Possession(s) launched with the Peter Booth painting, subject of the the film, selling for $100k at Deutscher Hackett auction house. Marking a new concept in Film distribution.
Director, Jim Lounsbury, Vision Statement
When I first saw the painting on which this short film was based, I was consumed by a range of emotions. It was visceral. Peter Booth had effected me at a deep level and I knew that if there was any way to convey the desire to possess something so moving… to capture the necessity of interacting with art, and how that human need can be perverted and become all consuming… If I could capture a small sliver of that feeling, I knew I could create a moving piece of art. From that original inspiration, Laurence and I, wanting to make a film centred in the world of art, with the emotional taste of obsession as a backdrop.
It’s hard to ignore the great fables of individuals becoming consumed by their possessions. A recent one that comes to mind is the story of Gollum in Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings. In that way, I wanted to open the film in a heightened way, with a character who has sacrificed everything to retain possession of a painting. And then… as we watch this character destroy the painting, we are drawn into the chain of circumstances that would make an individual betray their own obsession. Why would someone destroy the very thing they have sacrificed everything to attain? Who had they become? Had the possession changed them? Was the cost higher than they had first imagined? On all levels, the production design (which, I might add, borrowed it’s colour palette from Booth’s painting) the acting, the locations, everything was chosen to underscore the themes within the film.