Kit Sebastian Reflect on their Mantra for the Modern Times in Super 8 Short Film

Kit Sebastian release C’est Quoi le Mantra Moderne, an introspective short film to reflect on their artistic manifesto and aesthetics.

Shot in rural France on Super 8 film shortly after the release of the Anglo-Franco-Turkish duo’s debut album Mantra Moderne (Mr Bongo), C’est Quoi le Mantra Moderne was candidly conceived as an easily-digestible promotional film for the launch of the long-playing on the French market. However, the initial concept - that of explaining the meanings behind the album and the band’s philosophy - took a complete opposite direction whilst the script and the shot sequences were being written on location.

The promotional film soon started morphing into an introspective journey that challenged and critiqued the duo’s ideas, certainties and aesthetics. The Nouvelle Vague-style use of narrative fragmentation, silence and discontinuity further succeeded in portraying, in 8 minutes, such a feeling of intellectual restlessness.

Stills from C’est Quoi le Mantra Moderne - Merve Erdem, Kit Martin (2020)

At some point you can hear the two protagonist listing, as in a sort of personal mantra to themselves, their pop inspirations and cultural references: Brigitte Fontaine, Walter Benjamin, Luigi Tenco, Dalida, Ornella Vanoni, Federico Fellini. It may be the abundance of 1960s pop culture visual references, the French narrator Nicolas Roys’ voice-overs, Merve’s headscarf and Kit’s blue de travaille jacket,or simply the use of grainy Super 8 film, but if the most cultured of film critics thought, for a minute, this was a long-lost Godard short film, he should not be blamed for that.

The duality between rural and industrial scenarios mirrors the tension emerging from the interaction of the two characters (Turkish-born singer and lyricist Merve Erdem, and French-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Kit Martin) streams of consciousness and sometimes surrealistic English dialogues.

Stills from C’est Quoi le Mantra Moderne - Merve Erdem, Kit Martin (2020

Shot on five reels of Kodak 50D and one reel of Kodak 200T film - extremely expensive and delicate material when passed through airport X-Ray scanners - the medium seemed the best format to enhance the duo’s eclectic background: Merve, after studying cinema in Rome, became a multi-disciplinary artists, Kit is a Guildhall School of Music & Drama graduate composing music for films and pictures. Their multi-cultural background and references, along with their familiarity with analogue devices, found a perfect bond in both this short film and in their 2019 debut album Mantra Moderne.

In a music industry that forces upon us a binge of frantic, loud beats and hyper-pop productions, Kit Sebastian remind us the importance and elegance of silence and reflectivity.

Poster for C’est Quoi le Mantra Moderne

C’est Quoi le Mantra Moderne works as an aesthetically-pleasing manifesto of the band captured at the peak of its creativity. It is an essential viewing to better understand and, if possible, further appreciate their debut album.

Written by Kit Martin, Merve Erdem, and James Foster and directed by the duo, C’est Quoi le Mantra Moderne is available to watch until September 26th on Framelight as part of Short Focus Film Festival