FILM
Through a series of commissions and strange accidents, I’ve found myself becoming a film-maker of late. I make mythic-poetic dream objects which masquerade as ‘movies’. These are born from my dance, music and writing practices, mixed with a child-in-a-sand-pit’s approach to cinematography and editing. Below are the last three works I made as performer-director, followed by some music videos and other works I’ve featured in over the last few years. ⬇
Excuse Me I am Expanding
This is a film about the paradox of being hopelessly entangled with all sentient beings to the point of Emptiness of self, but also being someone, with a past and genealogy and roots. It was filmed between Tokyo, Kyoto, County Wicklow, County Clare, and Stirlingshire in 2022-2023, as the world emerged from COVID. The most isolated time of my (and many people’s) life, on the cusp of flowering into reconnection. Produced as part of my Doctorate: Excuse Me I am Expanding: Butoh Dance as an Embodied Method for Experiencing and Expressing
Ecological Selfhoods.
My Whole Face Sort of Fell Off
A meditation on Death in the Anthropocene, Commissioned by Art.Earth/Falmouth University, 2021. I’ve tried to use my own mortality as a window to dream into ecocide, vanishing species, and cosmic cycles. Somewhere in the making of it the Devil appeared, Blake’s Energy, making a case for the human drives that cause Climate Change being essential for life (if only we can redirect them somewhere more healthy). Filmed in Bologna, its surrounding landscape, and my one bedroom flat in Partick, Glasgow.
SMITE ME NOW
This is a film about death, suicide, and in particular the high rate of suicide amongst men. It was commissioned by the University of Edinburgh for Man Down, an event making space for art and discussion about suicide during the Festival of Social Sciences 2018.
The film uses dance and music in locations in Japan, Scotland and France to attempt to feel and dream into the subject. Throughout there are interviews about the ethics, sadness and taboos surrounding suicide and attempting to make art about it.
Performance and concept: Paul Michael Henry
Filming and editing: Shuta Shimmyo, Paul Michael Henry
Interview subject: Angie Dight, Mischief La Bas (thank you)
Dramaturgy: Irina Glinski
Music Videos and Other People’s Films
These are a few of the projects from bands and other film makers I’ve performed in.
SUMARSÓLSTÖÐUR – Amélie Ravalec
Deadzone – Ladytron
(with Penny Chivas)