Film - Seth's Dominion

Another film from The Raindance Film Festival for Steve Taylor-Bryant to get his teeth into. This time it's a Canadian documentary about a cartoonist...

Everybody has a past and everyone gets nostalgic once in a while but what would happen if you translated that nostalgia, those memories, to paper? As stated by Seth in the film, you would probably end up with a Hallmark card, but the cartoonist manages to take the mundane, everyday things and make them quite spectacular. Through his commercial work or his private diaries, Seth's memories bleed into everything he creates and are vitally important to him and to understanding him. He speaks honestly about the tense relationship with his father and the regrets he holds about his time with his mother, the lack of affection, the decision to stop kissing her goodnight and yet, whilst the emotion evoked by the memories is strong in us all, the work created off the back of these rememberings is astonishingly good.

There is something very 1920's about the way Seth looks, dresses, lives his life even, and this also bleeds into the work producing a beautiful simplicity in the art allowing the story to shine through with no complications.

What Director Luc Chamberland, himself a Canadian based cartoonist, has produced is a beautifully artistic look at a fascinating man and his life. The footage is intersected with cartoons produced from Seth's own work, the friends and colleagues of Seth all have something to offer in the way of experiences or memories, and the sections with Seth questioning himself in front of an audience are both heartwarming and humorous and that is how Seth across on screen.

This is a fascinating insight into a creative mind and making life entertaining.

Image - Raindance.