Homo Bulla - 18 days
2011
short film - 10'30''
Concept, Artistic Direction,
Texts: Melina Nicolaides (Cy/USA)
Music: Chrysanthos Christodoulou (Gr)
In line with the concept of this biennale - the spirit of art and humanity, of human strength and regeneration within times of crisis - Melina Nicolaides will be showing at at the Video and Short Film Festival of Mykonos, the 10-minute short film, entitled "Homo Bulla: 18 days". Filmed entirely underwater, and based on the ancient metaphor of homo bulla, or ‘man as a bubble’ - a concept illustrating the transience of life - the film’s rising, splitting bubbles, filled with the ‘breath of life’, demonstrate here, the potential of mankind, of the collective, to breathe together as one.
The story, an abstract narrative of the 18-day Egyptian revolution, is told through the five interweaving sections of the film: a metaphoric interpretation of isolated people coming together, finding a common voice, working together, through struggle, danger and fear; a momentous fight, then the moment of calm after it is all over; and finally things must begin again, and a new road must be found. The future after those 18 days is left pending, in the knowledge that with revolution, comes instability and uncertainty.
This symbolic story of Egypt, akin to every other place struggling for a new voice and identity anywhere, is about individuals in the image of rising bubbles, coming together to construct a new reality; it is about People who shed so fast the individualism that has engulfed our times everywhere, about men and women with the courage to fight for their dreams and aspirations in one unified breath.
Despite the reality of the continuing struggle everywhere for social equality, for freedom, and the building of just civil states, it is this satiated ‘breath of life’ that can remind us always that solidarity is, indeed, a beautiful and potent truth. In relation to our global culture, it can transcend national, geographic or racial limitations, and be applied to any time, any moment in history, where people achieve the capacity within themselves to find a shared and unified message.
This film is dedicated to all the silenced voices and stifled breaths able to find, like those in Egypt, a voice in their own protest - and more importantly, the strength to persevere afterwards, in a state where the road ahead of new beginnings is unknown, long and dangerous, and where divisions will inevitably re-emerge.
The metaphor of ‘man as a bubble’ is a concept illustrating the transience of life that dates back to the ancients, and has linked writers and artists throughout the centuries. In the words of the 2nd century writer Loukianos of Samosata, the race of man and the whole of life is like the bursting of bubbles in water, ‘All men are bubbles, great or small, inflated with the breath of life...but all must inevitably burst.’
The short film Homo Bulla: 18 days, filmed entirely underwater, transforms this ancient metaphor into the story of the Egyptian revolution, mirroring the different stages of those 18 days, which parallel so closely the stages of life’s journey: in the five interweaving sections of this film, a metaphoric interpretation of isolated people coming together, finding a common voice, working together, through struggle, danger and fear; a momentous fight, then the moment of calm after it is all over; and finally things must begin again, and a new road must be found. The future after those 18 days is left pending, in the knowledge that revolution brings uncertainty, and on this new road, long and dangerous, divisions will re-emerge.
These rising, splitting bubbles, filled with the ‘breath of life’, illustrate the potential of mankind, of the collective, to breathe together as one, showing us that people do have the capacity within them to find a shared voice, a unity and solidarity in a common breath. In shedding the characteristic individualism that has shaped our times for this brief moment, it reminds us of the importance of re- establishing and re-shaping destiny and identity, of the reconstitution of a collective memory, and of those rare perfect moments in time when we are all breathing together as one.
