The making of Rush Hour
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Approaching Freetown via an old Ukrainian helicopter Paul and David saw the sprawling bustle of the city - the raw materials for Rush Hour - laid before them.
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Staged and recorded over two weeks in December 2006, Rush Hour would not have been possible without the support and partnership of the Freetong players - Sierra Leone's premier theatre company. For more than twenty years, the Freetong Players have staged performances, taught courses and led workshops in African studies, theatre, story telling and oral tradition.
Having navigated Sierra Leonean bureaucracy, Howard and Matthews were in a position to stage the work. They closed down a section of Freetown’s busiest thoroughfare, Siaka Stevens Street, and filmed the cast, assembled from members of the public, as motionless figures, except for their slight movements: blinking, breathing, swallowing and muscle twitching.
It is difficult to imagine how to organise a project of this scale, how does one effectively communicate the needs and aims of the piece to a cast of over 150 people? – especially when many of the cast are there not to participate in the experience of making art but to be paid.
Back in London, the real-time film had to be mixed and edited with still photographic images and computer animation. The result conceals the surface speed and velocity of street life in Freetown and reveals the subjectivity of the effects on individuals. The animated process removes elements from the “real” compositions and reveals elements that are not present in the original footage, as well as literally re-shaping the portraits of the subjects.
The accompanying audio is constructed from soundscapes recorded in Freetown and Freetown a scripted narrative recorded by the Freetong Players. The audio imitates a local radio phone-in (complete with music, jingles and “commercials”).
Local creolized English, or 'krio' is juxtaposed with English dialect and accent creating slippages in the literal meaning of phrases. What appears to be everyday chat reveals a cultural and colonial legacy, which centres on the implications and relevance of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade to Sierra Leone in 2007.
Recorded in the national TV studios the soundtrack is a useful example of the need to adapt to local ways of operating. The power supply to the studio was cut for two days due a faulty generator, compromising the timing of the whole production.
The soundtrack examines Sierra Leone’s freedom of speech and high levels of popular discourse. The imagery of Sierra Leone and Africa more generally, within Western-financed media is often a dichotomy of silence and violence.
Highlighting the popularity of talk radio in Sierra Leone, a vital and thriving communication medium in the country, demonstrates that these silent individuals have voices and wide-ranging opinions – which can be heard if time is given to hear them.
As a medium radio requires relatively little in the way of resources and infrastructure; this has enabled communication routes to open up right across the country. This widespread citizen ownership and operation of media presents a marked difference to the situation in Britain.
The making of Rush Hour was made possible by the kind support of the Arts Council England, the British Council in Sierra Leone and PVA Media
The artists
David Matthews
David Matthews is a London-born writer and journalist. The idea of producing an artistic work in and about Sierra Leone came to him while carrying out investigative research in Freetown at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the judicial body which is currently trying "those who bear the greatest responsibility" for war crimes committed during the country's conflict.
He is the author of two bestselling books, Looking for a Fight and Man Buys Dog, which chronicle his personal experiences of professional boxing and greyhound racing, respectively. He has written extensively for the British press and has produced and presented both radio and television documentaries for the BBC.
Paul Howard
Paul Howard is a visual artist who has exhibited work in a range of media at major galleries in North America, Southern Africa, Australia and Asia, as well as in his native UK, He has received a number of awards and prizes for his work. Paul’s work deals with notions of vernacular cosmopolitanism.
He has undertaken residencies at Tate Modern, The National Gallery, Camden Arts Centre and PVA MediaLab. He also works part-time as a Curator at Tate Modern and has lectured extensively at conferences and in academia. His papers have also been published and translated in to Chinese.