Between August 2024 and March 2025, Em Boreen (Elbow Kiss) and I shot a series of videos around Jordan River, Sooke and Victoria (in the Territories of the Pacheedaht, T’Sou-ke, Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations). With Em’s initial idea of wearing an old thrift store wedding dress and my fixation on the stunning landscapes around where I live, we developed a visual story of metamorphosis inspired by the lyrical energy of Em’s first single, Curtain Calls. I wanted to incorporate tarot symbolism, the five elements, tropes of good & evil, and some David Lynch inspired stylistic choices to ground the story inside the ethereal grief of the song. Although I used special effects for some scenes, the final shot is not done with special effects or edited in any way other than basic coloration- yes we hiked 5km to that spot and Em had to change into dry clothes for the hike back to the car. Written, directed, shot, edited by Natasha Lavdovsky. Sean Brennan helped with some of the lighting, and I consulted with Nick Patterson on some post-production special effects.
Shot in the summer of 2019 in Haida Gwaii, I had the goal of standing in place while the tide came in to cover my body. This was around the time when forest fire smoke was beginning to be an annual occurrence. I had a gas mask that I wanted to use to reference the worsening conditions in our atmosphere, so I brought it into the ocean with me and performed a series of actions while a friend press record on my video camera (or I recorded myself). These performance videos ended up having the particular shimmery otherworldly quality that Ora Cogan was looking for to accompany her single “Sleeping”, so I edited it all into this music video. Released in 2020, the piece took on new symbolic meaning in the context of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
