Hart of the Wood is a long-form experimental documentary film that sits in a fictitious conceit that begins in a distant future, inspired by Russell Hoban’s cult novel ‘Riddley Walker’. A medley of documentary, fantasy, song and dance shot on a tapestry of celluloid film stocks and developed by hand.
A strange hominid from a different time is swallowed under earth where he discovers a weird film projection device from his distant past. He cranks a handle and is confronted with a film of visions that reveals a phantasmagoria of contemporary life, sitting in a liminal place between the real and the oneiric. A climate-fiction film-dream inspired by literature, folklore, science and arboriculture.
Benjamin Wigley is an interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker whose work has shown widely at international film festivals, galleries and museums. He was selected on the Scottish Doc Institute’s ‘Bridging the Gap’ Scheme at ECA, then went on to develop his first feature film Paa Joe & The Lion, which premiered at DOCFEST 2016. He studied 16mm filmmaking at No.W.here in London, then, in 2017 was invited as Artist in Residence at Liaison of Independent Film Toronto (LIFT) and Philip Hoffman’s Film Farm in Canada.
