SIGILS FOR COMMUNICATION

The Witching Hour is a work of dreaming and conjuring, where nostalgia and mischief coexist, and where you have no choice but to turn and face the strange. The work begins in the gaps of the archive, where queer lives appear only as fragments or uncertain glimpses. Footage from the South West Film & TV Archive is collaged, cut up, and reassembled to create new meaning. Absence is made visible and histories are imagined into existence. The film moves like a dream, beginning in familiar, nostalgic landscapes before drifting out to sea. Waves crash and danger seems to lurk beneath the surface as we descend into the subconscious. Gradually, the world turns inward and surreal, haunted by nightmarish visions of witch hunts and persecution that mirror the oppression queer people have endured throughout history. New Super8 footage follows three 'Weird Sisters', a forged vintage home movie stitched into the archive. Their presence conjures a memory that never happened and brings to life a queer history that might have been: playful, magical, and alive in the gaps.