23/02

Fiona Tan - Ascent (2017, 80’)

The most photographed mountain in the world, the Japanese Fuji, struts on all of the thousands pictures used to construct the film 'Acent'. We see Mount Fuji from numerous perspectives, photographed by endless different cameras, in the last 150 years. On the dynamic soundtrack we hear the voices of two fictional characters - Mary, an English woman and Hiroshi, her deceased Japanese partner. Mary receives a package with letters and a collection of photos from her deceased husband. The account of his ascent of Mount Fuji, sets in motion a stream of reflections.

“While I was working on Ascent, my second feature length film, Marker’s two most well-known films: ‘La Jetée’ and ‘Sans Soleil’ were my key cornerstones. Encouraged by this elusive maker’s creativity and intelligence, I dared to conceive, write and edit an 80 minute film using still images entirely. Similar to ‘La Jetée’, I endeavoured to question the relationship between film and photography and the role which visual memory plays. ‘La Jetée’ is a film which gets better with every viewing, and anyone interested in art and in film should see this film at least once in their lifetime.”

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