Ian McDonald | United Kingdom | 9:58 | Short Film

Presenting ‘a snail’s pace’, my first wildlife doc! But no commentary. No music. No explanations. Nothing to explain. Just observe. An observational wildlife doc! Presenting ‘a snail’s pace’, my first film shot and edited on a smartphone. Filmed handheld. No tripod or gimbal. No additional lens. No external microphone. Edited on iphone’s imovie app. Simple shots. Straight cuts. Capturing a moment, a movement, a journey. From Trivandrum in Kerala, South India during lockdown (May 2021). When my world shrunk to a house and garden. When time detached itself from the days. When the unnoticed became noticeable. When life calmed down. Like its main protagonist, ‘a snail’s pace’ moves at a snail’s pace. Presenting a challenge to the audience to keep pace with the intrepid snail. To slow down.

Director Biography – Ian McDonald

Ian is an award-winning documentary filmmaker based in the UK. His previous documentaries include the Grierson nominated Algorithms (2012 / 96mins) about young blind chess players from India. He is also the founding Director of Film@CultureLab, a centre for documentary filmmaking at Newcastle University, where Ian is a Reader in Film Practice.