Sam Hamilton is a multidisciplinary artist, so it's no surprise his feature-length experimental film, Apple Pie, is such a textured tapestry of image and sound.
The film is an absorbing, playful rumination on scientific patterns across our galaxy, from the atomic to the astronomical.
Dancers, colours, objects, music and field recordings in landscapes engage in a cosmology of relationships, based on the Carl Sagan quote: "If you wish to make apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."
The film moves through several acts based on our planetary system, starting far away at Pluto, before jumping to the centre, the Sun.
As we watch a person, possibly Hamilton himself, stand before a beach cutting his own hair, a narrator describes galactic ideas in a highly technical jargon, before summarising: "The universe is like a teenager."
Apple Pie is shot on 16mm celluloid film in settings around Samoa and New Zealand, giving it a beautiful visual texture. The soundtrack pulses with electronic oscillations and melodies which blend into the natural island sounds of wind, water and wildlife.
I highly recommend it to those seeking to be mesmerised by a richly choreographed meditation on the molecular and infinite elements that make up the universe.
Three and a half stars.
This film is playing as part of the 2016 New Zealand International Film Festival.
Apple Pie:: Director: Sam Hamilton:: Starring: Ioane Papali’i, Lauren Waudé, Dean Roberts, Kasina Campbell, Oscar Dowling, Jon Bywater, Louise Menzies, Andy Hamilton, Metusela Toso, Mosiana Webster, Nikki Upoko, Jasmine Day, Lisa Clarke, Tyla Davis, Ezra Williams, Jackson Hobbs, Stephen Bain, Chelsea Jade Metcalf, Josh Rutter, Sam Hamilton:: Rating: PG - Nudity:: Running Time: 80 minutes
Reviewed by Matthew Hutching/Newshub.
