A triptych of films set in the North East
by Daisy Dickinson
Three Hundred and Thirty Three
Three Hundred and Thirty Three by Daisy Dickinson is a triptych of films set in and around the ancient sites and nature of the north east of England, co-produced and co-commissioned by Mediale and The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, and co-produced by From The Other.
In part one of the three part series Daisy, together with long term musical collaborator, Maxim Barron, explore a shared familial heritage in the ancient landscapes of the North East of England.
Revisiting places that hold dreamlike memories from childhood, the film re-imagines a landscape that echos traces of magic and ceremony Druidic symbolism, neolithic spiral glyphs and cup and ring markings combine into a blur of memories; ancient, bygone and current.
Three Hundred and Thirty Three takes the audience on a journey through spells and seances, using forgotten rituals to awaken the land and summon memories from pre-historic grounds.
Part one is soundtracked by the haunting music of Maxim Barron and features violinist Takatsuna Mukai. The music features field recordings from within the stone circles, waterfalls and the landscape you see in the film. The violin was recorded on location in Epping Forest with improvisation and sound, echoing the resonances of the ancient forest.
The film was shot over 9 days at locations including Duddo Five Stones, The Blue Lagoon in Hexham, High Force and Low Force Waterfalls, Lordenshaw Stone Circles, Roughting Linn Cup and Ring Markings, Doddington Moor and Bamburgh Castle.
For Film Two of Three Hundred and Thirty Three, Daisy Dickinson has teamed up with Ivor Novello winning composer and former Derek Jarman collaborator, Simon Fisher Turner. Working with Royal Northern Sinfonia, they have created an original score developed and recorded at The Glasshouse.
The film sees North East based performer and composer Kiik Amor and Japanese performance artist Junya Ishii move through a series of water rituals to summon the powers of nature from waterfalls, prehistoric cup and ring markings, Neolithic rocks and ancient stone circles in and around the Northumbrian landscape.
Many of the cup and ring markings are thought to date back almost 4000 years to Neolithic times, when it’s widely believed that our ancestors felt that all the elements of the natural world had self consciousness. Here we see the performers emulate the ancient spirals and water forces through body markings and movements.
Part three of the triptych sees a brand new collaboration between Daisy and award winning music producer, recording engineer and composer Marta Salogni. As the rituals shift from day to night, we are taken on a journey of magical realism through mind-bending chaos magic, harnessing the power of stone circles and prehistoric ruins. The film features Nuha Ruby Ra moving through an ever-changing sorcerous nightscape wreathed in bewitchment. Summoning authentic female power from ancestors gone by using fire ritual as a symbol of rebirth and transformation.
Daisy Dickinson
Artist
“Three Hundred and Thirty Three is a triptych of films in conversation with the druidic landscape of Northumberland. I wanted to evoke the strangeness of these ancient sites through earth, fire and water rituals. The scores were integral to the shaping of the films and the orchestral accompaniment really conjured the raw and devastating natural beauty of the North East. I was drawn to working with artists who I felt would grasp the mysticism surrounding these megalithic structures. I felt to achieve the realism necessary we needed to film on location, allowing their enchantment to seep into the works. Due to the nature of the final film it felt only right to focus on an all female set of core collaborators. I wanted the incantations we were using to feel authentic and the idea of three women conceptualising the film felt like a ritual in itself to me”