Only a Free Individual Can Create a Free Society, 2014

Running time: 80 Minutes Only a Free Individual Can Create a Free Society is commissioned by FLAMIN Productions through Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network; Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe; Eastside Projects, Birmingham and The Showroom, London in association with Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; Institute of Contemporary Interdisciplinary Arts, Bath; Site Gallery, Sheffield; Tramway, Glasgow and Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp. Supported by Arts Council England, Hessian Film Fund, and Jerwood Charitable Foundation. “Only a Free Individual Can Create a Free Society" revisits discussions that Schwindt witnessed during her childhood, surrounded by radical leftwing individuals in Frankfurt, Germany. The text, which appears in various forms throughout the film, is based on an interview that she recorded over the telephone with a former radical leftwing activist who took part in the student movement in Germany in the 60s and 70s. She questions how freedom was, and is, understood, who has access to it and what political and social structures need to be in place to create a free society. Dancers in theatrical sets recite the interview while carrying out a precisely constructed choreography. The film sets are positioned on a hill overlooking London. Large photographic prints reference cityscapes of London as well as images of Blythe Hill Park and Telegraph Hill where Schwindt’s studio is located. Eleven dancers carry out a tightly scripted choreography that has a strict rhythm between stillness and movement. The signification of the still and moving body is positioned through a precise relationship to space, other bodies, objects, speech and images. All elements of the production are understood within a choreographic schema; set, props, costume, lighting, sound, camera movement. Each element is equally important and should be read together as a melody with a strict rhythm that comes together through a script that might be better described as a score