One Last Ride
I was filming the Alaskan Way Viaduct demolition in 2019 without knowing exactly why. Coming from Eastern Europe, I was just instantly drawn to this drab, gray creature and its brutal esthetics. It reminded me of a soviet khrushchyovka, a type of low-cost concrete-paneled apartment building aiming to fight the housing shortage in the USSR. Khrushchyovkas were meant to be temporary, and a lot of these are currently being demolished too.
This architectural wheel of samsara made me reflect on the fluidity and fragility of human life. So I decided to approach Whim W'Him, a Seattle-based contemporary dance company. The choreographer Olivier Wevers has created nine meditative dancing chapters about bond, detachment, and loss. I filmed them and juxtaposed the warmth of human touch with the coldness of the viaduct. This resulted in One Last Ride, a short cinematic dialogue between concrete and flesh.
This project was supported by a 4Culture grant.
Anastasia Babenko
Anastasia Babenko (b.1989), is a Ukrainian filmmaker and photographer currently based in Seattle. Prior to writing and directing, she had worked as a news reporter in Ukraine, Germany, and the U.S. The Diaper Cake, her debut narrative short, was supported by a UN Women grant and came out this October. Her latest fashion videos include a collaboration with Ukrainian designer Anton Belinskiy for Paris Fashion Week. Apart from her artistic practice, Anastasia curated shows and film programs for the Center on Contemporary Art and Northwest Film Forum, both based in Seattle. She was also a part of the SIFF 2020 programming team. In 2022, Anastasia will co-curate The Middle Seat, a six-month-long exhibition series at Das Schaufenster centered around Eastern European immigrant artists.