We Entered Through the Chimeline

Overview

"We Entered Through the Chimeline" explores folklore, using its strangeness to construct fictions and speculative futures that offer points of resistance to our present. The film focuses upon Ruth L. Tongue who was a folklorist and a self-proclaimed ‘chime child’. In her position as a chime child Ruth believed that she had the magical ability to collect songs that no one else could, leading many folklorists to read her work as fictional. The film draws from these unreliable narratives and amplifies their affective qualities to create new and wonky fictions that unfold throughout the film. The work is filmed on 16mm film and utilises film’s alchemical qualities. Light flares become moments of transformation that support the magical acts within the narrative.