Seamus Murphy, Ireland, 2019, 90′
The musician P. J. Harvey and director Seamus Murphy connect different locations, mediums, cultures and time frames in a studio in the basement of Somerset House London. The space, built with one-way glass and speakers allows visitors to observe the creative process of composition as the musicians translate into music the cultural nuggets Murphy has collected on film from Afghanistan, Washington DC and Kosovo. It’s a daring project: clips of the US Army in Kabul set against the bombed out buildings inspire martial riffs; Harvey mines the street patois in poor DC to extract and distil the frustration into sounds; she tip-toes through a Kosovo cottage abandoned during the war and witnesses circumcision rituals – all the time recording. Impossible to categorize, the work she produces has its roots not in an imagined musical equation but from life revealed – it’s fascinating to watch her stripping out the meaning from workaday sounds and images to find the essence.
Please see note on parental guidance below.
Seamus Murphy grew up in Ireland and is based in London. He is the recipient of seven World Press Photo awards for his photographic work in Afghanistan, Gaza, Lebanon, Sierra Leone, Peru and Ireland.
He received The World Understanding Award from POYi in the USA for his work from Afghanistan and a film he made based around this work was nominated for an Emmy and won the Liberty in Media Prize in 2011.
He has collaborated with musician PJ Harvey since 2016. A Dog Called Money is their lastest work.
Director:Seamus Murphy
Producer: Katie Holly, Isabel Davis, James Wilson, Seamus Murphy
SCREENING TIME
Friday 15th November, 5.00pm, Cinema 2
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