A Moment of whiteness just before... - REview

Directed by Johanne Chagnon

Waves of white paper that resemble an iceberg from which emerge two arms and two legs, clearly feminine. 

A feather and then two red fruits that stain the paper clouds with blood-red paint. 

More and more. 

In  the background, only the vital breath of the wind. Then again, the same  legs and the same arms, which sway and emerge from the bloody clouds  and then once again the feather which rises higher and higher.

The two fruits bleed, sharp sounds and noises now disturb the breath of the wind.

Something  happens; the red and the human figure are charred. The red of the fruit  turns black—the feather returns, more and more powerful. The rain  falls, the black becomes darker. 

The body is now wrapped in white paper and rolls on the paper clouds that have turned from white to red, then black. 

Now they no longer remember an iceberg but a landfill, or any other place that hosts the end of something that once existed.

The  short movie ends with a sort of painting featuring a wood, from which  we can glimpse a shy sun that recalls hope and the symbolic return of  light.

"A  Moment Of Whiteness Just Before..." is a “small” yet full of strength  and poetry experimental film by Johanne Chagnon, a Canadian artist.

The  colors are vivid, anything but timid, and are the protagonists together  with the materials and the sounds it produces. Materials and colors  trigger a linear story in which the first act, the second act, and the  third act recall the cycle of life. The process of life, or perhaps the  emotional cycle with which we face it.

It  doesn't matter what meaning you want to attribute to Chagnon's  beautiful work because whatever message we decide to receive, it arrives  with all the power that the author has put into her creation. And this  happens when an experimental work can be defined as successful.

"A  Moment Of Whiteness Just Before…" is one of the best experimental films  that the Canadian art scene (not new to this genre of film) has  recently offered.