Spirit and Letter (2019)
Film by: Owen McLaughlin (in collaboration with Dom Smith)
Narrated by: Dom Smith and Jodie Williamson
Score by: Owen McLaughlin
Duration: 6mins, 41 secs
Spirit and Letter (2019) is a short educational film about the Tay Rail Bridge Disaster, based on a radio broadcast made by Walter Benjamin to the children of Berlin in 1932. The film was made in collaboration with Dr Dominic Smith at the University of Dundee in support of the ongoing ‘Localising Philosophy’ research project. The film was commissioned by Arts & Humanities Research Institute (AHRI) and has been screened in numerous locations including as part of the 2020 Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA) Conference. .
End State (2019)
Film by McLaughlin and Williamson
Score by Owen McLaughlin
Duration: 3mins, 08 secs
End State (2019) is a short film made in collaboration with Jodie Williamson. The film’s subject is The Siegessäule (Victory Column) monument located in the heart of Tiergarten Park in Berlin, Germany. The film is a document of a site-specific research activity inspired by Walter Benjamin’s memoirs of the area from ‘Berlin Childhood around 1900’, and his writings on the concept of history. The film creates space to consider the layered history of such a monument. How does a structure such as this come to represent different eras of a city? What happens to the initial sentiment of such a construction over time, and what does it mean to the contemporary city of Berlin and the people who come in contact with it? The film has screened in numerous locations, including the Alchemy Film Festival (Hawick, Scotland) and as part of the ‘3 Minute Migrations’ moving image project between the University of Dundee (Scotland) and the University of Victoria (Canada).
In Ruins (2020)
Film by Owen McLaughlin
Score by Owen McLaughlin
Duration: 7mins, 22 secs
In Ruins (2020), is a short film inspired by the writings of Mark Fisher, Guy Debord, Fredric Jameson, and Walter Benjamin. The film is an asseblage of found footage taken from 1980’s television advertising and focuses specifically on the visual content of these ads. By intentionally ignoring the products they were made to sell, the film invites the viewer to consider the bold approach of late-capitalism at play here. In it’s inundating us with these images of our futures, of our dreams and of our desires; could it be that it ends up dispossessing us all of all three?. A meditation on our collective sense of entropy, as capitalism runs out of culture to appropriate or commodify; the film asks the question…What is left of our ability to dream when the revamping, remixing, and reimagining of cultural imagery has reached critical mass?
Make That A Take (2017)
Film by Owen McLaughlin
Score by Kaddish, Stonethrower, Terrafraid, and Tragical History Tour
Duration: 7mins, 01 secs
Make That A Take (2017) is a short film about a long running DIY music collective based in Dundee. It features archival footage from over 15 years of live shows and was made to document and archive the lengthy history of the collective. It is narrated by one of Make That A Take Collective’s founders Derrick Johnston (Tragical History Tour) as he describes the motivation behind the organisation’s formation, it’s local impact and charity work, and the beliefs and core values that underpinned the Scottish based DIY collective, and the community that surrounded it. The film was used in promotion of the collective’s Book Yer Ane Fest music festival. The collective as it is represented here has since disbanded, but I’m glad this film will remain as a record of the tireless efforts of it’s members, and the countless great experiences that this community created together.