75mins
An immersive ode to cinema, turn of the millennium dance culture, and The Situationist International.
Cinematographer is a new show by Taite Music Prize-winning songwriter and performer Anthonie Tonnon. Celebrating the inspiration of cinema to modern Aotearoa, Cinematographer combines all new music with visual DJing by Erica Sklenars, custom videography by Theo Taylor, archival footage, and a psychogeographic narrative.
The show explores two timelines – the film-obsessed Situationist International and their revolutionary experiments which nearly overthrew France in 1968, and the turn of the new millennium in Aotearoa, as our islands transformed into to what Guy Debord famously called ‘The Society of the Spectacle’ – a country of filmmakers and film locations, DJs, celebrity culture, and the greatest marketing minds in the anglophone world.
Tonnon draws a link between these seemingly distant stories, swapping his guitar for the vocoder, and converting his two Synthstrom Deluges into honorary turntables, to create a cinematic live documentary with a sonic palette inspired by turn-of-the-millennium dance culture.
“Tonnon’s gift is the astute juxtaposition of the personal and the political, where social issues revolve around people up against family, lovers, corporate entities or bureaucracy. But at heart, love is the pivot.” The Listener
Supported By: COMMARC
