Original format: 16mm
Year of release: 1994
Running time: 2 minutes 15 seconds
Screening format: 16mm comopt print, BetaSP and DVD
Credits: A film by Kayla Parker
Director/producer/editor/animator: Kayla Parker
Cinematography: Stuart Moore
Sound design: Stuart Moore
Dubbing mixer: Paul Roberts
Set construction: Miles Parker
Funded by The British Film Institute
Distribution and sales: Sundog Media info@sundog.co.uk and LUX mike@lux.org.uk; also available from EMAF (European Media Arts Festival) distribution@emaf.de Tel: 00 49 / (0)541 / 2 16 58
Description
A personal view of the relationship between daughter and mother, set in a room which is poised on the threshold of birth or death. The room is at first blank, colourless; we enter through the window like an intruder or ghost. The room becomes literally a "living room" as elements within it come to life; memories of early childhood are activated and set in motion.
Production notes
The film evolved from the combined dreams and memories of my mother and myself, using stop-motion animation of fireplace tiles and 35mm projections within a life-size set - originated from our old black and white family snapshots, and the patterns on my mother's dresses when I was a child.
Batter Street, Plymouth: I rented the L-shaped Studio on the top floor from Plymouth Arts Centre 1993 to 1995. (Photo taken 2009)
Publication and comments
The World Within Us (1996) review by ?, Everywoman journal; illustrated with As Yet Unseen b/w still
Mistress of the moving picture (1994) Frame by Frame exhibition review by Isabel Stott, Evening Herald newspaper. Plymouth: Western Morning News (15 December 1994)
Networking: the film, video and television organisation for women newsletter (1994) Life and times: Kayla Parker film-maker, page article and black and white photo of Kayla Parker with As Yet Unseen animation set and my silky Beaulieu 16mm camera. Leeds: Vera Productions p. 4
Exhibition
2000
Screenspace Gallery One, Watershed Media Centre, Bristol, UK. Also included work by Anna Lucas, Joe Magee, Sarah Miles and Tony Sinden (1 - 16 April 2000)
1997
Hiding Behind the Sofa: a festival of film and video works by women artists Prema Arts Centre gallery, Uley, Gloucestershire, UK. The exhibition also included work by Rose Garrard, Anna Lucas, and Sarah Pucill (2 March - 13 April 1997)
1996
Beyond the Margins: Celebration of 100 Years of Women in Film Making Watershed Media Centre, Bristol, UK. The World Within Us programme, including work by Susan Derges, Penny Grist, and Folake Shoga, was curated and introduced by Kayla Parker and featured “ten innovative short films and videos made by women filmmakers from the South West.” (Programme notes) Beyond the Margins was presented by Watershed Media Centre and Skillnet South West (27 - 28 April 1996)
Interstice: Seen and Unseen Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK. Programme also included work by Jackie Hatfield, Al Nigrin, and Tanya Ury, and was presented by London Film-Makers Co-op. Still from As Yet Unseen featured on the cover of the LFMC programme for July/August/September (3 August 1996)
European Media Art Tour 1996: Film Programme Germany. Selected from EMAF 1995 (September 1996 - March 1997)
39th International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film Leipzig, Germany. Panorama III programme, selected by Otto Alder (29 October - 3 November 1996)
Internationale Trickfilmtage Schorndorf, Germany (9 - 13 November 1996)
Brief Encounters Festival of Short Films Watershed Media Centre, Bristol, UK. Curator and presenter of Regional Showcase: Programme 2 (21 November - 1 December 1996)
1995
Vivid Visions II Tate Gallery St Ives, Kernow, UK. “Screenings of new work produced by contemporary film-makers working through Cornwall Video Resource.” (Programme notes) (17 January 1995)
10th Fringe Film and Video Festival Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Family programme: photograph of Kayla Parker in a pram, aged 7 months, featured on p. 16; As Yet Unseen takes “a not-so-traditional look at the traditional subject of the family ... [dealing] with the strong feelings involved in the minefield of Mother/Daughter relationships” (programme notes) (24 - 26 February 1995)
14th Women in the Director’s Chair: International Film and Video Festival Chicago, USA. Family Values programme (9 - 12 March 1995)
European Media Art Festival Osnabruck, Germany. International Selection: Spirits programme; programme also included Blazes (1961) by Robert Breer and Threshold (1972) by Malcolm Le Grice (6 - 10 September 1995)
Zone: Multi-Media Event The Corn Exchange, Maidstone, UK. Film Night: Vigorous Images programme “highlights why animation is one of the most popular forms of film making. The selection illustrates the diversity of expression and production methods currently used.” (Programme notes)(13 October - 4 November 1995)
Women Making Movies presented by Sight and Sound/British Film Institute, and Women in Film and Television; the touring programme also included Fever (1994) by Carine Adler, and Sheller Shares Her Secret (1994) by Sarah Turner. “In the UK producers are increasingly turning to women directors for a fresh female perspective, which is breathing new life into British film-making.” (Variety, 7 August 1995, quoted in programme notes) (UK tour of regional cinemas, autumn 1995) (CinewomenFestival, Cinema City, Norwich: “some of the very best work from British women directors working in TV and cinema.” (Programme notes) 21 October 1995) (Reel Women, Watershed Media Centre, Bristol 18 November 1995)
Kino 95: 1st Manchester International Short Film and Video Festival Manchester, UK (25 - 28 October 1995)
1994
Frame by Frame Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth, UK. Solo exhibition. As Yet Unseen video installation in the upstairs gallery: the life-size living room and fireplace set designed and constructed for the film, with S-VHS loop of flames playing on TV monitor in fireplace, and three framed photographic prints from As Yet Unseen 16mm film frames; set of 17 animated fireplace ‘tiles’ - artwork from the film - playing in large metal zoetrope on record player within cabinet (designed and built by Miles Parker) in downstairs gallery (November - December 1994)