Original format: digital photographs,
8mm film (black and white), HD video (16.9)
Year of release: 2009
Running time: 2 minutes 50 seconds
Screening format: DVD
Credits: A film by Kayla Parker and Stuart Moore
Thanks to Henry Lindsay, Lindsay Design; Ian Blackwell, project manager Teign Heritage Project; Harrison Sutton Partnership; Teignmouth and Shaldon Museum, Teign Heritage; and The Jones Family
Production: Sundog Media
Commissioned by Animate Projects for Sea Change
Distribution and sales: Abigail Addison or Gary Thomas, Animate Projects info@animateprojects.org; and Sundog Media info@sundog.co.uk
Description
An animated ‘séance’, in which modern day Teignmouth, a seaside resort on the coast of south Devon, is haunted by joyous summers past, conjured up though archive footage. The Jones family holidayed in Teignmouth - then known as ‘The Children’s Paradise’ - from 1934 to 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, their summer activities captured forever on black and white film. A lifetime later the town is still here: ships in the docks, bathers on the beach, people promenade... Teign Spirit celebrates this continuity, mixing these home movies with new waves: a twenty first century stroll along the Back Beach, evoking the optical entertainments of the Victorian pier: the flickering still-moving images of the mutascope, a figure seen for a moment, held in the mind, then gone. Silent memories, coloured and transformed by the present; shifting sands and elemental forces.
Sea Change is an initiative of CABE the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, and the government's advisor on architecture, urban design and public space.
Production notes
Teign Spirit matches the viewpoints and sea views of black and white holiday movies with those of the present day resort, captured in digital photography; using frame-by-frame compositing to mix high definition video and 8mm monochrome footage from the 1930s, matching viewpoints and sea views of the present day. The silent black and white footage has travelled in time - film, VHS, DVD - before landing in the digital present of stop-motion photography, video and location sound recordings.
Publication and comments
2009 “In Teign Spirit, Kayla Parker and Stuart Moore conduct a film ‘séance’, where modern day Teignmouth is haunted by joyous summers past, conjured up though archive footage.” (Animate Projects) The film Teign Spirit is ownloadable from iTunes (16 October 2009)
2009 Coastcards: a response to the three films Gareth Gardener, Animate Projects (13 October 2009) (online). London: Animate Projects
2009 Teign Spirit Animate Projects (online) Selection of stills from the film (individual frames). Available: http://www.animateprojects.org/films/by_date/2009/teign_spirit (5 October 2009) London: Animate Projects
Exhibition selected
2010
public//domain a festival of digital art, music, interaction and screenings, Lower Gardens, Bournemouth, UK (16 - 18 July 2010)
Village Screen: Coast Cards programme, Screen Two - Film at Glastonbury Festival, UK (23 - 27 June 2010)
Spring Screen: artists’ film at Spacex, Exeter, UK (30 April 2010)
London Short Film Festival Leftfield and Luscious programme, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London, UK (10 January 2010)
Big Screen, the piazza, city centre, Plymouth, UK (12 January - 12 February, and throughout March 2010)
2009
AnimateTV Animate Projects presents new films for 2009, Tate Modern Starr Auditorium, London, UK. Introduced by Stuart Comer, Tate Modern Film Curator (3 December 2009)
Aurora 2009: Common Ground Open Projector programme, Norwich Arts Centre, Norwich, UK (14 November 2009)
SeaScape an international conference exploring culture as a regenerative force for coastal communities, part of the Skegness International SEAS festival Skegness, UK (Premiere: 2 October 2009). The film is viewable online at Animate Projects (5 October 2009) and is downloadable from iTunes (16 October 2009)