Private Project

Voluntary Memory - Short 24 minutes

Voluntary Memory (24 mins) collects and collates fragmented iPhone memories tracking a year in the life of the director working through CPTSD recovery.

Abstracted audio snippets, visual clippings and notes to self bear raw meandering thoughts and visuals which speak to the spiralling density of human experience.

The iPhone acts as the tool within this self-analytical, POV film; an experience akin to being inside another person's headspace and scrolling through their memories. It is a gaze at how trauma impacts the choices we make and the eyes through which we see and feel the world. It is a depiction of honest human experience lived in immediacy.

The story journeys from safe to unsafe, dark to light as the narrator works on her spiralling path to recovery, or the beginning of the endless journey of ‘becoming the true self’. Voluntary Memory is evocative of our modern culture of recording and collecting self-motivated material, exposing our internal and private realities online and being always in contact with a recording device in our hands.

  • Vasilisa Forbes
    Director
    Waxchick, Delpyne, Rooted, Beyond Desire
  • Vasilisa Forbes
    Writer
  • Vasilisa Forbes
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental
  • Genres:
    Drama, Documentary, experimental, memoir, archive, surrealist, iphone, digital, art film
  • Runtime:
    24 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    April 22, 2024
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Vasilisa Forbes

Vasilisa is a female film-maker and artist originally from Eastern Europe full of intensity, passion and contradictions. She has worked as a music video director for over 8 years, and has directed a prolific amount of music videos to date; winning a Shiny Award for The Specials ft. Saffiyah Khan - 10 commandments. Her video for Girli garnered over 3 million views. In the art world Vasilisa has created bold and eclectic visual art campaigns and concepts such as the #Waxchick series (which broadcast bold hyper colour portraits onto billboards in London to generate a dialogue on women's representation in public media). The Waxchick Film showcased globally at many festivals including the LSFF, East End Film Festival and ICA. Her work borders fine art and film, having been supported and showcased at the Royal Academy, Tate and ICA.

Filmography:
1.Voluntary Memory 2024 - Feature, Experimental Doc. Completed and in festival circuit, first screening on 9th May in London
2.A Room by the Sea - 2024 - Short, completed and in festival circuit
3.Beyond Desire - Short - Completed and released on Minute Shorts (Digital Screening Platform) 2023
4.Delphyne - Short - Completed and released on Argo (Digital Screening Platform) 2022
5.Uroda - Short - Completed and released online 2020
6.Rooted - Short - Completed and released on Girls in Film (Digital Screening Platform) 2019
7.Wax - 2015 - Short - Completed and screened at ICA, Kobini , East End Film Festival 2016,
London Short Film Festival LSFF 2016, Shorts On Tap - Winner, Deptford Theatre Women in Revolt, Parallel Vienna - Electronic Relations, Valetta Art Bienalle

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