Year of release: 1994
Original format: 16mm
Running time: 2 minutes 15 seconds
Screening format: 16mm comopt print; digital screening versions available
Credits: A film by Kayla Parker
Director/producer/editor/animator: Kayla Parker
Cinematography: Stuart Moore
Sound recording: Stuart Moore
Sound design: Kayla Parker
Dubbing mixer: Paul Roberts
Set construction: Miles Parker
Funded by The British Film Institute
Distribution and sales: Sundog Media sundogmedia@gmail.com and LUX Distribution; also available from EMAF (European Media Arts Festival) distribution@emaf.de Tel: 00 49 / (0)541 / 2 16 58
Description
A personal view of the relationship between daughter and mother, set in a room which is poised on the threshold of birth or death. The room is at first blank, colourless; we enter through the window like an intruder or ghost. The room becomes literally a ‘living room’ as elements within it come to life; memories of early childhood are activated and set in motion.
Production notes
The film evolved from the combined dreams and memories of my mother and myself, using stop-motion animation of fireplace tiles and 35mm projections within a life-size set - originated from our old black and white family snapshots, and the patterns on my mother’s dresses when I was a child.
Batter Street annexe, Plymouth Arts Centre: I rented the L-shaped studio on the top floor from 1993 to 1995. Whilst here, I made the film As Yet Unseen and then worked on pre-production of Sunset Strip (photo taken 2009).Publication and comments
‘The World Within Us’ (1996) [film review, illustrated with As Yet Unseen b/w still] Everywoman journal
Mistress of the moving picture (1994) Frame by Frame exhibition review by Isabel Stott, Evening Herald newspaper. Plymouth: Western Morning News (15 December 1994)
Networking: the film, video and television organisation for women newsletter (1994) ‘Life and times: Kayla Parker film-maker’ [page article and black and white photo of Kayla Parker with As Yet Unseen animation set and my silky Beaulieu 16mm camera] Leeds: Vera Productions p. 4
Exhibition selected
2013
Textually Active, presented by Driftingspace, Sally Hall and Jason Hirons, at The Plymouth Athaneum. At Textually Active I showed the film slowed down to 25%, followed by it running at ‘normal’ speed (28 May 2013)
2010
The Measure of It 16mm film-drawing performance and screening with artist’s talk; As Yet Unseen projected from 16mm print, Studio One at Plymouth Arts Centre, UK (28 April 2010, 6pm to 8.30pm)
2006
Put Away These Childish Things exhibition at Viewpoint Gallery, Plymouth, UK. Shown as video installation, with film [on DVD], two large framed colour photographic prints enlarged from the 16mm film frame, and film artefacts in glass display case. The exhibition also included my film Nuclear Family (24 January to 3 February 2006)
2000
Screenspace exhibition, Gallery One, Watershed Media Centre, Bristol, UK. Also included work by Anna Lucas, Joe Magee, Sarah Miles and Tony Sinden (1 to 16 April 2000)
1997
Hiding Behind the Sofa: A Festival of Film and Video Works by Women Artists exhibition at Prema Arts Centre gallery, Uley, Gloucestershire, UK. The exhibition also included the films Night Sounding and work by Rose Garrard, Anna Lucas, and Sarah Pucill (2 March to 13 April 1997)
1996
Beyond the Margins: Celebration of 100 Years of Women in Film Making Watershed Media Centre, Bristol, UK. The World Within Us programme was curated and introduced by Kayla Parker and included work by Susan Derges, Penny Grist, and Folake Shoga: “ten innovative short films and videos made by women filmmakers from the South West.” (Programme notes) Beyond the Margins was presented by Watershed Media Centre and Skillnet South West (27-28 April 1996)
Interstice: Seen and Unseen exhibition at Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK. Programme also included work by Jackie Hatfield, Al Nigrin, and Tanya Ury, and was presented by London Film-Makers Co-op. Still from As Yet Unseen featured on the cover of the LFMC programme for July/August/September (3 August 1996)
European Media Art Tour 1996: Film Programme, Germany. Selected from EMAF 1995 (September 1996 to March 1997)
39th International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film Leipzig, Germany. Panorama III programme, selected by Otto Alder (29 October to 3 November 1996)
Internationale Trickfilmtage Schorndorf, Germany (9 to 13 November 1996)
Brief Encounters Festival of Short Films Watershed Media Centre, Bristol, UK. Curator and presenter of Regional Showcase: Programme 2 (21 November to 1 December 1996)
1995
Kino 95: 1st Manchester International Short Film and Video Festival Manchester, UK (25-28 October 1995)
Women Making Movies presented by Sight and Sound/British Film Institute, and Women in Film and Television; the touring programme also included Fever (1994) by Carine Adler, and Sheller Shares Her Secret (1994) by Sarah Turner. “In the UK producers are increasingly turning to women directors for a fresh female perspective, which is breathing new life into British film-making.” (Variety, 7 August 1995, quoted in programme notes) (UK tour of regional cinemas, autumn 1995) (Cinewomen Festival, Cinema City, Norwich: “some of the very best work from British women directors working in TV and cinema.” (Programme notes) 21 October 1995) (Reel Women, Watershed Media Centre, Bristol 18 November 1995)
Zone: Multi-Media Event The Corn Exchange, Maidstone, UK. Film Night: Vigorous Images programme “highlights why animation is one of the most popular forms of film making. The selection illustrates the diversity of expression and production methods currently used.” (Programme notes)(13 October - 4 November 1995)
European Media Art Festival Osnabrück, Germany. International Selection: Spirits programme; programme also included Blazes (1961) by Robert Breer and Threshold (1972) by Malcolm Le Grice (6 to 10 September 1995)
14th Women in the Director’s Chair: International Film and Video Festival Chicago, USA. Family Values programme (9-12 March 1995)
10th Fringe Film and Video Festival Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Family programme: photograph of Kayla Parker in a pram, aged 7 months, featured on p. 16; As Yet Unseen takes “a not-so-traditional look at the traditional subject of the family ... [dealing] with the strong feelings involved in the minefield of Mother/Daughter relationships” (programme notes) (24 to 26 February 1995)
Vivid Visions II Tate Gallery St Ives, Kernow, UK. “Screenings of new work produced by contemporary film-makers working through Cornwall Video Resource.” (Programme notes) (17 January 1995)
1994
Frame by Frame: “This exhibition is a unique opportunity to see ‘frame by frame’ into the world of director/animator Kayla Parker.” Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth, UK. Solo exhibition. “Her films have been shown on Channel 4’s ‘Four-Mations’ and ‘The Dazzling Image’ series, on ITV and on BBC2’s ‘The Late Show’, as well as in many festivals and exhibitions worldwide. She gave a presentation of her work at The National Film Theatre earlier this year for the ‘Art into Film’ event as part of the R.B. Kitaj retrospective at The Tate. She is the first person to win a second Animate Award from the Arts Council and Channel 4 for her 35mm animation ‘Sunset Strip’.
The exhibition includes artwork from ‘Sunset Strip’ and features video installation, animation drawings, props and photographs from recent films.” (Plymouth Arts Centre programme notes). As Yet Unseen video installation in the upstairs gallery: the life-size living room and fireplace set designed and constructed for the film, with S-VHS loop of flames playing on TV monitor in fireplace, and three framed photographic prints from As Yet Unseen 16mm film frames; set of 17 animated fireplace ‘tiles’ - artwork from the film - playing in large metal zoëtrope on record player within cabinet (designed and built by Miles Parker) in downstairs gallery (16 November to 23 December 1994)
Frame by Frame from Sundog Media on Vimeo.
Art into Film event to coincide with the opening of the Tate Gallery’s R.B. Kitaj retorospective; organised by Sarah Stephens, Adam Hodgkins and Maryannick Le Cohu; sponsored by Sight and Sound magazine, The Arts Council of England and the Tate Gallery. National Film Theatre, London, UK. See Art into Film programme with notes compiled by Liese Spencer (17 and 18 June 1994)