Individual Residencies
2022 | Demelza Kooij
I applied for a residency at The Museum of Loss and Renewal to write a script and do test-edits for a voice-over track for my feature documentary film Wolfpark. This project is the result of filming for several summers at a wolf sanctuary in Canada. I have a 50-minute rough cut of the film that requires a thorough reconsideration and the creation of a new storytelling perspective. The film is intended for festival and cinema release. Additionally, just like its spin-off project Wolves From Above, I created an accompanying installation work with the film, which I conceptualised during my stay.
Wolfpark is a poetic journey to a place where wolves and humans meet. Traversing a human and wolf gaze, the documentary film questions the natural and artificial, free and confined, and what is human and animal. The viewer is guided by my own voice, as well as the voices of the wolf keeper and park visitors. The film is an exploration of place and animal subjectivity. Its careful choreographing of a sound-image relation image allows the viewer to embody the film world and closely witness wolf life. Where there is voice-over, it is never pedantic or factual as in wildlife-programs. Instead, the film invites the viewer to listen, observe, and make their own judgements. Therefore, the voice-track will be a poetic and gentle guide that helps viewers to empathise with wolves and feel the poetics of space.