Here are a few stills from “Modern Nature” directed by
@ritaferrando which opened at
@uoftdaniels last week.
I loved this project because it felt almost like a hybrid between my photography and cinematography practices. Seeing the film projected in a gallery space was a special experience for me, because you can really watch everyone else observing the film more than you can in a movie theatre, I had not had this simultabeous connection between both my work and the audience at the same time before.
We shot this film on my beloved 435ES, 4 Perf 35mm, using mostly a 40mm lens. Rita and I graded the film ourselves in premier pro using only a curves layer to give them film a photochemical finish aesthetic.
About the film:
Modern Nature presents a series of portraits of couples and individuals, filmed in public spaces on an academic campus. Here, performers collectively rehearse a script comprising passages from
Jeannette Winterson’s Written on the Body (1992) and Derek Jarman’s Modern Nature (1991). Written within a year of one another during the 1980s culture wars, a period marked by the hostilities of Thatcherism and government denial of the AIDS epidemic, Winterson’s and Jarman’s texts provide a framework for reflection in the present, engaging with the bifurcation of politics and illness and the exploration of spaces for queerness and desire as respite.
Many thanks to the collaborators who made this possible:
Producer: Candice Napoleone
@candicenapoleone
Cinematography: John Ker
Editor: Andrea Franco
@andreafrancob
Sound Designer & Mixer: Stefana Fratila
@stefanafratila
Cast: Julia Hendrickson
@juliajuliajuliajulia_ , Saffron Maeve
@saffronmaeve , Mauricio Diaz
@cuerpo.integrado , Iman Bundu, Chloe Leblanc
@chloe.leblanc , Susannah Height
@susannahaight , and Camille Rojas
Assistant Director: Beth Warrian
@bethwarrian
1st AC: Felipe López Gómez
@altra.films
2nd AC: Ashley Mach
@ashley_mach_
Camera Trainee: Evan Park
@yehseungpark
Location Sound Recordist: Ian Reynolds
@ianreynolds.ca
Costume Designer: Jackie Knight
@goodknighty
Production Assistant: Özge Dîlan Arslan
@ozge.dilan.arslan
Film Lab: MELS
