People used to dream about the future

This film is a redux of a visual music project that was originally produced as part of a recent MA in Sound Design. The initial video footage was captured during a coastal train journey between Totnes and Exeter in the UK. The filmmaker was struck by the accidental way in which some of the footage of passing trees resembled experimental and structural films by Stan Brakhage.

The film features a dream-like, haunting drone score, with percussive Railtrack sounds mixed with a 528HZ binaural pure tone. The title is inspired by a Finitribe track from the 90s, and also references Simon Reynolds's book, 'Retromania,' which discusses Hauntology in music and popular culture. The hope is that the film evokes a feeling of lost horizons, going nowhere, or as Mark Fisher puts it, "The future has been canceled."

Hauntology is a sensibility that embraces melancholy, acknowledging the loss of hope that was created by the postwar era. The film captures this sentiment through its imagery of decayed and run-down buildings and holiday playgrounds, reminding us that the future we once imagined is no longer possible. The journey seems to end where it started, leaving us with a sense of melancholia.

Despite this, the film refuses to give up on the desire for the future, even as it acknowledges that the closed horizons of capitalist realism make it difficult to envision positive progress or forward movement. Ultimately, the film is a political statement, a refusal to accommodate to a world that has lost its way.