Shadow Animals

Interview with Shadow Animals

Director Jerry Carlsson
Director of Photography Marcus Dineen
Choreographers Jerry Carlsson together with the Gothenburg Opera Dance Company
Dancers Ayla Turin, Cecilia Milocco, Peter Melin, Zana Penjweni, Danielle De Vries, Anthony Lomuljo and the Gothenburg Opera Dance Company
Country Sweden
Producer  Frida Mårtensson
Editors Philip Bergström & Jerry Carlsson
Sound Design Janna Johansson & Manne Kjellander

Marall follows her parents to a party and during the evening she observes the adults’ social rituals, and what happens when someone doesn’t fit in.
Marall also seems to be the only one seeing the shadow that circulates inside the house.

Shadow Animals has received among others the Special Jury Award and Canal + Award at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Filmin Obliqua Grand Prix at Mecal Film Festival, Dances with Camera Award at Short Waves Festival, Golden Gate Award for Best Live Action Short Film at San Francisco International Film Festival and Best Live Action Short Film over 15 minutes at Palm Springs International Short Fest.

 

Describe, in as many or as few words as you see fit, the genesis of or inspiration behind your film.
It all started with an image I had in my head, an image of a woman standing in a living room having her entire fist inside of a man’s mouth, not being able to get it out. From that we developed this narrative dance based drama about human behavior and social rituals seen from a child perspective at a dinner party.
What is interesting or intriguing to you about engaging with dance for film vs. dance for stage? Or, if you are coming from a film background and working with dance is a secondary medium for you, what drew you to wanting to capture and work with dance?
As a filmmaker I think dance and film have so much in common, they are both visual art forms that are built or rhythm and movement. When I write a script and work with the DOP and actors I work a lot with movement, to me acting on film is a physical task. For this film I also wanted to find a surreal language that merges acting and dancing to one single language. We had workshops with dancers and actors where we researched the movements of greeting/dinner/dancing/mating-rituals. To understand why we do things a certain way, mentally & physically e.g. why we greet in the ways we do. We physically picked apart social rituals, researched & later assembled our own rituals. The audience observes their own rituals as if they saw them for the first time, through the gaze of a child. This also created the language I wanted, merging acting – physical movement – dancing to one single language.
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