New Jeannette Ginslov films

JULIA's STORY by Jeannette Ginslov
JG wrote:"....Julia's Story: loss, sadness and nostalgia explored in dance video. emotions are amplified by Craig Armstrong's piano work".



Beautifully executed in so many ways. A simple, single-pointed narrative focus, delimited by a breadth of emotion amplified with carefully considered, understated and appropriate gesture.
Was struck by the capacity for communicative value in both the director's camera choices and Julia Mcghee's almost brutal emotional transparency. Not an easy performance to replicate, so nice to see the mise-en-scene choices were kept simple and minimal, so that performance and integrity did not fall inevitable victim to Hi-concept fiddling and over-"technicalising" the process.

SANCTUM 1 by Jeannette Ginslov

JG wrote:"...Sanctum I amplifies the kinaesthetic and emotional struggle of silenced yet complicit women bound by the cultural practice of FGM - female genital mutilation. It attempts to elicit empathetic responses from the viewer by revealing the power of the moving image as experiential and embodied."



Another fine example of less being more in dance-film/moving image.

Even without the overt-socio-gender-political statement and the human rights angle, Jeannette Ginslov has communicated with brevity and power an important, little discussed and even less understood subject.
Whether she actually sheds light on the female circumcision issue is moot. The piece is a little weighed down by overall and less specific notions of bondage and restrictive ambience. Without an accompanying credit-roll narrative the audience may not necessarily get the authors specifically articulated "point".
Too often film makers can make the assumption that the medium is resilient enough subliminally to carry an "embodied" message. Furthermore, that the "experience" of the intention is sufficient. This is rarely the case - indicative perhaps of why so many initially promising choreo-kino intentions go so swiftly awry in their final execution.

Perhaps we might have some thoughts posted from JG on where and how she might take either or both of the above short pieces further, were budget, time or resources no object.

It would be further enlightening to see additional postings from other points of view of both the pieces above.