About Now MMX

About Now MMX is both Raban’s attempt to resolve the difficulty of rendering 3-dimensional space and perspective on the flat surface of the screen and a visual exploration of the current economic crisis gripping London. What does economic recession look like? How does it manifest itself on the streets and what is its impact on the skyline? The film is shot from a window on the 21st floor of Balfron Tower encompassing a panoramic view of the city below. Shot on 35mm, Recession was filmed over a duration of three months and uses time-lapse techniques to constantly track the movements of the city and its inhabitants. Raban’s intention is to create a cinematic map of London that exposes the neural networks of our post-modern metropolis; to produce a film that reveals the workings of London’s nervous system.

“Raban’s film could be read as a dialectic of the city and its image, an argument between how it is and how it might be re-imagined. By shifting between the material space of urbanism and the architecture of the film frame, About Now MMX aims for a more reflexive viewing experience, fracturing the spatial relations of the city into an activity of movement and dynamism. Raban’s project is one of fundamental engagement and makes necessary a critical reappraisal of urban space, our relationships to place and the promise that film might hold for a transformative relation to the city.” (Gareth Polmeer, Tengen Magazine, March 2011).

• http://www.londonsartistquarter.org/even...