Abstract
RE/POSIT/ORY
Produced by Imperfect Cinema, with music composition and sound design by Patrick James Pearson, this new five-screen film was commissioned by The Box and has been in development over the past eight months as a part of their 'Reimagining the Film Archive' programme, which is funded by the National Lottery and the BFI Screen Heritage Fund.
RE/POSIT/ORY is a five-screen film installation by Allister Gall and Dan Paolantonio, co-founders and co-directors of the Imperfect Cinema film collective. Drawing from the extensive resources of The Box Film Archive, the film seeks to reimagine the archive as a place of memory, absence, beauty and loss
Working solely with archival 16mm and 35mm film footage that shows Plymouth and its surrounding area over a century, RE/POSIT/ORY examines the nature and purpose of moving image archives and their role in and significance to contemporary society. Central to the film is the exploration of issues of community, representation and diversity, and the challenging of historical and current power structures. What can we learn from the archive about the past, and how might this inform our future?
The film was directly informed by the reflections, discussions and ideas that emerged from a series of workshops facilitated by Imperfect Cinema in collaboration with a group of global majority people with lived experience of racism. It also included members of Culture Club, a group that is working actively with The Box to interrogate its collections and exhibitions through an anti-racist lens.
During the workshops, Léonie Prentice one of the lead participants highlighted the collection’s duality by sharing the realities of global majority groups depicted in the clips, stating that: ‘The clips specific to the global majority were at times harrowing,’ but also mentioning the joy of seeing a South Asian family playing in the snow.
‘The moving image has the power to tell a story without words – a sentiment often felt among underrepresented communities. The moving image collections at The Box record people and lives in motion. They’re evidence of undocumented communities and hidden treasures. RE/POSIT/ORY offers a window into the archive – uncovering what was, hinting at what can be and making these discoveries visible for everyone to engage with’
(Zahra Khanum, RTFA Discovery Media Assistant)
RE/POSIT/ORY was screened throughout the summer of 2024 in The Box’s Media Lab gallery. The five-screen film installation is 15 minutes in duration and played on a loop throughout the day to an audience of 20,000 people throughout its exhibition period.
15 Mins, 35mm, 16mm, Super-8mm, 4KRAW
Produced by Imperfect Cinema, with music composition and sound design by Patrick James Pearson, this new five-screen film was commissioned by The Box and has been in development over the past eight months as a part of their 'Reimagining the Film Archive' programme, which is funded by the National Lottery and the BFI Screen Heritage Fund.
RE/POSIT/ORY is a five-screen film installation by Allister Gall and Dan Paolantonio, co-founders and co-directors of the Imperfect Cinema film collective. Drawing from the extensive resources of The Box Film Archive, the film seeks to reimagine the archive as a place of memory, absence, beauty and loss
Working solely with archival 16mm and 35mm film footage that shows Plymouth and its surrounding area over a century, RE/POSIT/ORY examines the nature and purpose of moving image archives and their role in and significance to contemporary society. Central to the film is the exploration of issues of community, representation and diversity, and the challenging of historical and current power structures. What can we learn from the archive about the past, and how might this inform our future?
The film was directly informed by the reflections, discussions and ideas that emerged from a series of workshops facilitated by Imperfect Cinema in collaboration with a group of global majority people with lived experience of racism. It also included members of Culture Club, a group that is working actively with The Box to interrogate its collections and exhibitions through an anti-racist lens.
During the workshops, Léonie Prentice one of the lead participants highlighted the collection’s duality by sharing the realities of global majority groups depicted in the clips, stating that: ‘The clips specific to the global majority were at times harrowing,’ but also mentioning the joy of seeing a South Asian family playing in the snow.
‘The moving image has the power to tell a story without words – a sentiment often felt among underrepresented communities. The moving image collections at The Box record people and lives in motion. They’re evidence of undocumented communities and hidden treasures. RE/POSIT/ORY offers a window into the archive – uncovering what was, hinting at what can be and making these discoveries visible for everyone to engage with’
(Zahra Khanum, RTFA Discovery Media Assistant)
RE/POSIT/ORY was screened throughout the summer of 2024 in The Box’s Media Lab gallery. The five-screen film installation is 15 minutes in duration and played on a loop throughout the day to an audience of 20,000 people throughout its exhibition period.
15 Mins, 35mm, 16mm, Super-8mm, 4KRAW
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Media of output | Film |
| Size | 15 mins (x5) |
| Publication status | Published - 16 Jul 2024 |
Keywords
- filmmaking
- Archive