karaoke 99-04, best bits vol 1

This film and artefact explores themes of of loneliness, reserve, surveillance and isolation as seen through the prism of a triple narrative and succinctly embeds a social commentary on 'British Reserve', a cultural phenomena in which British people cannot or choose not to express themselves and therefore the slippage between private identification and public expression is explored.

This idea is inspired by the recent lockdown situation and is a refection of a time where we are geographically near one another but trapped within our own emotional / physical worlds. The singer, deals with her pain through performance of certain karaoke songs that she can relate to. Much of the narrative is left only hinted as the whole story is told purely through the song choice, lyrics and performance.

Each song captures a different nuance of loneliness and the singer's personal journey into more troubled emotional territory before the more celebratory and defiant finale. The camera man deals with his own isolation by documenting her from a far for his own personal obsession / enjoyment furthermore the story is presented from his point of view as the maker and secret owner of the film which he keeps in his DVD collection. The subjects respond to their loneliness in distinct but generic ways; confession through disguised declaration and the obsessive, semi-secretive gaze of the cameraman.