A beautiful film portraying people's mental state through dance is a highlight of this week's best work
Before becoming a director, Ezra Hurwitz was a dancer - a point that shines through in his latest film, one of the most beautiful reflections on life in lockdown that we've seen since the beginning of the pandemic. The film, entitled Inside & Outwards, launched on World Suicide Prevention Day, sees a series of characters express their mental state on a New York rooftop to the sounds of a Sufjan Stevens soundtrack and Sarah Jessica Parker narration.
The project stems from a simple poem that two creatives and former agency colleagues wrote in partnership from opposite sides of the US. Ezra had a budding friendship with the pair due to a job he’d previously pitched for Verizon. He didn’t get that job but since then they’d been bashing ideas back and forth – and when quarantine struck, the team sent him a poem that they thought would make quite a nice film – maybe a user generated short, cutting between different people reading it to camera? The end result, launched with the National Alliance of Mental Health, is far from user-generated and, frankly, downright beautiful.
It's also part of the week's Work of the Week, alongside a Burger King pride campaign where the King is up close and personal with Ronald McDonald, a modern day hare and tortoise story for IKEA, and a remarkable animated music video for Stormzy.
Prison or Sanctuary? Dancers on a New York Rooftop Explore the Mental Health Impact of Lockdown