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Paul and the Badger: Episodes 1 to 4

Paul Tarragó

2006 00:41:00 United KingdomEnglishColorStereo16:9DV video

Description

The Badger Series has issues and attempts, each episode, to resolve them. Recasting a glove puppet show through his own present day sensibilities, Paul assumes the role of kindly uncle mentor to a household of capersome woodland creatures. Mortality, self-sacrfice, depression, altered states of consciousness and transgressive art practices are all explored as part of their everyday lives together.

Meanwhile the show is mindful to adhere to the traditional structural formulae, with entertainment numbers and routines appropriate to the scaled down sitcom world that they occupy. The series is equal parts moral instruction and narrative play, mediated through the force fit of an experimental filmmaker as children's entertainer.

Episode 1 (2005, 11:30) The sight of a model skeleton unearths a memory in the Badger that he has repressed all these years, prompting him to ask some pretty tricky questions about life, death and self-sacrifice.

Episode 2 (2006, 13:30) The Badger and the Squirrel relay the world through a lens.

Episode 3 (2006, 13:30) A sudden dilemma, a plummet of spirits and the necessity of rallying 'round.

Episode 4 (2006, 6:30) Extended dream sequence intended as a balance for the weightier themes of Episode 3.

About Paul Tarragó

Paul Tarragó is a filmmaker, using both video and celluloid, living in London. His work? A mix of underground experimentation and metafiction, tugging at the leash of film language but with narrative often held close at hand.

His work has shown widely on film festival and gallery circuits (International Film Festival Rotterdam, NYUFF, EMAF, National Review of Live Art, Triangle France, Kino der Kunst), and includes several award winning experimental narratives, video installation, a collaborative feature film, cinematic sketchbooks, moving image + live soundtrack performance work, etc.

A formative influence on his DIY approach comes from his experiences (from 1993-2006) as a core member and activist with the Exploding Cinema: a collective dedicated to originating alternative methods of exhibition for low-budget/artists' film and video and related performance.