Célia Hay - Wake for a Horse

Overview
Wake for a Horse (2023) 
Super 8 color 4/3 and color 16/9 4K, original soundtrack by Kali Malone featuring Stephen O’Malley and Lucy Railton. 39 min.

A diptych, dream-like tale of sisterhood, paganism and mourning shot on Super 8 and 4K. A contemporary twist on acid westerns, featuring an original hypnotic score by Kali Malone. 
 
Synopsis: In a faraway land, a wanderer poetess announces the death of a horse. Two sisters living secluded in a desert begin to prepare a mourning ritual. Following a mysterious long lost tradition, they work on creating a “jar of sorrows”: they walk in the desert to harvest clay and make a vessel to collect and encapsulate their tears, which they seal and bury to honor the deceased horse. Sisterhood evolves through a journey of loss. 
 
Written and directed by Célia Hay @celiahay_
 
Production : Samantha Steele 
Cinematography : Célia Hay 
Assistant Director : Bradley King 
Editing : Célia Hay 
Music : Kali Malone 
Musicians : Kali Malone, Stephen O’Malley, Lucy Railton 
Cast : Laurette Hay, Nairi Mila, Alisha Sofia 
Colourist : Sharon Chung 
Sound mixing : Hugo Mir-Valette 
Distribution : Oyster Films 
Film poster : Dean Gullers 
 
Célia Hay is a French visual artist currently doing a PhD in Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Texas at Dallas. She holds an MA in Photography from Central Saint Martins (2016).  
 
Her work mixing film, photography and installation depicts isolated social misfits wandering, on their journey to mysterious existential quests. Characters who have left the world to carry out uncanny and rebellious gestures of intimacy which are theirs only, and invent new ways to love and to exist. Themes of mourning, sisterhood, rituals and how the loss of words can establish bonds in ways that defy societal rules, are at the core of her practice. 
Installation Views