"Wow wow wow!!!! We're both completely blown away, you've done such a wonderful job! Utterly mesmerisingly inspirational. "

During the Summer Solstice 2021, ARTDOCS’ resident artist and filmmaker Benjamin Wigley took part in some very special ‘Happenings’, deep in the ancient and beautiful landscapes in North Wales. These were the sights where a celluloid collaboration took place with the exceptionally talented Samana. Armed with a sensationally weird and wonderful ‘Pan’ mask, made by the artist Tessa Farmer, along with other interesting handmade and natural adornments for props, and the inimitable 16mm Bolex film camera, ( with variegated stocks); we embarked on a celluloid and sonic ritual. Fire, moonlight, rock, and sea.

“I am enjoying working in this instinctive way. Leaving space for the collaboration to open out. Making our own experience an inherent part of the making. This allows oneself to draw upon the thought and inspirations within our creative subconscious, that we are constantly absorbing from the world around us, through literature, culture, nature, inoculating the creative space. But most importantly, still allowing for happenstance to lead us”.

The project was shot on multiple 16mm celluloid film stocks, which gives the film its textured visual patina. Using the film stocks and different developing techniques it creates a visual language that progresses, and takes the viewer on a journey. The concepts and ideas behind the film are inherent within Ben’s body of work, which often interweaves ideas around folklore and legend; that connects to the natural world around us. There are also homages to film masters like Maya Deren in this work.

“Some of the developing techniques stem from knowledge learnt as artist in residency at the Film Farm Canada, this time using elderflower to process the film. This is my favourite plant for processing at the moment. The film was then scanned in colour (although shot in B&W), so that I could bring out some of the fire scenes through the natural colours captured by the scanning process. This augments the viewer to understand we have crossed into a liminal space and the colours within the flower processing are also allowed an opportunity to flourish, visually. I made some interesting discoveries in the film processing, by being under some difficult constraints, like shooting in moonlight on film, pushing the film hard when hand-processing, with a high-contrast developer I hadn’t used before, and using the elderflower eco developer, which is not as reliable, but the risks and experiments really paid off”

The song has been release as a single on their second album expected 28 Jan '22 through piccadilly records