Well, day five and the fun just begins. This week we explored the evolutions of life, and the realizations that the older we become the less imaginative our explorations appear. Personally, I’m aware of the trend that has come before me, for so many years. I do think that a person can go to a job they don’t like, while maintaining their creative and childlike soul. Its not easy, and its a struggle everyday for me, but within that struggle there’s something wonderful about life. The human spirit can endure the realities of responsibility without losing the fun behind the profundity of newness. I think we all can do better, I believe Kenzie Cooke’s work suggests to us that its not inevitable but let us not forget how things used to be, how we once were as children, laughing, and running through the open fields. This week has been a reminder for me to continue to be consistant in doing the things I love to do, the dreams I believe in, and the individual path I choose to walk. I told Kenzie in an email this week “I’ll let you know more about the latter stages of life, if you remind me about the early ones.” I implore the rest of you to do the same. Thank you Kenzie Cooke!!

Twilight Frequencies: Lets lighten up the mood a bit. What’s your favorite color?

Kenzie Cooke: I wouldn’t say that I have a favorite color. Depends on my mood and the combination, I love mixtures.

Twilight Frequencies: If you could lay your head on one thing what would that be?

Kenzie Cooke:Well I have imagined what it would feel like to be completely relaxed and limp but feel nothing solid beneath me…sleeping on air.

Twilight Frequencies: Water or Land?

Kenzie Cooke: I prefer to stand on land and swim in water.

Twilight Frequencies: Vocals or Instrumentals?

Kenzie Cooke: Instrumentals definitely.

Twilight Frequencies: What is “Sunder?”

Kenzie Cooke: Sunder literally is “to break apart”, “to sever” or “a division”.  So sunder represents loss.  A loss of perspective, a separation from yourself, from ones childhood or from ones idea of freedom or happiness. Whatever the viewer feels they’ve misplaced.

Here we are, its day four with the talented Ms. Cooke. This week we have learned a great deal about life, and how people perceive the possibilities of their own personal destinations. Tomorrow will be a fun closing, where I ask some simple questions, and she gives good answers. Today will be one question, closing this particular conversation, for now. It has been a pleasure reliving some of my own thoughts from the old days. Its not every day an 18 yr old takes questions about life from someone who is 29. But this piece did that, and age only suggests one thing in this interview. We all have a desitny, we all choose the path, you can be 18, you can be 29, hell you can be 89. What you do today, will transition into what you do tomorrow. We all have to choose based on the relative nature of our own individual lives. I choose to write this piece, Kenzie chooses to suggest to the world a different pace, and a recognition that getting older doesn’t mean you have to stop living. I admire this young artist for using her abilities for something as serious and palpable as life, and its seemingly popular course of giving up the dream – we all have dreams, here’s to living them.

Twilight Frequencies: I think we all notice how much our society has evolved. Sunder does a really good job translating the ecology within that evolution. Most notably how much more freedom we all have as our younger selves, and how the atmosphere within our individual cycles dictates the reality. Why do you think life becomes that way? Why is growing up represented in Sunder by the unfortunate office space, as opposed to the freedom of running through a field, or exploring the curiosities of adolescents?

Kenzie Cooke: I wouldn’t really know what exactly could steer a life in that direction, maybe just at a certain point feeling a sense of responsibility or obligation, maybe with new knowledge or realizations on different levels of consciousness.  I wouldn’t even say that  ‘growing up’ is the source of this kind of separation, something deeper rooted than that.

To Be Continued….

Twilight Frequencies: The music is so fitting for the different periods of life. Give us an idea how you chose the soundtrack. Who are the Artists?

Kenzie Cooke with her band Hear Hums. Photography by Ralph Giunta

Kenzie Cooke: Some of the songs I knew I wanted to use as soon as I had a good visualization of the film in my head.  I immediately knew “Sis Around the Sandmil” by Avey Tare and Kria Brekkan would be perfect for the Childhood sequence because of its magical, curious mood.  It reminds me of just waking up, of yawning and opening your eyes and seeing so much that you didn’t see before. We used Avey Tare and Kria Brekkan a few times, Animal Collective as well.  For the songs we weren’t already sure of, we basically went through my iTunes and listened for the right mood.

Twilight Frequencies: Adulthood seems to evoke such a bittersweet time in “Sunder,” do you think being at the latter stages of life is bittersweet? If so, why?

Kenzie Cooke: I’m sure that it is.  I’m definitely still in the earlier stages being 18 and Marcos 17, so our interpretation of adulthood was definitely a speculated perspective.  I certainly don’t believe that the latter stages of life have to be the way adulthood was represented in Sunder.  In fact, I hope that they are not.  The ideas portrayed in Sunder represent, for me, one possible reality that  many people fall into. Again this is just based on an accumulated general perception, that may actually represent a subconscious fear of my own. Becoming disconnected with a childlike perspective, loosing a sense of wonder or passion.  Feeling as if you’re stuck or fallen into a way of life you never pictured for yourself.  I’ve felt this actualized in other people i’ve encountered too many times to not address the possibility.

Twilight Frequencies: It’s funny to think back to when I was a child, and a teenager. Your imagery couldn’t be more cogent in that regard. How has your past influenced the sensory you put forth in Sunder? Is the premise autobiographical?

Kenzie Cooke:We wanted the different stages of life to be reminiscent of as many possible experiences as we could in order to really make it powerful for the greatest amount of viewers, so we tried to be vague enough to encompass as many emotions as possible.  Of course though, we were biased in what we chose to shoot and on some level the sensory is a reflection of myself as well as Marcos’s combined pasts. We talked about the different experiences of adolescence  and childhood and tried to take events vague enough to be relevant to a good amount of people, like the first interactions with love and exploration of the body.  It became autobiographical through the emotions we attached to the experiences with the use of color, timing, texture, etc.  So the premise is in a sense autobiographical as well, but I’d hope that it feels that way for many people.

Twilight Frequencies: Recently I have been reading into religion, most notably Natural vs Supernatural. Does Sunder’s origins come from a religious Lens?

Kenzie Cooke: No, it wasn’t really influenced by religion.

To Be Continued…..

Yesterday we watched the exceptional short film by Kenzie Cooke called “Sunder.” Reading over Ms. Cooke’s answers this morning its not hard to formulate the opinion that this young Artist is a thinker, and maybe even a wise soul. She answers with confidence and an ease that typically comes through from an individual with a little more experience in life. She is a young artist at the age of 18, and her material would suggest she’s lived once before, or as she suggests in her answers, has seen “it” before, within the progression of other people. “It” being life, and its cycles, and the reality that we all can choose our destinies. Life doesn’t have to come with a cubicle, or the rigors of a nine to five – sadly they do all too often. Kenzie knows this, and is doing all she can to stop it with a film like “Sunder.”

Twilight Frequencies: This piece has a great deal of self-reflection and a certain absoluteness that’s both profoundly enlightened and predictably sad.  When you were going through its creation what were your intentions, your thoughts, and your mood revealing to you?

Kenzie Cooke: At first I was positive that I wanted to make this film because I was discovering a trend of diminished passion, of regret and conceding, in the adult world.  I was hoping that with this film I could help reawaken some sort of connection within people to their past and their dreams, a reflection, or maybe even lead someone to realize they’ve suffered a loss.  But at some point I became aware that I also was attempting to distance myself from a fear I have of suffering such a loss.  Through making this film and putting what energy and thought I did into it, hopefully I’ve saved myself from going down such a path.

Twilight Frequencies: Who assisted in this project and in what ways did they contribute? Idea, filming, score, etc?

Kenzie Cooke: The project was ultimately a collaborative effort, mostly between myself, and Marcos Gasc.  I’d like to think Marcos and I were co-everything.  The idea initially came about in a round circle discussion type hang out between Marcos, our friend Mauricio, and myself.  The development from that point came mostly from Marcos and I.  I wrote the outline, or “script” for lack of a better word.  Marcos and I both shot the footage.  I edited, Marcos helped.  We talked  through  every decision together and I think the cooperation paid off.

Twilight Frequencies: What was the time frame for this piece? Did it come to you quickly, or was it a fragmented process, meaning did you allow time to suggest an improvisational quality?

Kenzie Cooke: We planned on entering a film into a small competition held every year at our high school, so there was a time element, however once we solidified the idea of Sunder, the time and competition weren’t our concern anymore. We really wanted to focus on making this piece as best a representation of our concept as possible.  Once we had a firm grasp on what we wanted to do, the rest came about pretty easily.  I can’t really speak for Marcos, but  I know that most of my best work has come out of experimenting and letting one thing lead to another or create a space for a new element, mostly in editing or cinematography.  I believe Sunder followed a more traditional time line than any thing else I’ve done. But by no means was it lacking any improvisational qualities.

To Be Continued…..

This week we’ll be talking with Kenzie Cooke about her short film “Sunder.” Today we’ll look at the film and tomorrow begins the first set of questions. I found Sunder to be such a wondrous piece of work. It made me think about my life, and its evolutions amongst all the things we live with as people. It appears this film sets off in parts, showing us what we have known before, or what we will know in the future. Life appears to be fun, but if you don’t think twice, Sunder can easily make you think of ways to stop the inevitable progression of domestication and age.