HYPERVIGILANCE

HYPERVIGILANCE is an experimental documentary piece by Michèle Saint-Michel. Part of her PTSD Suite, an experimental documentary collection that includes seven individual films. Each film explores a specific symptom (or grouping of symptoms) of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Borrowing a narrative storytelling approach from director Lizzie Borden, Saint-Michel shares vignettes, allegories, poetry, and sometimes dictionary entries, to create a liminal world where the center of many Venn diagrams overlap.

  • Michèle Saint-Michel
    Director
    Lost Sock Collection, School of Life, Don't Tell Me I'm Beautiful
  • Sifu Sun
    Film Composer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    Poetry Film, Art Film, Experimental Documentary
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes 12 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 30, 2020
  • Production Budget:
    500 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, Archival
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Great Wave Festival
    Berlin
    Germany
    October 17, 2020
    World Premiere
  • Biodedromo Film Festival
    Bilbao
    Spain
    October 15, 2021
    Spanish Premiere
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Michèle Saint-Michel

Michèle Saint-Michel is an experimental filmmaker, intermedia artist, and poet. She grew up in a log cabin near the banks of the Missouri River in America's Heartland. In 2018, she directed her first poetry film, Don't Tell Me I'm Beautiful, that screened widely in the Pacific Northwest and across the US.

Her next poetry film, Lost Sock Collection was named an Official Selection in the Experimental Shorts category at the 2019 Manchester International Film Festival.

Saint-Michel's more recent works include the 2020 collection of experimental documentary shorts exploring symptoms of PTSD-STARTLE RESPONSE film from the collection was an Official Selection at the inaugural Prismatic Ground Film Festival in NYC-and inhale / exhale, a multi-screen installation and appreciation of Anne Charlotte Robertson, was selected to be screened for the Paris-based literary magazine Le Menteur.

Her latest installation film work [[even a stopped clock is right twice a day]] premieres Summer 2021 at the Electric Medway Festival in Southeast England.

Other notable output includes Return of the Unchartable Soul (2019), and poetry film collaborations, including On Shawano Lake (2021), Vile Figs (2021), and The Holes (2021).

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Director Statement

Hypervigilance is a state of increased awareness, anxiety, and sensitivity to the environment often manifests as a need to always scan surroundings for potential threats. People displaying hypervigilance can be so involved in their scrutiny of whats around them, that they ignore their family and friends. They may overreact to loud sounds and bangs, unexpected noises, smells, etc.