FOLLOWING BORROMINI short film 2007

Following Borromini is a portrait of two people, a church and a city. A young non-Italian girl living alone in modern Rome finds herself inhabiting a lift in an old Palazzo. She has the potential to move in all directions but remains constricted. She ventures out, walking along a single path through the city streets, recognised by no one. The Roman architecture is her guide, she moves in the city fixated by the beauty of the constructions of the past. The girls' disappearance, back to 1640, is followed by her encounter with the church San Carlino and with the architect Francesco Borromini. A moving collage is created showing the interaction between the two characters and the baroque architecture, through which a portrait of all three begins to unravel...

The film uses the characteristics of the medium collage: Combining drawing, model sets, still and moving image and sound within the frame.  It combines automatic and scripted dialogue, in Italian and English with subtitles in both languages, and spoken and danced phrases are juxtaposed together to create an experimental montage. 

"I was looking to remap the city, encompassing my experience as a foreign settler and the rich and layered history that reflects itself in the architecture.  Francesco Borromini, his life and work, became central to my journeys through the city and I began building a narrative through research, automatic writing and drawing, which manifested themselves into a visual story board, script and model sets." alys

The film is shot on location in Rome and in the church San Carlino alle Quartro Fontaine.  Alys worked with a small crew of filmmakers, performers and writers in Rome.  She directed, produced, co-choreographer and co-wrote the film as well as working as production designer.