Cléa van der Grijn
Directing
Biography
Cléa Van der Grijn is an acclaimed international award-winning filmmaker and visual artist. Van der Grijn's paintings signify a process-orientated philosophy engaging the viewer with the concept of deconstruction. Demonstrating uncoordinated compositions deliberately revealing traces of use, whereby the nature of their materiality is brought to the foreground. Core concerns would be the shifts in perception due to trauma and loss and the potential spaces this opens up for new imaginings and the unravelling of memory. Cléa's film work is about creating a space between now + then. Exploring the dynamism of emptiness in a realm where time + space are altered. Past, present and future are considered in the gaps in between, blurring the boundaries between fact + fiction. Expressing emotions, ideas + concepts through literal + abstract imagery through the creative use of editing + sound design. Characters emphasise the fragile + emotional states of mankind, with prominence on dreamscapes + mindscapes. A oneiric land, cinematically beautiful + psychologically disturbing. A world that explores significant topics such as death, loss, love, isolation + mental fragility. Cléa's work ignores conventional narrative. The rationale becoming absurd. The lines of fact and fiction blurred. However, always at the core is the psychological unravelling of the human complexities and what it is to be human.
Known For
5 short films, from 5 directors and 4 different countries on the theme of the Alter-Ego. The "Alter Ego Film Project" is inspired by the spirit of Maya Deren and her way of making films. Between double personality, secret identity, doppelgänger and impossible love we have discovered several unconventional stories halfway between narrative and experimental.
Alter Ego Film Project
A dark adult fairy tale. A hallucinatory trip through the night. Exploring otherworldly scenes of kink, gender-swapping, loss, mental illness and loneliness.
The Disembodied Adventures of Alice
FLUX is about creating a space between now and then. Exploring the dynamism of emptiness in a realm where time and space are altered. Past, present and future are considered in the gaps in-between, blurring the boundaries between fact and fiction. Expressing emotions, ideas and concepts through literal and abstract imagery, through the creative use of editing and sound design incorporating Irish Sean Nós song. Characters emphasize the fragile and emotional states of mankind, with prominence on dreamscapes and mindscapes. An oneiric land cinematically beautiful and psychologically disturbing. A world that explores significant topics such as death, loss, love, isolation and mental-fragility.
Flux
Following a period of rehabilitation, Elisa returns to her ancestral stately home, Stradbally, where she is haunted by acute anxiety, mental illness, and struggles with addiction. Despite the tender ministrations of Mary, the devoted housekeeper, she finds herself unravelling as reality and imagination blur and the paintings in her…
Elisa in Wonderland
A woman stands at the edge of a pier. She wilfully jumps. Slowly she falls through water where time catches her breath. What are the memories between the transitional period of jumping and hitting the water when life becomes momentarily suspended. Alive not dead. What memories would be placed to validate existence. Memories to record. Read or perceived? Fact or fiction?