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Cathy Cook

Acclaimed filmmaker Cathy Cook breaks new cinematic territory by devising a new visual language that explores the psychological and emotional effects of physical confinement in her latest film, Beyond Voluntary Control. Stimulating the senses through haunting and poetic images, the film imaginatively conveys the obsessions, phobias and illnesses constricting personal freedom. While lyrically meditating on the limits of the body, Cook incorporates the evocative movements of modern dancer, David Figueroa, and blends a mesmerizing soundtrack set to the poems by Emily Dickinson and Sharon Olds.

Through Figueroa's gestures and dance, along with a moving interview of Cook's own mother suffering from Parkinson's, the film succeeds in humanizing and reconciling the effects of physical metamorphosis and stasis. Through artistry and visual astuteness, Beyond Voluntary Control innovatively investigates the limits of human physicality and movement. Screened at numerous festivals, including: Ann Arbor Film Festival, Black Maria Film & Video Festival, Madcat Women's International Film Festival, Telluride Experimental Film & Video Festival, Belo Horizonte International Short Film Festival, Women's Film Festival, New Mexico.

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"Cathy Cook." Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2011. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/cathy-cook.

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Summary

Acclaimed filmmaker Cathy Cook produced the film Beyond Voluntary Control, which devises a visual language to explore the psychological and emotional effects of physical confinement; the film uses haunting and poetic imagery and a soundtrack set to poems by Emily Dickinson and Sharon Olds. It incorporates modern dancer David Figueroa's movements and a filmed interview of Cook's mother, who suffers from Parkinson's, to address obsessions, phobias and illnesses that constrict personal freedom. The film screened at numerous festivals, including Ann Arbor Film Festival, Black Maria Film & Video Festival, Madcat Women's International Film Festival, Telluride Experimental Film & Video Festival and Belo Horizonte International Short Film Festival.

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Last modified 17 June 2011

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