Portals

‘Portals’ is a poetic film about the forgotten doors that have been bricked up or sealed, no longer fit to serve their function as an access portal to a realm now forgotten. It’s also about a certain sense of intrigue, of wonder that lies behind every façade.

‘Why were these doors sealed up? What happens inside these hidden spaces? Who lives behind the bricked up doors? Through interviews conducted remotely with locals of Folkestone during the ‘Lockdown’, we hear the voices of people who were confined to their own intimate personal spaces, as they reflect on their lives, their loves, and their longings, telling personal stories, recounting memories, dreams, and reflections on the experience. Perhaps we can somehow breathe new life in these neglected sites of our everyday landscape…

These hidden personas inhabit an atemporal, hidden world, lost and forgotten behind the door, all the while the world carries on oblivious to their existence – yet they are still somehow connected with each other. Time runs at a different pace for them and through their common isolation we hope to find their common humanity, and perhaps somehow breathe new life into these neglected sites of our everyday landscape.’ Ewan Golder

Credits:

Camera: Ewan Golder and Peter Wolf<

Editing: Ewan Golder

With the voices of: Carol Grimes, Melissa Jacob, David Jones, Joanna Jones, Annie Catford, Dave McKenna, Louse O’Connell, Colin O’Reilly, James Abbott, Sharon MaCarron, Alexandra Day, Helen Lindon, Will Hirstle, Natalia Ilchuck

Featuring music from Rune Kjær Rasmussen, Nancy’s Place and the ‘Common Ground’ project directed by Carol Grimes

Gallery Image Credits: Stills from ‘Portals’ by Ewan Golder

‘Portals’ Premiere + Q&A was presented as part of July 2021’s Last Friday’s Folkestone event at CT20 Project Space on Friday 30th July 2021, at 7pm, 8pm and 9pm

The soundtrack and audio was broadcast on Dover Community Radio (DCR FM) on 18 June 2021, as part of a digital festival by DAD (Dover Art Development). ‘Experienced purely in audio form, ‘Portal’s doors might not be apparent, but these voices offer insights into the intimate and curious connections, worlds and presences that can form within isolation.’ [DAD]

Listen here.

Born and raised in a small town on the Romney Marsh, Ewan Golder has always been equally preoccupied by the uncanny, the macabre and the absurd, and the delicate, the graceful and the transcendent. After graduation in Media Production, Ewan’s interests have been broad, learning his craft as a filmmaker through a series of short films, music videos, experimental documentaries and video art. His most recent work has focused on attempting to create a subjective sensation in the viewer, an immersive experience, working with the assumption that unusual insights and perspectives are possible in characters who are somehow at odds with mainstream society. His most recent short films have explored the connection between dreams, technology and romance, alcoholism, homelessness and Alzheimer’s disease and have been shown at Bucharest Experimental Film Festival,  Stuttgart Expanded Media Festival, Athens Digital Arts Festival, Cologne Short FIlm Festival.

He is currently living and working in Folkestone, England, and Paris, France.

‘TWF’ (This Week In Folkestone) is an archival project charting contemporary countercultures from the margins: experiences and creative expressions of people who have been left outside of the dominant cultural radar. ‘TWF’ is interested in all that is underground, underrated, and absent, putting a spotlight on diverse cultures that are under threat of disappearing due to patterns of urban morphology, economic, social & political structural changes, as well as the developing tastes, behaviours, influences and values of our time.

As part of the project, a series of six mini documentary projects were commissioned by artists with a vision for all that is left behind, invisible and emerging. The other artists who participated in this project are: Ed Barnes, Charlotte Chapman, Ann Morgan, Tomas Poblete and Ernst Fischer.