Competitionfilms a-z

Swallow

D: Genevieve Bicknell, CI: Kieran Gosney, Julian Schwanitz
ED: Nick Gibbon
UK 2013, OS, 9‘

 

The memories come back in the dark. A lump of butter sizzling in a pan; brown sauce dripping onto a white lacy tablecloth where the stain quickly spreads. A little girl in her best clothes blowing out the candles on her birthday cake. Blancmange, stew and melting chocolate – all of it so close that one can almost smell it. Genevieve Bicknell explores the central role food plays in our lives. Food for comfort or food as a trauma. Personal memories, 8mm film material and extreme close-ups of food are combined into a collage. The result is at the same time both entrancing and confrontational. The memories come back in the dark. A lump of butter sizzling in a pan; brown sauce dripping onto a white lacy
tablecloth where the stain quickly spreads. A little girl in her best clothes blowing out the candles on her birthday cake. Blancmange, stew and melting chocolate – all of it so close that one can almost smell it.

Genevieve Bicknell, an artist and filmmaker based in Edinburgh, came to film by way of social anthropology and then painting. Her work explores themes of family, memory and of how we relate to others and to ourselves. Her MFA graduation film “The Bicknell” was a personal documentary about her  relationship to her family.

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