Last week I shared a post about revisiting my short film Not Punch and Judy… and this week I’d like to share another film I made the same year: Skeletal Sunset (2014). I remember sitting on Brighton beach making this film. It was cold. I was with friends and we were gathered to say goodbye so it was an ending. I’d borrowed camera equipment from university and had it with me so I set up the tripod and sat there, adjusting the light setting every so often.
I find this film calming to watch. No drama. The only narrative is the sea’s gentle rhythm and the birds coming and going as they land on the derelict West pier. The pier is a Victorian structure and, for a while, it was thought that funding might happen to refurbish it. Instead a fire destroyed that hope and the skeleton remains, which I find beautiful. Those Victorian ideals are not important to the birds or the sea, yet their tendrils remain hooked in society. They have strong roots. But it’s possible to redirect them.