Look up - exploring grief, landscape and time through film

Banks, Liz

Abstract

Exploring the spatial and temporal issues of grief, this presentation will consist of a screening of ‘Look Up’ , my short film (2012, 5.04 min) and a paper exploring the processes of interdisciplinary research with a focus on the visualization, in film, of space, time and the body. The paper will suggest that during times of grief our relationship with space and time shifts – sometimes quite radically, but often rather imperceptibly - and we experience a different type of embodiment within the everyday. During this suspended state memories mix with dreamtime to create a less linear temporality, allowing us space for grieving and – on occasion - spiritual uplift. Taking a phenomenological approach, I argue this experience is not purely mental, but is felt, sensed and ‘interactive’. The film attempts to demonstrate this ‘being’. The film is not only a visual and aural interpretation of the grief experience, but also the outcome of a period of study on the representation of a particular landscape. Through a reflection on the very making of the film, I will look at how landscape, with its potentiality for evoking nostalgia and specific moments of recall, can serve as a mirror for the process of grieving. Deconstructing the image and narrative form, I will discuss my choice of aesthetic, mis-en-scene and installation space with the overall aim of immersing the audience in the temporal dimension of loss and grief. Through engagement with the audience I am keen to record and document the audience’s engagement and responses with the film.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: 2nd global conference - Time, space and the body
• Start Date: Sep 1, 2013
• End Date: Sep 3, 2013
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: film philosophy, phenomenology, grief, landscape, time, space and the body
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/928061
• Additional Information: Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : 2nd global conference - Time, space and the body