JOY DIVISION • SHADOWPLAY / LA DANSE DES OMBRES

August 2019

Reimagined video for Shadowplay by Joy Division

A film by Vincent Moon

Dancer: Rana Gorgani
Live music: Paul "Mondkopf" Régimbeau
1st assistant: Julien Colardelle
Camera & Editor: Vincent Moon
Photography: Robin Lachenal
Sound: Louis Jos & Juliette
Coordination for participants: Anna Olekhnovych
Production Petites Planètes: Priscilla Telmon
Produced by Petites Planètes for Warner Music
Part of the 'Unknown Pleasures: Reimagined' series to celebrate the album's 40th anniversary.
Series Creator and Executive Producer (UK): Warren Jackson
Executive Producer (USA): Orian Williams

FILM • https://vimeo.com/365264930

petitesplanetes ▃ 315

★
a few months ago, New Order's manager got in touch, asking if i was interested in creating a "new" music video for Shadowplay, one of Joy Division's iconic songs, for the 40th birthday of their first album Unknown Pleasures.
As it turned out, this summer being also my own 40th birthday, and as the past years i started to question our modern transcendental actions, i found it a good reason to experiment something around our modern rituals by avoiding as much as possible any nostalgic relationship with the end of the 70s northern England feeling (something i never felt related to, sorry for the lovers of this area of the world), but pushing it forward into a new dimension to express our relationship with the collective experience, the idea of a "ritual" re-invented today, and of course still working with the aesthetics and the energy of Joy Division.
I then re-opened a black/white chapter in my work - that b/w which first pushed me into cinema thru Peter Tscherkassky's magnum opus Outer Space /// or how do we merge into each others...
Working with Julien Oska Colardelle on this, we bumped into an italian bootleg from the early 90s named itself 'Shadowplay' which featured on its cover... a sufi derviche ;)
Looking for a central character, synchronicities thru some close friends made us get in touch with the extraordinary Rana Gorgani, a female sufi dancer and choreographer based in Paris.
Pulling that string, we wondered how we could mix it with the way our generation has been partying for some years now - touching into the illegality of a free party (we shot the video without any authorization one night in the Bois de Vincennes), creating our own night of music at the same time (inviting Mondkopf to create a unique set inspired by Joy Division but based on techno music slowly evolving towards ambient), getting in mind some well thought words by A Tribe Called Red on our collective urban experience and its despair, and mixing it with a long and sublime workshop Rana gave during the afternoon to the 40+ people/dancers.
Amongst the (little) informations displayed, for someone like me who dislike any preconceived ideas and believe in improvisation at all time, i wrote a few lines, saying:
"Quelle est l'actualité de la rage urbaine de Joy Division aujourd'hui? Comment cette énergie se transforme au contact de nos corps contemporains? Entre le corps disparu d'Ian Curtis et les corps retrouvés de la transe d'aujourd'hui, une plongée dans nos rituels anciens et futurs."
It was a magical night. An incredible organization made with very little, a complete devotion from all the dancers around the powerful leader that is Rana, and following the magical beats of Mondkopf. Another version, a making off of that night will also appear at some point. It will be a very different story, while staying the same.