ZAYNE ARMSTRONG
Days (pilot)
70 min
format - color SD video, 25fps, stereo sound
length - 70 mins
created by - Ellinor Aurora Aasgaard & Zayne Armstrong
written by - Ellinor Aurora Aasgaard,
Zayne Armstrong, Lene Berg, Seán Gallen, Jan Peter Horstmann, Zain Saleh
script contributions from - Alaa Abdullatif, Andrea Birmingham, Nicholas Korody, Ottokar Lehrner, Stix Omar, Kotti Yun
cinematography - Ashton C. Green
music by - 333 Boyz
sound design - Marcel Dadalto
costumes by - Erna Ostanek
line producer - Jan-Peter Horstmann
assistant director - Kristof Trakal
production assistant - Marin Håskjold
animation/VFX - Mario Campos Castellano (Gomito), Justin Swinburne
matte paintings - Caio Soares
title design - Rosen Eveleigh
set photographer - Silke Briel
art department assistant - Beth Collar
hair & makeup - Nuria de Lario
featuring artworks by - 333 Boyz, Ulrike Buck, Bob Kil, Nicholas Korody, Elizabeth Ravn
opening title sequence video - Annelies Kamen
cast - Alaa Abdullatif, Anahita Alebouyeh, Amir Asgharnejad, Ellinor Aurora Aasgaard, Andrea Birmingham, Julie Chance, Juan Carlos Cuadrado, Murat Dikenci, Niklas Draeger, Seán Gallen, Ana Kavalis, Meri Koivisto, Ottokar Lehrner, Marie Noël, Fan Popo, Ruth Rosenfeld, Robin Schick, Elena Schmidt, Kotti Yun
made with support from - Fotogalleriet, Arts Council Norway, Association of Norwegian Visual Artists, Fritt Ord Foundation, Radical Film Network, On&For Production
SYNOPSIS:
A number of gig economy labourers' lives intersect one evening in a Berlin bar. A property investor and her assistant allow a possessed GPS to guide them to new exploitative deals. Finding out that her studio sublet might be prematurely coming to an end, Alexandra is launched into an existential crisis about how abstract her role is in her own artistic practice. The gallerist Stefanie so badly wants Alexandra to start doing performances in a storefront space, that she’s getting her ex-girlfriend Hortense evicted, and has tricked a hacktivist to cover her paper trail under the guise of abolishing capitalism. Newcomer Beni tries to confront her social anxiety so she can get out of listening to crass zodiac advice at Marlie’s hostel. Aspiring journalist Chali has not only overstayed her welcome on Nan’s sofa, but she’s also leading on Phillip while fishing for a story about his failed handball career, but personal trainer Nuran is concerned that her exposé might expose his double life. But what did Hortense promise to Hans last night while high and why is it messing up everyone’s bank accounts?
CREATORS’ NOTE:
Days is an experimental film which questions the social imaginary of the ‘soap opera’ by substituting the abstracted Hollywood world of the long-running U.S. show Days of Our Lives, with the specifics of contemporary Berlin. We started working together in 2018 inspired by long-running soap operas and how they have inadvertently produced multi-layered communities which live in between fiction and reality. Days is a way to search for intersectional solidarity. The failing structures of melodramatic soap operas are taken as a format for sharing the absurd stories that define the lifestyles of so-called second families common amongst marginalised communities in most urban centers, and to represent the various illusive forms of labour that these transitory lives are built upon.
17.09.2023
Kunstnernes Hus Kino, Oslo (NO)
15.09.2023
Kunstnernes Hus Kino, Oslo (NO)
12.06.2023
H48 Projektraum, Berlin (DE)
12.05.2023
Filmtreff, Filmbyrået Jack, Kunstnernes Hus Kino, Oslo (NO)
01.04.23
Dreamland Film Festival, Greek Film Archive, Athens (GR)
17.03.23
Pogo Bar, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (DE)
05.03.2023
Vega Scene, Oslo (NO)
29.10.2022
Berlin Porn Film Festival 17, Moviemento, Berlin (DE)
27.10.2022
Berlin Porn Film Festival 17, Babylon Kreuzberg, Berlin (DE)