Melanie Manchot
Twelve, 2012
Twelve explores the intimate stories, rituals, repetitions and ruptures of lives spent in addiction and recovery. Inspired by the visual acuity of renowned contemporary filmmakers, the work connects and collapses individual recollections in which everyday situations, events and activities are rendered dramatic or abstract and infused with tragedy, pathos and humour.
Single sequences are shot as continuous takes, referencing iconic scenes from the films of Michael Haneke, Gus Van Sant, Bela Tarr and Chantal Akerman – a ferry journey across the Mersey, a darkened room looking out on to an early morning street, a car wash, the cutting of daisies with small scissors, the obsessive cleaning of a floor – providing the framework for reflections on remembered incidents and states of mind. Twelve employs a diversity of cinematic technique and tropes adapted by Manchot to reveal the complex and non-linear nature of recovery.
While the work is made with a group of recovering addicts it ultimately poses questions about the difficulty of being in the world and of finding meaningful forms of existence – questions that might affect many of us, even if not confronted with addiction.
Twelve was commissioned by Portraits of Recovery and developed by Melanie Manchot working with Action on Addiction, the Ley Community and the Psychosocial Research Unit at the University of Central Lancashire.
Melanie Manchot provides detailed information about the film on the special website http://www.twelve.org.uk which is meant to permanently grow in order to become a base for further research on the topic.
Stills from Twelve:
Single sequences are shot as continuous takes, referencing iconic scenes from the films of Michael Haneke, Gus Van Sant, Bela Tarr and Chantal Akerman – a ferry journey across the Mersey, a darkened room looking out on to an early morning street, a car wash, the cutting of daisies with small scissors, the obsessive cleaning of a floor – providing the framework for reflections on remembered incidents and states of mind. Twelve employs a diversity of cinematic technique and tropes adapted by Manchot to reveal the complex and non-linear nature of recovery.
While the work is made with a group of recovering addicts it ultimately poses questions about the difficulty of being in the world and of finding meaningful forms of existence – questions that might affect many of us, even if not confronted with addiction.
Twelve was commissioned by Portraits of Recovery and developed by Melanie Manchot working with Action on Addiction, the Ley Community and the Psychosocial Research Unit at the University of Central Lancashire.
Melanie Manchot provides detailed information about the film on the special website http://www.twelve.org.uk which is meant to permanently grow in order to become a base for further research on the topic.
Stills from Twelve:
