QPAC

ONE STORY | FOUR FRAMES

In 1982, two sisters farewell their mother and her newlywed husband on their honeymoon. The vacation becomes an extended holiday, and the siblings are left to fend for themselves, with help from the neighbour and the local milkman. What unfolds is a story of two young women cast into a grown-up world—a spiral of abandonment and self-discovery at a time when missing-person cases run rampant in the sleepy city.

Permutations are four individual films in a singular frame that are designed to unfold simultaneously as a ‘multiple point-of-view’ experience, allowing the viewer a choice of perspective on the story unfolding. Initially, we see four perspectives of the same action through different lenses and framing; however, this slowly begins to permeate to show what is occurring in other parts of the house where the story is situated. At times, the dancers transcend the screens, walking from one screen to another. At times, we see one dancer in four different rooms performing the same movement, and at other times, we see different actions occurring simultaneously.

Created with financial investment from Arts Queensland, Permutations premiered in Brisbane at the Brisbane Powerhouse as an immersive screendance experience with the audience positioned in the centre of the space as a 'reverse theatre-in-the-round' experience. Following that, it has been shown in this original format at the FICBC - Balneário Camboriú International Film Festival, Brazil, the New York City IO Festival, NY (winner), Short Film Factory, Bucharest (winner - best immersive), and IMMAGI]NA Film Festival, Pozzuoli, Italy. In addition, it was shown in a virtual reality format at the FIVARS - Festival of International Virtual & Augmented Reality Stories, Mississauga, Canada, and the FilmGate Interactive Festival, Miami. Most recently, in 2025, Permutations was screened at the New York Dance on Camera Festival in the format you will see it here, with four screens in a singular frame. This was Claire’s ‘process cut’ of how she edited the film, before exporting each one individually