Death Walks on Nitrate
She is the photographer, seeking the perfect representation of the image she has imagined and now seeks to capture in the lens of her camera, wordlessly manipulating her model into uncomfortable poses to be held without complaint, capturing moments of life and death in the city, slices of the truths of strangers without knowledge or consent.
There in the park is the old woman, struggling with her medication, choking as her ailments express themselves and take hold of her; no intervention is made, no assistance offered, just the click of the shutter and the sound of the film winding on, but afterwards, bathed under the red glow of the developing room, the camera and the exposed film have their own story to tell…
A wordless and visually dynamic short film partially shot on the appropriate medium of Kodak Super 8, Death Walks on Nitrate is written and directed by Kevin Fermini and stars Katie Carpenter as Rose, the photographer who focuses solely on the result rather than the process, Anna Bishop as Elle, the model, and Sasha Friedman as Vivian who Rose attempted to capture as a static object frozen within her frame.
Funky, retro, vivid, lurid and a little bit spooky with a flavour of giallo and an echo of Sapphire and Steel, what Rose looks at through the viewfinder looks back at her, the images breaking on through like Jim Morrison on a bad comedown as Vivian claims a wrathful Old Testament recompense of an eye for an eye for the liberty Rose has taken with her, particularly damning for an artist working in a visual medium.
Death Walks on Nitrate is streaming on the Arrow platform now
