Mutable Spirals of Ascension

Single Channel Video.  9:12 minutes. 2018.

Mutable Spirals of Ascension is a dance for camera work that follows two dancers as they navigate Shanghai’s bustling streets, urban forests, and massive industrial sites in search of connections to the wild. The video seeks to identify and dissolve barriers between humans and the wild in the Anthropocene where we are increasingly more likely to navigate urban jungles comprised of concrete and glass than an old-growth forest and its streams; where we are more likely to touch manmade, inanimate materials than the constantly changing and sensing textures of nature; where we are more immersed in the scent of gas and smoke than grass and bark; and, where we spend more time making eye contact with our own digital image than we do with our neighbors.

    • 2020: Culver City Film Festival. Shorts Daily, Roku Channel. Marina del Rey, CA. Award Winner.
    • 2020: FilmFest by Rogue Dancer. Raleigh, NC.
    • 2020: 100 from 10. Stan State Art  Place. Turlock, CA.
    • 2020: Spring Grove International Film Festival. Spring Grove, MN
    • 2020: Star City Film Festival, Waukon, IA.
    • 2019: One-Off Moving Images Festival. Valencia, ES. 
    • 2019: One-Off Moving Images Festival. Gol, Norway.
    • 2018: InShort Film Festival. Lagos, Nigeria.
    • 2018: Midpen Media TV, Channel 30. Palo Alto, CA.
    • 2018: Becoming Human. Burlington City Arts Center, Burlington, VT.
    • 2018: 35th Scary Cow Film Festival. San Francisco, CA.

Director: Jessica Gomula
Choreography and performance: Pauline Jennings in collaboration with Calvin Aham
Music Composition: Sean Clute
Cinematography: Allen Hahn
Costume Consultant: Amy Nielson
Assistant Editors: Julia Tavares, Gemima Segura, Christopher Benson