Crystal World

Directed by Pia Borg

Crystal World is inspired by J.G Ballard’s apocalyptic science fiction novel of the same name where a viral crystal metamorphoses trees, animals, humans and architecture into frozen jewels forever suspended in time and space. The novel is a haunting portrait of a world in which everything is illuminated by prismatic light, a ‘leaking’ of time that causes humans to experience individual moments endlessly looped, repeated and prolonged. My film adapts this concept of crystallization and applies it to fragments from the 1955 film. I reconstruct scenes from Charles Laughton’s iconic film with underwater puppets, which I then crystallize using ammonium phosphate crystals, time-lapse photography, mirrors, prisms, and projectors. (http://piaborg.com)