Exhale is a short film directed by Daniel Williams in which he tries to capture the final journey between life and death. Each of the four chapters in the film symbolise a separate moment of that process; a movement towards the light, the last physical kicks, an outpouring of love, a release of fear and a final acceptance.
In five minutes of abstract visual imagery Williams manages to create a cinematic epic as he experiments with the spiritual and natural forces of wind, dust and human beings. The result – a poetic mix of sci – fi and fantasy.
Dan Williams explains:
I wanted to take a big idea and try and distill it down into a series of simple and arresting images. My main aim was to create something beautiful and resonant, imagery that will linger in the mind. It’s purposefully abstract so that the audience can take what they want from it, drawing their own conclusions and interpretations. Things in life aren’t generally spelled out, and I don’t think they should be in art either. To me it’s the subjective nature of the film that is it’s real strength. When I came up with EXHALE, I was looking at Tumblr sites a lot and was struck by how much dark imagery people were putting into their blogs. Death seemed to be far from the taboo subject matter I initially felt it was, and this gave me the confidence to follow through my vision.