EXPERIMENTAL FILM: Shelley Barry on Experimental Cinema & Mobile Filmmaking

Shelley Barry is an experimental filmmaker based in Johannesburg. In this video she discusses her inspiring career in experimental cinema. Shelley is a prolific filmmaker and a major figure in South African experimental cinema. Her latest work includes "HERE", a virtual reality film, selected for the Berlinale 2020 and "A camera on my Lap", which won the Zonta prize for a female filmmaker in international competition at the International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen in Germany in May 2022. Shelley is currently based at The University of Johannesburg where she teaches film. She is in the process of completing her Creative PhD in film at The University of the Witwatersrand and has two fiction feature scripts in development. ------------------------------------------- Shelley has generously shared links to her early work, which shed invaluable insight into her oeuvre and South African experimental cinema: 2004: Whole A Trinity of Being (Experimental documentary) TRT:14:38 https://vimeo.com/373557047/09fb670e6b (Please note that this film contains 3 shorts and the second short starts in silence) A docu-poem about reclaiming life after trauma. 2005: Where are my Heels? (Experimental documentary) TRT: 06:26 https://vimeo.com/432803814/2c67334ded A two year old girl in Puerto Rico takes over a party. 2006: Cry Like the Loons (Experimental documentary) TRT: 03:28 https://vimeo.com/418015614/b56c67ae7b A car accident transforms a holiday experience. 2006: Str/oll (Experimental documentary) TRT:02:20 https://vimeo.com/418023641/774c781a9e A woman in a wheelchair explores the streets of Manhattan. 2006: Umbilical Cord (Video poetry/Experimental) https://vimeo.com/433926110/2fb1eef4b5 A revisioning of Frida Kahlo’s painting “What the water gave me” 2018: Re:incarnation (Video poetry/Experimental) TRT 01:36 https://vimeo.com/372871814/1a1351526c A woman longs for her lover she has spent lifetimes with. 2018: Out of Reach (Video poetry/Experimental) TRT1:06 https://vimeo.com/372871683/7788dd90e6 The city is out of reach for people with disabilities. 2018: Ink/Visible (Video poetry/Experimental) TRT: 1:07 https://vimeo.com/372871336/c18ca12bf6 A writer contemplates how writing counters invisibility. 2019: Corridor Cruising (Video poetry/Experimental) TRT: 01:42 https://vimeo.com/451421050/4c5fc55689 A rolling celebration of wheels! 2019: Ocean (Video poetry/Experimental) TRT: 01:08 https://vimeo.com/373556133/fb737b000d A woman reflects on Love and Ocean. 2019: Die Kat en die Voel/ The Cat and the Bird (Animation in collaboration with Stacey Stent) TRT: 02:48 https://vimeo.com/378732224/0d3f916d09 A cat-in-the-closet falls in love with a Queer bird. 2019: I, scream (Experimental archive) https://vimeo.com/435728311/651c9cce48 A moment of Pride and War.