About the project: Created collaboratively for film and sound-score, Bay area filmmaker Ian Winters and composer Evelyn Ficarra (UK/US) present 12 short films about water. Water is currently in the research stages with preview/research showing scheduled for Sept. 2008 as part of the MilkBar Live Film Festival in Oakland, CA. 12 short films about water is the intersection of Ficarra's longstanding fascination with the submarine world and recent piece, Submarine Revisited, and a series of 12 time-lapse films about water being shot by Winters.

Inspired by a shared fascination of things above and below water, and the passage of time the films observe 12 sites around the globe where sea meets land meets history, and which may submerge in coming years. The project is embedded in the age-old (and present) fascination with sea – visually and sonically mapping place-specific worlds of water, shipwreck, geography, listening and loss.

The series ultimate forms are envisioned as a both a cinematic film, and as a 12 channel live video / sonic installation environment that slowly transforms on a day to day and year to year basis using a live “score” of human and environmental inputs including tidal flow from weather buoys, shipping traffic arriving/departing for ports known and unknown, and Greenland's rate of glacial melt.

This research phase is supported in part by funds from Meet the Composer, The Zellerbach Family Fund, and a residency at I-Park.

About the artists:

Evelyn Ficarra  studied with Jonathan Harvey and has written music for dance, theatre, film, radio and the concert hall. Her solo CD 'Frantic Mid-Atlantic' is available on the Sargasso label www.sargasso.com and Submarine Revisted is available on the Critical Notice label. She has recently taken up a fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, where she is working towards a PhD.  www.evelynficarra.com

Ian Winters is a San Francisco Bay Area based photographer, video-maker and performer. His recent work focuses on the intersections of photography, video and performance, often as collaborations and site-specific works with musicians, composers and choreographers. He trained in photography, film and performance at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts-Boston and Tufts University. www.ianwinters.com