I am a writer-director working with motion, picture and sound.
My practice emerged from a deep curiosity to observe, explore and re-present the realities that occur in our public and private worlds.
Through my work, I interrogate dichotomous thought that typically dominates perception - that which is used to form and demarcate ideas such as; the beautiful from the grotesque, victim from perpetrator, normal from absurd, or reality from illusion - challenging the conventional packaging of things into neat, moralistic, and palatable experiences, designed to be comfortably consumed by the many.
I am compelled to tease the evident fragility of these boundaries and I revel in that delightfully discomforting grey terrain known as ambiguity, where such opposites actually blur and co-exist. It is here where mystery and uncertainty live, and where pathos, absurdity and nervous laughter can share the same breath in my work.
I passionately believe in holding a contemplative space for these tensions to exist and be experienced by us, as an authentic reflection into our very own fragile humanities and lives.
As my work in grounded in stark human observation, my gaze is silent and unflinching. With it, I seek to transcend conventional, sanitised and facile ways of seeing that audiences may be accustomed to.
The restraint allows emotionally charged scenes to breathe, revealing deeper vulnerabilities, complexities and contradictions on screen. These moments in turn may confront, unsettle or even disturb the viewer, even though provocation is not an end in itself.
Rather, it is informed by a profound concern to arouse both an emotional and cognitive response from the active spectator, and to provide critical open spaces to introspect, so that varieties of imagination, interpretation and discourse can continue to flourish long after the viewing experience has ended.
Sameer Majnoon