Bodysong

The documentary genre is renowned for its creative filmic style and original brilliance the creators of said films bring to the screen. In the case of BODYSONG writer/director Simon Pummell in his debut feature is left to delve deep into the realms of his mind where anything and everything is possible. Pummell brings his ferociously honest film to life via the avenue of Jonny Greenwood, from the band 'Radiohead', with his immense musical genius creating a score worthy of the greatest motion picture.

The addresses the common truths throughout all society and more importantly the human race as the name suggests BODY being the overriding theme of the feature. All aspects of life are addressed and recorded vividly with no image censored leaving the spectator with a true sense of wonder and horror about the characteristics of the species depicted on screen. The shear volume of information and constant moving images of 'us' becomes a wanted tedium. Repetition seems to have no grounds when up against some of the most beautiful events that can ever occur for example the explicitly shown growing and birth of a human child and the resultant joy of the given parents. Only the most hardened soul could create disgust when viewing such magnificent beauty. One is truly in love with the idea of the human race and thus finds oneself deeply devoted to such a picture. Common curiosity is above all the true reason for placing yourself into the realms of Pummells' mind. This curiosity is convulsed with images that at the same time will deeply sicken most but also when realised as an entirety or as a 'human' they become less horrifying and more of a pragmatically true representation of the human species as we knew and know it. With all metaphorically decorative elements removed this film is showing you nothing more than human life, love, sex, death but in a way which truly mesmerises the soul. Whilst showing the spectator the standard characteristics of the human species Pummell chooses to show feats of human brilliance from the ignition of paper with pure mental strength to the hilariously exquisite contorting gymnastics of a man and his dog. Everything amazes solely because of the blatant and uncensored truth that is filmed. One cannot find in him a reason to criticise this feature due to its pure brilliance from the filmic techniques to the excellent score but more criticisms of the human race. You may find yourself in total emotional disarray that one human can do such things to another, but the film is 'us' and if we are like this then we must not blame the film for its grotesque frankness. More importantly blame us for giving Pummell the resources and the imagery to work with when creating the picture. The character in this film is humans not one but all and the people playing the species do it with realism and fortitude. Actors unconsciously playing a role that are generic to them, i.e. humans doing what they do best, being human. All the characters in the film have a story they are real people and what makes BODYSONG so unique is that an Internet database was created alongside the film with the background of all the people shown in the feature. One is left with only a few words to persuade others to watch BODYSONG them being, IF YOU ARE HUMAN WATCH THIS FILM.

The intention was to outline the human beings and there life on earth in no more then 90 minutes using tons of documentation footage from all over the world and all over the last century. It starts with a library of video recordings of sperm that has been magnified. The film starts on a collection of old recording from all over the globe and period that takes you on a journey of all of mankind's life, having a baby, learning, getting a job, sex, fighting, conflict, religion, imagination and demise.

Some of the clips are dull and others are mesmerizing, the prime impression is one of being carried along. The film somes up the word sublime for me. It The film is put together well to create the themes to create a universal feeling of what it is to be alive. It does not specific of individuals as such like my final film might. The shows me the idea of what being human is, This has really helped me as I want to show what it is like to live in the town of Eastleigh for my own film. The film is really interesting as all the material has been directed and filmed by others.

'Bodysong' is a most unusual film, a collection of moving images of the human body set to music. The film demonstrates all stages of life, and includes some very explicit sexual content. In a loose way, it reminded me of Richard Linklater's film 'Slacker', in that one image follows another with some linkage, but no overall narrative in the classical sense. It's very artfully done, and almost every fragment is visually striking; but for those of us who think in words, it's just a set of pictures, distinctive but slightly lacking in purpose beyond a series of things to look at. In its own way, it's very good; but not quite my thing.

BODYSONG is a must-see emotional roller-coaster build up out of

clips of found footage from all periods of film-making from all over

the world. A cinematic experience in the true sense of the word, using

images and music (a fantastic diverse film score from Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood) to speak to the audience on a gut

and heart level. In a time where the individual is paramount this

intelligent film dares to push you to think about what it means to be

human.

At first the film follows the cycle of life, starting with conception, a

cascade of births, growing up, mating rituals and sex, followed by

violence, destruction, old age, illness and death. Because there is

no voice-over used, the images are incredibly strong. There is no

way to escape the visual, you cannot box it with knowledge and

therefore the less pleasant sides of humanity are straight in your

face. We are all animals driven by procreation and lust for power,

moving in herds and I watching this, am one of them. I think I am

special, but I am not.

Fortunately director Simon Pummell then shows us the redemptive side of humanity: the search for meaning. Through religion and ritual, art, dreams, beliefs and solidarity.

Particularly interesting is the introduction of speech very late in the

film, adding cinematic ally as a positive, the discerning factors

between animal and human: voice and reason.

The film ends upbeat, pulling out into space, leaving the human

species on their planet, with all their smallness and bigness

ticking over, generation after generation.

The Bodysong website delivers finally something very few film

websites do: a meaningful experience in itself and not just a

promotional tool. The website has all the clips used in the film and

it is on the website you can find out what, when and by whom. The

choice for mostly amateur non-fiction footage makes absolute

sense to me as this film speaks about real people. That the

choice is also highly personal (and anyone else making this film

would choose different clips) echo's and underlines the theme of

the film: we are all the same, but different.

I saw this film at the world premiere in Rotterdam, 3 weeks ago. I didn't know what I was going to see. The only thing I knew was the music was composed by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood. According to the title I thought the film was going to be like an ode to the human body, or something...

It was far from that; a better discription for this film would be: an experimental summary of all the bright and dark sides of life that every human being will encounter during his or her existence... Beautiful and moving it is. This film feels as a strong, videoclip-like story, not as an documentary. Though, the whole film consists completely of archive footage. Every piece of footage of every highlight in the history was used to accomplish a stunning effect. (The director of this film told us, before the film was started, every shot has a story and every story can be found on their interactive website.)This was all superbly guided by a score that, in my opion, sounded very fresh and modern and it harmonized wholly with the visuals as its counterpart.