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True North
True North is a beautiful piece of mixed media art. The filmmaker, Isaac Julien has successfully moved away from the conventional styles- He employs the use of three panels depicting series of audio visuals. When seen as a whole, they interweave to tell a larger story.
In this triptych, there are a whole lot of audio visual intricacies and almost organically I was pulled into it, to challenge myself to think beyond the norm just like the filmmaker.
The film has an interesting sound design. A melody is created by using the sound of repetitive footfall, gushing wind along with the bell like sound blowing in the breeze. The audio is juxtaposed with a series of visuals in respective panels depicting the vast white and snowy landscape. The chilly calmness of the sound and visuals creates a sense of eeriness, not knowing or understanding what lies ahead. In one of the sequences there is a POV shot of our protagonist (The silhouetted person, its difficult to determine the gender, I think this is also intentional) walking around in the igloo. There is a shift from this to the close up of the elements that would constitute the igloo and even the icy terrain. The panels show the snowy ground, ice chunks hanging from the ceilings. At this point the sounds get very interesting. It is like a medley of ambient sound, like a cappella. (This reminded me of the theme track used in the German Series, Dark— the theme track-- please check it out, i tripped on it through the pandemic)
In the subsequent sequences the visuals get more immersive. The silhouetted person is seen walking through the vastness. The visual progression moves on to close ups, as the profile of the silhouette is now revealed, we see a series of close up shots of moving feet and footprints on the snowy ground. The sound accompanied at this point is a medley of heavy breathing, sound of footsteps along with the rather chilling monologue in the voice of a woman.
The visuals are immersive in the sense, that I felt I was trying to follow the silhouetted person as they traversed through the treacherous terrain. It also feels metaphorical, like an introspective piece to unearth the meaning, or purpose of life, of existence as a minuscule being in a very cold, brutal and non forgiving set up. It also brings attention to this disparity between the voice of the narrator, the silhouetted person whose gender I was not able to ascertain. In the concluding panel, the narrator states, ‘I think I am the first man to sit on top of the earth’. I think the intention was to be non binary or maybe more fluid, with the aim to create a resonance amongst all subaltern groups and individuals.
The visuals fade out to a black, the sound fades out, and then on a black screen one panel appears, the second- showing the landscape and the same silhouetted figure, this time we see the face clearly. A few more visuals later we have all three panels on the black screen depicting the larger expanse of the terrain, to be seen collectively- it is like one panoramic image. From here we move on to zoomed shots showing the foot walking on the snow with heavy breathing sounds and the eery, the soft questioning sound of the piano.
The three panel installation has visuals with a very documentary style aesthetics yet it is clearly staged to portray a historic past. It also uses night camera in the concluding segment. The overall palette of the film ranged from cold colours blue, black and white- a very chilly subdued tonality
It is only after reading about this film that I got to know about the Black American explorer Matthew Henson and his claim to being the first one to reach the north pole. His achievement and contribution has not been well documented, and this was Julien’s way of paying an homage to him. Through this homage he makes us reflect on the notion of hierarchy, the heteronormative order, continuing compliance to the norm. I mean the homage is to a man, the narration is in the voice of a woman, the silhouetted figure is rather androgynous, so the idea of what is commonplace is questioned, but artistically- in a food for thought way!
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