Experiencing Interruptions?

Basement

"Basement" is a music video combining film and music works both produced by filmmaker and musician William S. Davis. The song and visuals act as an elegy poem intimately dissecting and braiding invisible layers of life and memory. Footage was filmed over 10+ years where the music was produced while dismantling his childhood home.

  • William S Davis
    Director
  • William S Davis
    Writer
  • William S Davis
    Producer
  • Jackie Davis
    Key Cast
  • Gabrielle Shelton
    Key Cast
  • Noah Shelton
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Music Video, Short
  • Genres:
    autobiography, retrospective, multimedia, personal documentary, musical score
  • Runtime:
    4 minutes 4 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 23, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    600 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, 35mm, 8mm analog
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Sidewalk Film Festival
    Birmingham, Alabama
    United States
    August 26, 2023
  • Music Video Asheville
    Asheville, North Carolina
    United States
    September 13, 2023
    North Carolina Premiere
Director Biography - William S Davis

William Stephen Davis is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and community builder from the Appalachian foothills of North Carolina.

A self-taught filmmaker and musician with a background in photography and interdisciplinary studies, his work has been featured nationally and internationally in festivals and galleries.

He is Founder + Creative Director of Small Creatures, a production company and creative community-building organization, multimedia performer under the moniker Rasmus Leon, and Director of the Film Studies Program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

"Basement" is a deeply personal project, and a culmination of many things. It's a goodbye to my childhood home of over 30 years and the first song shared after neraly years of working secretly as a musician while directing music videos for others, a braided history both real and imagined.

Following a series of strokes my parents simultaneously experienced, I combined my love for film and passion for music to cope, distract and simultaneously explore my own mysterious beginnings and ends.

This video is a death shag; a eulogy poem to fading realities, and a sensitive gesture to those who have had to dismantle a part of their identity to find deeper self-understandings. I hope they can find solace as I did through my own exploration of surrounding formations...those I had to gently let go. This film is a dance from my fading past into the darkness of the future.