Research Centre
Art and Design Research Centre

Date
2011

5 screen film work

My Funeral Song continues an investigation, initiated by Beban & Sprung in 2000, of ‘how can new technologies and subjectivity be used for telling stories that the official histories are unable to tell?’ It has been critically acclaimed as a development on the single screen series of Little Songs To Cry To (Beban & Sprung 2003) with its development of a double-edged projection of intimate tales and self-reflections played out in the shadow of history's grand narratives and epic themes.

The 5 screen work in which 5 of Beban’s friends listen to their funeral track of choice and muse silently on their inevitable demise, is acknowledged for its ability to access universal themes through the power of well-loved songs to compress an outlook on life into a telling moment that is at once emotional and thoughtful, melancholic and full of joy. The work is based on documentary video material captured opportunistically by Beban and subjected to an intensive program of selection and subtle processing during editing by Sprung and Beban. Through our post-production strategy, shifting the relation of image, sound and time, attention is heightened to subtle gestures and shifts in expression that chart inner journeys and psychological states of remembering the past and envisioning a future in absence, a universal shared experience to be. As editor I have been acknowledged by the Director as being an instrumental co-collaborator in their research, playing a leading role in the post-production strategy.

Commissioned by the Camden Arts Centre, and supported by Bloomberg & J.S. Cohen Foundation. The work was premiered at the Camden Arts Centre, London, (Jun – Sep 2010) and has been screened at Photon Gallery, Slovenia (2011) Galerie Aline Vidal, Paris (2011).

Researchers involved

Steve Sprung - Course Leader: MA Film and Media Production, and MA International Documentary Production

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