Video premiere: Film School, ‘Take What You Need’

0
Film School (Photo by Steve Simko)

Old computer technology meets modern dance in the fascinating video for the Film School song “Take What You Need.”

The video is the work of Colorado filmmaker Laura Conway, and it’s set in Boulder’s Media Archaeology Lab, a hands-on museum stocked with still-working computers from the days of yore. Dancer-choreographer Constance Harris stars as a computer tech who’s a floppy disk away from the song’s mantra: “Be what you wanna be.”

“Place is crucial for me and I often start with a location as the first character,” Conway explains. “In this case, it was the Media Archeology Lab and their workshop of beautiful (and functioning!) machines. Once I listened to the song, which is all about living your truth, a story started emerging about a computer tech encountering a computer virus that red-pills her into the realization that she is also a dancer.

“I have been looking for a project to collaborate on with choreographer and mover Constance Harris because her choreography is so dynamic, and when she performs I am completely transfixed. As we developed the look and ideas, Constance, my costume designer Andrea Ballas and I talked about references from Grace Jones and Bruce Conner, to ‘Black Box’ and Spike Lee’s ‘Girl 6.’ The video also nods to the buried history of women, especially Black women, in the development of early computer programming, which has been erased by the Silicon nightmare/regime we currently live under.”

Says Film School frontman Greg Bertens: “To me this video not only celebrates women and diversity in early computer programming, but also the underrepresented diversity and POC in our music genre, past and present.”

The song, which features Noël Brydebell guesting on vocals, appears on Film School’s sixth album, “We Weren’t Here,” released last fall.

||| Watch: the video for “Take What You Need”

||| Previously: “Said Your Name”(video), “Said Your Name,” “Superperfection” / “Isla,” Quarantunes, “Is This a Hotel?,” “Influencer,” “Crushin,”Bye Bye Bird,” “City Lights,” “Fission”