Exegesis.

Ours is a non-linear history built on counter-culture. In the wake of an influx of diverse screen representation and online socio-political discourse, we have made enormous advancements towards equality in recent years, but it is imperative for us, queer creatives, to continue to push the boundaries of form and content. 

​

It is my position that queer(ed) cinema should not be concerned with appeasing, placating, or merely reflecting. It should be active and defiant, encouraging spectators to view beyond themselves and their preconceived notions of normativity. It is through destabilisation techniques like alienation, intertextuality and queer temporality that such a response becomes possible. 

​

As a theoretical framework, these notions of destabilisation are merely the tip of the iceberg in regards to the potential of queer(ed) cinema. This is a mode of thinking and making that aims to undermine normative structures. As “something that we do”, not “something that we are” (Barker & Scheele, 2016, p.14), queering extends easily into the wider filmmaking process. Expanding on Jill Soloway’s “female gaze” (2016), cinematography in particular could push towards a queering of frame or a “queer gaze”. Within editing, I believe these ideas could be developed further into posthumanism, framing the collaboration between Editor and technology as a queer/cyborgian relationship. Further, technological advancements in immersive cinema, 360 and VR lend themselves well to notions of queer temporality and nonlinear interpretation. 

​

‘Queer’ is the central lens through which I view my broader creative practice as an artist, a filmmaker and a thinker. The development of this research and the film ELAGABALUS has substantially deepened my understanding of the potential applications of this lens. On a practical level, my work on ELAGABALUS, a demanding film stylistically and technically, has considerably expanded my skills as an Editor. 

​

ELAGABALUS additionally marks my first foray into narrative as a lead creative, an area that I very much look forward to extending upon in my continued practice. Moving forward, I have spoken with various members of my team about the possibility of developing this idea into a feature film. Should this happen, I will be curious to see how the queered editing style of the short film could be reinterpreted for a longer form. I believe that the hyper-stylisation of ELAGABALUS is able to succeed because of its short-form context, a format which encourages fast pacing and demands constant engagement. A longer piece would require a total reimagining of temporality, a more sophisticated narrative arc and a three-dimensionalisation of characters. As a short, this did not feel necessary, and would have over-complicated the already quite complex short film. Though, as illustrated by many of the films of New Queer Cinema and the alternative practices of creatives like Soda_Jerk, formal experimentation within feature-length cinema is certainly possible. 

​

Importantly, the development of ELAGABALUS was a highly collaborative process. Due to the specificity of the research area, this exegesis has focused on editing, but it is imperative to note that it is the extended creative collaborations that have allowed the project to come to fruition. ELAGABALUS was built on the work of close to 80 people. Through these key relationships, especially those forged with my Producer, Cinematographer, Production Designers, Costume Designer, and Composer, my creative practice has been pushed to an entirely new level. Coming from a background in visual art, my understanding of production values and creative pipeline has been enormously expanded. Historically, my work has been a predominantly solo pursuit, so seeing this film through pre-production and into actualisation has been a somewhat surreal experience. Filmmaking is hugely reliant on the cohesion of its cast and crew - it is massive machine, made up of many moving parts. It's really challenging and, importantly, it's really fun. The professional relationships I have forged in this process will undoubtedly extend beyond the bounds of the institution.  

I have often described ELAGABALUS as high trash, meaning that it sits somewhere between high and low-brow art - an area that my creative practice has occupied for some years. I aim to make work with multiple conceptual and cultural points of entry - work that smashes critical theory against emoji-fuelled late night sexting. As such, in the same vein as many of the works referenced throughout this exegesis, ELAGABALUS will likely be divisive for its relentless queerness, which is understandably - and quite deliberately - not everybody’s cup of tea.

​

Through this exegesis and my work editing and directing ELAGABALUS, I believe that my creative and research aims have been met via demonstration and analysis of numerous ways that editing can be harnessed as a tool for queering cinema. As practice-based research, the theoretical fields which underpin the ideas expressed in this exegesis have been in constant conversation with my creative outcomes. My research into queering and editing has directly informed the manifestation of both ELAGABALUS and this web exegesis, artefacts that are distinctly queer in form and content.

​

As an Editor, I am aware that not every project that I work on will be able to succumb to a comprehensive queering process, though as a mode of being, this is a lens that my work will never escape. There is much joy, however, to be found in the artform itself - the careful manipulation of cinematic time and space, the sculpting of emotion, and the rhythmic intuition of story. If we view editing as the final rewrite of the filmmaking process, it becomes clear that so much of a film’s identity hinges on the aptitude of the Editor.