Naficy, Deleuze). Aftermath combines footage shot in Southern Iceland with dancer Elena Giannotti’s precise movement in the studio. The film language is minimal, concentrating on the body state; in parallel, the sound shifts between palpable silence and focused representation of the environmental sounds of ice and wind. ‘Aftermath’ refers to Icelandic jokulhlaups (glacial bursts of voluminous debris) that happen after subterranean volcanic eruptions under icecaps and to the aftershocks of earthquakes and tsunamis. The film has been designed to be experienced in two forms: as cinematic screening or gallery installation. The film was premiered at BAFTA, 6 July, 2006 as part of the launch of the Film and Phenomena research initiative. It was shown at the Videodanza Dance Film Festival in Barcelona in March 2007 and at ICMC 2007. It was the first prize-winner for Best Experimental Video at Strange Screen, the Sixth Audiovisual Festival of Experimental Video and Creative Documentary 2007, Thessaloniki, Greece