The Ballad of Gloria Sedgwick

The Ballad of Gloria Sedgwick was born out of the creative collaboration of writer & performer Bex Carney and myself. The film’s premise clearly comes from Bex’s years of work as a performance artist but it really came together because of the giant circus tent she had set up in the grounds of the old school house where she lives. It was an opportunity that couldn’t be missed.

Though the project came together quickly, almost improvised at times, I felt that the film ought to have a formal sense of composition. Whether we adopted the stylistic look and feel of an old silent film or not, the story needed to be constructed, the turns of action carried through the edit as much as within the shot. Bex had a very specific physical performance that she wanted to be the centrepiece of the film and strong sense of the character who would undertake it. What was exciting for me was to break down a very simple story into logical building blocks, developing beats from the steps that Gloria takes on her way to, up and down the silk. The other important element I wanted to incorporate was a sense of the environment in which the story takes place. As a director and photographer, balancing a sense of context for a story with the small details that make it up is critical, the one is meaningless without the other, and the juxtaposition of the two gives energy to the film.

The Ballad of Gloria Sedgwick is intended as a playful exploration of performance and form. The stylistic approach we adopted was then carried further by Spencer Creaghan’s wonderful original score. The simple playful movements of the music enhance the stages of Gloria’s journey.