A STATE OF MIND
LIFE SHORT © 2011
DIRECTED: MARCELLA LEONE
DESCRIPTION:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
-ARTICLE 01.UNITED NATIONS OF UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
And in the words of Dom Helder Camara [1909-1999] Roman Catholic Archbishop of Olinda and Recife or 'Bishop of the Slums' and social justice humanitarian:
without justice, love and happiness will always be a great illusion
LIFE is an experimental short that plays on the raw urban context of London’s council estate culture and the architectural brutalism, that has become and is a social identity of LONDON Life, in the shadow of the recent summer riots. The ESTATE as a PRISON.ISOLATION UNIT and WAITING ROOM for LIFE in its repetitive and non-individualistic state. A platform into the social justice system that delves into the ‘no future’ mindscape of today’s society, made of homeland battlefields, consumerist idealism and youthful broken notions of fraternity. An escape, from the concrete confinement of social class to the liberation of incarcerated thought, in the daydream of a forest, ridden by thoughts like ghosts and the false truisms of mechanical flowers. A fine line between the real and imagined states of mind, and the restraints of social class and freedom of action, life and thought cross boundaries.
I am determined, the government is determined that justice will be done and these people will see the consequences of their actions. And I have this very clear message to those people who are responsible for this wrong doing and criminality, YOU will feel the full force of the law and if you are old enough to commit these crimes, you are old enough to face the punsihments. And to these people I would say this, you are not only wrecking the lives of others, youre not only wrecking your own community, youre potentially wrecking your own life too
- David Cameron (on summer riots). 06 Aug. Downing Street.
SYNOPSIS:
Words to describe Space and State.
A youth crosses the concrete wasteland of an estate. She passes the common factors of these raw ridden urban communities. A worn down laundrette, the sign as it peels off, with the disdain of society. An off license where kids, go in their hooded tops, to grab a bottle of coke or whatever. The betting shop, where a group of men crowd outside, in the hope to cling onto some monetary hope. A library, as an old man struggles down the ramp alone with his trolley filled with books, he clings to a fountain of information.
Enclosed each time by the physical confinement of narrow corridors and roughened and darkened by the coarse concrete the estate is made off, she continues on her way home, as in any other day, her walk is as it always is, the same with the same corners and the same characters. With each mundane fragment of an ordinary life, LIFE in a concrete state captured on camera.
Arrival at the blue door. Like the rest. Same colour. Same Door. Same LIFE. Narrow corridors. Cold. Kept. And controlled. The nuts and bolts of the place on show, as it were. Sat solemn in front of the box, waiting in a controlled manner and yet in an unkempt state of mind. The previous scenes come on screen on repeat, as it were, like the repetition of LIFE. Then scenes of the MindState come to the screen, as the line between the real and unreal state cross pollinate. And no doubt, the eyes close shut and we go with slurred stillness into the daydreams of this ‘numbered’ member of society. In a tale of escapism, that only exists in dreams, she deadens her thoughts in her dreams in a perpetual downhill spiral. And awakes, to realise something has to change. This time she escapes, in reality: LIFE.
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