A Short Film

My first deliberate collaboration was an autobiographical film titled I Am Niall made with the filmmaker Nicholas Turvey. The 34 minute piece was filmed over a period of about three months. Whilst Turvey and I were the primary collaborators, we recruited a crew (made up of friends). All are credited on a linocut poster I made as an advertisement for the film.

The poster is the first in a series of manifestos I created as contractual agreements with my collaborators. The poster for the film is considered a manifesto as it was made prematurely to motivate the crew to finish the project. A film poster demands a film and our enthusiasm for the project had been waning.

Givan Lötz recorded a piece of music that would serve as the 'soundtrack' for the film, just before the completion of the final edit.

I Am Niall was shot in the mode of Cinéma vérité (French: "truth cinema"), a form of film making that avoids artificiality (direction, a script) and has the appearance of real life. We decided to adopt this approach in an attempt to convey a sense of honesty in portraying the everyday, mundane struggle of an artist producing and finally exhibiting a single print.

The narrative of the film has become a document of the collaborative interchange between myself and a filmmaker, a musician, a crew, and all those who feature in the film.

I am Niall premiered at The Bioscope independent cinema in Maboneng, Johannesburg, on May 8th, 2014.