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synopsis Modern and ancient rituals collide in this macabre depiction of a high school formal. director Andrew Kavanagh is a Melbourne based writer director and a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts. Andrew experiments with unusual formal devices to offer his audience fresh perspectives on circumstances they may already be familiar with. In his latest films he frees his stories from the constraints of historical context to create an experience where the old collides seamlessly with the contemporary. Website Filmography filmmaker's note AT THE FORMAL compares the modern ritual of a high school formal with the ancient rituals of historic civilizations, asking the question: beneath the veil of civil ideals, have we really changed that much? I find the connection between short films and poems useful in my filmmaking and this particular film was developed from a poem I wrote one night after witnessing the aftermath of a high school formal. At first it was kind of magical. The girls and boys were resplendent in their eveningwear. They held hands and seemed to be almost dancing down the footpath, but as the procession went on, things became more sinister. The faces became sweaty and grotesque, people were urinating in the gutter, fights broke out, I almost stepped on a young man vomiting in a hedge and and the air was sickly sweet with the smell of premixed drinks. To me these teenagers, dressed so elegantly and behaving so bestially, symbolized a conflict, present within us all... and so I made a film about it. the film is something to be experienced rather than immediately understood and the soundtrack speaks more of the jungle than a Formal event - which is where I thought I had found myself on the night I was privileged enough to stumble through this ritual, as a sober intruder. related links
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