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Why the Canary Sings No More

Paul Tarragó

2000 00:15:14 United KingdomEnglishB&WStereo4:3Super 8 film

Description

Live action and animation adaptation of an episode from Lautréamont’s 1868 anti-novel Maldoror.

This film has led a double life: in one version it forms part of an Anglo-German feature film collaboration (see below) based upon the eponymous anti-hero. But here it stands alone, and self contained - the same source of inspiration but a different edit with all new sound.

Shot on Super 8, this is a place where an alternate set of rules govern time, space and desire. Any notion of realism has been spat upon, all hope for happy endings abandoned. Look to those three sisters, that talented bird and faithful dog and witness their destinies. Peer through the window at home life turning bad, worse, worst, bathed within a fragile noir light. And understand why that canary will sing no more….

Best of Festival prize at Super 8 Sideshow.

About Paul Tarragó

Paul Tarragó is a filmmaker, using both video and celluloid, living in London. His work? A mix of underground experimentation and metafiction, tugging at the leash of film language but with narrative often held close at hand.

His work has shown widely on film festival and gallery circuits (International Film Festival Rotterdam, NYUFF, EMAF, National Review of Live Art, Triangle France, Kino der Kunst), and includes several award winning experimental narratives, video installation, a collaborative feature film, cinematic sketchbooks, moving image + live soundtrack performance work, etc.

A formative influence on his DIY approach comes from his experiences (from 1993-2006) as a core member and activist with the Exploding Cinema: a collective dedicated to originating alternative methods of exhibition for low-budget/artists' film and video and related performance.