The Glass: morning: afternoon: night
(2012/13)

​Violin and bass: Utsa Hazarika
Harmonica and Piano: John Woodward
‘Friends Forever’, ‘Hold me a minute’ recordings by John Woodward

Filmed in Malvern, England
Screened on July 2013 at the Whitechapel Gallery's Open Screenings in London, England. 
 
The Glass is a three-part movie exploring alienation in a domestic setting. The idea of ‘the glass’ is used as a metaphor for separation, as well as the windows through which one looks out of the enclosed space of the domestic house. Filmed in a family home with no script or actors, it relies on the ethnographic method of ‘participant observation’ to record the tiny, apparently mundane, details of everyday life. In the film’s narrative arrangement, these details are dislocated from their original context, and woven together to create multiplex scenes where several different moments are being played out simultaneously.
 
This disruption of linear narrative is aided by the interaction of sound and image, which work together to create an intricate form of storytelling. The film combines techniques of electronic music and the more traditional styles of documentary and narrative sound, together with images deconstructed from the domestic scene. This fragmented portrait of daily life brings into relief the undercurrents which tinge its intimate details with loss and longing.