(re)kindling (2024)

Told through the story of two old friends, (re)kindling shows their reunion after losing contact for years.

The soundscape was entirely crafted in post-production, which allowed me to delve into the nuances of diegetic and non-diegetic sound. Learning about foley and audio in post-production, I used field recordings made on a Zoom recorder and sourced free sound from databases online.

Notably, the film omits the actual dialogue spoken by the actors, which was an intentional choice made to highlight the importance of visuals, and nuances given in acting performances.

At the heart of the film lies the idea of contextual ambiguity. What often clouds our understanding of others is that we don’t always have context— what is someone’s past, and how have they made it to their present? While the audience doesn’t learn the specifics of the characters' past or what their conversation was about, we are invited to try to understand their relationship through what we are given— and only through what we are given.

I wrote the script with a specific relationship between the characters in mind, yet intentionally left room for interpretation. What do you think is actually going on? How do you think the two characters feel about each other? Why do you think they lost contact with each other?