Review
Still Lives (2016)
Written by Dustin Chandler
The division between the natural world and
the material world is a theme as old as time.
In an industrially and technologically evolving
environment such as this, the downfall of
modern society has made for good,
cinematic fodder to alert pressing ecological
issues that are relevant to thoughtful,
existential people such as ourselves. In a
recent effort, filmmaker Patrick Sheard
presents this with the 16-minute tone piece
STILL LIVES (2016).
Split into three chapters (Lamenta, Libertas,
and the finale, Exitus), STILL LIVES is an
experimental essay that combines images
and footage of the organic, natural
environment with the stark, hustle-andbustle of urban lifestyle, all matched to
melancholic, yet often soothing orchestral
score. On a cinematographic level, Sheard
knows how to set a divide between the
natural and the material: in Lamenta, our
introduction to the natural is through a
breathtaking crane shot through the
heavens of a mountain landscape. It’s warm,
comforting, and brings us to a collective
consciousness as a choir invites the viewer
into the bliss above. Immediately, we are
thrown into a quick montage of the modern
environment, best presented through the
image of a lone tree planted in the middle of
a strip mall and enforced through the eerie
chimes of an organ. In Libertas, we are finally
caught up to the aftermath through verite
footage of life in the urban society. Buses
ride through cities even though half the
seats are empty; customers walking in large
masses throughout shopping centers;
homeless citizens sit in destitute on the
pavement as the world around them
continues to move forward. Thankfully, in
Exitus, we reach a moment of serenity:
relaxing images of trees billowing in smaller
towns, diegetic sounds of rushing waters and
cicadas, and long, winding dirt roads that
allow transportation and sight-seeing rather
than bumber-to-bumber frustration. And in
between it all, we have haunting, Bergmanesque images of religious statues, like the
observant eyes of a universal energy much
bigger than our own.
STILL LIVES is a rather transcendent
experience by someone who confidently
pleads to a downsizing of the modern world.
Highly important, highly recommend.