The Undertow
“The Undertow” is a fictional narrative that has been made into a short film for a Transmission: The Distance Between (Us) Matters. This is a project that explores collaboration in the new world of isolation/physical distancing. Using a linear process model, writers, voice artists, filmmakers and composers from around the world worked in teams of four (one from each discipline) to create a short visual piece drawing on how the environment has shaped their experience(s). Watch the film and read the original text below:
You will see me again… years from now. Things will not be the same. Nothing really… will be the same.
In time, the earth will have less color than today. We will no longer feel the ocean air… or see the movement in the trees. Life will be limited and sustained, in a succession of rooms… insulated from an infected atmosphere.
Inside one of these rooms, we will share a memory. A visual interruption that penetrates the simulation. Sending us back to a place where all is silent and still… like a photograph.
We’ll feel the pull of an old emotion… as our minds begin to fill in the sounds… then words… that were spoken… on a day above ground.
This memory… of life. The weight of the room will shift with our consciousness. Our hearts rise… and fall… as we fade deeper… into the depth of the image in front of us.