Drum Room
Short film Completed 2008
Director
Miranda Pennell
Doc Society helped with
Production
Runtime: 15 minutes
The empty spaces of an ambiguous building open up to reveal a group of aspiring musicians as they play together, alone. Filmed within a music school, Drum Room focuses on the contradictory aspects of a regimented training environment which promotes an art form (rock music), whose ethos is most often identified with individualism and rebellion.
The video frames the inner-world of the performers and their embodied experience, against a contrasting outer-reality. Filmmaker and artist Pennell's remarkable short has played at numerous art film festivals, galleries and fairs including London's Tate Britain.
Crew
Miranda Pennell
Director
Miranda Pennell originally studied contemporary dance in New York and Amsterdam, after which she started to explore choreographic ideas through film and video. While her film work has led away from the specificity of contemporary dance, an interest in the nature of performance remains central to her films.
Pennell's work has been shown in different contexts including independent cinema, gallery, and broadcast. Her films and videos have received many awards, and funding from Arts Council England, Film London's Artists Film and Video Awards, and the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation.
Previous films: You Made Me Love You Fisticuffs Magnetic North
