... then a small voice said,
"Wait Lucinda!
Who have you left behind?
You left your only child.
What kind of person can do this?"

premiere Nov. 13, 9:30 pm
in the Rendezvous with Madness Festival

Close to home 25:29 animation combined with live action

synopsis

Close to home fictionalises a small town news item of an infanticide. The father shoots his son, then himself. At some point the mother runs from the house. We are asked to imagine what it's like to be the woman who ran away. Uneasy with sensationalized media depictions of family violence, this video focuses more on what we can expect of each other - how our sense of community is predicated on assumptions of decency in others and how we are fascinated and afraid when that expectation is violated. That's why this revolves around the most basic of obligations - that between parent and child. The story is retold by the unreliable and conflicted parents while the narrator and chorus struggle to balance contending desires for vengeance and justice.

This began as a sculpture installation in 1995 . Made up of over 150 dioramas, it was effectively a storyboard - a kind of film animated by the viewer as they walked by. Done in fragile materials that are now disintegrating, and seen at the time by only a small number of viewers, I wanted to give this work a second chance in video - the medium that it was meant to be in but which I was unfamiliar with at the time. original exhibition at Gallery 788, Toronto, Ontario Nov.1995

The key actors were: Philip Anisman, Ryna Schickler, Isaac Morkel, Ben Waitzer Composers: Christine Fellows, Jason Tait Musicians: Bob Eagan, Christine Fellows, Jeremy Strachan, Jason Tait

thanks to everyone and to the chorus and crew