Where From Here (2020) commissioned by the Finnish Cultural Institutes, explores virtuality and dis-connectivity in a time pandemic and breakdown in New York and Helsinki. 

Where From Here [Helsinki] – Preview Clip 2/6 from Samir Bhowmik on Vimeo.

A cinematic collaboration between artists Lenore Malen and Samir Bhowmik, it’s starting point is a phrase by Gianpiero Petriglieri on the virtual:  “We sense too little and can’t imagine enough.” 

Where from Here is a series of six intertwined short films, performances, monologues alternating between the backdrops of The Hudson Valley, New York City and the Helsinki archipelago. This back-and-forth remote correspondence between the artists over a period of two months works like a chain letter, constantly dependent on interpretation and improvisation, and thus it’s conclusions remain open ended. 

The Finnish episodes, featuring the performer/Singer Dallas Ulla and take place on the Helsinki Archipelago: Vuossari, Jätkäsaari and Kruunuvuori. 

The New York episodes featuring Actress Jessica Weinstein were filmed in an abandoned garden in Hudson NY, a nearby cemetery, and in Soho, New York.

Weinstein’s voice over narration includes fragments of 19th and 20th century texts including Marshall Mcluhan, a letter from Orwell to Huxley, a reading of Atwood and Poe, and Nikolai Fedorov’s manifesto on Russian Cosmism — in part the seeds of futuristic theory that inspired the Russian space program.

The film, Where From Here, will premiere in the late summer /early autumn.