ARTIST STATEMENT
Hoghole was produced during my final year of undergraduate film studies at Bard College in upstate New York. Its language borrows from the documentary and experimental traditions. The film was produced with super 8mm film and digital video; its percussive sound design and experimental editing add to its particularity.
The film was shot and based in the West Indian island that grew me: St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The film addresses the state of fear and threat that my mother and I experienced due to targeted and persistent criminal violence.
A definitive feature of the film is the experimental nature of the sound design. Sound is a central part of experiencing this film. It is deeply interwoven with the imagery of Hoghole. At times the sound is diegetic, but more often than not its character is adding meaning to the images.
Experimental film form represents a deviation from normative ways of viewing and is therefore closely related to social transformation. Much of my work addresses issues of social concern, but Hoghole deviates from this norm. At the core of the film is an emotional processing of a reality, not necessarily a drive to alter the conditions that created that reality.
Considering the vulnerability of the feminine in the Caribbean, Hoghole asks more questions than it answers, one of the most poignant of which is: How do the displaced find their way home?
BIOGRAPHY
Aiko Maya Roudette is a filmmaker, artist, and activist of British/Caribbean heritage. She grew up on the island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and became interested in the mass communicative potential of film as a teenager. She graduated from Bard College in 2013 with a distinction in Film Production (B.A.Hons); her thesis earned her the prestigious Maya Deren Award. She is presently completing her M.A. in Media Studies at the New School in New York. She also works as a freelance camerawoman and video editor.
