For her second year at Stroud Film Festival, visual artist Anna Cady presents two unique responses to trauma in Mexico and Sierra Leone.
Anna Cady has screened and installed films both nationally and internationally, including Tate Modern and Sundance Film Festival. 2019 is Anna’s second year at SFF where she presents 30% and Bitter Pineapples, both creative collaborations in response to very different human struggles. Anna tells us more about each film’s methods and inspirations…
30% - Women & Politics in Sierra Leone
“30% combines Em Cooper’s oil painted animation with documentary footage to tell the stories of three women working to change gender inequities in post-conflict Sierra Leone.
“The technique is rotoscope - like the recent film Vincent - but rather more creatively! Every frame is a new oil painting, painted onto glass where there is a projected image. Em has gone on to make feature films and this year was nominated for an Emmy.
“It is still - sadly - all too relevant to the political situation in Sierra Leone. It was selected for the Sundance Film Festival 2013 and many of the major international film festivals. It has been used in the parliaments of the UK, the EU and Sierra Leone and in universities.
Bitter Pineapples
Gabriel Galvez-Prado
“My father was involved in drugs. He was very violent. When I was dancing with my mum, she said I was bringing something into a new life” - Gabriel Galvez-Prado
“This is my most recent project made over two years with Mexican dancer Gabriel Galvez-Prado. I endeavored to convey the role dance has played for Gabriel in coming to terms with trauma. I commissioned Gabriel to dance in relation to my film installations. The narration wanders through memories, which are at times of a normal happy childhood but increasingly reveal a world of violence and death.
“This year Gabriel’s mother, Anita, spent three months with him in the UK where the second part of this film - Anita’s Dance - was shot. It is about silence. The silence which protects them from facing up to discussing the violence and abuse they have experienced and the freedom dance gives them to overcome fear.
“Gabriel lives and works in Southampton, where, as well as performing and teaching he holds movement classes for older people and those with Parkinson's disease.”
Anna Cady and Gabriel Galves-Prado: Animation and Dance - The Museum in the Park - Wednesday 20 March 8pm