SAVA
SAVA is a river movie taking you on a 990 km journey through the Western Balkans. Once the longest in Yugoslavia she now forms borders while flowing endlessly between the young nation states Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia. With Sava as the protagonist (voiced by Mira Furlan - Lost & The Abandoned), this unconventional documentary merges contemporary and historical narratives with a guiding ethereal voice which explores a complex relationship between nature, borders and nationhood.
Crowdfunded & Doc Society SOS Film Fund.
Feature Film due to release in 2021.
Directed by Matthew Somerville // Camera by Matthew Somerville & Dan Mccrum // Edited by Goran Atanasov
MOTHMAN
"Imagine the ecstasy of the Moths"
Vasil Jurukov, from South London, roams the city streets, contemplating his theory about the relationship between moths, light and humanity.
As night falls, the moths start to fly. No one really knows why they are attracted to light. Thousands of years ago they glided through a natural landscape, using the moon and the stars for guidance, while we slept by the fire. Now, as we stare into the luminous abyss in our cities that never sleep, the moths begin to spin, seeming lost and confused.
This short film navigates the intricacies between the humble moth and humans, conjoined by an obsession for artificial light.
Directed, Filmed, Edited by Matthew Somerville // Voice and narration by Vasil Jurokov
FOTIA / FIRE
Fotia (Fire) is a film by Matthew Somerville and photographer Marco Kesseler. The work forms a visual exploration of tradition and cultural identity through an ancient narrative set on the Greek island of Chios. Two churches celebrate Easter by firing over 100,000 rockets at the opposing side both sides declare victory and the tradition continues....
Directed, Filmed & Edited by Matthew Somerville // Produced & Camera by Marco Kesseler
Published by Narrative.ly
ORTEGA & OMAR
This short documentary follows the narrative of the November 2016 Nicaraguan elections through the eyes of activist Omar Perez, who is working to encourage participation and transparency in the democratic process. What unfolds is a demonstration of Daniel Ortega's and the Sandinistas’ influence on democracy in Nicaragua, and Omar’s hope for the future.
Part of a long-term project about the country, Ortega and his controversial interoceanic canal.
Published by Global Citizen.
Director, Camera, Editor - Matthew Somerville
Assistant Produced by James Morrisson
LAW 840
Law 840 is a long-term project examining the socio-political and physical landscape in Nicaragua. The film travels the proposed route of Daniel Ortega's interoceanic canal, from the Pacific to the Caribbean ocean, speaking to inhabitants about its potential impact on the social and environmental fabric of the country.
Directed, Filmed and Edited by Matthew Somerville
LOS CAMINAS
This film is an excerpt from feature film Naranjos (Orange Trees), which uses the orange fields of the area of Castellon, Spain as scenarios for the stories that are told in a series of 21 short-films by 21 directors.
The movie shows the lives and stories of the people that inhabit and traverse the surroundings of the orange fields in Castellón.
El Caminas creates discourse between the women who work as prostitutes and the men who visit them. The male voices are recorded from a blog where they write about these experiences and the female voices are recorded in the orange fields.
A film by Matthew Somerville
Produced by Cortoformo
Sources
Sources is a project that explores the root of our food and the process it goes through to reach our plates. This was my first film. The film follows fishing in the North Atlantic and was shot and edited during a photography degree in 2011.
