Jasmine Jethwa battles the elements in a striking trilogy of visualisers by Ned Botwood.

Shot at the turn of the seasons, each film is a constrained set-piece in a natural landscape, in which Jethwa navigates different, bruising shades of romance. Crawling through a bleak mudscape, repeatedly launching herself into open sky, and treading water in the dark Atlantic.

In the short runtime, physical exertion does the storytelling. With Jethwa framing love as an endurance test, a slow trudge forward and an idea just out of her reach.

A chance email grew into a friendship and ongoing collaboration between the artist and director, who travelled to rural Devon to shoot the films guerrilla-style with a tight-knit skeleton crew. They were shot on a shoestring budget with spare rolls of 16mm with regular friends and collaborators Bethany Fitter (‘I Believe in Love’ and ‘If You Don’t Know’) and Joseph Dun (‘Ladybird’).

Handheld and immediate, with specks of water or mud on the lens, their visuals balance dreamlike romanticism with documentary bluntness. With a dusky, stormy palette finessed by colourist Ruth Wardell.

"I just want to make the kind of videos I loved when I was 15," says Botwood. "Shoutout to star producer Alice Florrie, who kept us all comfy and I've discovered can carry 5 towels, 2 wellies and 3 thermos flasks and a bodyboard at once while wading uphill through a marsh."

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BTS: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wj00z4a9ablxnz5eg6vzr/AB10PTD3VGxs3615BkD5qVI?rlkey=gfkl8l2mr1khu8q3uytf5c6j7&dl=0