For the past year, we have been working feverishly behind the scenes on our new film (What is) the White Matter? The film combines into a 50-minute package everything we hold dear at Breach Candy Group: creative use of new digital technology, innovative ideas, visual aesthetics, working in difficult locations with real people, originality and thinking outside conventions.

The film was shot in entirety over 10 days (and over 40 degree temperatures) in Varanasi, India.  We used only cheap HDSLR cameras and a GoPro underwater camera for the shoot. What normally involves a budget of tens of thousands of dollars, we were able to squeeze into a guerilla film-making shoestring production that innovated with ideas and technology rather than with getting stuck on funding.  We will be writing here more about how this is possible when you believe more in your ideas rather than established models of getting things done.

We are, needless to say, delighted with what we have achieved.  You can see the trailer below.

Besides, a comment from the film’s sneak preview makes it all worth it:

“Well that was a proper mindbender! Above all, I was drawn into the mood…the soundscapes and such created almost a space to itself, it was the sound of the ‘void’ in motion…?…it certainly places the viewer in the position of “K” , and the imagery in time lapse and other styles created a sense of transcendence/atmosphere for me that was otherworldly even while being very much in the world…I enjoyed the the intermixing of the city-history, the bending of time and space, the aura of claustrophobia and even mortal dread, they all combined into a visual treat for the senses…”

We will be posting showing times shortly on our film website at www.whatiswhitematter.com.

BCG has been giving a bit of our expertise to a community arts project in Wood Green, London.  The project – titled Intergenerational Jukebox – brought together professional artists, actors, youngsters and retired people to perform and create a musical together at a community centre. This show was based on the life stories of mostly Indian immigrants and their long journey from India to first Kenya and then finally the UK.  It told stories of youth, travel love; but also stories of displacement, sorrow and loss.

We performed the piece to a full house two nights in a row at the Asian Centre in Wood Green. Our role in the show was to provide support for script development, visual design, live visual projections as well as the sound design for the show.  You can see some of the visual examples here:

And you can see the full show video below:

Completed in the end of 2006, Elephantasma was an experimental documentary that looked at the Indian economic growth from a series of unorthdox angles: from the production of urban space to self-help books to street dogs. In its rather short lifespan, it managed to get censored from one seminar on Indian economic growth and has been shown across universities and festivals in Finland and abroad. While the film was made with pure pleasure of guerilla film-making and was sometimes rough in its technical execution, its last part – THE PHILOSOPHY OF DOGS – emerged nonetheless into a stand alone short film that still stands the test of time.  It looks at the life and philosophy of street dogs in Bombay, India, from what later could be considered a speculative philosophical perspective.

January 15th,2005, Mumbai, India – the residents of Hiranandani Complex witnessed a race unlike any other – the formula one for Rickshaws. Organized for the Mumbai festival, the race, first of its kind around the world, attracted hundreds of rickshaw drivers who wanted a shot at the prize money, and the fame. “I want to participate because it is fun and my chance to move ahead in life, and be known” says one competitor. “They think they are the Michael Schumachers of the roads… with their goddam Ferraris” claims an angry local.

Adorned with posters of local filmstars, blasting loud Punjabi music through their stereophonic speakers, and steering, honking their way through the potholes and traffic jams, from Albert Tolman, the American blacksmith who designed the first rickshaw, to crowded rickshaws of Mumbai, this documentary tries to dive into the crazy world of auto-rickshaws and their drivers, and bring out their joys and frustrations, their music and their daily struggle for bread, and their fights against a largely chaotic system.