Joined By Thread

Here is the trailer for my short film “Joined By Thread”

Produced, shot, directed and edited by Martin Borden

Music by Kevin MacLeod

Participants: Sharon Kallis, Ashleigh Wallace, Lynda Wallace, Rose Burden, Willow Spindler

Greentopia

My short film “Joined by Thread” will play at GREENTOPIA, a film festival in Rochester New York, on March 20, 2015.

“Greentopia | FILM is a collection of films that inspires and transforms, and ultimately empowers the audience to create sustainable changes in their own lives and communities. Local and global, online and in communities around the world, Greentopia | FILM represents the work of a diverse group of independent filmmakers that will initiate conversation on the most important topics of the day. The 2015 edition of the festival will feature five days (March 17-21)  of primarily non-fiction films – each film kicked off by lively buskers and other artistic performances and followed by engaging, challenging, and stimulating panel discussions.”

 

This short film follows a group of women who work together to create a wedding dress from two older dresses. Ashleigh, the bride to be, her mother Lynda and her future mother-in-law Rose, meet with environmental artist Sharon Kallis, who helps them to see the beauty in reclaimed fabric, the history imbedded in our clothing, and to avoid the crass and wasteful “Wedding Industry” that promotes an unsustainable, consumer lifestyle.

I was fortunate to have another opportunity to work with my friend and frequent collaborator Sharon Kallis, in a realm I had little knowledge of: weddings, and in particular, the wedding dress. In much of contemporary western culture, the wedding ritual has become commercialized to the point that meaning has been stripped away from many of the most beautiful moments and replaced with a pumped-up orgy of expense, competition, and waste. In this case, the humble act of sewing, and the sharing of family history through fabric, reveals a richness that has no price tag.

It was a challenge and an invaluable learning experience to shoot solo in a very confined space where events unfolded quickly and unexpectedly. I am in debt to all of the participants who were so generous and open in sharing a very intimate and emotional moment on camera.