how to surrender
a film proposal for
@panconesi
Last year I had the opportunity to try shibari for the first time. It was thrilling and terrifying, which, if you know me, is exactly the terrain I gravitate toward. Around the same time, I met
@sen.shibari . Over coffee, we kept circling the same observation: how often mainstream shibari visuals are framed through the male gaze, reduced to spectacle, control, erotic display. Rarely is it presented as ritual, as meditation, as trust negotiated between two people. Something we felt better reflected our experience with the practice.
The idea for the film grew from that tension. I wanted to focus on the intimacy between artist and subject, to see the rope as conduit rather than prop. Connecting bodies. An act of devotion.
And then there is the question of surrender. Is it a loss of control? Or something far more deliberate, a conscious offering of control, a quiet statement: I see you, I trust you, I give myself to you. Vulnerability but volunteered.
The film lingers in that contradiction, proposing that strength, be it physical or mental, does not always reside in control, but sometimes in the safety of surrender.
AD & Director:
@by.shubee
Cinematographer:
@pacomefantome @by.shubee
Edit:
@pacomefantome @by.shubee
Stylist:
@iris_laricheva
Shibari Artist:
@sen.shibari
Model:
@meniholodno
Extra: Calcifer
MUA & Hair:
@kiyane.gtton
Light Assistant:
@zi_shuuuu
Sound Design / Colour Grade:
@pacomefantome
Graphics:
@by.shubee @fluxmoniker
Jewellery:
@panconesi
Location:
@serpentaplume_ @alexrash__
Music:
@cureyourself_online @the.necks @janvandenbroeke @ambient.mazzo
Thank you to each of you, for being a part of this project ♥️
Shot on #16mm
Scanned by
@kafardfilms
@kodak_shootfilm
Many thanks to
@stephanewargnier @alicelitscher @manonrnlt @lopezsieurinoffice
@ifmparis @ifmfashionma @ifmfashionimage 
