To Wrestle With The Angel | a film short 13 mins
The above film short was shot with Film Noir and Silent Film aesthetics, immediately inspired by the film Biancanieves - you can find more about this visual inspiration here, lots of screenshots - attempting to capture the ineffable battle of human self-excavation. Our 30 minute discussion at the bottom of this page is a dive into the truths presented in this film, but the film stands on its own and what you take out of it.
Agonistic Vitality
Fighting is a spiritual Quest. And as with all proper Quests it has real danger. This is not the danger of injury, it is the danger of fear. The danger of doubt. Another is attempting to invade your body. Your body is made up of more than cells interlinked, it is the aura of your Space, the Completeness of you. Fighting is the battle to maintain the coherence of that Space, its integrity, amid the spears of an assault. Ultimately, attacks upon your Soul. The Angel that you Wrestle with is your higher self, your Daimon (in the Heraclitean sense) & all that appears to you as your shadow. It is all the parts of you that will feel like they are crumbling away, your feet disappearing beneath you.
This session is one that fighters undergo repeatedly, so that they can discover their Daimon. Your Daimon, your Angel, is not your friend. Not your confidant. It is - in many ways - your enemy, even your mortal enemy. But you must negotiate the physical language, the Sprache of Your Flesh, to earn your freedom. You just wrestle with that Angel. This is what this film is about, and the photography that accompanies it.
XF200mm F2 In Focus
Key to this project was bringing the Fujifilm XF200mm lens to bear, a lens maybe built more for wildlife photography, but using it to create intimacy, collapsing the space, bringing out the psychology of the action, the facialization of the fighter, and flattening it against the blur, which psychologically and performatively is what fighting is. This really comes out in the edited film short, but in this series of photographs below it also is very present.
click on any photo below to see it in detail
Sylvie and Me Discussing What Wrestling With The Angel Means
The Muay Thai Bones podcast is our in-depth podcast of the art and sport of Muay Thai, in Thailand, as it touches on the most important aspects of values, gender, and self journey. Below is a small segment on the film above and what it is attempting to capture.
