The Nine Muses
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
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Ten years after the end of the Trojan War, Odysseus still has not returned home. So begins Homer's revered epic poem, The Odyssey, the primary narrative reference point for THE NINE MUSES, John Akomfrah's remarkable meditation about chance, fate and redemption.
Structured as an allegorical fable set between 1949 and 1970, THE NINE MUSES is comprised of nine overlapping musical chapters that mix archival material with original scenes. Together, they form a stylized, idiosyncratic retelling of the history of mass migration to post-war Britain through the suggestive lens of the Homeric epic.
In addition to its resonance with Homer's epic, THE NINE MUSES was devised and scripted from the writings of a wide range of authors including Dante Alighieri, Samuel Beckett, Emily Dickinson, James Joyce, John Milton, Friedrich Nietzsche, William Shakespeare, Sophocles, Dylan Thomas, Matsuo Basho, TS Eliot, Li Po, and Rabindranath Tagore.
THE NINE MUSES is an journey through myth, folklore, history, and a museum of intangible things. It is a 'sorrow song' or 'song cycle' on journeys and migration, memory and elegy, knowledge and identity.
"Striking... Extends, complicates, and enriches the definition of documentary."—Melissa Anderson, ArtForum
"What makes the documentary a success is that the African immigrants are at once detached from standard cultural plugs (rhythmic music, soulful dancing, hand-clapping church services, confrontations with racists) and yet are not universalized. ...Instead, the radical detachment, the unconscious stream of European poetry and philosophy, and those frozen Alaskan landscapes make the ghosts even more haunting, more unfamiliar, more distant. They might exist in a place and a time that is inaccessible."—Charles Mudede, The Stranger
"Akomfrah's The Nine Muses wraps the viewer in literature, music and archive footage, summoning up a mood rather than a story that reflects on the immigrant experience and the violence of displacement with a majestic grace."—Jason Solomons, The Observer
"Cerebral and sensual, British filmmaker John Akomfrah's The Nine Muses considers the history of the African diaspora to postwar Europe through a highly unusual prism of structuralist cinema, archival footage, spoken-word recordings and the nine muses birthed by the union of Zeus and Mnemone, the Greek goddess of memory. Akomfrah's steady, patient pace [makes it] fascinating to absorb his many heady references."—Robert Koehler, Variety
"It's been a long time since a film has moved me in quite the way that John Akomfrah's The Nine Muses did."—Wendy Okoi-Obuli, Shadow and Act
Citation
Main credits
Akomfrah, John (film director)
Akomfrah, John (screenwriter)
Akomfrah, John (on-screen participant)
Gopaul, Lina (film producer)
Lawson, David (film producer)
Lawson, David (on-screen participant)
Mathison, Trevor (on-screen participant)
Mathison, Trevor (composer)
Other credits
Editor, Miikka Leskinen; director of photography, Dewald Aukema; composer, Trevor Mathison.
Distributor subjects
Africa; Britain; Literature; MigrationKeywords
SMOKING DOGS FILMS
THE NINE MUSES
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Awarding Funds from the National Lottery |
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UK Film Council |
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UK FILM COUNCIL |
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The Arts Council of England
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Soul Rebel Pictures |
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In association with
Creation Rebel Films
BBC English Regions
Naxos Audio Books
A Made in England Initiative
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A Smoking Dogs Films Production
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The gold fell from very high in the sky. And so when it hit the earth it went down very, very deep.
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00.02.06 |
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FROZEN ALASKAN COASTLINE SEEN FROM BOAT
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BLACK SCREEN
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TITLE: THE NINE MUSES
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00.02.45 |
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FROZEN ALASKAN COASTLINE SEEN FROM BOAT
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ARCHIVE: FOUNDRY WORKER
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BLACK MAN LOOKING AT ALASKAN SHORE
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ARCHIVE: FOUNDRY WORKER |
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00.03.17 |
VOICE OVER Sometimes I think we shouldn’t blame these people, because it’s we have come to their country.
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FROZEN ALASKAN SHORE SEEN FROM BOAT – BLACK MAN LOOKING OUT FROM BOAT |
00.03.26 |
On the other hand we think well, if they in the first place had not come to our country and had spread their false propaganda, we would never have come to theirs.
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00.03.34 |
If we had not come, we would not be the wiser. We would still have the good image of England, thinking that they are what they are not. And the English would be ignorant of us.
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CAPTIONS: Mnemosyne is the Greek Goddess of Memory.
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00.04.03 |
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FENCE IN SNOW
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Mnemosyne slept with Zeus, king of the Gods, for nine nights
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00.04.18 |
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INN SIGN: HIGHWAYMAN. CAR DRIVES AWAY THRU SNOW, SNOWSTORM
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CAPTION: Mnemosyne then gave birth to the Nine Muses.
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00.04.38 |
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PAN L ACROSS FROZEN LANDSCAPE
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TILT UP FROZEN ROCK TO WINDSWEPT TREES
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TREES IN SNOW
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TRUCKS IN SNOW
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CAPTION: Calliope The Muse of Epic Poetry
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00.05.23 |
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ARCHIVE: TRAFFIC IN SNOWY STREETS |
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YELLOW & BLUE MEN IN SNOWY LANDSCAPE |
00.05.39 |
VOICE OVER Of man’s first disobedience and of the fruit of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste brought death into the world and all our woe.
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ARCHIVE: TRAFFIC & PARKED CAR IN SNOW
YELLOW & BLUE MEN BESIDE SNOW-COVERED HIGHWAY |
00.05.54 |
With loss of Eden till one greater man restore us and regain the blissful seat. Sing Heavenly Muse, that on the secret top of Oreb, or of Sinai didst inspire that shepherd who first taught the chosen seed in the beginning how the heavens and earth rose out chaos.
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ARCHIVE: CHILD MAKING SNOWBALLS, PEOPLE IN STREET IN SNOW
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TREES IN SNOW |
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ARCHIVE: TRUCK STUCK IN SNOW
BLUE MAN APPROACHES ALONG SNOW COVERED ROAD
ARCHIVE: PEOPLE IN STREET IN SNOW
BLUE MAN WALKS AWAY ALONG SNOW COVERED ROAD
ARCHIVE: ROAD GRITTING LORRY
YELLOW MAN APPROACHES
SNOWPLOUGH
YELLOW MAN APPROACHES, SNOWPLOUGH PASSES |
00.06.35 |
Say first what cause moved our grand parents in that happy state, favoured of Heaven so highly, to fall off from their creator and transgress his will for one restraint, lords of the world besides? Who first seduced them to that foul revolt? The Infernal Serpent; he it was whose guile, stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived the mother of mankind, what time his pride had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring to set himself in glory above his peers, he trusted to have equalled the Most High, if he opposed; and with ambitious aim against the throne and monarchy of God raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud with vain attempt. Him the Almighty power hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, with hideous ruin and combustion, down to bottomless perdition, there to dwell in adamantine chains and penal fire, who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms.
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MUSIC |
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CAPTION: Every day is a journey and the journey itself is home.
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00.07.42 |
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TREES IN SNOW
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ARCHIVE: TRAFFIC JAM IN SNOW
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TREES IN SNOW – PAN TO YELLOW MAN
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ARCHIVE: TRAFFIC IN SNOW, CRASHED CAR
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TREES IN SNOW, PAN TO YELLOW MAN
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ARCHIVE: MIGRANTS ARRIVING AT PORT
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00.08.59 |
Muse, daughter of Zeus speak to me now, of that resourceful man who wandered far and wide
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YELLOW MAN APPROACHES THRU SNOW
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ARCHIVE: MIGRANTS ARRIVING AT PORT
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SNOWY TREES, PAN TO BLACK MAN BESIDE CAR
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00.09.14 |
He came to see many peoples cities where he learned their customs whilst on the sea his spirit suffered many torments |
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ARCHIVE: MIGRANTS GREETED BY FRIENDS/RELATIVES & BOARDING TRAIN
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00.09.26 |
He came to Sparta to learn about his father’s voyage home and to gain a worthy reputation among men. |
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YELLOW MAN APPROACHES THRU SNOW
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00.09.40 |
So now tell us his story starting anywhere you wish. |
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YELLOW MAN PASSES BLACK MAN & CAR
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CAPTION: A cold coming we had of it ,just the worst time of the year for a journey ,and such a journey. |
00.09.54 |
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SEASCAPE
ARCHIVE: FLOODED STREETS & TRAFFIC
VLS KAYAKS |
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00.10.26 |
VOICE OVER The Trojan war has ended in victory for the Greeks.
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ARCHIVE: ABANDONED CAR IN FLOOD
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VLS KAYAKS |
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ARCHIVE: BOAT PADDLED DOWN FLOODED STREET |
00.10.35 |
After the passage of many years, Odysseus has not returned to Ithaca, his kingdom, and his fate is unknown.
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BLACK MAN / FROZEN ALASKAN LANDSCAPE |
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ARCHIVE: CLEARING UP AFTER FLOOD DAMAGE
YELLOW MAN AT JETTY IN SNOW |
00.10.58 |
His wife Penelope is beset by suitors eager to marry her, and thus become king. They are convinced that Odysseus is dead. His son Telemachus, angered by the suitors’ behaviour, is yet powerless to prevent them. Now the goddess Athena descends from a council of the Gods. She encourages Telemachus to go in search of his lost father. She also furnishes him with a ship and crew, so that he may undertake this quest.
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SNOWY MOUNTAINS / YELLOW MAN LOOKING OUT FROM JETTY |
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TRACKING SHOTS AS SHIP LEAVES DOCK |
00.11.42 |
Telemachus leaves in secret, his departure unknown even to his mother, and sails to Pylos. There Nesta directs him onward to Sparta, where Menelaus rules with his consort Helen. Zeus’s daughter, she whose beauty had first been cause of war.
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CAPTION: For whatever we lose (like a you or a me) It’s always our self we find in the sea.
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00.12.34 |
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ARCHIVE: STORMY WAVES
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YELLOW MAN ON BOAT LOOKING TOWARD SHORE
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ARCHIVE: STORMY SEA SEEN FROM BOAT
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BLUE MAN ON BOAT LOOKING TOWARD SHORE
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YELLOW MAN ON BOAT LOOKING TOWARD SHORE
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ARCHIVE: STORMY SEA SEEN FROM BOAT
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ARCHIVE: MEN IN BAR
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BLUE MAN ON BOAT LOOKING TOWARD SHORE
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FROZEN ALASKAN SHORE SEEN FROM BOAT |
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00.13.38 |
VOICE OVER Once we’d left that island, no other land appeared, only sky and sea.
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ARCHIVE: WAVES BREAK OVER SHIP’S BROW / SNOW COVERED DECK |
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SHIP ON THE SEA
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00.13.48
00.14.24
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Our boat sailed on its course, but not for long. All at once, west wind whipped up a frantic storm. The blasts of wind snapped off both forestays on the mast, which then fell back and all our rigging crashed down in the hold.
When the sun had left the splendid sea , and risen up to an all bronzed heaven the ship and crew reached Pylos, a well built city ruled by Nestor |
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BLACK MAN LOOKING OUT FROM BOAT / SHORELINE |
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ARCHIVE: MIGRANTS ARRIVING ON SHIP
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FROZEN ALASKAN SHORE & SEA
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PAN L ALONG DOCK
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ARCHIVE: SHIP UNLOADING
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FROZEN SEA & PORT
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ARCHIVE: MIGRANTS DISEMBARKING / BUS DRIVER GREETS FRIEND |
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00.15.36
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VOICE OVER Telemachus is greeted lovingly by Menelaus, old comrade of Odysseus.
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FROZEN PORT / MAN SITTING ON QUAYSIDE |
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00.15.46
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Night draws on, and the household sleeps.
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00.16.05
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VOICE OVER I am in my mother’s room. It’s I who live there now. I don’t know how I got there. Perhaps in an ambulance. Certainly a vehicle of some kind. Was she already dead when I came? Or did she only die later? I mean, enough to bury. I don’t know.
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CAPTION: Clio The Muse of History
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00.16.41 |
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ARCHIVE: FOUNDRY & FOUNDRY WORKERS
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FOUNDARY
MAN SITTING ON QUAYSIDE |
00.17.43
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I am in my mother’s room. It’s I who live there now. I don’t know how I got there. Perhaps in an ambulance. Certainly a vehicle of some kind. I was helped. I’d never have got there alone. There’s this man who comes ever week. Perhaps I got here thanks to him. He says not. He gives me money and takes away the pages. So many pages.
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ARCHIVE: WHITE MAN DELIBERATELY BARGES BLACK BUS DRIVER IN STREET
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MAN SITTING ON QUAYSIDE
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00.18.23
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Yes, I work now, a little like I used to, except that I don’t know how work any more. |
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ARCHIVE: MAN STOPS IN STREET, STARES AT BLACK MAN TALKING TO WHITE WOMAN |
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MUSIC |
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00.18.38
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MAN What’s the matter, why did you turn away?
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WOMAN That’s my dad over there. I didn’t want him to see me talking to a man in the street.
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MAN You mean talking to a black man?
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WOMAN I didn’t say that.
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MAN ON QUAYSIDE TURNS & LOOKS AT CAMERA |
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MAN You didn’t have to. I’m quite used to it now. Well, you won’t have to worry any more. I’m going away.
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ARCHIVE: MANDOLIN PLAYER
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ARCHIVE: HOPPER ON CRANE
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CRANE
MAN SLEEPING IN DRAINPIPES ARCHIVE: CONSTRUCTION WORKERS IN WINTER
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00.19.03
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VOICE OVER When I’ve done nothing he gives me nothing. He scolds me. Yet I don’t work for money. For what then? I don’t know .
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BLACK MAN ON QUAYSIDE
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ARCHIVE: YOUTHS PLAYING BEACH CRICKET / SAD MAN REMEMBERING
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CAPTION: OUR JOURNEY HAD ADVANCED OUR FEET WERE ALMOST COME TO THAT FORK IN BEINGS ROAD
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00.19.37
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MAN ON QUAYSIDE
ARCHIVE: CAFÉ WINDOW IN RAIN / MIGRANT WRITING LETTER HOME |
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00.19.56
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VOICE OVER It is midnight, the rain is beating on the windows. All is sleeping. I can’t sleep.
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ARCHIVE: CHILDREN PLAYING IN SUN-DAPPLED SEA
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BLACK MAN ON QUAYSIDE |
00.20.16
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I hear the eagle owl. What a terrible battle cry.
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ARCHIVE: CHILDREN PLAYING IN SUN-DAPPLED SEA
HORSES IN PADDOCK |
00.20.23
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It would seem to me I was now becoming rapidly unrecognisable. When I passed my hands over my face, the face my hands felt was not my face any more. And the hands my face felt were my hands no longer. |
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MAN SLEEPING
HORSES
MAN SITTING BY POND |
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ARCHIVE: HORSES IN PADDOCK
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MAN LYING ON QUAYSIDE
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HORSES |
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MAN SITTING ON JETTY, FOREST IN B/G
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CAPTION: HARD IS THE JOURNEY, SO MANY TURNINGS, AND NOW WHERE AM I |
00.21.10
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ARCHIVE: SAD MOTHER WITH CHILD
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ARCHIVE: HORSE
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ARCHIVE: TRACKING SHOTS OF TRAFFIC & ROAD THRU CITY
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FROZEN GRASS STEMS, YELLOW MAN ON SHORE
ARCHIVE: SAD MOTHER WITH CHILD, PAN TO MAN TALKING |
00.21.34
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VOICE OVER England to me, really, when I was at home, it was more or less like a land of paradise, happiness. But after advancing up in age and beginning to read books and things like that, finding out for myself that it isn’t altogether the way how I thought it was.
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FROZEN GRASS STEMS, YELLOW MAN ON SHORE
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ARCHIVE: BUS CONDUCTOR & BUS |
00.22.09 |
I’d like to see if I can go home someday, and be better off than when I arrived in the country. And the only way of doing that or achieving that goal is to see if I can get myself a job and try to keep that job before I leave.
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FROZEN GRASS STEMS & FROZEN SHORELINE
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ARCHIVE: BLACK WORKERS WASHING UP |
00.22.51
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VOICE OVER Where now? Who know? When now? Unquestioning. I, say I, unbelieving. Questions, hypotheses, all them that. Keep going, going on, call that going, call that on. Perhaps that is how it began. You think you are simply resting the better to act when the time comes, or for no reason; and you soon find yourself powerless ever to do anything again.
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BLUE & YELLOW MEN LOOKING OUT TO SEA |
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ARCHIVE: LAUNDRY WORKERS |
00.23.26
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VOICE OVER What am I to do? What shall I do? What should I do? In my situation, how proceed? By aporia, pure and simple? Or by affirmations and negations invalidated as uttered, or sooner or later? Generally speaking. There must be other shifts. Otherwise it would be quite hopeless. But it is quite hopeless.
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YELLOW MAN LOOKING OUT TO SEA |
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ARCHIVE: CHURCH BAND
YELLOW MAN LOOKING OUT TO SEA |
00.23.55
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The fact would seem to be, if in my situation one may speak of facts, not only that I shall have to speak of things of which I cannot speak, but also, which is even more interesting but also that I – which is if possible even more interesting – that I shall have to – I forget. No matter. And at the same time I am obliged to speak. I shall never be silent. Never.
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CAPTION: To what shore would you cross, o my heart ? There is no traveller before you, there is no road |
00.24.30
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ARCHIVE: TRAIN & TRACKING SHOT OF TRACKS
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TRACKING SHOT OF FROZEN MOUNTAINS |
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00.24.50
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VOICE OVER How I came to be there, I cannot say for sure. I was so deeply bound by sleep as I departed from the path of truth.
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ARCHIVE: TRAIN & TRACKS
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TRACKING SHOT OF FROZEN MOUNTAINS |
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ARCHIVE: TRAIN & TRACKS |
00.25.07
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Like a man, who crawling from the sea upon the shore breathes slow and weakly, my soul then turned back to contemplate the way by which I came. Which none was ever known to be alive.
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TRACKING SHOT OF FROZEN MOUNTAINS & TREES
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ARCHIVE: TRAIN PASSING
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CAPTION: Polyhymnia The Muse of Sacred Song
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00.25.32
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ARCHIVE: LEONTYNE PRICE SINGING
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MUSIC (MOTHERLESS CHILD) Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, , a long ways from home …. |
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YELLOW MAN LOOKING OUT TO SEA
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ARCHIVE: BLACK GIRL WITH DOLL
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ARCHIVE: TRAINS & SIGNAL
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TRACKING SHOT OF ROOFS FROM TRAIN
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WOMAN LOOKING OUT OF TRAIN |
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YELLOW MAN LOOKING OUT TO SEA
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ARCHIVE: TRAIN PASSES L-R
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ARCHIVE: GIRLS IN STREET RUN AWAY FROM CAMERA
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ARCHIVE: STEAM TRAIN IN SHUNTING YARD & FACTORY BELCHING SMOKE
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YELLOW MAN LOOKING OUT TO SEA
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BLUE MAN LOOKING OUT TO SEA
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ARCHIVE: LEONTYNE PRICE SINGING
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ARCHIVE: WASHING ON LINE IN SLUM / OUTSIDE TOILET, GIRLS PLAYING WITIH BALL
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FROZEN ALASKAN LANDSCAPE
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ARCHIVE: CHILDREN PLAYING ON FROZEN SLAGHEAPS
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FROZEN ALASKAN LANDSCAPE
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00.28.01 |
Hear me, you who yesterday came to my home as a ….
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TRACKING SHOT OF LORRY IN SNOW
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FROZEN ALASKAN LANDSCAPE
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ARCHIVE: TRAFFIC JAM IN SNOW
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FROZEN ALASKAN MOUNTAINS |
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DEMOLISHED HOUSES
FROZEN ALASKAN ROCKS
ARCHIVE: NURSE WHEELS PATIENT ALONG CORRIDOR
ARCHIVE: BOARDED-UP SHOPS |
00.28.31
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VOICE OVER To begin at the beginning , it was spring mooonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched courters’- and-rabbits’ wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboat –bobbing sea. The houses are blind as moles (though moles see fine tonight in the snouting, velvet dingles) or blind as Captain Cat there in the muffled middle by the pump and town clock, the shops in mourning, the Welfare Hall in widow’s weeds. And all the people of the lulled and dumbfound town are sleeping now.
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Artic Waste
Man in Yellow |
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CAPTION:
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ARCHIVE: NURSE WEIGHING BABY IN MATERNITY WARD |
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ARCHIVE: LAUNDRY WORKERS
FROZEN ALASKAN LANDSCAPE
ARCHIVE: LAUNDRY WORKERS
ARCHIVE: FACTORY WORKER AT LATHE
PAN ALONG FROZEN SHORELINE OF CARGO PORT
DISTANT FROZEN MOUNTAINS |
00.29.35 |
Hush, the babies are sleeping, the farmers, the fishers, the tradesmen and pensioners, cobbler, schoolteacher, postman and publican, the undertaker and the fancy woman, drunkard, dressmaker, preacher, policeman, the webfoot cocklewomen and the tidy wives. Young girls lie bedded soft or glide in their dreams, with rings and trousseaus, bridesmaided by glow-worms down the aisles of the organ playing wood. The boys are dreaming wicked or of the bucking ranches of the night and the jolly-rodgered sea. And the anthracite statues of the horses sleep in the fields, and the cows in the byres, and the dogs in the wetnosed yards. And the cats nap in the slant corners or lope, sly, streaking and needling, on the one cloud of the roofs.
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ARCHIVE: FOUNDRY & FOUNDRY WORKERS |
00.30.24
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You can hear the dew falling, and the hushed town breathing. Only your eyes are unclosed to see the black and folded town fast, and slow.
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VLS YELLOW MAN WALKS ONTO JETTY
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ARCHIVE: FACTORY WORKER OPERATING MACHINERY
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VLS YELLOW MAN WALKS ONTO JETTY
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ARCHIVE: WOMAN SINGING |
00.31.07
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SONG SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES |
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VLS YELLOW MAN ON FROZEN JETTY
FOUNDARY
YELLOW MAN
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MOUNTAINS |
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HUT |
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MUSIC |
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FROZEN ALASKAN SHORE & PORT
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ARCHIVE: MAN IN STRAW HAT CARRYING CASE ALONG STREET
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BLACK MAN IN FROZEN LANDSCAPE
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ARCHIVE: MAN IN STRAW HAT CARRYING CASE ALONG STREET
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VLS YELLOW MAN ON JETTY
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BLACK MAN IN ROZEN PORT
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ARCHIVE: MAN READS NOTICES OUTSIDE LABOUR EXCHANGE
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FROZEN ALASKAN PORT MAN ON LADDER MAN LOAD VAN MAN LOOKS AT PORT
BUS CONDUCTOR WITH FLAR
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FROZEN ALASKAN PORT
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ARCHIVE: FOG & MAN LEADING BUS
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TILT DOWN FROM TREES TO VLS BLACK MAN IN FROZEN LANDSCAPE |
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ARCHIVE: TRAFFIC IN FOG |
00.34.05
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NARRATION In this country I have reached, what are the people like? Are they violent and wild, without a sense of justice? Or are they kind to strangers? In their minds do they fear the Gods?
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00.34.23
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A young woman’s shout rang out around me. |
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FROZEN FOREST |
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ARCHIVE: CAR GUIDED IN FOG |
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Nymphs who live along steep mountain peaks and by the river springs and grassy meadows. Could I somehow be near men with human speech? Come on then, I’m going to try to find out for myself.
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ARCHIVE: TRAFFIC IN FOG & SNOW |
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FROZEN FOREST |
00.35.01
00.35.25
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Inside him, his heart was growling. He struck his chest and said, as a rebuke to his own heart: ‘hang on, my heart, you went through things worse than this.’ That day the Cyclops in his frantic rage devoured your strong companions, you held out then, until your cunning led you from that cave where you thought you would die.
He said these words to hold down the heart within his chest, and his spirit submitted, enduring everything with resolution.
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ARCHIVE: CROSS ROADS
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ARCHIVE: TRAIN & SIGNAL
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VLS BLACK MAN IN FROZEN FOREST |
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TRACK TOWARD WINDOW OF SLUM
ARCHIVE: CHILDREN
Veranda and yellow man |
00.35.56
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Then Athene came, moving down from Heaven looking like a woman. She stood above his head and spoke to him, saying: ‘why now, you most ill-fated of all men, are you awake? This is your home. And here inside this house, your wife and child.’
Let sleep take hold of you, you’ll soon come out of these bad times. |
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00.36.30
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‘Yes, Goddess, everything you say is true. But the heart inside my chest is worried.’
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CAPTION: Malpomene The Muse of Tragedy
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00.36.41 |
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ARCHIVE: BONFIRE & SLUM CLEARANCE SITE, BOARDED UP HOUSES & NEW TOWER BLOCKS
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FROZEN ROCKS, PAN TO SEA
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ARCHIVE: THOUGHTFUL MEN
ARCHIVE: FOUNDRY WORKER
ARCHIVE: THOUGHTFUL MAN |
00.36.50
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SONG FINNEGAN’S WAKE Tim Finnegan lived on Walken street head felt heavy which made him shake |
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PEOPLE LOOKING
ARCHIVE: FOUNDRY WORKERS |
00.37.37
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VOICE OVER I shall soon be quite dead at last, in spite of all. Perhaps next month. Then it would be the month of April, or of May. A thousand little signs tell me so.
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SURFACE OF FROZEN SEA |
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Foundary
PIGEONS IN FLIGHT |
00.37.54 |
Perhaps I’m wrong. Perhaps I shall survive St John the Baptist’s day, even the 14th of July Festival of Freedom. Indeed I would not put it past me to pant on till the Transfiguration, not to speak of the Assumption. But I do not think so. I do not think I am wrong in saying that these rejoicings will take place in my absence this year. I have that feeling. I’ve had it now for some days.
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FROZEN LANDSCAPE & MOUNTAINS
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MUSIC |
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ARCHIVE: FLAMING KETTLE PUT DOWN AS MARKER IN FOG
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FROZEN PORT & AIRSTRIP / YELLOW MAN LOOKING AT IT
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ARCHIVE: AIRPORT IN FOG
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FROZEN ALASKAN AIRSTRIP / YELLOW & BLACK MEN LOOKING AT IT
PLANE FLYING |
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CAPTION: ART THOU ABROAD ON THIS STORMY NIGHT, ON THY JOURNEY OF LOVE, MY FRIEND
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00.40.00 |
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ARCHIVE: MIGRANTS ARRIVING AT AIRPORT, PASSING THROUGH IMMIGRATION & BEING GREETED BY RELATIVES ETC
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00.40.12 |
Come slowly Eden. Eden is that old fashioned house that we dwell in everyday. Without suspecting our abode until we drive away. How fair on looking back the day we sauntered from the door unconscious our returning, but discover it no more.
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ARCHIVE: MAN PUTS TRUNK ON ROOF RACK & TRACKING SHOT OF CAR
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00.40.48 |
Exaltation is the going of an inland soul to sea , past the houses, past the headlands into deep eternity. |
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ARCHIVE: TRACKING SHOT OF CITY
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ARCHIVE: MIGRANT WOMAN IN CAR
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00.41.08 |
Can a sailor understand the divine intoxication of the first league out from land ? |
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TRACK OUT FROM BUILDING TO FROZEN LANDSCAPE
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ARCHIVE: MIGRANT WOMAN IN CAR / CITY STREETS & TRAFFIC
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CAPTION: Euterpe The Muse of Music
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00.41.47 |
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PAN R ALONG FROZEN COASTLINE & MOUNTAINS |
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00.42.02 |
VOICE OVER Our ship sailed on, away from oceans stream across the great wide sea and reached Acaea,the island home and dancing grounds of dawn.
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TREES IN SNOW |
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YELLOW MAN AT SIDE OF SNOWY HIGHWAY |
00.42.23 |
We hauled our ship up on the beach, then walked along the shore beside the sea. There, waiting for bright dawn, we fell asleep.
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PYLONS IN SNOW
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TREES IN SNOW, YELLOW MAN WALKING AWAY ALONG ROADSIDE
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00.42.46 |
As soon as rose-fingered early dawn appeared, I sent my comrades off to Circe’s house to fetch the body of the dead Elpenor.
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FROZEN LANDSCAPE & MOUNTAINS |
00.42.56 |
We buried him where the land extended furthest out to sea. Overcome with grief, we shed many tears.
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YELLOW MAN AT ROADSIDE / LOOKING AT BUILDINGS IN SNOW
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ARCHIVE: CITY SLUMS, FACTORY CHIMNEY BELCHING SMOKE
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ARCHIVE: WOMAN IN HEADSCARF ENTERS HOUSE |
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BLUE MAN LOOKING AT FROZEN LANDSCAPE
ARCHIVE: WOMAN PUTS FOOD ON TABLE FROZEN PORT, YELLOW MAN LOOKING OUT TO SEA |
00.43.35 |
Circe was well aware of our return from Hades home. Dressed in her finery, she quickly came to us. With her she brought plenty of meat and bright red wine. Then the lovely goddess spoke to us. ‘You reckless men. You’ve gone to Hades home while still alive to meet death twice when other men die once. But come, eat this food and drink this wine. Take all day. As soon as dawn arrives you’ll sail. I’ll show you your course and tell you each sign to look for, so you’ll not suffer, or thanks to vicious plans of sea and land, endure great pain.
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MUSIC |
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ARCHIVE: MAN AMONG BATTERY HENS
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ARCHIVE: JUKE BOX WITH ASIAN TUNES, YOUNG PEOPLE IN CAFÉ
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00.44.54 |
All that day till the sun went down, we sat there, eating rich supplies of meat and drinking down sweet wine.
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ARCHIVE: SMOKING CHIMNEYS, ROOFS OF BACK-TO-BACKS |
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00.45.07 |
The sun then set, and darkness came.
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FROZEN LANDSCAPE & TREES, BLUE MAN AT EDGE OF ROAD
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YELLOW MAN IN FROZEN PORT |
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ARCHIVE: BINGO CALLER & BINGO PLAYERS |
00.40.12 |
Circe took me by the hand and led me off some distance from the crew. Then Queen Circe spoke to me and said, ‘all these things have thus come to an end. But you must listen now to what I say. First of all you’ll run into the Sirens. They seduce all me who come across them. Whoever unwittingly encounters them and hears the Sirens’ call, never gets back.’
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YELLOW MAN IN FROZEN PORT
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TRACK OUT OF DOCK TO SEA |
00.46.11 |
The Sirens will be sitting in a meadow surrounded by a pile, a massive heap of rotting human bones encased in shrivelled skin. Row on past them.
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WATER SHOT
ARCHIVE: MIGRANTS ON SHIP |
00.46.43 |
If you’re keen to hear them, make your crewmen tie you down in your swift ship. Stand there with hands and feet lashed to the mast. Then you can hear both Sirens as they sing.
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WAVES LAPPING ONTO SHORE, RUINED JETTY, YELLOW MAN LOOKING AT IT |
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00.47.13 |
When your crew has rowed on past the Sirens, I cannot tell you which alternative to follow on your route. You yourself will have to trust your heart.
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ARCHIVE: MIGRANTS DISEMBARKING FROM SHIP
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YELLOW MAN LOOKING AT RUINED JETTY
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00.47.41 |
I shall not be alone, in the beginning. But I have few illusions. I am of course alone. Alone. That is soon said. Things have to be soon said. |
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ARCHIVE: MAN TYING TURBAN |
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And how can one be sure in such darkness. |
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ARCHIVE: SIKH IN RAILWAY STATION DESCENDS STAIRS |
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YELLOW MAN IN FROZEN PORT
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BOAT AT SEA
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ARCHIVE: CY GRANT SINGING |
00.48.37 |
SONG (KISSES SWEETER THAN WINE) Oh Oh, kisses sweeter than wine , when I was a young man I’d never been kissed, I got a thinking over what I had missed , I got me a girl, I kissed her and then, oh lord I kissed her again, oh oh kisses sweeter than wine , I asked her would she marry and be my sweet wife and we would be so happy all of our lives , I begged and I pleaded like a natural man …… |
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YELLOW MAN ON BOAT
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ARCHIVE: CY GRANT SINGING
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YELLOW & BLUE MEN ON BOAT
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00.49.11 |
VOICE OVER Is it I now, , I on me, sometimes I think it is. I know my eyes are open because of the tears that pour from them. |
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BOAT’S WAKE |
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SUBMERGED WRECK AT QUAYSIDE |
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MUSIC |
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ARCHIVE: MAN LOOKING OUT OF WINDOW
SUBMERGED WRECK AT QUAYSIDE
ARCHIVE TRAIN ARRIVING IN STATION |
00.50.26 |
VOICE OVER
The terror of not knowing and of not even daring to call upon a single soul among the hundred who surround you. I think that is the initial experience of the West Indian arriving. However tough he is, for the first time in his whole experience he’s alone.
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FROZEN RAILWAY LINES
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ARCHIVE: MIGRANT BEING INTERVIEWED |
00.50.53 |
INTERVIEWER
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00.50.55 |
MAN You get settled and then you too become part of the strangeness.
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CARD
HE JOURNEYED BEYOND THE DISTANT, HE JOURNEDYED BEYOND EXHAUSTION, AND THEN CARVED HIS STORY ON STONE |
00.51.02 |
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ARCHIVE: COUPLE LISTENING TO RECORD PLAYER
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BLACK MAN IN SNOWY LANDSCAPE
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MAN SITTING IN MIDDLE OF ROAD
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BLACK MAN IN SNOWY LANDSCAPE, TRUCK PASSES
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ARCHIVE: MAN LISTENING TO RECORD |
00.52.14 |
VOICE OVER All right then, mother. I’ll tell you the truth.
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BLACK & BLUE MEN IN SNOWY LANDSCAPE |
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PAN ACROSS FROZEN PORT BULDINGS TO YELLOW MAN |
00.52.25 |
We went to Pylos and reached Nestor, shepherd of his people. He welcomed us in his lofty home with hospitality and kindness, as a father for a son who’s just returned from far-off places after many years. Of brave Odysseus, alive or dead, he told me he’d heard nothing from any man on earth.
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ARCHIVE: MAN WRITING ON BUS |
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00.52.46 |
He sent me off with horses and a well built chariot to that famous spearman Menelaus, son of Atrius. There I saw Argive Helen.
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ARCHIVE: COUPLE LISTENING TO RECORD PLAYER |
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00.53.04 |
Menelaus, skilled at war shouts, at once, asked me why I’d come to lovely Sparta. What I was looking for?
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PAN R ACROSS ALASKAN PORT |
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ARCHIVE: FACTORY WORKER
YELLOW MAN LOOKING OUT TO SEA
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00.53.14 |
I told him the truth, all the details. I told him they ripped away my clothes, cloak and tunic and dressed me differently. A ragged cloak and filthy tunic ripped to bits. Inside that well decked ship they tied me up with tightly twisted rope and went ashore. The gods themselves with ease untied my bonds, and so I and slipped away down a smooth plank, into the sea.
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YELLOW MAN LOOKING OUT OVER ALASKAN PORT |
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00.53.50 |
They brought me here.
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ARCHIVE: MAN HEAD AND SHOULDERS
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URANIA THE MUSE OF ASTRONOMY |
0054.07 |
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00.54.16 |
My fate, I think, is to continue living.
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BLACK MAN LYING ON QUAYSIDE
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MUSIC |
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ARCHIVE: ROOFTOPS & SMOKING CHIMNEYS
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VICTORIA STATUE, PAN TO TRAFFIC IN STREET
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BLACK MAN LOOKING OUT TO SEA AT EVENING
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ARCHIVE: DOCK WORKER
BLACK MAN LOOKING OUT TO SEA AT EVENING
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00.55.04 |
VOICE OVER O Solitude, my home, solitude. Too long have I lived wildly in wild remoteness, to return to you without tears. Now threaten me with the finger as mothers threaten. Now smile upon me as mothers smile. Now saw just, who was it as a world wind just rushed away from me.
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ARCHIVE: FACTORY WORKER
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ARCHIVE: WOMAN ON BEACH
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ARCHIVE: TIRED WOMAN IN FACTORY
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ARCHIVE: WOMAN ON HANDS & KNEES ON BEACH
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ARCHIVE: TIRED WOMEN IN FACTORY
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00.56.01 |
Draw me , we will run after thee, the King have brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in thee. We will remember they love more than wine . The upright love thee. I am black |
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BLACK MAN LYING ON QUAYSIDE |
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ARCHIVE: MAN PULLING BIN IN FACTORY BLUE MAN IN SNOWY LANDSCAPE
ARCHIVE: MAN PULLING BIN IN FACTORY VLS MOUNTAINS
BLUE & YELLOW MEN LOOKING AT MOUNTAINS |
00.56.26 |
Royal throne of kings. This sceptred isle. This earth of majesty. This seat of Mars. This other Eden, demi-paradise. This fortress built by nature for herself against infection by and the hand of war. This happy breed of men. This little world, this precious stone set in the silver sea, which serves it in the office of a wall or as a moat defensive to a house against the envy of less happier lands. This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
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ARCHIVE: SIKHS IN STREETS
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BLACK MAN SITTING ON QUAYSIDE
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BLUE MAN AT ROADSIDE LOOKING AT FROZEN LANDSCAPE, TRAFFIC PASSING
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INTERIOR & EXTERIOR OF DERELICT BUILDING
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MAN SLEEPING IN DRAINPIPE
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ARCHIVE: FOUNDRY WORKERS
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MAN SLEEPING IN DRAINPIPE
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PAN ACROSS SNOWY LANDSCAPE
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MUSIC |
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SNOWY LANDSCAPE / BLUE MAN BY ROAD
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BLACK MAN BY DERELICT BUILDING
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00.57.38 |
Mid way upon the course of this our life, I found myself within a gloomy wood for I had wandered from the path direct. Who could relate how wild this wood was. Its so hard to say how stark and rough. The very thought of it renews my fear so bidderly that death seems almost near. I stood at the very brink of the valley of pain that overflows with the groans and endless tears. It was so dark and deep , so wrapped in cloud , that though I strained to make out the bottom I could see nothing. |
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SNOWY LANDSCAPE, MOUNTAINS AND TREES
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ARCHIVE: RAG & BONE CART Z/O TO PANORAMIC SHOT OF ROOFTOPS
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ARCHIVE: CHILDREN LED BY THE HAND DOWN STREETS
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BLACK MAN IN SNOWY LANDSCAPE
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ARCHIVE: WOMAN IN STREET WITH CHILD IN PRAM
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CHILD ON STREET
ARCHIVE: CHILDREN PLAYING IN STREET, CLIMBING FENCES, AT BONFIRE ON DEMOLITION SITE
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01.00.17 |
When you wet the bed at first , it is warm and then it gets cold. His mother put on the oil sheet. That had a queer smell. His mother had a nicer smell than his father. She played on the piano, The Sailors Hornpipe for him to dance. He danced. |
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BLACK MAN IN SNOWY LANDSCAPE
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CAPTION
I can see nothing before me, I wonder where lies my path |
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RAINY WINDOW
ARCHIVE: CHILDREN ON THEIR WAY TO SCHOOL
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MUSIC |
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ARCHIVE: CHILDREN IN CLASSROOM
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ARCHIVE: TRACKING SHOT OF BACK-TO-BACKS
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ARCHIVE: MIGRANT WOMEN & CHILD IN TENEMENT ROOM
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FACTORY SEEN THRU RAIN ON LENS
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ARCHIVE: SLUM TOILET
PORT SEEN THRU RAIN ON LENS
ARCHIVE: ROTTING FLOORM WALLS & CEILING IN SLUM BATHROOM |
01.02.02 |
VOICE OVER Artemis, royal goddess, Zeus’s daughter, how I wish you’d shoot an arrow in my chest right now and take my life or a stormy wind would come and lift me up, carry me away from here across the murky roads and cast me out in ocean’s backward flowing stream just as storm snatched up Pandarus’s daughters, whose parents the gods killed, thus leaving them orphans in their home.
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DARK CLOUDS OVER BLASTED TREE
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PORT SEEN THRU RAIN ON LENS
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ARCHIVE: HORSES TETHERED TO GATE
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ARCHIVE: FUNFAIR IN RAIN
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ARCHIVE: MAN FISHING IN RAIN
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RAIN ON LENS, CRANES ETC |
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ARCHIVE: BOY & FATHER CROSS CITY STREET |
01.02.55 |
Then the goddess gave her reply. ‘You stubborn man. Men put their trust in weaker friends than me, in a mortal man who lacks my wisdom. I’m a god, and I’m there to protect you to the end in all your troubles.’
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ARCHIVE: SLUM STREET & INTERIOR WITH ROTTING FLOORBOARDS ETC
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ARCHIVE: CHILDREN PLAYING UNDER WASHING IN YARD
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ARCHIVE: WOMEN LEARNING ENGLISH BY ROTE
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01.03.55 |
What is this, that is a cup, What is this, that is a cup, What is this, that is a cup, what is this ,that is a saucer |
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TREE TRUNK
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SNOWY LANDSCAPE, PAN TO MAN LOOKING OUT ACROSS IT
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PHONE RINGS |
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PHONE IN SNOWY LANDSCAPE |
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01.04.38 |
VOICE OVER To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing, end them. To die –
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ARCHIVE: CHILDRED WITH HEADPHONES IN LANGUAGE LABORATORY |
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01.05.03 |
VOICE OVER - to sleep no more. and by a sleep to say we end
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MAN LOOKING OUT OVER SNOWY LANDCAPE
MAN LEANING AGAINST WALL |
01.05.19 |
VOICE OVER ‘tis a consummation
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ARCHIVE: CHILDREN IN CLASSROOM |
01.05.33 |
VOICE OVER - perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub, |
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MAN LOOKING OUT OVER SNOWY LANDCAPE
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ARCHIVE: CHILDREN SWINGING IN IMPROVISED PLAYGROUND
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BLACK MAN ON QUAYSIDE
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ARCHIVE: CHILDREN SWINGING IN IMPROVISED PLAYGROUND
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ARCHIVE: DEMOLITION SITE & DERELICT HOUSES, PAN TO RAILWAY LINE & MOTORWAY
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ARCHIVE: CHILDREN ON BUS |
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01.06.37 |
VOICE OVER I am in my mother’s room. It’s I who live there now. I don’t know how I got there. Perhaps in an ambulance. I must remember her more and more.
All I need is a son. Perhaps I have one ? He would be old now. Nearly as old as myself.
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BLACK MAN ON QUAYSIDE |
01.07.21 |
VOICE OVER It seems to me sometimes that I even knew my son. That I helped him. Then I tell my self its impossible, its impossible that I could have ever helped anyone .
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01.07.46 |
VOICE OVER . They must have explained to me, someone must have explained to me , I must have wanted it .
The sea refused me , the sky didn’t see me, I wasn’t there . All the things they told me . All the things I’ve tried they come in useful still when I think of them. The old thoughts, they call that thinking.
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CAPTION THALIA THE MUSE OF COMEDY |
01.08.22 |
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KIDS IN PLAYGROUND
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CAPTION HOW HEAVY DO I JOURNEY ON THE WAY, WHEN WHAT I SEEK, MY WEAR TRAVEL’S END |
01.08.50 |
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RAINY STREETS |
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ARCHIVE: WAVES POUNDING SHORE & FLOOD DAMAGE
ARCHIVE: POWELL MAKING ‘RIVERS OF BLOOD’ SPEECH |
01.09.11 |
ENOCH POWELL The discrimination and the deprivation, the sense of alarm and the resentment lies not with the immigrant population, but with those among whom they have come and are still coming.
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01.09.43 |
ENOCH POWELL This is why to enact legislation of the kind before parliament at this moment is to risk throwing a match onto gunpowder.
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ARCHIVE: PROTESTERS ARRESTED BY BLACK POLICE |
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ARCHIVE: CHILDREN PUSHING & SHOVING, LAUGHING AT CAMERA
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ARCHIVE: CHILDREN AT BONFIRE ON DEMOLITION SITE
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ARCHIVE: MAN CLUBBED BY BLACK POLICEMAN ARCHIVE: MAN LISTENING
ARCHIVE: CHILDREN AT BONFIRE ON DEMOLITION SITE ARCHIVE: BCU MAN LISTENING
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01.10.07 |
What in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support, eternal Providence, of God to men. |
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ARCHIVE: RACIST INTERVIEW IN STREET |
01.10.35 |
MAN You’ve only got the government to blame for it really. I think they should have stopped this immigration long ago. They know what trouble they cause, they know the country’s only small, and it’s not big enough to take half these niggers that’s coming into here, or coloured people, as you’ll put it.
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YELLOW MAN AT ROADSIDE IN SNOWY LANDSCAE
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ARCHIVE: 2ND RACIST INTERVIEW IN STREET |
01.10.48 |
2ND MAN They got more privilege than us, the white people, the blacks have.
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INTERVIEWER Do you think there’s a general ill feeling in this country, or is it just among a certain element?
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2ND MAN Oh no, there’s ill feeling against them.
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ARCHIVE: BCU MAN LISTENING |
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INTERVIEWER Thank you very much.
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2ND MAN I mean, they’re - they’re running – they’ll run the country in to the ground.
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VLS BLUE MAN APPROACHES ALONG SNOWY HIGHWAY
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ARCHIVE: BCU MAN LISTENING |
01.11.14 |
VOICE OVER I considered how in my heart I wished to hold the shade of my dead mother.
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YELLOW MAN LOOKING OUT ACROSS DOCK, PAN L ACROSS DOCK |
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ARCHIVE: MAN WALKS ALONG STREET SMOKING, PASSES PEOPLE ON BENCHES |
01.11.22 |
Three times my spirit prompted me to grasp her, and I jumped ahead. Each time she slipped out of my arms like a shadow or a dream. The pain inside my heart grew even sharper. Then I spoke to her. My words had wings.
‘Mother, why do you not wait for me? I’d like to hold you so that even here in Hades home we might throw loving arms around each other and then have our fill of icy lamentation. Or are you just a phantom royal Persephone has sent to make me groan and grieve still more?’ |
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My honoured mother quickly said, ‘my child, of all men most unfortunate, no Persephone, daughter of Zeus, is not deceiving you.
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YELLOW MAN LOOKS OUT OVER FROZEN DOCK |
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01.12,23 |
Once mortals die, this is what’s set for them. Their sinews no longer hold the flesh and bone together. The mighty power of blazing fire destroys them .once our spirit flies from us, from our white bones. |
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ARCHIVE: WASHING HUNG OUT TO DRY IN YARD |
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ARCHIVE: MAN APPROACHES DOWN STREET & ENTERS HOUSE
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01.12.42 |
And then it slips away, and like a dream flutters to and fro.’ But hurry ,to the light as quickly as you can. Remember all of these things so later on you can describe the details to your wife. |
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ARCHIVE: CITY STREET IN SNOW
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BLACK SCREEN
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FROZEN PORT, PAN TO YELLOW MAN ON QUAYSIDE
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ARCHIVE: NEEDLE PUT ON RECORD, MAN LISTENING |
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MUSIC (LET MY PEOPLE GO) |
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VLS BLUE MAN APPROACHES ALONG SNOWY HIGHWAY ARCHIVE: MAN LISTENING |
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PAUL ROBESON No more shall they in in bondage toil. Let my people go. Let them come out with Egypt’s foil, let my people go. Go down Moses, way down in Egypt’s land. Tell old Pharaoh to let my people go.
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WS BLUE MAN ON SNOWY HIGHWAY, PAN TO YELLOW MAN
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01.14.17 |
VOICE OVER Love, love, love,
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CAPTION: Erato The Muse of Love
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YELLOW MAN APPROACHES ALONGSIDE SNOW HIGHWAY |
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ARCHIVE: CU MAN INTERVIEWED |
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Because I love you But the majority of you don’t love me. Within a black man’s community , a black man accepts you with all his heart more than how you accept me. When I come with a pure heart, with my heart pure for you, love that would never do no wrong , to make you feel that I am a man just like you ,
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YELLOW MAN AT SIDE OF FROZEN HIGHWAY, TRUCK PASSES |
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ARCHIVE: PEOPLE & TRAFFIC IN CITY STREETS |
01.14.58 |
VOICE OVER Between Athens and Delphi lies the great segregated city of Thebes, founded by Cadmus, mother of Europa. He it was that killed the dragon and sowed the dragon’s teeth from which sprang giants fully armed, who were the founding fathers of Thebes.
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YELLOW MAN LOOKING OUT AT FROZEN TREES & MOUNTAINS |
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SNOWY FOREST
ARCHIVE: MAN WALKING THRU RAILWAY YARD |
0.1.15.19 |
VOICE OVER Oedipus, the young heir to the throne of Corinth, was given a prophecy by the oracle at Delphi that he was to kill his father and marry his mother. Determined to avoid his monstrous destiny, he never returned to his home, but travelled on foot in the direction of Thebes.
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YELLOW MAN WALKS AWAY ALONGSIDE SNOWY HIGHWAY |
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ARCHIVE: INDUSTRIAL TOWN SEEN FROM TRAIN & PASSENGERS LOOKING OUT WINDOW
ARCHIVE: MEN APPROACH DOWN STREET, CHILDREN RUN PAST
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01.15.40 |
VOICE OVER As Oedipus approached Thebes, he discovered that the city was being persecuted by the Sphinx, a winged lion with the head of a woman, who devoured any young man who passed her way and failed to answer her riddle: what goes on two legs, on four legs and on three legs, and is weakest on four?’ |
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YELLOW MAN AT EDGE OF SNOWY HIGHWAY, LOOKING OUT TOWARD MOUTNAINS |
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ARCHIVE: MEN IN STREET STOP & LOOK AT ‘KEEP BRITAIN WHITE’ GRAFFITI ON WALL
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01.16.07 |
VOICE OVER Oedipus at once challenged her with his solution. ‘The answer,’ he said, ‘is man. As a child he goes on all fours, fully grown he goes on two legs, and in old age, the stick he walks with makes a third. |
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FROZEN ALASKAN MOUNTAINS, PAN TO YELLOW MAN LOOKING OUT ACROSS BAY
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MUSIC |
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PAN L ACROSS FROZEN SEA
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ARCHIVE: PEOPLE LISTENING |
01.17.04 |
MAN V/O The lady over there says that people in Birmingham, one group say why aren’t we like Englishmen, and the other group say why are we so much like Englishman, why don’t we live as different from them?
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YELLOW MAN LOOKING OUT AT FROZEN SEA & MOUNTAINS |
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01.17.16 |
MAN V/O What is living like an Englishman?
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ARCHIVE: ASIAN WOMEN AT PRAYER
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YELLOW MAN LOOKING OUT AT FROZEN SEA & MOUNTAINS
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ARCHIVE: SIKHS IN GURDWARA, PRAYING
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ARCHIVE: WOMEN PRAYING IN CHURCH, WOMAN MOVED BY THE SPIRIT
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ARCHIVE: BCU EYES & MOUTHS
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YELLOW MAN LOOKING OUT AT FROZEN SEA & MOUNTAINS
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CAPTION: Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold
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01.19.16 |
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PAN L ACROSS FROZEN ALASKAN LANDSCAPE TO RUINED JETTY
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YELLOW MAN COMES OUT OF BUILDING AND WALKS TO SHORELINE
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01.20.10 |
VOICE OVER Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled, for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.
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WAVES LAPPING ON ROCKS, YELLOW MAN CROUCHED AT SHORELINE |
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01.20.30 |
VOICE OVER I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet. How shall I defile them?
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01.20.44 |
VOICE OVER Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem.
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SNOWY MOUNTAINS SEEN FROM BOAT
BLUE MAN LOOKING TOWARD MOUNTAINS, YELLOW MAN CROUCHED ON ROCKY SHORE
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01.20.52 |
VOICE OVER Turn away thine eyes from me for they have overcome me. Return, return, O Shulamite; return, that we may look upon thee. |
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MUSIC |
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CAPTION: Terpsichore The Muse of Dance
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01.21.12 |
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ARCHIVE: INDIAN GIRLS DANCING |
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ARCHIVE: MEN DANCING
YELLOW MAN WALKS TOWARD JETTY ARCHIVE: MUSICIANS & PEOPLE DANCING |
01.21.25 |
VOICE OVER If music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it that surfeiting the appetite may sicken and so die. That strain again. It had a dying fall. O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound that breathes upon a bank of violets, stealing and giving odour. Enough, no more. ‘Tis not so sweet now as it was before. O, spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou. That, notwithstanding thy capacity Recieveth as the sea, nought enters there, Of what validity and pitch soever, But falls into abatement and low price Even in a minute! so full of shapes is fancy,
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TREES IN SNOW, PAN TO VLS YELLOW MAN APPROACHING
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LS MOUNTAIN, CAR PASSES ON HIGHWAY & OFF INTO DISTANCE
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FADE TO BLACK |
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MUSIC |
Written and Directed by John Akomfrah
Voices
(In Alphabetical Order)
Sean Barrett John Barrymore
Richard Burton Dermot Crowley
Teresa Gallagher Alex Jennings
Anton Lesser Jim Norton
Michael Sheen Josette Simon
Heathcote Williams
Producer Lina Gopaul
Producer David Lawson
Head of Film Fund UK Film Council Tanya Seghatchian Senior Film Executive UK Film Council Lizzie Francke
Cast Yellow Coats - Trevor Mathison John Akomfrah
Blue Coat - David Lawson
Black Coats - David Lawson Trevor Mathison
Director of Photography Dewald Aukema Film Editor Miikka Leskinen
Composer Trevor Mathison Dubbing Mixer Robin Fellows
Colourist Tim Waller Costume Designer Jackie Vernon
Additional Editing Ben Hunt Online Editor Nick Anderson
Graphics Design Bert Hunger Visual Effects Molinare
5.1 Dolby : Ian Tapp
Made in England Executives Chris Dorley-Brown, Paul Gerhardt
Made in England Executive (Arts Council of England) Robert Marshall
Made in England Executive (BBC) Tim Burke
Head of Production UK Film Council Fiona Morham
Production Finance UK Film Council Amanda Payne
Business Affairs Executive UK Film Council Geraldine Atlee
Legal Services Harbottle and Lewis Cassandra Manita
Readings (By Kind Permission of Naxos Audio)
Paradise Lost John Milton
The Odyssey Homer
Richard II William Shakespeare
The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri
The Unnamable Samuel Beckett
Under Milk Wood Dylan Thomas
Thus Spoke Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche
The Song of Solomon The Old Testament
Twelfth Night William Shakespeare
Molloy Samuel Beckett
Oedipus Sophocles
Come Slowly Eden Eden, Is That Old
Fashioned House Emily Dickinson
A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man James Joyce
Finnegans Wake J ames Joyce
Performers
Motherless Child Leontyne Price
Let My People Go Paul Robeson
Raag Gaoti Gundecha Brothers
Ballad Of Finnegan's Wake Jim Norton
Quotes
The Journey Itself Is Home Matsuo Basho
"Our journey had advanced" Emily Dickinson
"A cold coming we had of it" TS Elliot
"For whatever we lose" EE Cummings
Hard Is The Journey Li Po
Art Thou Abroad On This Stormy Night Rabindranth Tagore
He journeyed beyond the distant Epic of
Gilgamesh
How Heavy Do I Journey On The Way William
Shakespeare
"Nobody has ever measured, not even poets"
Zelda Fitzgerald
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Line Producer |
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Lina Gopaul |
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Production Manager |
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Lucia Ashmore |
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Production Coordinator (Alaska) |
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Dan Lawn |
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Location Research |
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Jonathan Page |
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Production Assistant |
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Qasim Arshad |
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Director’s Assistant |
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Caitlin Griffiths |
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Producer’s Assistant |
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Daniel Mathison - Johnson |
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4K Supervisor |
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Jonathan Tyrrell |
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DPX Extraction |
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Ben Hunt |
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Post Production |
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Molinare |
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Additional Colourist |
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Andrew Daniel |
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Post Production Manager |
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M J McMahon |
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Post Production Co-ordinators |
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Hannah Watts |
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Charlotte Fung |
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DCP Producer |
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Soren Kloch |
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DI TECHNICIANS |
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FRANCOIS KAMFFER |
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STEVE KNIGHT |
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GEMMA TOWNSEND |
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JAMIE WALSH |
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DI Supervisor Andy Richards |
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Telecine Services |
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Ascent 142 |
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Telecine Operator |
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Paul Stubb |
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Telecine Assistant |
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Rose Jenner |
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Additional Telecine |
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Primefocus |
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Telecine Operator |
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Gerry Gedge |
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5.1 Mix |
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Pinewood Studios |
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Brendan Nicholson |
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Andy Hagon |
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Camera Equipment |
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Red |
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Lenses |
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Aimimage ( London ) |
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HDSR Equipment |
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Onsight Ltd |
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Laboratory |
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Deluxe |
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Insurance Media Insurance Brokers
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Alaska Advisors |
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Rikki Ott |
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David Grimes |
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Transport |
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Kimberlin Water Taxi |
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Alaska Marine Highway |
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Post Production Transcripts |
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Bill Bourne Associates |
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European Captioning Institute |
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Archive Sources |
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BBC Information and Archives |
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Birmingham Central Library |
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Media Archive for Central England |
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Naxos Audio Books |
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Archive Research |
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John Akomfrah |
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BBC Archive Librarians |
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James Mcqueen Lorenzo Dossan Graham Oughton |
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Belinda Butler |
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Alison Bent Luke O’Shea Simon Crosswaite Mark Stephens |
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Archive Assistant |
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Martina Moor |
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Films |
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"The Colony" (1964) |
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Dir: Philip Donnellan |
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"A Man from the Sun" (1956 ) |
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"Stranger in Town" (1969) |
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Dir: Philip Donnellan |
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"Home for Heroes"(1964) |
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Dir. Richard Marquand |
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"Monitor"(1960) |
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"Born Black Born British" (1972)" |
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24 Hours" (1968) |
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"Tonight"(1963) |
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Music |
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1. Tamia and Pierre Favre |
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Track : Sables |
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Performers : Tamia and Pierre Favre |
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Album : Solitude |
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Licensed by kind permission of ECM Records |
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2. Tamia and Pierre Favre |
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Track : Clair - Obscur |
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Performers : Tamia and Pierre Favre |
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Album : Solitude |
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Licensed by kind permission of ECM Records |
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3. Frantz Schubert |
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Track : Der Leiermann |
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Work : Wintereisse |
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Performers : Matthias |
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Goerne, Graham Johnson |
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By kind permission Hyperion |
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4. David Darling |
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Track : No Place Nowhere |
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Album : Cello |
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Performer : David Darling |
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Licensed by kind permission of ECM Records |
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5. Gundecha Brothers |
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Track : Raag Gaoti (Aalaap) |
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Performers : Gundecha Brothers |
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Album : Dhruphad |
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Licensed by kind permission of ECM Records |
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6. Tamia and Pierre Favre |
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Track : Solitude |
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Performers : Tamia and Pierre Favre |
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Album : Solitude |
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Licensed by kind permission of ECM Records |
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7. Richard Wagner |
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Track : Vorspiel |
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Performers : Berlin Philharmoniker |
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Conductor : Daniel Barenboim |
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Album : Parsifal |
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Label : TELEDEC |
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8. Arvo Part |
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Track : Spiegel Im Spiegel |
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Album : Alina |
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Performers : Vladimir Spivakov (Violin) , Serge Bezrodny (Piano) |
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Licensed by kind permission of ECM Records |
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9. Arild Andersen |
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Track : Far Enough |
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Album : If You Look Far Enough |
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Performers : Arild Andersen (Bass) Ralph Towner (Guitars) , |
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Nana Vasconsclos (Percussion) , Audun Kleive (Snare Drum) |
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Label ECM (ECM 1493 ) |
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10. Abida Parveen |
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Track : Gul Huyi Jaati Hain |
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Album : Faiz by Abida Parveen |
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Performers : Abida Parveen |
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Label : Times Music |
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11. Lisa Gerrard |
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Track : In Exile |
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Album : The Silver Tree |
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Performers : Lisa Gerrard |
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Label : Nettwerk |
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12. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart |
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Track : Adagioin B Minor KV540 |
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Album : W.A. Mozart/ G. Scelsi/ A. Pärt/ F. Busoni/ W. Bärtschi |
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Performers : Werner Bartschi (Piano ) |
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Label : ECM (ECM NEW SERIES 1377) |
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13. George Frederic Handel |
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Track : Care Selve |
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Album : Atalanta |
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Performers : Leontyne Price |
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Label : Columbia |
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14. Hans Otte |
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Track : VIII |
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Album : Das Buch Der Klange (The Book Of Sounds) |
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Performers : Herbert Henck ,Piano |
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Label : ECM (ECM NEW SERIES 1659) |
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15. David Darling |
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Track : In Motion |
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Album : Dark Wood |
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Performers : David Darling ,(Cello) |
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Label : ECM 1519 |
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16. Anouar Brahem |
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Track : Sadir |
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Album : Barzakh |
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Performers : Anouar Brahen |
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Label : ECM |
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17. Arvo Part |
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Track : Silouans Song |
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Album : Te Deum |
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Performers : Tallinin Chamber Ochestrea , |
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Tonu Kaljuste , conductor |
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Label : ECM |
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18. Arvo Part |
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Track : Pari Intervallo |
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Album : Arbos |
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Performers : Christopher Powers- Broadbent |
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Label : ECM New Series 1325 |
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19. Lisa Gerrard and Patrick Cassidy |
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Track : Elegy |
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Album : Immortal Memory |
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Performers : Lisa Gerrard and Patrick Cassidy |
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Label : Nettwerk |
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20. Post Dub Symphonies 1 - X |
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Composer : Trevor Mathison |
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Label : Creation Rebel |
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Special Thanks |
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Nicolas Soames |
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Jim McQueen |
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Richard Shenton McQueen |
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Envy Post |
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Chris Rayner |
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Clea Singh |
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The Public |
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Graham Peet |
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Aileen Muir |
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Antonia Byatt |
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Tracey Law |
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Kingslee Daley |
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Chanelle Newman |
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Fiona Hawthorne |
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Colin Salmon |
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Roly Keating Joel Blackledge |
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A Smoking Dogs Films Production made in association with |
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BBC English Regions, |
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Creation Films and Soul Rebel Pictures. |
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The Nine Muses was supported by Arts Council England |
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and BBC English Regions as part of "Made in England". |
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Made with the support of the UK Film Council Film Fund . |
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(UK Film Council Lottery Logo) |
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© Smoking Dogs Films , UK Film Council, 2010 |
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