Reverse Shadow

(2019)

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REVERSE SHADOW (2019, digital video, 8 minutes) 

“I do not claim to fully understand the complexity of Janie’s work, but there’s a particular intuition that is paramount when approaching it, as with any great work of art. Reverse Shadow is the latest product of Janie’s genius, and it’s the result of her endless imagination which has give birth to dozens of films, installations, puppet shows, performances and a vast mixture of all the former.” – Jose Sarmiento Hinojosa, Desistfilm, February 2020

Rivers run red, planes hover over waters, ships travel in darkness, and towers loom and topple. Disaster seems imminent as the hunters prepare to shoot. The body is a soft target.

“I had a recurring dream that I was walking in the woods and a hunter mistook me for a bird. I could hear him moving through the forest. I always woke up before the gun was fired, but that feeling of apprehension would stay with me throughout the day. Lately, even without dreaming this dream, that apprehension is present.”  -Geiser

Reverse Shadow draws on a range of sources, from a child’s target practice game to brochures of WW2 warplanes, medical books, panoramic photographs, and iphone videos shot from an airplane seat. The sound collage includes, among other sources, recordings of Cold War shortwave “numbers stations” and an Edison recording of the Rip Van Winkle story. Immersed in an atmosphere of suspended apprehension, we sense disaster is waiting, waiting to happen.

Sound collage: Janie Geiser
Sound mix: Kari Rae Seekins
Digital mastering: Astra Price
Colorist: Caitlyn Diaz