Sensoria was a little less ambitious this year, with fewer events than in pre-pandemic times, but even though it had to be organised and planned under less than ideal conditions, it was another triumphant year for Sheffield’s homegrown festival of film, music and digital art.
I had to miss the opening events, so my first event was a double-bill of cutting edge films with live accompaniment in the University Drama Studio. Daud was a short film about a boy and his father, attempting to complete a seemingly impossible task, and featured some haunting and beautiful soundtrack music from Adi Anande, with Laura and Rob Skeet playing in the venue itself. The music perfectly added to the tension and emotion of the film, despite being conceived under difficult restrictions, with the musicians not able to meet in person. The same problem hampered the following film, That Long Moonless Chase, where the musical collaborators Helen Papaioannou and Noriko Okaku, had only met in person, in Sheffield, the previous day. The film was a mix of two mythical stories, one from Sheffield’s past, the other from Kyoto’s. What was unique was that the film didn’t actually exist until the night, something I’ve never come across before – a real time, live, animated film. Another first for Sensoria, and an excellent evening of entertainment.
The film Bait won many plaudits in 2019, despite a very limited cinema run, but Sensoria provided an opportunity to see it once again, and this time with added live music. Gwenno Saunders, created a new live score, to Mark Jenkin’s already unusual film. It was filmed on 16mm black and white film, so the soundtrack which had to be entirely added in post-production. This in itself gave the viewer a feeling of being somehow removed from the action, so adding another layer of sound, blending vocals, guitar and electronic sounds, worked perfectly.
If the idea of finding out more about the processes behind creating films and their soundtrack fascinates you, I’d recommend getting a ticket for the Sensoria Pro-day. Professionals and amateurs from the industry have a day when they get together during every Sensoria festival, and this year it was held at the Showroom. The opening session was a fascinating discussion with the production team behind the film of Everyone’s Talking About Jamie, talking about how it went from a two week run on the nearby Crucible stage, to being a feature film. It was one of several fascinating sessions, and concluded with the results of the ever popular scoring contest.
The final event of the festival took place in the S1 Artspace, which is a venue everyone needs to be aware of, and is set in the heart of the new Park Hill redevelopment. Johny Pitts, a Sheffield writer, journalist and photographer who has written a fascinating book, Afropean – Notes From Black Europe. In it, he draws on his early days growing up in the black community here in Sheffield. As an adult, he traveled across Europe, in search of an ‘Afropean’ identity, and examined the lives of other black communities in other cities. Tonight, he’s here with Chris Morris and Darren Campbell, to preview a short film he made in France which tries to capture some of the tone of the book. Prior to that, was an initial glimpse of another fascinating project, documenting Johny’s feelings about the disappearance of the buildings which surrounded him as he grew up. Spirit Of Dead Buildings gave an insight into what Park Hill flats and its surroundings were like when they were first built. The evening of music, spoken word and images was the perfect end to this year’s Sensoria, and they couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate setting.
So there we have it. Against the odds, Sensoria pulled their digital rabbit out of the Covid-restricted hat.
Just a quick mention for two future events. The collaboration between Sister Wives and Rafael Rozendaal is postponed until the 20th of November, and at some stage they intend to show the film Studio Electronique.
