Christina Robson, “Powerdown” (United Kingdom)

While participating in the UMD-Winter Documentary Filmmaking program, I aimed to explore the intersection of my personal choreographic practice and the creative process and production of documentary filmmaking. I hoped to bring light to mundane, everyday aspects of human experience, juxtaposed with the tensions of the UK’s sociopolitical climate and investigate the spaces where those points of view converge.

Though my original goal was to get strangers dancing on camera, I learned that approaching strangers in public is nearly impossible with the current level of dependence on technology. The goals of my project shifted. After very few successful attempts to approach strangers and turn their attention away from their screen. I became less motivated to get people moving and more captivated by observing what screens are doing to our bodies. My project still upheld my intentions to juxtapose everyday humanity with the sociopolitical tensions of UK. However, what began as a proposal to get people moving turned into a project that questioned why we are so distant from our bodies and the role technology plays in the mind/body divide of a digital culture.

This project was an incredible opportunity to learn about the unpredictability of a creative process. This was the first time that I proposed specific goals of a project in advance of the creative process itself. As I confronted difficulty realizing my proposed goals, it was challenging to release my grip on the original aims of my inquiry. By opening myself to the questions underlying those challenges I was able to expand my intentions by infusing unexpected content with my perspectives on movement. Ultimately, I am quite pleased with the authenticity of the outcome and the honest direction the trajectory of the film took on.

-Christina Robson