Films
HOWL
by Bahiyya Khan & Claire MeekelA full motion video game about grief and loss funded by New York University
Habits Of Time
by Claire Meekel & Abi MeekelHabits of Time is a short experimental docufiction. As an implicit criticism of one's inability to reside in the present, this film confronts the discredited moments that become the past. Subtly, the film examines the beauty of space, reflection, and moving stillness in an unavoidable world of relentless and disconcerting information: we often find ourselves wandering the city with little attentiveness to its surroundings while being absorbed our own troubled thoughts. In this way, Habits of Time can be understood as a contemporary adaptation of the timeless concept of creating some hold in an ever-changing world.
Through the eyes of a young woman, who is unidentified (played by both identical twin sisters Claire Meekel and Abi Meekel), we follow Iola as she experiences feelings of loneliness, melancholy, and nostalgia. As we watch Iola move through the day-to-day of her life, the viewer gets an insight into her disjointed experience of time: highlighted by unexpected jump-cuts and the non-linear narrative, Habits of Time makes a visual argument for the idea that life happens at all the moments in between.
In order to underline the universality of this theme, the main character remains unidentified throughout the film: Although the habits of the protagonist might be personal and particular to a postmodern society, the necessity of having them, the necessity of repetition, remains timeless. Despite the timelessness of this particular theme, it is now more relevant than ever: the world is changing at an unprecedented pace, the excess of available information is simply overwhelming and the integration and application of technology in our everyday life seems more powerful than ever. This film shows that all of these forces excel in encouraging humans to remain in a transient state of being, living from imaginary milestone to milestone, and rushing all the moments in between, all the while it’s the discredited and dismissed moments that might just comprise the cornerstones of one's life.
For this reason, Habits of Time comes at a crucial moment: the contemporary viewer is still able to relate to the themes and emotions addressed in the film with a sense of recognition, yet is far enough removed from them to experience this film with as much awkward discombobulation as an eager curiosity. In this way, this film aims to leave the viewer -subconsciously- with a highlighted attentiveness to exactly these moments of thoughtless repetition, stillness, nothingness, and in-betweenness. There is just something comforting about habits.
City Morgue
A film speaks about toxic teacher student relationships present in high schools. We made a film in 48 hours for the 48 hour film festival in South Africa.Link to watch: https://youtu.be/R79UfCFm7jo
By Bahiyya Khan, Claire and Abi Meekel
Eeny Meeny Motion Pictures
This experimental film is a timeline of 301 fleeting visions based on one WhatsApp message of the day, connected through their titles and their direct environment in a period that is under the influence of restriction, fear, loneliness, frustration, and all emotions triggered by COVID-19. The “haikuesque” interpretations of the messages we receive are an artistic audio-visual translation of the current socio-political situation of our environment in the Netherlands. By using AR we aim to create an interactive experience for the audience to engage with their surroundings.Funded by the NL Film Fonds in the sign of “Lockdown cinema”, the starting point for us was to challenge ourselves as filmmakers to use the limitations caused by Covid-19 to make films that would keep our minds busy and to keep the creative momentum going. As this project has developed we wanted to push the boundaries of film and what filmmaking can do. Using WhatsApp messages as the title of our films gave us a powerful source of inspiration which made us feel closer to the people we connect with and the current state of events emotionally, socio-politically, culturally, and psychologically.
The film will be presented as an Augmented Reality film installation giving us the flexibility to exhibit in playful and interesting ways. Not only will the film be exhibited at festivals and musuems but we have the prospects of covering the city with stickers and posters where we can place them under tables, street corners, traffic lights and tram stops.
by Claire Meekel and Coco Koldijk
AfterHOURSafter HOURS is a vignette, FMV game, that allows players a glimpse into the life of Lilith Gray – a young woman who was molested as a child and suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder as a result. By spending a night alone with Lilith in her bedroom and subsequently, her head, players learn Lilith's story by adopting a double gaze: that of the player witnessing Lilith's story and piecing together why she behaves and responds as she does and to an extent, the gaze of Lilith herself. This is achieved by having access to the voices in her head and the thoughts that respond to those voices. Hand drawn animations over the film serve to provide a more tactile experience of the game.
after HOURS premiered at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, 2019. The game won an IGF award for best student game, had multiple nominations at BIG festival in Brazil and travelled to Berlin, Canada, New York and South Africa. The game will be available on STEAM at the end of 2021.
by Bahiyya Kahn, Claire Meekel, Tim Flusk
Tomato Sauce Takeaway
Tomato Sauce Takeaway is a four minute short film, shot in Johannesburg, South Africa. The film documents the final evening routines of a few urban life forms in Johannesburg city. It does so in a way that is observational, introspective and personal given our own relations to space, routines and urban loneliness. The mundanity of these acts highlights an absurdity in the city life routines we take for granted. The people and the city itself become characters in a narrative of the last things we do before retreating to residential respite.The film was premiered at Recontres Des Internationales Paris/Berlin film festival in 2019.
by Riley Pam-Grant, Abigail Meekel and Claire Meekel
The Very Thought Of You
A poetic experimental short film highlighting the themes of the water crisis specifically in our oceans. We attempted to experiment with sound and video. This was made at the Film University Babelsberg, summer school in 2019. I worked with two of my old teachers, Jurgen Meekel and Nobunye Levin represented by WITS University in Johannesburg.
Adidas x Faculty Press: Faculty Pride Skits
Project Overview: In celebration of Pride Month, 2019, Faculty Press – in exclusive association with @ntwrkarea3 – has created a series of skits, with the word ‘First Encounters’ as a starting point. Starring 6 of the country’s most promising voices, they tell us how they came into their Queerdom, the continued journey it is and how they are using their platforms as a form of activism to advocate for the Queer Body, a body that is often ground zero for the violence around it.by Thebe Magugu, Lelo Lesani, Amy Zama, Claire Meekel and Abigail Meekel
39 Cuts Of Wasted Paper
39 Cuts of Wasted Paper is a 10-minute experimental short film. The psychological thriller examines the everyday violence South African women are oppressed by. The film focuses on the darker side of power, trauma, guilt, and social memory that interacts with the distaste of contemporary South African consciousness which generates mental health issues, depression, and fear amongst all women living in Johannesburg. The film simultaneously examines the dysfunctional state of security in this city wherein women aren’t feeling protected and safe both in their home or outside of it.by Abigail Meekel, Sameera Sorjee and Claire Meekel