This process started when I heard this song for the first time in the Spotify Shuffle in November of the last year and I just fell in love with it, and I was sure that soon or later I wanted to do “something” with it. After quarantine happened and of course I cannot choreograph anything, but I felt ingenious how this song represents all of us in this period of life. But we have to wait for August to let things happen. I received a text from Rebecca asking me if I was interested to collaborate in a video because she wanted to experiment with the camera and OF COURSE I already knew which song I wanted to use. And actually, I had so many emotions and thoughts inside me that I accumulated during quarantine that It just took me less than 1h to elaborate the idea. 

Even this song seems pretty sad, actually it is really hopeful. She is speaking regarding hard times-hard life where everything looks death with no future, no present, no hope, where we are homeless and lost in those empty streets. Where even the memory of the past is blurry, and the stars are not shining anymore. Totally, a metaphor of 2020. But she says here is still hope because inside us there is a place where dreams are alive, shiny and warm, where there are many roads/opportunities. That was the base of my concept and theme of this movie.

This is the reason why, also, I choose two different scenarios. I loved the contrast of the two, and it was completely different also from all the home/room dance creations I was watching in these months. But there is another deeper answer to this question. I saw many people during this time moving upstate NYC to isolate into nature to feel more grounded and to find themselves. But at one point everyone must come back “home” in the city because there we have family, work, business, and friends. So, what is it our real home? Nature (because even though we are social and evolved animals, we are still animals) or the city where we build our life? 

I found the answer in the song: no matter what and no matter what, if you are yourself, you are home everywhere because you are your home. 

Other things to say, I choose two locations and different camera angles also to emphasize the internal journey of emotions and how it reflects outside you and how the environment affects the mind-body (like a third eye of the narration of this story).

In this process of choosing the location, the dancer Aika Takeshima was fundamental to help me to build this idea.

We film one day in the city in the area of Wall Street and another day upstate NYC. In total we had 30 min of film and after with patient Rebecca and I edited together by email and in person. It took 1 month for all the process.

I already had the idea and structure in mind with transitions and story board. I request to film in both locations in specific places and from different angles (this is why we used the drone and we put the camera on the ground at one point) and all the frames were filmed thinking already about the editing, composition and transition. And about the favorite part was the process of creating this film with such amazing artists.