The Shadow

Three line summary:
The use of video technology to reveal poetic aspects of the landscape that cannot be seen with the eyes alone (high and low shutter speeds, time dilation and compression, focal length extremes, all these combined at times with a moving camera), fractured reflections on ice ice and water, and shadow traces permanently left by the photographer on the landscape only in the recorded images combine with an unsettling soundscape to provide a visceral representation of the psychological experience of depression and recovery in Pamela Falkenberg and Jack Cochran’s film poem of The Shadow by Lucy English, for her Book of Hours project, http://thebookofhours.org/.

Synopsis:
Filmmakers Jack Cochran and Pamela Falkenberg collaborate with Lucy English on her poem "The Shadow," the February afternoon film for her "Book of Hours Project," http://thebookofhours.org/, a modern and secular re-imagining of a Medieval Book of Hours. What was a meticulously handcrafted book of texts and images following the religious calendar and meant to be read on a daily basis is transformed by Lucy into an online site hosting filmpoems for every month and time of day, created in collaboration with a variety of international filmmakers, and which can be viewed on a personal computer or mobile device as time permits, creating a contemporary space for contemplation, reflection, and meditation still relevant today. Our collaboration with Lucy began with a reel of landscape images showing techniques and themes for the February afternoon selection that sparked a dialogue: the beautiful low angle light and long winter shadows, the use of video technology to reveal poetic aspects of the landscape that cannot be seen with the eyes alone (high and low shutter speeds, time dilation and compression, focal length extremes, all these combined at times with a moving camera), reflections on ice and water, and shadow traces permanently left by the photographer on the landscape only in the recorded images. The dialogue resulted in two poems, both brilliant, but we were (perhaps as expected) struck most strongly by the one most directly inspired by the images we had shared: "The Shadow." In writing the poem, Lucy says she was struck by the "differences between the American concept of landscape and the English one, where here landscape is contained, intimate, and accessible," that she "imagined an English person living in America" "feeling unable to connect to the landscape" but eventually adapting, and "also about recovery from depression." Given the title of her poem, it's no wonder that she "loved the image of the shadow of the car against the landscape." All of this really inspired us. We shot new images and created a soundscape inspired by the poem; through a delightful collaborative process a final cut emerged: depression overpowered by the serendipitous beauty of the landscape.

Text of the poem by Lucy English:

THE SHADOW

I said to Rich, ‘I do not understand this country.
These freeways lined with motel signs.
These great empty sweeps of land and sky.
I feel so unimportant. So unconnected.

In my cottage I used to walk beyond my garden
and straight into the woodland. That was my refuge,
my consolation. I stood there under the arms of oak and birch,
my feet sunk into the layers of leaves. And I was held, Rich,
I was held.’

I was crying then. He walked across the room and took my hand.
‘Come with me,’ he whispered. I trusted him and so I did.
We drove for four hours. Way beyond any town.
Way beyond the freeway and right into that landscape
that left me blank with wonder and artic cold.

‘Can’t you feel it?’ he said, and I said, ‘I feel nothing.’
And he said, ‘Look.’ I looked. At the sky. The snow
on the distant mountain range. He said, ‘No. At us.’

The shadow of our little car against the land
touched the winter grass but did not bend it.
‘That’s the only mark we should make on earth,’ he said.

He wound the window down and the air blasted in.
The smell of nearly Winter and the song of distant birds.