A Temporary Arrangement began as a simple experiment: to study the human form suspended in water, floating down a river. We made a 12 foot camera tower lashed to two canoes.
However, during the filming, individual dramas unfolded as each person had to confront their ability, or inability, to relinquish control to the flowing river. A narrative unfolded as I witnessed friends and family coming to terms with this natural force.
Dedicated to the memory of Ken McDougall and Chris Yarwood.
Best Experimental Film, City Of Melbourne Award, Melbourne International Film Festival, 1996
Best Experimental Film, Toronto World Wide Short Film Festival 1995
Award of Merit, Chicago International Film Festival, 1996
In the collection of Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Germany, 1996
“It all looks rather pleasant. There’s no sense of panic or, in fact, of any sense of fear at all. As other floaters do likewise, it seems a perfectly normal way to spend an afternoon in the country…
As the images themselves seem to eddy around, swirling off to one edge then back to the center, there’s that same sensual lure of oblivion… In A Temporary Arrangement, the floaters get to test their will to live. At first, says Barker, this was meant to be a rather abstract (film) essay- a study of the human body suspended in water... But as he watched the floaters (try) to relinquish control to the water, he found he was (filming) their 'individual drama'." - Peter Goddard, Toronto Star
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