Aotearoa, 2021

I filmed Isolation (March2020) in lockdown with only the tools I had to hand, a phone, a gimbal, a laptop. I was interested in showing the utility of the house spaces and how they were being filled day after day, exploring the sense of both claustrophobia and creativity. The charming innocence of the visuals is juxtaposed against the menace of the soundtrack, there is a reason this is all happening, it isn’t present, but it is potentially terrible. Also, it kept the girls occupied and amused for two days and me occupied and amused for even longer. While for Aotearoa these days have passed and as the rest of the world emerges from their own lockdowns, Isolation remains as an artefact of the time the world stood still.

Dan Bain has worked as a theatre director, improviser, actor, motivational speaker, street performer, and stand-up comedian since graduating from CircoArts, the New Zealand circus training school, in 2001. As a writer for theatre, film and radio his noted works include the silent children’s shows A Paintbox of Clowns, Why are my Parents so Boring?  and Cat Vs. Dog; the Young and Hungry commissions Gameplan and Uncle Minotaur; the comedy Stag Weekend (with Brendon Bennetts); his “NZ anti-high school musical” The Invisibles with composer Luke Di Somma, and his multiple versions of A Christmas Carol adapted for two actors, a musician, and interactive audience. He won two of six places in Radio New Zealand’s 2011 ‘New Shorts’ radio play competition with Drones and Forbidden Birds Embarrassed Bees, best script at the regional and national awards for the 2013 48hour film competition for Is Love Enough? and Best Play for Young People 2020 for The Ferocious Animals Petting Zoo. Dan was Associate Director of The Court Theatre from 2017 – 2020 and Artistic Director of The Court Jesters from 2014 – 2020.