C'est Quoi Le Mantra Moderne?

In the middle of August 2019, two days after their debut album release show, the duo, Kit Sebastian, fly to Tours airport to shoot what they think will be a promotional film on celluloid Super 8. There, they plan to shoot on 2-3 reels for their rapidly approaching French physical release, showcasing the duo in an easily digestible format for French audiences. The results however, turn out to be the opposite, an antithesis of their initial plan. The script and list of shots written on the days of shooting follow a transformative and experimental style employing concepts such as silence, discontinuity and repetition to destabilize the narrative coherence and the lucidity of meaning expected from a promotional film. The dissolution of the narrative helps the duo to play with a plurality of voices and a fragmented yet harmonious imagery while echoing the recording methods of the album, Mantra Moderne. The film becomes both an intimate portrayal of the duo exploring their aesthetic world, and a critique of themselves, their ideas, and their authenticity. The bilingual script drifts between abstraction and realism, serving both as a snapshot of the duo immediately after their debut album, and a filmic essay exploring their medium, language and reality. As they attempt to explain the meaning of their album and its title, the tension between pastoral scenes and industry unconsciously creates an environment paralleling this opposition. Filmed on 5 reels of Kodak 50D and 1 reel of Kodak 200T film, in the area largely where their album was recorded. The audio was recorded on cassette to respect the medium.

Year

2019

Director

Merve Erdem, Kit Martin

Duration

8 min

Country

United Kingdom

Language

English, French, Turkish