Experiencing Interruptions?

In danger, the sea-cucumber divides itself in two

To defend against predators, the holothurian or sea-cucumber ejects its intestines and makes a rapid exit. This is the moment of fight or flight recreated by Saint-Michel in shocking technicolour for "In danger."

In these cutting moments of danger, we are irrevocably divided into a before and an after. We are divided into blissful ignorance and a haunting seed of knowledge that forever rests heavy in our guts. As Wisława Szymborska writes, we are divided “into flesh and a broken whisper.”

  • Michèle Saint-Michel
    Director
    Transmettre, Don't Tell Me I'm Beautiful, PTSD Suite, Lost Sock Collection
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    9 minutes 21 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 25, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Taste the Difference Exhibition at Hypha Studios
    London
    United Kingdom
    January 26, 2023
    UK Premiere
  • International Trucking Service Gallery
    St. Joseph, Missouri
    United States
    March 11, 2023
Director Biography - Michèle Saint-Michel

Michèle Saint-Michel is an artist, filmmaker, and author. Designed to promote healing, her works encourage healthy coping and recovery from difficult experiences. Saint-Michel was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Before moving to London, she worked from a log cabin nestled among the rolling hills and river bluffs of the Missouri River in America's heartland.

Michèle Saint-Michel is currently on the MFA Fine Art program at Goldsmiths University 2022-24. She previously attended courses in filmmaking from Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum and poetry manuscript writing at the Unterberg Poetry Center in New York. In 2020, she was selected as Filmmaker-in-Residence for Berlin’s House of Beautiful Business.

Her moving image work and poetry films have been official selections by the Prismatic Ground Festival (NYC), Manchester International Film Festival (UK), Cadence Poetry Film Festival (Seattle), Dérapage Experimental Festival (Montreal), and many others. Her installation films have been exhibited in galleries and digital arts festivals worldwide.

She’s the author of two books, a colouring book, and three journals. After the heartfelt reception of her first art book, Grief is an Origami Swan, Saint-Michel released the highly experimental, genre-bending poetry collection, Saint Agatha Mother Redeemer, and the accompanying Saint Agatha Mother Redeemer Colouring Book.

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Director Statement

When we imagine how a life-changing moment of danger will transpire, we predict keeping our wits about us and making the best choice about how to react. In moments of danger, however, it is our bodies that respond. We don’t make rational choices with our thinking brain. Instead our reptilian brain takes over—the oldest part that’s set on self preservation. Our body decides how best we might survive.

So much victim blaming springs from a lack of understanding of our bodies in danger. If we are unlucky enough, and a huge number of us are, we come to know how our bodies protect themselves in these moments. Often, it’s not what we would’ve decided had we made the choice when we were calm and safe. Of course, calm and safe are usually the states those who challenge victims are in when casting doubt, judgement and blame. "Why didn’t she leave? Why didn’t she run? Why didn’t they tell someone?"

In these mere fractions of moments, we are irrevocably divided into blissful ignorance and a haunting seed of knowledge that forever rests heavy in our guts. We are divided into a before and an after. As Wisława Szymborska writes, we are divided “into flesh and a broken whisper.”