“WHY?” is a collaboration between an artist, filmmaker and composer who each share a compelling interrogative response to our inherited history. Looked at retroactively through archival footage and elliptical poetics, the First World War becomes more and more senseless as history progresses evoking a need for peaceful co-existence.
"WHY?” is a collaboration between an artist, filmmaker and composer who each share a compelling interrogative response to our inherited history. Looked at retroactively, the First World War becomes more and more senseless as history progresses and yet ironically its shimmering image-echoes grow louder as it recedes further into the past. This is especially the case when distressing photographic imagery is sensitively choreographed through contemplating the distance between human beings: the very trenches that separate us. As a form of existential evidence of the need for peaceful co-existence,the film embraces archival footage and contains elliptical poetics which evoke some of the dream-like aspects of this global catastrophe.
Learn more about the short film "Why?"
Composed by Sebastian Hugeneck, the score marries with the imagery and pulls the viewer into the world of the film. At once eerie and dream-like the score reinforces the futility, hopelessness, and dispair that one feels view these images and echoes the emotion of the opening poem, “Epilogue to Forlorn Hope or the Beginning of […]
“WHY?” is a thought provoking short film created collaboratively by In the Trench Productions as a co-venture between an artist, poet, filmmaker and composer who each share a compelling interrogative response to our inherited history. Looked at retroactively, the First World War becomes more and more senseless as history progresses and yet ironically its shimmering […]
Whistle..…over the top ….shallow breath ….tight chest Rotten eggs……metallic tongue…..deafening silence Object impact Sound of blood…..blinding darkness.…accelerated quietness….exhale Sight pulled deep inside Where I reside The implosion of a feeling The eruption of a nothing The birth of a star………….. JMW / May 1, 2015
Meet the international team that helped make this short film.
With a passion for writing and directing, Sonia strives to achieve spontaneity and honesty through film. Recent credits include her original documentary mini-series on happiness entitled “Ecstatic!” for Vision TV and her feature debut “Rose Colored Glasses” which had its enthusiastic premiere at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival in Vancouver. Sonia graduated with honours in 2010 from Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts in Vancouver, Canada with a BFA in Film. Her grad film “Salvation” won Best Short in the Death By Night Screening at Moving Image in Toronto and Best International Student Film at the Illinois International Film Festival in Chicago. She was also awarded the Best Student Film and Best Actor award at the L.A. Global Film Festival. Additionally, Sonia has over 8 years experience as a videographer and editor and has heavily assisted the production of two other TV documentaries “We Can’t See You Beating Us” (funded by Rogers) and “Return to Byzantium”(aired on CBC). Her current second feature documentary entitled “Our 1/4 Life Crisis” is currently helping millennials to cope with emerging adulthood.
Joachim Waibel works with embodied meanings. A mixed media visual artist and poet, his art practice is interdisciplinary and multi-faceted and has one common denominator: he uses whatever symbolic form in whatever medium best conveys his philosophical interests at the moment of creation. From drawing and painting to photography and film, from conceptual sculpture to concrete poetry, his creative approach is living proof that the medium is the message. Originally from Germany, he relocated to North America in 1973 and has since explored many avenues of self-expression, in keeping with his eclectic cultural upbringing and diverse experiences as a maker. He is in fact a neo-faber, a new maker, and his active Vancouver-based studio is exploring fresh and flexible ways to operate above and beyond the traditional gallery system. He is a postmodern renaissance man.
Born in Vienna, Austria, Sebastian Hugeneck grew up immersed in the world of central European classical music. From an early age Sebastian studied piano, and soon discovered his passion for composing. Exploring his song writing throughout high school, Sebastian acted as the lead singer and keyboardist in an indie rock band. Yet as he grew older, he realized it was film music that captivated him most. To further understand human thought, emotion and behavior, Sebastian studied Psychology at the University of Vienna where he graduated with his bachelors in early 2014. Through out his studies, Sebastian has worked on numerous film projects, several which have also gone on to win awards. He specializes in creating original melodies, storytelling and strong emotions. In the last couple of years, Sebastian has expanded into also assisting productions and has had an active role in the development of the documentaries “ Rose Colored Glasses” and “Our 1/4 Life Crisis.” Already having dozens of shorts, four feature documentaries, a documentary mini-series and a web series under his belt; Sebastian is one of Austria’s leading young film composers.
Born in 1994, Handuo is a multi-media artist who specialises in film making. He is a Chinese international student, who came to North America in 2012 to begin a new life and pursue his post secondary education. In pursuing his education, Handuo has reached a critical point. He has decided to focus his efforts on experimental film. Handuo feels that only in the pursuit of this form of film can he express and utilize what he has learned in school, continue learning and growing as an artist, and pursue the larger philosophical goal of all artists—trying to understand the meaning of life.