RELEASE | Conceptual Film
RELEASE is a conceptual representation of an individual’s journey. It explores the process of suppression and release - the journey from a stagnant physical existence to a central point of spiritual truth.
[Screen at the iMPAC film festival 2009 - impac.co.za]
RELEASE is a conceptual representation of an individual’s journey. It explores the process of suppression and release - the journey from a stagnant physical existence to a central point of spiritual truth.
[Screen at the iMPAC film festival 2009 - impac.co.za]
Film critique
Travis has overextended himself - beyond the boundaries of the filmmaker’s intentions - with this stunning cinematic topography of the Rorschach test. The film’s exclusive focus on (flowing) graphic qualities continues an important tradition in avant-garde film. I marvelled with excitement at how he came up with the idea and how the film was shot (so clinically). The force of its single, simple style opens the viewer up, dragging out as much emotion and meaning (interpretive, imagined content) as he/she is able to bring to the film experience. And, it works. The style and effectiveness of the sound track reveals a commendable Lynchean influence. It provides emotional direction and sustains interest in combination with well controlled pacing and continuity. The multiple meanings of the film’s title mirror the nature of the film itself (the release of ink in water, the release of the viewer into his/her own inner world, that it doesn’t release the viewer from involvement). As a whole the film emphasizes the potential cathartic effects of cinema and critiques how it provides escape from everyday trifles. This film explores the boundaries of the medium as none of the other students’ films do.”
Jan Koster - External examiner for The Open Window, 2008
Travis has overextended himself - beyond the boundaries of the filmmaker’s intentions - with this stunning cinematic topography of the Rorschach test. The film’s exclusive focus on (flowing) graphic qualities continues an important tradition in avant-garde film. I marvelled with excitement at how he came up with the idea and how the film was shot (so clinically). The force of its single, simple style opens the viewer up, dragging out as much emotion and meaning (interpretive, imagined content) as he/she is able to bring to the film experience. And, it works. The style and effectiveness of the sound track reveals a commendable Lynchean influence. It provides emotional direction and sustains interest in combination with well controlled pacing and continuity. The multiple meanings of the film’s title mirror the nature of the film itself (the release of ink in water, the release of the viewer into his/her own inner world, that it doesn’t release the viewer from involvement). As a whole the film emphasizes the potential cathartic effects of cinema and critiques how it provides escape from everyday trifles. This film explores the boundaries of the medium as none of the other students’ films do.”
Jan Koster - External examiner for The Open Window, 2008
