Paul McLaney on the inspiration for Gramsci's two short films

Sara Wiseman stars in Here, the first of two short films based on Gramsci's Hinterlands album.

Gramsci have made two short indie art films as companion pieces to their brilliant album The Hinterlands. The conceptual films, filmed in a lush, glorious black and white, star Sara Wiseman and Zachary Te Maari and were directed by Richard Bell, the man behind music videos for Depeche Mode, U2 and Nirvana.
The first is called Here, the second There, and both will premiere at Avondale's Hollywood Theatre on Friday, May 27.
Frontman Paul McLaney told us about the films.

Why did you want to make these two short films?

Hinterlands was released in February when the country was at the red level. It'd been our original intention to play a series of concerts to promote it but we found ourselves back in that situation of a likely series of postponements and cancellations. It's an exhausting process to engage with as there are so many moving parts to staging a concert. The decision was made to focus on an artistic project that would be able to occur at any alert level and one that would add context and scope to the music. The album is concerned with this idea of the interior emotional landscape and so really lends itself well to the cinematic experience

The cinematography is gorgeous and dramatic - what is it about the New Zealand landscape that inspires you?

Thanks, hats off to director Richard Bell and Mother Nature there! Quite apart from the fact that the landscape of Aotearoa is visually breathtaking, both in its grandeur and beauty, I'm drawn towards this idea of it being a shared cultural metaphor for our own emotional interiors; that vast landscape within us that is necessary for us to hold the world in our imaginations.

Did you have any revelations bringing this concept to life in two different mediums?

You never really know what is going on in someone's life. From the exterior it may seem that they are locked in some reverie as they gaze across Lake Hawea to the Southern Alps, lost in the magnificence of it all, when in fact they may instead be mourning some aspect of their life or worrying about the rent. It's like the idea that the one thing you can't leave behind when you go on holiday is you. You bring all of your thoughts, concerns, anxieties, hopes, regrets, etc. with you. It's why kindness has such a vital and important role in society; everyone's dealing with stuff and sometimes they just need the encouragement to focus on the beauty within and without them that can help to motivate and recharge their personal energies.

How are you feeling about watching the films with an audience for the first time, do you think it will feel different from when you perform music?

Yes, I would imagine that it would feel much more external and also illuminate the collaboration that goes into film-making. In the absence of a formalised spirituality, the engagement with music has always been my parish. So to sit with an audience will feel like the most natural way to experience it.