Corpus and the Wandering Review

September 27, 2024 at 3:21pm
By Jason Stettner

This is a short film that explores a person, movement and the human body but presents that in a truly unique way. The concept and style behind this brief look at a person and their body is rather distinct. The technique here is being described as a “videomosaic” by its creator Jo Roy. It was shot on an iPhone during covid times and uses approximately 50,000 iPhone video file layers.

It’s layers upon layers of video frames compiled in a way that makes completely refresh, sometimes perhaps unsettling but ultimately provocative scenes. It’s really interesting to watch and be invited into a surreal experience prior to reading but you’re likely checking this prior to viewing the short film I suppose.

It’s neat to see the experience alongside the great influencing music and then to learn about the technique behind it. I was rather dazzled by the array and setting of the scenes where it was this dance along a body alongside what felt like the world beyond. It’s really trippy.

So with a tagline being “one dancer, one body, one phone” you can really see that visually throughout. The compiled image creates a backdrop unlike anything I’ve seen in a film before. You see all these little screens fluttering with things going on but it still creates a cohesive viewing experience where nothing feels out of place.

The amount of time it must have taken to properly get this all going must have been nothing short of straight up daunting. It’s very stylized yet just works and provides a whole journey to go on. It was really neat to see and very pleasing to the eyes while still being creepy to some degree which I do believe was the desired effect.

The Conclusion

Corpus and the Wandering is a surreal experience, a videomosaic which feels completely unique to this short film and something that must be visually seen to fully understand. It’s really rather complex in its presentation yet so appealing to the eyes with so much going on at once.

I’m truly impressed by the overall style here, it’s gorgeous. I’m even more impressed after having read into the process behind making this come to life. Doing something that in concept is simple and contained in terms of scope yet having such layered depth is miraculous. Genuinely enjoyed this viewing and found it fascinating to take in.

Corpus and the Wandering Review at Home with Streamed Viewing during Calgary Film Festival
Screening Provided by The National Film Board of Canada

Rating Overall: 9.2