Borrowed Time: Thoughts on Authorship and the Ethics of Appropriation | Estates

Research presentations (24/6)
Coloured tours
DAS Exhibition Space

My research publication expands on some of the ethical and interpersonal issues I’ve had while writing the script for my final project. Of particular focus has been the transition from facilitator to author and how you reconcile your own subjectivity to what you’re writing about (particularly if you have no first-hand experience of it). I work collaboratively, to try to achieve a sort of democratic mandate for more contentious ideas, but sometimes find my own creative needs compromised. 

In my research/journal film How To Be Alone I use a family archive to explore my own subjectivity as the author of fictional stories grounded in a familiar, authentic reality. By inviting the spectator into these dilemmas, and then challenging the status of that relationship, and the material itself, I hope to raise questions about subjectivity and ownership. The material also acts as a form of confession, through which I seek permission to write freely, without so many moral burdens or constraints.

Credits
Director: Alex Perry
Cast: Alex Perry, Luise Krizek, Samuel Perry, Maya Perry, Ivor Perry, Helen Bowen, Lee Jackson

My final project, Estates, (work in progress) is a short fictional drama about two women whose lives collide, and in this moment of crisis find solace and support. It began as an exercise in fiction writing, with the script providing a vessel for a lot of my research themes, but over time the film has changed quite a lot, narrowing in focus. It remains at its core a story of loss, love and forgiveness.

Credits
Writer / Director: Alex Perry
Cinematography: Daniel Donato
Sound: Sergio Gonzáles Cuervo
Editor: To be confirmed

Alex Perry

Alex Perry is a filmmaker from Manchester in the North of England. His work tends to focus on marginalised communities and the atomisation of society in general, with themes of dislocation and isolation central to much his output. 

He started off doing music videos and taking the odd corporate gig, but moved down south to study just as a possible career was beginning to take shape. After a difficult spell in college he became disillusioned by a perceived lack of integrity in the creative industries, and retrained as a chef. Four years later, problems with the law and a failed relationship saw him move back up north, where he again changed direction, learning on the job as a sign-maker for 5 years.

He brings these experiences to bear on his practise as a community filmmaker. With an almost pathological eye and ear for authenticity, his research on the Master programme is an evolving essay about struggle and the performance of reality. 

Previous education

  • BA Film & Screen Media, Hereford College of Arts

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