Do Not Avert Your Eyes
Published 2020-07-27
Get the music:
patriciataxxon.bandcamp.com/album/pix-bit
An experimental short film, with footage from the Harwich Illuminate Festival 2019 and a fireworks display in Wix.
Do Not Avert Your Eyes is a bright sensory overload of colour and light, named for a Werner Herzog quote about WWE and the perceived collective audience desire for uncomplicated spectacle. It's a very bright and chipper short film, but becomes a little bittersweet if you're one of the few people who know the context: This was the beginning of the Mayflower 400 celebrations, the anniversary of the Mayflower's voyage to America. Everyone in the town was looking forward to a big influx of American tourists coming to the town, a programme of events, arts, culture, and a general feeling that this was going to be the event that returned Harwich to its glory days.
But, of course, when 2020 actually came, the pandemic hit and America fell off the wagon, effectively shooting any celebrations planned in the back of the head or at the very best postponing them until well after the actual timeframe has passed. So really, this is an incredibly depressing period piece of the world before, forever lost to time.
Doesn't look like it, though, I love pretty colours too much.