Body Snatcher

Body Snatcher works with new 16mm material as well as with found footage from Barbara Loden‘s film ""Wanda"" (1970), conflating fragments from the film itself and new material into an abstract narrative. Loden‘s film shows a character that navigates the world seemingly passively and is defined by a deep inner void, but at the same time fights for her own identity and challenges social norms through her refusal to function as expected: „Life is a mistery to her. [...] She doesn’t know what she wants but she knows what she doesn’t want.“ Taking fragments of the film as a starting point for a new narrative, objects, props and surfaces from the film were recreated, taking on a sculptural and artificial notion, visually isolated and filmed anew. Wanda‘s headpiece, the interior and exterior surfaces of a car door or hair curlers are filmed in front of black in orbital and floating camera movement. In this kind of vacuum, an abstract and associative narration about emptiness, failure, and identity construction in relation to the body slowly unfolds. A sort of science fiction remake of Wanda emerges - a layer of meaning that lies behind the film‘s plot and surface is imagined and constructed, positioning disparate elements in relation to each other and forging connections between them.