![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Semi-precious_3.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cI guess portraiture is also tracking various states,\u201d says Hansen, \u201clike, what are the states that that person experiences, whether that\u2019s like joy or periods of contemplation? How do we show transformation in terms of cinematic time?\u201d<\/p>\n
Hansen\u2019s Semi-Precious<\/i>, screening at Antimatter, is especially close to Hansen\u2019s heart, with her having an intimate relationship with the film\u2019s subject at a point of transition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about my mother\u2026 We didn\u2019t know what it was for a long time, but she has dementia,\u201d says Hansen. \u201cAnd so it\u2019s sort of about the disintegration of language, and how we put language into practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hansen says that she works through collage as a medium.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that these are the items that I have, or the locations that I have at my disposal,\u201d she says, \u201cand they inform traces of this person and their passage through that space, or their imprint.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hansen\u2019s mother worked most of her professional life as a holistic practitioner, so to capture her habits and mannerisms Hansen used the environment she was most herself in.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout the film [we use] different crystals and supplements and objects around the house that are labelled with either the way that the object can help restore a sense of balance, like emotional or physical, or some of the labels are more abstract, and I don\u2019t know what they mean,\u201d she says. \u201cI think they\u2019re kind of her mnemonic system, really, to recall what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crystals themselves tie into another theme of the film. As Hansen worries how much time she has left with her mother, she begins to think about time as a more relational element.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s about rocks too, or the parallel between an aging person [and] the possibility, outside of human time, of geologic time, what it means to be human on this earth,\u201d she says. \u201cYou look at the moon, [which is] like the oldest rock form, every day, and it has these symbols, or meta historic value in relation to motherhood as the child of the Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the portrait was captured, much of the filming itself was playfully making space to remind her mother who she is and what she enjoys doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe process of making it was reminding her of what she does and what, you know, is important to her and what, not that it defines her, but it definitely has shaped her perception of the world,\u201d says Hansen. \u201cI think trying to find entry points to her perception that is quite unique and spiritual was important to try to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diving into her mother\u2019s world and perspectives was important for the portrait, but more than that it was about capturing the things about her mother that she\u2019ll cherish forever. The portrait taker is necessarily always in the portrait by virtue of the image itself being their point of view. In this portrait, the depth of the relationship, its history, and the tenderness shared in the process of change is felt strongly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout the film there\u2019s an established trust,\u201d says Hansen.<\/p>\n