top of page

'The Origin Of The Black Sape' (2020)

 A Short Mystify Science Fiction 

Directed, produced, designed by 

Philomène Amougou 

Film production assisted by Artists Oliver Skipwith & Camille Roded 

(Film on request only) 

The ‘Origin of the black Sape’(2020) is an allusion to the spirit of mother nature meeting the shimmering white deer-tronc of the forest, hovering between the above and below, bridging the earthly and heavenly, the suffering and the delight. Through the void of this darkest place, body danse ancestral celebration of Birth and Morning, death and resurrection.

Toxic Fungus' performed in animation mixes drawings, pictures, scans, sculptural props and involve inanimate objects being brought to "life" through stop-motion. This including Skelton, eggs, meat, bones, insect, mushroom, paint, prop's and natural element such as plantes, flour, soil, and branches. In this context, The framework of my investigation paid a particular attention to the animist philosophy afforded to object within Jan Švankmajer animation such as in Historia Naturae, Suita (1967). In another term, providing the attribution of a living soul to plant, natural phenomena and provide an inner life to objects letting them speak for themselves. As an extension of traditional still life painting in it's celebrative arrangment of materials that offer a warning of the ephemerality and brevety of human life, From plant, vegetal to man the synopsis of 'Toxic Fungus' explore the notion of decay, putrefaction and death, showing us that we are men, made from the same mortal matter. My intension toward the exploration of this multi-media (slow motion) technique was in one hand to introduce an alternative form of expression into my cinematic visual narrative and in another hand generate a symplified orchestration of meaning into a synthesize surrealist imagery in motion. This lead me to explore a poetic exploration of visual metaphor,allegoryandsymboliccompositionwithinthetheatralisationof mymiseenscene. Additionally Looking at the techincal aspect of 'Chiaroscuro' painting influence me to consider a strong use of constrast within the lighting of my scenography to achieve a sense of volume in modelling three dimensional objects. This is trought a pictural process made from ' image by image' that my subject of exploration surrounding the mutation of biolgical evolution and it's cyclic temporality could be experimented and represented playfully.

bottom of page