Short Film (22 minutes)
Written & directed by Mimi Bai & Sam B. Jones
Orange, a solitary ghost in a black-and-white forest, spies White, another lone ghost, stealing bait from its trap. This chance encounter sets off an extended pursuit across the seasons in which White uses camouflage and bushcraft techniques to evade Orange. The chase reveals hidden connections between the two ghosts, who can see in color - making it difficult to hide from each other in their otherwise monochrome world. As Orange closes in on White, the two increasingly mirror one another, culminating in a climactic moment of mutual recognition, of seeing and being seen.
Official Selection - Maryland Film Festival 2022
Photo: Sam B. Jones
Hide & See is a hybrid experimental narrative film that explores camouflage, invisibility/hypervisibility, labor, and assimilation.
In the film, we recast several of my sculptural works as clay and textile shrouds for the ghosts (see Conjuring a future full of pasts & Net,), or as tools they use to evade each other (see Trackmakers).
The film is inspired by Spy vs. Spy, outdoor survival tutorials on YouTube, and the 1942 Len Lye film Kill or Be Killed, in which a British sniper faces off with his German adversary in a test of camouflage craft.
Photo: Sam B. Jones