I want to see 'MA' at AIFF

Part of BEYOND: Narrative filmmaking beyond the rules; reinventing conventional storytelling.

MA is a transfixing, artfully wordless pilgrimage across the desert towards salvation. Reinvented and told entirely through movement, this unique and beautiful film playfully deconstructs the role of a woman (AIFF Juice Award winner Celia Rowson-Hall, p. 15) who encounters a world full of bold characters — including Andrew Pastides (Hank and Asha) and Amy Seimetz (Pit Stop) — who are alternately terrifying and sublime. MA is a journey into the visceral and the surreal, interweaving ritual, performance, and the body as sculpture. The absence of dialogue stirs the senses and leads us to imagine a new ending to a familiar journey, articulating its meaning through movement and visual expression.

Director’s Statement: Celia Rowlson-Hall

Mary’s story in the Bible is so sparse that I wanted to take this iconic figure and create my own narrative for her. I used her image and the concepts surrounding her as a jumping-off point to tell the story of a woman who enters this world and learns to live in it. MA came out of me in a subconscious form. In writing and making this movie, I pressed my ear to the ground; I wanted to listen and extract what all those women dead in the earth had to say. What I discovered after completing the film was that I had made something essential to my own growth as a woman.