University of Virginia Installation - Tales of a Future Past
Using toy masks and a sparse theatricality, Tales of a Future Past is a contemporary, visceral reflection on species extinction and the lonely, silent world that will ensue from it.
Interview with Director/ Producer/ Writer Cecelia Condit
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I have sympathy for animals and my recent work has been increasingly environmental in nature. Animals are so often at the mercy of humans, and with their territory shrinking, giraffes have been placed on the IUCN Red list for animals possibly earmarked for extinction. Tales of a Future Past is a personal fable where animal and human lines get blurred. I believe that we are all becoming backed up against a very dangerous wall.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
The narrative of this film is oblique and mysterious, but it speaks clearly and ominously of our relationship to nature and our worst inclinations. I do not suppose to know how to engage more positively with the natural world. However, my animal characters, like other fairytale animals, are of course archetypes for humanity. They attack, nurture and devour as they always have, as is their nature, perhaps.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Tales of a Future Past is intentionally both personal and universal. So much of my work accents the cruelty and dark side of our existence. As humans, we see the violence that humans can do, but we don’t see it as a monstrous part of our species. However, it is the ghost that has a seat at the table of human experience.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
The script started out a personal story about loss. I was filled with the sadness of possibly losing my own children, and bewildered by the violence that we can inflict on others only because we can. But the personal story line began to feel irrelevant in regards to the more profound nature of the problems facing people and animals alike. Slowly I started to move towards a more intuitive approach, exploring a corner of myself that was too deep to confine to a simple narrative storyline. I suppose that the viewer must trust that I am heading towards an unfamiliar, primordial place, ruled by the emotions and intuition.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
I recently showed Tales of a Future Past as a two-channel installation at the Lynden Sculpture Garden in Wisconsin where I live. Several people told me that they didn’t understand it at all. However, Rafael Francisco Salas wrote about it saying, “What is most remarkable to me about Condit’s film is her ability to utilize almost comical props – rubber animal masks and taxidermy models – and transform them into a fully realized dramatic vocabulary. The film requires an exquisitely minimal amount of production to obtain its power. Condit has created a modern fable that lingered deeply in my mind.”
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
Because Tales of a Future Past is not always linear – like a poem, even I can’t see it totally clearly. I just know that it sets a tone that will haunt my work for some time to come. People have said it is so sad, and it is, but it ends with a starry sky above a wilderness. There is still hope.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I wish to bring to the forefront the more hidden voices of animals and the impact we have on the animal kingdom who shares this space.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Certainly, the more people who support Tales of a Future Past - distributors, film festival directors, journalists, curators, other artists and viewers. the more it will be shown and the greater the impact it will have.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I think of it as primarily a two-channel video installation, but it can clearly be seen as one projection in festivals as well. And the focus on animal extinction as a subject is important in that it can be put aside because of how much the human race is handling right now.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Perhaps a good question is “In what way, are the giraffe and zebra in Tales of a Future Past symbolic for the human species?”
Would you like to add anything else?
I want to mention that Renato Umali created the remarkable sound track for Tales of a Future Past. Renato is a composer and lecturer in the Department of Film, Video, Animation & New Genres at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
What other projects have you been working on?
I have just finished a 4-minute video called Pizzly Bear (a combination of a Polar and Grizzly) In it, a darling little toy bear on wheels partakes in cruelty treatment by the artist who pulls him along by a string. This debasement is a stand-in for the larger acts of environmental depredation perpetrated by governments and corporations worldwide.
I am also working on a story about a friend’s illegal abortion that took place 1n 1969.
Interview: August 2017
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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Tales of a Future Past
Using toy masks and a sparse theatricality, Tales of a Future Past is a contemporary, visceral reflection on species extinction and the lonely, silent world that will ensue from it.
Length: 8:45
Director/ Producer/ Writer: Cecelia Condit
My work addresses the fears and displacement that exist between our selves and society, our selves and the natural world.
Renato Umali, composer, created the soundtrack for Pizzly Bear and regularly creates sound tracks for films/videos.
Key cast: Linda Girvin is the Giraffe.
Lynn Goldsmith is the Zebra.
Where can I see it in the next month?
Tales of a Future Past will be installed at the University of Virginia in November and December.