A fascinating circle of friends celebrated on stage by singer
Antony Hegarty during his European tour in 2006 is the thread of
this movie. The film opens with images of 13 beautiful models - one
of whom is a dyke - all from New York City and all with stories
about the way their gender presentation has impacted on their own
and others' lives.
Mixing dreamy layered imagery of female icons with footage from
Antony's tour, taking in Paris and London along the way, we
gradually get to know more about the lives of the women in Antony's
life. Although this important aspect of community is not made clear
until Antony says so after the film so the participants appear as
if random models, artists and performers selected in part for their
conventional beauty and in part because they seem to have something
interesting to say about gender.
Through its synthesis of Antony´s songs and unfurling video
portraiture of the beauties who performed on stage,
TURNING creates an intimate and cinematic experience but
raised for me issues around the burden on women to be constantly on
display.
In the Q&A session after the screening, on the penultimate
evening of Antony's Meltdown festival, Antony and Charles explained
that the film was created to explore the themes of identity,
transcendence and the revelation of essence - a laudable concept
but one which I fear was more meaningful for and clearer to those
taking part than for this audience member.
Turning, (see trailer below) was produced by
Bullitt Film and Turning Film in association with BeoFilm With the
support of Danish Filminstitute and Nordisk Film & TV Fund.
For more information about Meltdown visit meltdown.southbankcentre.co.uk
