Return to: ATA Film & Video Festival 2008: Program 1

Ants (Ants Ants Ants)

This is the story of one man’s struggle: with ants.

Questions with Clare Samuel

Elizabeth Wing: About how many plastic ants were used in the creation of this film? Any good stories about "directing" them?

Clare Samuel: 144 ants starred in the film, and there were some real prima donnas who gave Candice a hard time with the cinematography –insisting that she light them so as to display their ‘most realistic side’. There were also many extensive discussions on how we were presenting this horrifying situation of human/insect co-dependency –they feared that they were being presented as the pests. Some compromises were made, but viewers can decide for themselves how biased the work is.

EW: Ants are an ever-present part of life during the winter here in San Francisco. Are they a major domestic presence in Toronto?

CS: It is strange that they arise in the winter in San Francisco, because in Toronto they tend to live it up in the summer. So I’m thinking maybe they all migrate down to you guys when it gets too cold here….

EW: This film is humorously existentialist. Personal experience, literary influence (a la Gregor Samsa), or a bit of both?

CS: The film was inspired by personal experience and packaging influence. I had just had a serious ant infestation in my bathroom, and so my neighbour bought me some joke plastic ants. The picture on the packet sparked the idea, and I think you’ll agree this image sums up all the existential angst of the human condition and the nature/culture divide.

Metamorphosis actually wasn’t a conscious reference, although there certainly is a relationship to it… I can only assume Kafka travelled into the future and stole the idea. But I think the key difference is between becoming a life-form so alien to us, vs realising that in fact you have always been and always will be in an intimate and reciprocal relationship with an indifferent and unknowable Other. Difficult times either way.

Clare Samuel is a Northern Irish visual artist and filmmaker, living and working in Montreal.

Candice Purwin is an English filmmaker now living in Scotland. This film is the result of a collaboration between them in Toronto in 2007.

Last updated 09/11/2008.