par[ad]oxysm

CREDITS:

2008-2013, 13 minutes
PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY: Emily McMehen
CO-PRODUCED BY: Geoffrey Sautner
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Kulshat Medikhat
Special thanks: John Williams, Hikaru Kitai, Circus Mongolia, Tsa Tsa, Hongorra, Danshgmaa, Irdnchimeg, Ynajmaa, Byamptcetceg, Aruka, Tsa Tsa, Bolorchmyk, Munkyrtn, Mungun Sarnai, Alton Sarnai, Undra, Otxo, Jenya Baikov, Oogi Baikova

ABOUT:

Investigating a rumour she heard from Jenya whilst traveling there two years earlier, Emily scripted a film that she planned to shoot in two regions, on opposite sides of the country, involving contortionists from Tcetcek in the west, and the Tsaatan people in the North. Due to logistical problems, and her abrupt separation from her translator and driver, the film took a dramatically different form than what was intended. The project follows a hitchhiked path across the country, with corelations to out-of-context images of the Old West Emily began a new project that began with the loss of immediate the impetus of a script or planned project to direct it. The new and many layered project investigates the nature of travel as a means of making art, and the relationship between the origin of an idea and its manifestation in geographical terms between people who originate from very different places and views of the world, but find inspiration and common ground between them

. “In the year that followed my trip, the concept that dominated my thinking was that when an idea happens, its impact is spontaneous and unseen - as the people I filmed contorted for the camera belonging to a stranger from the far side of the world, they were responding to an idea that had begun in London six months earlier. Still they responded to it as though it was an idea we shared, and informed its transformation in ways I was always completely changed by.” - Emily McMehen