Following her music videos for All The Good Times and title track Big Time, Kimberly Stuckwisch's short film to accompany Angel Olsen's new album tells the whole story - and features a dynamic performance from the singer-songwriter.

The storyline for the short film - also called Big Time - was inspired by a dream Olsen had about time travel shortly after her mother's death. The videos for All The Good Times and Big Time are accommodated within its structure, with their contrasting styles brought together into a coherent whole.

As Olsen's attempt at escape a failing relationship via a road trip hits the buffers, she descends to the dreamworld of a bar where time travel is possible, and time itself is fluid. The linking device is a lightbox she carries around with her. It then becomes the focal point in the third part of the film, for the song Through The Fire.

The piece is punctuated throughout by phone conversations and recordings - including a real answerphone message from Olsen's late mother. It's a device through which the director and artist articulate the weight of life's most important relationships. And not for the first time, Angel Olsen carries these emotional issues with a compelling screen performance. She is not only an excellent singer-songwriter - and these three songs are powerful - but also a proper actor. 

"When I approached Kimberly Stuckwisch about making these videos, I thought it would be cool to include the storyline of one of the dreams I’d had, and really use it as a way to tell the story of the songs," Olsen explains. 

"Kimberly added dialogue and events to create a story arc around my dream, to give it a thicker plot, using the music videos within and creating a larger film."

The themes of love, loss and processing one's past are aspects that really appealed to Stuckwisch in the preparation and making of the film.

"It's a story that targets deep-rooted complexities," says Stuckwisch. "Such as how our unconscious deals with repressed sexual identity, the hardships of letting go of our past selves in order to step into self-actualization, and the guilt we hold when dealing with loss.

"For one reason or another, we all have parts of ourselves that we struggle to forgive as well as a part of ourselves we are afraid of exploring or that we think society won’t like—so we push those parts down into our unconscious psyches, into the shadows. This is the story of drowning in those fears before releasing your light."