The fact is, some roads are bumpier than others.
The place is Portland, with a collective of visual artists that do film, music, and choreography called The Chalice Collective, fronted by Sedona Swan Soulfire, an American Academy of Dramatic Arts graduate.
She discovered early on her love for movement and dance, and that helped her get into Yoga, Bellydance, and Classical Indian dance. She dances, sings, and produces spoken word that deals, predominantly, with feminist issues.
This project hails itself as a film of mysterious art adventure full of symbols and motion. I personally failed to find most of that. Starting with the positive: The beautiful wooded locations in Portland are beautiful; some of the costume designs blend in very well with the surroundings, and the fire play against dark backdrops lends itself to creating puzzling movements.
On the other hand, the lengthy ambient intro, full of hums and ritualistic percussion, was the most bearable part, musically. A disappointing mix, an apparent lack of any actual composition to the melodies, and a total lack of any harmonies with a flat vocal delivery.
The last third of the piece sees the whole cast descend from the mystical woods into the city, still clad in their full costumes, which makes for a very confusing blend of mismatched colors, visuals, and timeframes.
A noble message needs a reliable medium to get carried across, and good production value does never equate to expensive production. A very humble budget can create a more-than-adequate vessel to carry words and ideas into the world, provided that talent and actual direction exist and are in the lead. And on this outing from The Chalice Collective, they had an empowerful message to deliver, but somehow it was spilling all over the floor.