I guess I am not the only one that feels overwhelmed by everything that is going on in the world and the uncertainty of what is going to happen. Global economies are collapsing. I feel the system needed to slow down and rethink itself a long time ago, and so do we.
I flew back to Spain before I was lockdown in London. The day before my flight, I went to the library and filled my suitcase up with books knowing I was voluntarily flying into a country in quarantine (at that point UK was not in one). I have spent the last few days going through the pages of “The filmmaker’s eye” by Gustavo Mercado, “Photography and cinema” by Philippe Dubois, “Directing film” by David Mamet and “Film directing shot by shot” by Steven D. Katz.
Everyone took life in cities for granted and now I look forward to taking the bins out because I have a reason to be able to be in the streets. Funny. I was really busy before this happened, so it’s been like going from 100 to 0 activity and I am still getting used to it. I have been thinking a lot about how life in the countryside hasn’t been that affected by this crisis, and how disconnected cities are from nature and natural ecosystems. My grandparents live in a tiny 30-people-town and have their own orchard, so even if the industrial food production collapses with this crisis they do have a back-up plan and will still get fresh vegetables. What is our back-up plan?
My project proposal was based on my trip to Japan in July, but at this point, who knows when we will be able to go on holidays abroad again. What is my back-up plan?
What is Fashion back-up plan too? Who needs to buy clothes to be lockdown at home? Who will be able to buy clothes when, after this quarantine, everyone hasn’t had an income for months? Why do we need to produce fashion media now? I had a bit of a breakdown thinking that our job is no longer essential, but then I thought, what would we do without art, music, literature and films in a quarantine? We DO need to keep creating media content.
I was already exploring theories about ecofeminism that sees environmentalism, and the relationship between women and the earth, as foundational to its analysis and practice. The film I was working on, that was planned for the 25th of March, explored the connection between a group of women and nature. I think I would like to produce a series of 3 short films, the first one the one planned for Margate (hopefully we can film it when this is over), and the other two exploring the same concepts in two other locations. One in Spain, as I was talking before about life in the countryside and the sustainability of it. And the third one for Japan, I am still hopefull that I can change the dates of my flights, so I would like to work on the preproduction of the idea and be able to film it at some point.
Ps. Still from the new Xavier Dolan film: Matthias et Maxime. (Virtual realised last Saturday)
