Director, Producer and Movement Artist Lauren Pringle’s dance short Witch-Hunt is a choreography-led narrative film about Suzette, a hunted witch who is grappling with the power she holds within her body. Pringle realises Suzette’s journey through ritualistic staging, hazy, fog-filled visuals, and a non-linear structure that renders the entire short with a phantasmagorical sensibility. It’s a short film that feels completely absorbing from the outset and then slowly grows into a place of pure catharsis. Premiering on Directors Notes today, we’re excited to see Witch-Hunt cast its spell upon audiences globally. If you’re keen to learn more about Pringle’s creative process you can read our interview with her below where she reveals the historical research that underpins the short, the challenge of crafting a narrative without words, and how she sees Suzette’s story as ultimately a coming of age tale.
Witch-Hunt is such a dream-like, visually-rich dance short. Where did the making of the film begin?
Witch-Hunt is a speculative fiction set in a dystopic future where the natural environment has been reduced to dust. The film was conceived during the Covid-19 lockdown in a dark and cold factory hall turned community space where I was isolating. My environment was baron and the view of the gates that surrounded the building brought safety while a great sense of the unknown echoed throughout the world.
The film revolves around Suzette; a Witch who is hunted because of her denial of the perceived ‘otherness’ that rages within her. Her true feeling sense is buried deep inside of her which draws support from unknown supernatural forces. The world she finds herself in has been depleted of natural resources and she is hunted by a tribe of witches who exist within their own gifted senses. Suzette eventually surrenders to her own power throughout the dance narrative of the film. Through physical performance and crafted composition, the film is a coming-of-age tale of a young femme force harnessing her power despite her surroundings.
What were you looking to explore on a thematic level?
Building on Silvia Federici’s study of witch-hunts as a regulating tool for maintaining a hegemonic economic system where women’s bodies are sites for the deployment of “power techniques and power relations”, Suzette’s story reflects on the attachment that witches have to the earth. When the earth has been entirely decimated and depleted Suzette must pull from somewhere deeper inside herself, she is consumed by a character she has not yet succeeded in incarnating. This process of becoming in which Suzette harnesses her unrestrained naked instincts, draws on references such as Mary Wigman’s Witch Dance (Hextentanz) of possession, where the dancing female body serves as a vehicle for alterity. Rather than considering bodies as closed physiological and biological systems, the film explores bodies as open, participating in the flow or passage of affect, characterized more by reciprocity and co-participation than boundary and constraint and explores the potential of the body for psychic or psychological attunement.
What do you think was personally attracting you to make a film that confronts notions of personal boundaries and restraint?
The film came to me during Covid, as I was freaked out about the apocalypse. I also got quite freaked out about society and as much as I understood the lockdowns and global social behaviour I was also quite curious about the methodology of how it all happened. I then noticed the polarisation of society regarding Covid and it made me think a lot about outcasts and intuition and not following the norm and moments of history and witch trials and system controls, etc. Of course, we were in a global health crisis but were the measures undertaken right for everyone? It was more of an open-ended question that then made me think a lot about living in a dystopian world where we had to fight for survival. It is a bigger question but somehow all the environmental questions, general future questions and climate crisis also really became apparent and this somehow led me to the idea of Witch-Hunt.
Through physical performance and crafted composition the film is a coming-of-age tale of a young femme force harnessing her power despite her surroundings.
What was it about witches specifically, and I guess dance to a degree too, that you saw as the vessel for those questions?
I wanted to work with a performer or story where we see the journey of a witch aka a deeply intuitive person who is running from herself, her own intuition and fears, the group of witches surround her trying to capture her to wake up to her powers and voice when she finally surrenders we feel the relief and understand her journey. I guess I wanted the audience to go on a ride and empathise with the character. I know this can be hard when you’re not using a script or text but I think that is exactly why I wanted the challenge. We can tell stories without words and I think somehow we can empathise here, with picture and audio leading the way.
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How does your knowledge as a performer influence your direction?
I think I have an awareness of the body as a performer so when I work with dancers or actors I have the language already embedded that I can share with them so we have a joint common ground in terms of feedback and guiding the shape of the character on set. This has definitely helped and is one of my favourite parts as a director; being really on a level with the cast.
Could you talk about staging the choreography, how did you want the dance to play out?
I used the film as a space to explore concepts of the structural body and prominence of witch hunts as foundational events in the construction of modern capitalist society to which Sylvia Federici’s work is key. This influenced the staging of the film which aims to embody a non-linear sense of time, where Suzette’s experiences are caught between her present experience of a post-capitalist future whilst held by the traumas of witches who came before her. By presenting Suzette’s destabilizing pull between multiple and parallel forms of persecution Suzette, like Mary Wigman in Witch Dance, experiences a freedom via her own expressive vocabulary.
I’d love to know more about what went into the smoky, almost ritualistic mood of the short, what were you looking to fold into those key aspects like the costume and the score?
In terms of the mood of the piece and setting, I had this idea to cross reference the past and future whilst still echoing a contemporary state. The land has turned to dust, nothing exists but the alive bodies that are within it. The wardrobe is characteristic of Victorian period clothing crossed with Celtic-inspired jewelry. The composition is built on Welsh Vocalist Bethan Lloyd’s deep earthly and spiritual tones juxtaposed with industrial sounds that are built around her voice. The natural elements take presence in the cinematography with wind and smoke guiding our eye and the edit is long and visceral to move us through our bodies.
I like to hope that the film leaves us with a sense of hope that even in such political and environmental uncertainty, humans will always have the strength to grow and adapt to whatever space we are in. There is magic within and there is something inside of the human spirit that cannot be broken, even if the edges of our environment might have already crumbled.
I really wanted to work with the medium of film to see how we can tell stories without language but through the body.
How much of the film was found in post-production? Dance films tend to range from those that are heavily planned in pre-production to those which like to experiment during the shoot with a view of ultimately finding the film in post.
The post-production was a long journey as always with self-funded projects I was a patient witch. My composer is insane and he took the time to really craft what I feel is a musical masterpiece. Lukas Thielecke is so talented and more people should know about him! The edit was also a tricky one as I wanted lots of one-take sequences which we managed but had to make a few cuts here and there, then the main job was really crafting a narrative story when you have no words! I don’t tend to make things easier for myself but since I come from a dance/physical theatre background I really wanted to work with the medium of film to see how we can tell stories without language but through the body and I think we really got there at the end of this one. There is a feeling of a ‘coming-of-age’ and our central protagonist Suzette is just mesmerising. She really holds the whole film together as we journey with her from her hunted visions into her true liberation with the witches.
It would be great to hear more about the technical construction of the short. The camerawork, the smoke. What kit did you use to bring this all to life?
We used an Alexa Mini and then Live SFX so smoke and wind machines, that was fun! The shoot we did all in one day and then shot the opening scene on another half day as we didn’t manage that with the light. That was also fun to try and create some kind of fire and I think we caught the mystical embers on the floor so I really liked that moment of magic and there the wind was also natural so the elements were working in our favour.
Looking back there are so many things I would have done differently but I am so proud of what we achieved in such a small amount of time, budget and in general production but I have to say the team was just insane. Philip Kaminiak, the DoP, just brought the visuals to another level and all the cast and production team and editing, nothing would have been possible without all my beautiful friends and support network. Eternally grateful for the journey, I always just wish I had more time and money to take things slow and develop but maybe that will come. Maybe someone will love the world and want us to make it into a feature film.
You’ve lived across the world in Argentina and Berlin, do you feel those locations have influenced your approach as an artist?
Most definitely. In Argentina you can see my work was heavily influenced by my dance crew and the taste and style and then my work in Berlin has a totally different tone. Much colder, darker and more grey. I guess the environment gives for this.
What does the future hold for your filmmaking?
I would love to move into narrative. I am writing a fiction now that is heavily character and fantasy world based and will see if we start with a short form or longer. I just became a mother too and am working on live theatre pieces at the moment as they are a little easier to manage with the baby. I can’t sit down at the computer for more than 30 mins so I think my film development will start next year.
