House On Fire is an experimental stream of consciousness holding the context of memory, narrative and its relationship to visual grammar and film language. The film was created in South-East London over the course of 2021 - 2022 and originally exhibited as a multi-projection installation. Birthing from a feeling of being lost in the world, House On Fire is a highly personal and autobiographical exploration in far reaching themes of loneliness, addiction, identity, dysfunctional relationships, parentage, gentrification and the overall vulnerability of the human state in a pure form. Taking inspiration from the classical cinematic poetry of Andrei Tarkovsky and Jonas Mekas while still undoubtedly being a product of the post-internet age, House On Fire tells many different stories in one abstract narrative, becoming more of a visual diary or poem than linear short film.
“The elegiac House on Fire poignantly weaves memory and the reviving of past events. The cinematic is punctured by a soundscape that echo’s flux in time and place. Fragmented sequences and tableaux are further ruptured by shifts in the film media, and the ‘glitch’ becomes a means of destabilising any sense of linear narrative. A moving work - House on Fire – brings back into focus an approach to moving image work that foregrounds materiality.”
- Gill Addison
Winner of ‘The Next Thing Moving Image Award’ 2022
Previously exhibited at AMP Gallery, London and Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Centre, Manchester.
House On Fire
20 minutes 34 seconds
Written and directed by Dylan Coates
Shot by Dylan Coates, Adam Tunnicliffe and Alice Cakebread
Edited by Dylan Coates
VFX by Joshua Roland
8MM processing by On8Mil
Original music by Dylan Coates and Jake Bagshaw
‘People Thought My Windows Were Stars’ written and performed by Deathcrash
‘Salve Regina’ performed by The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Images from the original premiere installation at AMP Gallery -
