Triggered: Leah Loftin

VERVE, DEAR, ⒸLeah Loftin, Still from Verve, Dear (2022), Single channel moving image, 4 min 26 sec.

Image and Text by Leah Loftin

This image is a still from my experimental short film Verve, Dear (2022), which explores the psychological impulses and behavioral abnormalities that emerge when individuals are placed under extreme circumstances. 

In the film, scenes of mid-century ephemera are re-staged through performance as allegories that reframe the mythologies of history. Food compulsions and UFO obsessions suddenly emerge as coping mechanisms in an aspirational dreamscape of domestic post-war optimism. 

This image represents a definitive moment in the film. The character Marion has an explosive emotional reaction to a broken doll brought to her by her children. Her state in this photograph is in stark contrast to her demeanor throughout the rest of the narrative. It is the rupture of her psychological resilience to the circumstances of the world around her. 

The initial inspiration for Verve, Dear came from my observation of posted content on social media during pandemic lockdowns. 

To view more of Leah’s work, visit her website here.