Short Synopsis of the film
Roger Ballen’s famous photographic work has been concerned with the interior architecture of standing structures, playing on the metaphor of the mind as a house of secrets and buried narratives. He has created a series of images inspired by the drawings and marks which people make on their environment that link his unique aesthetic to theatrical performance. Emma Calder and Ged Haney have used 2d computer animation and a brilliant music score by composer John Webb to turn these images into a film reminiscent of an old music hall or circus. In the theatre dismembered people, beasts and ghosts, dance, tumble, make love and tear themselves apart, plunging the audience into the nightmarish world of Roger Ballen’s subconscious.
Short Biographies
Roger Ballen (Executive Producer/Original Artwork/Writer/)
Roger Ballen is an American-born photographer who has lived and worked in South Africa since the 1970s. His previous award-winning books include Platteland (1994), Outland (2001), Shadow Chamber (2005), Boarding House (2009) and Asylum of the Birds (2014). Ballen’s photographs are collected by some of the most important institutions in the world and he has won numerous prestigious awards in photography and filmmaking.
Marguerite Rossouw (Artistic Director/Artwork/Writer)
Marguerite Rossouw is a South African photographer who has been working as Roger Ballen’s photographic assistant as well as artistic director for nearly ten years.
Emma Calder (Director/Writer/Animator)
Emma Calder was born in London. She studied Graphic design at The Royal College of Art. She has worked as a Animation Director, Artist, Graphic Designer and Lecturer and has written, designed and illustrated books, for both adults and children. She co-founded Pearly Oyster Productions making many successful and award winning animated films, including The Queens Monastery (BBC).
Emma is currently making a series called Random Person.
Ged Haney (Director/Writer/Animator)
Ged Haney is an animator and director. In 1989 he co-founded Pearly Oyster Productions with Emma Calder, leaving in 2005 to work in Germany. He is now back in London. He is currently working on a new film: Eddie and Winston, exploring the lives of two budding South London Sociopaths.
John Webb (Composer)
John Webb is a composer and workshop leader. Recent works include Into the Light for 2000 children and small ensemble, The Last Plantagenet for choir, orchestra, solo voices and Indian musicians, and The Girl Who Never Looked Up commissioned by the National Theatre Learning Department.
In the press
Sight and Sound Best of British animation – Jez Stewart
The Creators Project Vice Magazine.
Read Steve Kopian’s Unseen Films blog here:
ROGER BALLEN TAKES PHOTOGRAPHY TO ANOTHER LEVEL IN LATEST WORK
Festivals Past
World première The Edinburgh International Film Festival. Norman McLaren Award nomination.
Bedlam Festival Edinburgh
Encounters Bristol
Bend it Festival Oregon
Tofuzi Animation Festival Bulgaria,
Orlando Film Festival
Anim’est Creepy Nights Romania
The Jahorina Film Festival Bosnia
London Première as part of the BFI London Film Festival in the program:Cult / TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION
SFindie’s “Another Hole In The Head” USA
BLOW-UP Chicago International Arthouse FILM FEST (1st Prize Animation- Norman McLaren Award)
Interfilm International Short Film Festival Germany
CutOut Fest International Animation and Digital Art Festival Mexico
Anilogue International Animation Festival Hungary
London International Animation Festival (LIAF) at the Barbican
Boston Underground Film Festival USA
London Short Film Festival
Eindhovens Film Festival Netherlands
Animac Spain
Athens ANIMFEST Greece
Athens International Film and Video Festival USA
Festival International du Film d’Animation d’Annecy
Melbourne International Animation Festival
ANIMATOR Poland. Animation Festival
Animation Now! – The New Zealand International Animation Festival
Final Girls Berlin
ANIMANIMA Festival Serbia
International Kansk Video Festival Russia
The online launch of the film coincided with Roger Ballen’s new book published by Thames & Hudson The Theatre of Apparitions 29th September. The book and the film share many of the same images.