Marika Hackman 'The One' by Louis Bhose

F*** this photocopier. Marika rocks her corporate hellhole in this simple, effervescent video by Louis Bhose.

Somehow, Marika Hackman has ‘given up her soul’ for an ill-fitting suit and a dead-end office job. And she’s starting to wonder how she got here. In a fantasy sequence, she performs inside an enormous, strobing photocopier. Which she proceeds to smash.

Hackman has charisma in buckets, or ‘BDE’, to borrow her phrase. In the visual cycle for her upcoming album Any Human Friend, we’re beginning to realise quite how much comic potential the songwriter has always had. Most recently, she had a star turn in Will Hooper’s dry and relatable I’m Not Where You Are. It’s a treat to see rockstar Hackman, and in classic pop video mode; The One could easily be a long lost visual for Heaven 17 or The Human League.

The concept is Hackman’s own. According to Agile Films, the story behind it reads a little like this:

“Marika Hackman: I want to do a performance vid in a photocopier, where the imagined rockstar in me performs with gusto as the mediocre, let-down version of me watches.

Hack Video Director: say no more”.