David Valentine

David Valentine is a filmmaker who likes to explore and experiment with modern technologies, both developing and outdated, to find new ways of applying them to the content and meaning of film. Credited as one of the people to have advanced video sniffing to an art form and social tool, his experiments with surveillance technologies have been exhibited and screened around the world, the most well known of which is shopping mall free-running short film The Duellists - winner of the Audience 3rd Prize at the sidewalkCINEMA Festival and short listed for the Big Issue Film Festival Award. His unusual experiments frequently combine technology with his passion and interest for physical performance and expression, as he explores the global language of non-dialogue pure cinema story-telling with a modern twist.

DanceDigital in partnership with Thurrock Council commissioned David Valentine to create a new film using technology and the unique dance style of urban movement as part of the Forward Motion: Dance on Film Festival 2010 taking place at the Thameside Theatre, Grays. The finished piece, shot entirely on webcam, is a multi-layered modern interpretation of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet – combining Shakespearean text with instant messaging and an original soundtrack by Graham Boosey – all played out in an on-line chatroom entitled Computer Love (a euphemism for Cyber-Sex and a reference to the Kraftwerk song). The filmmaker again works with choreographers James Hall and Joe Livermore to further develop their fusion dance style first tested on The Duellists. Exaggerated teenage feelings are expressed in urban movement as the two would-be lovers perform to the words of the abridged scene – in direct contrast to the limitations of the clipped and abbreviated modern language of instant messaging. The audience are invited to voyeuristically spy upon their hidden private world and actions via webcam – privy to the reality of their thought processes and feelings before they reveal them on-line.