This month Eelyn Lee will be spending three weeks at Metal, an artistic lab on the Thames Estuary. Metal have offered Eelyn a residency at their Chalkwell Hall base in Southend to continue her two-year exploration of collaborative filmmaking.
Following last year's 5-day lab at the Barbican which was supported by Arts Council England, Eelyn will be further developing ideas around notions of fear and monsters by exploring local stories associated with the river.
Eelyn will be talking to groups of people with connections to the estuary including the fishing community in Leigh-on-Sea; dock workers at Tilbury and residents on Canvey Island.
The research will inform a further two moving image works and will culminate in the making of a long form film in 2017.
The first iteration of the project, Monster made during the Barbican lab will premiere at the BAFTA Qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival [5th - 8th Nov 2015] in York. Taking inspiration from Shelley's Frankenstein, the film tells the story of monster created from other people's fear and features BAFTA / Palme d'Or winning actress Anamaria Marinca [4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days].
An Ealing Trilogy is now available to watch online. Following a three month exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery last summer, the film went on to be displayed at Pitzhanger Manor Gallery and was selected for Les Rencontres Internationales, a festival celebrating new cinema and contemporary art in Paris.
The 7-minute film was made by Eelyn Lee in collaboration with students from Brentside High School as part of last year's Creative Connections project at the National Portrait Gallery.
Left: Gareth Evans during the lab / Right: Filming during the lab
Last week writer, editor, producer, presenter and programmer, Gareth Evans visited the Monster Lab, an experimental 5-day process led by Eelyn Lee to find new ways of making improvised film. Tonight he will be hosting a conversation with Eelyn Lee and her team of collaborators about their experiences, ideas and reflections in the Barbican Cinema 2. Read his own thoughts on their adventures in to devised filmmaking in this poignant and beautifully written guest blog. Here's an extract:
'.... Eelyn Lee and her Pit Lab ensemble are into their fourth day when I drop by, stacking up the hours without weather like their constantly shifting cardboard set, in freighted ventilation, cabled glow, a black walled box for 18, but strangely self-sufficient and like some ‘lord of the flies’ outcrop, seeming to run by its own unspoken rules and rituals, everyone getting on with something, and those who seem least active at a given moment still holding microphones on high stems, waiting for voices but maybe conjuring them too, sonic priestesses, aural conductors of the subterranean air....
...It’s about strangers in town (think Clint, Kitano, Kasper Hauser; think Dogville and the dunes of Kobo Abe). It’s about upheaval in the estuary, about monsters and the triggers they drag in with them, like a net full of old explosives just waiting to go off. It’s about work and love, and conflict and then death; but mostly it’s about the fear that comes from meeting with the ‘other’, from the monsters that we make through instinct and such ignorance; and it takes place in the estuary that took us on its boats to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, that gifted us the toothsome Count, that traffics migrants in, blind with terror in some sealed container. In short, it’s about now, and now again, and then again some more...'
Anamaria Marinca in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days by Cristian Mungiu
Delighted that Anamaria Marinca will be joining the ensemble cast of Monster, Eelyn Lee's five-day experimental filmmaking lab to be held at the Barbican next week. Anamaria played the lead in 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, which received the prestigious Palme d'Or in Cannes in 2007. She also won a BAFTA for her role in Channel 4's Sex Traffic in 2004.
Other ensemble actors include Kingsley Ben-Adir, Debbie Korley, Nicola Bland and Hi Ching. Find out more about the cast on the project blog.
Monster is a new moving image work by Eelyn Lee. The work will be developed through the Open LAB scheme at Barbican/Guildhall and is supported by Arts Council England.
Pleased to announce that Eelyn Lee's new moving image project, 'Monster' has been selected by the Barbican to be developed during a 5-day lab in their Pit Theatre next month. Subsequently, the Arts Council England have offered their support in funding the project through their Grants for the Arts strand.
‘Monster’ is a five-day exploratory lab, exploring new ways of making moving image content through processes of devising and improvisation.
By interrogating notions of ‘demons and fear’ Eelyn will collaborate with a group of artists and performers to create a monster story set in a fictional place along the Thames estuary.
The results will be shared with an audience in the Barbican Cinema, hosted by film curator, Gareth Evans and be further developed next year in a real estuary setting where Eelyn aims to produce a long-form moving image work.
The lab will take place 1st - 5th December, 2014 The showcase event is Thurs 11th Dec at 4.30 - 6.00pm. If you would like to attend please e.mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
An Ealing Trilogy was made through Eelyn Lee's commission by the National Portrait Gallery, London and was made in collaboration with young people from Brentside High School, Ealing.
The film will screen as part of the 'Role Reversal' programme on Wednesday 24th June at 9pm. More details here
This year Eelyn Lee is looking forward to developing her feature-length film, MONSTER. Following last year's successful first stage of development supported by the Barbican and Arts Council England, Eelyn is now seeking support to take the project in to an estuary setting.
In December 2014 Eelyn led a team of collaborating artists, performers and musicians through a 5-day lab in the Barbican's studio theatre, exploring new ways of making moving image work through processes of improvisation.
Three working days later, Eelyn and the 'Monster Team' showcased three edited scenes filmed during the lab. Writer and curator Gareth Evans [Whitechapel Gallery] who presented the event said,
"...The idea that we would see something translated so profoundly from a theatrical space to a cinematic one in just a handful of days is really extraordinary... the process starts ironically in a theatre space and becomes more cinematic as it goes on. A wonderful paradox..."
Taking it's inspiration from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Monster explores notions of demons, fear and otherness, using the setting of the estuary as location.
Eelyn is currently looking to transfer the process, characters and stories to a real setting along the Thames Estuary. Please get in touch if you would like to join the conversation, particularly if you have links with the estuary.
Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Read Gareth Evans's article about the 5-day lab here.
The Monster Team at the End of Day 5. From left to right: Joana Teixidor [animator], Emma Passmore [writer], Eelyn Lee [lead artist/director], Kingsley Ben-Adir [actor], Anamaria Marinca [actor], Nicola Bland [actor], Chris Kelly [art director] Debbie Korley [actor], Amy Addison [design assistant], Francis Morgan-Giles [editor/musical director], Natasha Zielazinski [lead musician], Detta Danford [lead musician], Hi Ching [actor], Sam Mumford [guest musician], Dominique Dunne [Barbican assistant], Sandy Abdelrahman [production assistant], Dominik Rippl [cinematographer]
To kick start a new piece of moving image work, last week Eelyn Lee led a team of eighteen artists, musicians and actors in a five-day lab exploring improvised filmmaking. Eelyn was selected by the Barbcian to develop the work in their studio theatre as part of their Open Lab programme. The lab was also supported by Arts Council England.
"It was an amazing experience. The beginning of the week felt like we were creating improvised theatre and by Thursday the space was functioning as a film set. We have some incredible footage that I can't wait to see cut together" Eelyn Lee, Artist
The results of the lab will be presented by curator Gareth Evans at the Barbcian Cinema 2 this Thursday 11th December at 4.30. To reserve a place e.mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
A day-by-day account of the lab can be read on the project blog.
Video installation, An Ealing Trilogy returns to the borough it was inspired by for two weeks in October. The film will be projected in the studio gallery at Pitzhanger Manor from 4th - 18th October. Eelyn Lee who made the film in collaboration with Brentside High School says,
'After a successful run at the National Portrait Gallery it's great to be showing the film in Ealing at a location that features heavily in the film. The Pitzhanger Manor Gallery is an amazing space and provides an opportunity for the work to be seen on a large scale.'
An Ealing Trilogy was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery and will be projected on a loop at Pitzhanger Manor from 4th - 18th Oct. Check for opening times here.
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