Lagareh
by Alberta Whittle
‘Lagareh’ – which translates from the Mandinka language as ‘The Last Born’ – is a work anchored around theories of abolition, rebellion, ancestral knowledge and love. Shot in Scotland, England, Barbados, Sierra Leone and Italy, the film melds a collection of scenes that give focus to the strength of contemporary Black womxn, whose individual acts of resistance are bound together through the artist’s conceptual storytelling. The artist situates Black love in proximity with historical sites of trauma, re-inscribed with rage, hope and exhaustion. Gestures, rituals and moments of intimacy are poignantly underpinned by a deep reflection on grief, loss and mourning, a resolute reminder of the trauma inflicted upon the Black body and of white privilege and power.
Lagareh is a film made by Alberta Whittle that brings together work with several of her collaborating filmmakers, performers, musicians and the like. I was brought on board to look after many aspects of post-production and installation of the work.
At the beginning of the editing process, I assisted the artist to make sure everything ran smoothly in working with a broad variety of source material and being able to be very mobile with the editing project by helping create an efficient workflow. This also involved interfacing with the sound mixer Richy Carey, making sure the technical challenges of handing over the edit for mixing in his audio software were met. I was also brought on to colour grade the film, clean up footage and bring consistency to the visual storytelling, allowing the artist to leverage colour and create new journeys, atmospheres and a sensuality that the raw material was slightly lacking, as well as removing unwanted visual distractions from some of the rougher source material.
It was a really exciting challenge that involved managing over 36 hours of source footage from a wide range of cameras and formats (some I hadn’t even heard of before), and resolving a unique set of challenges like bringing together footage very quickly filmed on a phone or old camcorder and very high-quality footage filmed on a cinema camera and making them consistent. Sometimes it is important to retain the textural quality of some source material, but when this isn’t desired it’s good to have the option of being able to stabilise, remove dusty sensor smudges, upscale, introduce natural motion blur, replace skies in overexposed shots and reduce excessive noise.
Lagareh Trailer
For the colour, there were a few different stages to the process. The first was spotting the film with the artist – going through the picture-locked edit and considering what to do with each sequence or individual shots, identifying which shots should be left alone or feel separate or distinctive. Then the tidying up work was done, and the shots of all the sequences were brought together to be consistent and balanced. After this, colour can be introduced.
I worked with Alberta to create a distinctive atmosphere for each of the film’s different “zones”. For Solariss with the snake, we talked about sensuality, and strange weather like the very warm light that comes after a storm, which leant me into warmer tones and pinks, bringing out Solariss’ rich skin tones. For Divine at Oswald’s Temple in Ayr Alberta wanted it to look “very Scottish”, so we went into more greens, teals and blues to cool off the image a bit. For “the reckoning” we kept things really grey, with slightly desaturated grasses and the red clothes very deep, almost murky, and I added a lot of extra drama to the clouds to create a feeling of an intense storm. For the end scene with Kumba Kuyateh, we wanted this to look golden – I used a halation effect (the effect of high contrast light “spilling” on the surface of film, creating a warm glow), warm tones and a slight mist filter effect to add a bit more atmosphere to the image.
Overall, the process normally shouldn’t be noticeable but feel natural and elevate the work in some way. It was about bringing the shots of the sequences together and leveraging colour to elevate the different narrative threads of the work.
With the film complete, the next stage of the project for me was installing the film for the Venice Biennale exhibition, and later in Edinburgh for National Galleries of Scotland, and making the DCP for the film’s cinema screenings and tour.
I worked closely with Louise Briggs, the production manager and curator for Scotland + Venice, to a create a plan for installing the film in Venice, helping to select screen fabric and drawing out a plan for back-projecting onto the screen sculpture.
I performed a calibration to make the projected image in Venice and Edinburgh consistent with how the film looks on our grading monitor and in cinemas, and programmed the presentation of the films in both spaces to run to the advertised start times, complete with a countdown timer.
Installation view of Lagareh as part of the exhibition deep dive (pause) uncoiling memory at Scotland+Venice gallery, Venice Biennale 2022. Photo © Cristiano Corte
The film was screened as part of Alberta Whittle’s Venice Biennale show in 2022, has toured Scotland screening in Glasgow Film Theatre, Eden Court Inverness, the University of Aberdeen, Skye Broadford Village Hall and Ayr Town Hall between September 2022 and March 2023, and is currently showing at National Gallery Modern One in Edinburgh as part of her new exhibition Create Dangerously until January 2024.
Lagareh was commissioned for the collateral event Alberta Whittle – deep dive (pause) uncoiling memory on the occasion of the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia by the Scotland + Venice partnership with funding and support from the National Lottery through Creative Scotland. Additional funding by The Elephant Trust. Lagareh was co-commissioned by Forma with funding from Arts Council England.
