lavirra

A guerrilla film created in the subconscious, which sees in the reverse. What happens on our arrival? And is it a return? Artist and butoh dancer Cypress Atlas is delivered out of a gaping cave, only to struggle with the elements and diffuse back into the Earth. Is this a story of a death or a story of a birth? Cypress explores the dark matter that exists between the moment of death and moment of birth through butoh inspired movement against the backdrop of the Pacific Northwest coast. With an original ambient soundtrack from jdaugh, brad hamers and Big Pauper. We come from the earth. We drink it. We eat it. We go back into it.

  • Jessica Daugherty
    Director
  • Brad Hamers
    Director
  • Cypress Atlas
    Key Cast
    "themself"
  • Drew McIntyre
    Cinematographer
  • Jessica Daugherty
    Cinematographer
  • Jessica Daugherty
    Editor
  • Big Pauper
    Original Music Composers
  • Brad Hamers
    Original Music Composers
  • jdaugh
    Original Music Composers
  • Jessica Daugherty
    Producer
    Billy Joel - A Matter of Trust: The Bridge to Russia, Thank You for Supporting the Arts, Free to Rock, Aalto's Library, Pawn Stars, Chopped, Concert for Newtown
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    Avant-Garde, Independent, Guerrilla, No-Budget, Experimental, Dance, Slow-Film
  • Runtime:
    6 minutes 33 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 1, 2017
  • Production Budget:
    0 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Portland Unknown Film Festival
    Portland
    United States
    October 14, 2017
    Oregon Premiere
  • Frostbite International Film Festival
    Colorado Springs
    United States
    Colorado
  • A Folk Friend Film Screening
    New Orleans, LA
    United States
    April 12, 2017
    Louisiana
Director Biography - Jessica Daugherty, Brad Hamers

Jessica Daugherty (jdaugh) is a writer, producer, and director of documentary, non-fiction, and experimental film, video, and television. With nine years of experience in film & television, her projects have aired on major networks including Showtime, VICE, NBC, Food Network, PBS, History Channel, and Discovery Channel. She is an artistic associate of the experimental performance collective, The Living Theatre, and creates experimental music and live multi-media performance under the name JDaugh. She produces documentary film, experimental video, and live events via her production company, JDaugh Productions working from both Portland, OR and New York City.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

LAVIRRA was recorded in one day in May 2016 at Ecola State Park's Cannon Beach on the Pacific coast. A group of 4 artistic collaborators created this independent, no-budget film as an experiment in allowing the natural surroundings to influence the direction and meaning in the piece. This was achieved through a guerrilla style of filmmaking and Butoh inspired, improvisational movement, by performance artist and Butoh dancer, Cypress Atlas.

Butoh is often a "dance of darkness," as Edin Velez's film of the same name starring masters Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ôno suggests. Here, the dancer goes deeply inward to the subconscious where they connect and react viscerally to the elements with which they move, exploring the dark matter right in front of us through micro movements as a platform for discovery.

The recordings were distilled into story in post-production and the music was composed to the film, with jdaugh and brad hamers on vocals and synth, Big Pauper on lap steel, then mastered by Jon Elfers. A fixation on reversals, reflections, processes, and dark matter drives the editor's distillation of the dance, which physically addresses the coastal elements with wonder and fear.