crosseover (2009)

　　The subject: Erna Omarsdottir, PONI, Erna Omarsdottir in PONI…
　　The film projects Erna Omarsdottir into her own imaginative universe and composes a character through the looking-glass.
　　A manifold identity, Erna co...展开mbines innocence and perversity—her Lolita side—, excess and cruelty. A body, a face in constant metamorphosis... Extreme plasticity and expressivity... Sometimes the face of an angel, sometimes that of a demon…
　　In the film Crossover, the group PONI appears from the point of view of the character played by Erna Omarsdottir: PONI is both an imagining of Erna and (almost) a recorded reality. In fact, it is on the borderline between the real and the imaginary: the shots featuring the musicians of PONI of course bring to mind a concert, but the daylight that lights them, conceived for the film, a light without any theatrical effect, ‘de-realises’ them and plunges them into an imaginary world. This de-realisation effect is reinforced by the use of very long focal lengths (150 and 300 mm), which give the two singers, Erna Omarsdottir and Kate MacIntosh, an exceptional presence that is nearly unreal. In fact, the shots with PONI simulate the concert: they play as if they were in concert but on a stage turned into a film set. This thoroughly strange situation gives their music a tension or a particular intensity. It is in that context that PONI produced their music: both the same and another, different.
　　Crossover is the first episode of a cross-disciplinary project by Pierre Coulibeuf, conceived from Erna Omarsdottir’s mental universe.
　　Erna Omarsdottir is Icelandic. Dancer, choreographer and singer in the group PONI, she has collaborated with Björk, the visual artist Gabriela Fridriksdottir and with numerous choreographers—Jan Fabre in particular. PONI is a Flemish collective created by Frank Pay that plays in numerous venues in Belgium and throughout Europe.