ANIMA and ANIMUS
ANIMA and ANIMUS is an exploration of the collective subconsciousness of mankind.
Lauren Pringle, the director of the film was selected as the best female director of Berlin Art Film Festival. Lauren Pringle is a director signed to Familia Films and an award winning producer (The Mess - Dorothy Allen Pickard - Open City Docs Best UK Short, YDA Cannes). Her debut film as a Director was nominated for Best Dance at Aesthetica Film Festival, UK). Her latest film If I Was To Surrender was also nominated for Best Experimental Film at Berlin Commercial Awards 2020.
Director Statement ANIMA and ANIMUS is an audio-visual art film and site-specific theatre installation piece inspired by the role of archetypes represented throughout history and literature. The Anima and Animus are described in Carl Jung’s school of analytical psychology as part of his theory of the collective unconscious. Jung believed that Anima and Animus are the two primary anthropomorphic archetypes of the unconscious mind. It makes up the unconscious feminine and masculine within both genders and they are an abstract archetype of the self. The unconscious feminine energy that a man possesses and the unconscious masculine energy that women possess. Gender is not the question here but rather Energetic fields that lie between man and woman and are ultimately all human. Lauren wanted to curate a spectacle based on these innate archetypes we all can come to face or feel at some point in our lives. Whether we are aware of them or not this collective unconscious exploration is composed between a medley of literature, prose, poetry and voice to create a breathtaking visual identity bridging together theatrics, drama and performance in a new light.
Featuring Identities such as The Mother, The Burden, The Hollow Ghost, The Shadow, The Witch and The Fools as characters in these tales - each narrative is composed of a beautiful score composed by Petra Hermanova and Jon Eirik Bosca alongside words by Jennifer Moule. The composition was based out of impulsive play and improvisation working with the concept of the human identity, feminine roles and the dramatic spectacle of life Lauren’s background in performance art and theatre resonates strongly in this piece as she live directed and used theatrical improvisation techniques on set. Lauren claims she want’s us to remember the magic of cinema and theatre - to witness life in all its absurdity and drama masking all these shades and shadows that we all feel within. Emotional vulnerability and physical expression are at the heart of these films and offer a deep breath to witness which roles and identities we might be meddling with at the current time.