Private Project

I have an ancient Indian crucifix around my neck and my chest is hard and brown…

I have an ancient Indian crucifix around my neck and my chest is hard and brown… is a journey through strangled Akashic records and tarot glitches. The narrative is woven with the prophecies of historical Dionysian male figures who believed they had seen the colours beyond the shadows of Plato’s cave. Concerned and critical of the narcissistic overtones of ‘spirituality’ this short film skirts the thin threshold between insanity and enlightenment. The artist personifies self-mythology and tropes of spiritual authority- characters who have become self-absorbed on the path to self-actualization. This small budget experimental film also represents how one encounters a tarot reading: the medium guides by eluding to people, places, questions, but ultimately the client pieces together their own answers.

  • Lucy Hilton
    Director
  • Lucy Hilton
    Writer
  • Lucy Hilton
    Producer
  • Lucy Hilton
    Key Cast
  • Justin Sellick
    Key Cast
  • Ash Garrett
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Fine Art, Psychedelic, psychological thiller, psychological
  • Runtime:
    13 minutes 17 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 15, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    300 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes
  • SALT - at Freerange
    London
    United Kingdom
    July 7, 2016
Director Biography - Lucy Hilton

Lucy Jane Hilton is a U.K. based artist and filmmaker, who studied Fine Art at the Arts University Bournemouth and the Dutch Royal Academy of Art. She has exhibited experimental films in London, Den Haag and Milan.

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Director Statement

A split runs through my head and heart. Somewhere between a heartfelt believer in the miraculous and the cerebral second guesser, who is trained in the cynicism of critical theory. To research spirituality with the cool aloof head of the artist is a strange adventure, as I delve into mystercism, ritual and tarot but remain tethered to the intention to make art and that comforting framework.
I balance Temperance and the Magician postulates over whether spirituality to be a sweetly nostalgic longing for a golden age, that perhaps never existed.

My current work comes in the form of mocumentary/self aware MTV format, and is shot in the New Forest, where I have my studio. I was drawn there because of its romantic history, its mystical secrets. Sentimental for the old world, when alchemic outsiders and cunning men looked upon an uncharted landscape, I trudge the wilderness in search for… authenticity. I am a truth seeker; perhaps a romantic with a death wish. The film follows my journey through space and no mind to discover the elusive moment that us lost at sea are seeking - the sacred epiphany. When monoliths appear on the horizon at dawn; when the hidden magic is revealed, when the pinnacle is scaled. The realisation that this moment will forever be out of reach, has lead me to discover that the subject of my work is that futile quest. The Hermit trudges with staff and lamp.

In my videos I experiment with the theatrical and trope identity of the artist, holding up a mirror to the voice that interprets the art work. Lavishly botched due to acute excitement, my costumes and set aim to create semi-fictional personas and psychotropic narratives; a zone swirling with surreal images, prophetic messages, premeditated paths and the occasional cult classic reference to help Major Tom remember Ground Control.