“Body language holds immense value in how I perceive the world. To me, it transcends language and is an alternate way to communicate with the mind, for both the performer and the viewer. In my opinion, dance & movement holds the power to evoke certain emotions and feelings that words and images alone do not. A combination of all of these mediums to me is a multi-sensory audiovisual feast, thus a chunk of my work ends up featuring movement, both rehearsed and improv.” -- Taha Ismail (interview with 1.4)
When hearing the name Taha Ismail, you might think, "Oh, the director and filmmaker?" And although the answer is yes, @DirectorShaheb has much more to offer as a multidisciplinary visual artist than most fans realise. What shines brightest is his stellar production quality, creative direction, and innate sense of other art forms like music, dance, and photography. Taha's creativity truly shines when he has the opportunity to blend these different mediums into a single holistic audio-visual experience.
The music videos he made with Bangladeshi artists, Dameer and Lil Late, are exemplary of his talent. In them, he demonstrates a clear understanding of the artist he's working with and the emotions their sounds evoke. They also bring forth his masterful editing skills.
With his lighting, colour grading, and special effects, he captured the surreal and trippy indie music identity that characterises these artists and their music. He patches together a series of still and moving shots and uses slow shutter techniques to sync up with the musical beat.
For Dameer's Easier (2019), Taha created a montage of shots almost framed like photographs, accentuating the still central subjects and using camera and editing techniques to bring in the illusion of movement. The palette is a mix of bright saturated colours and a matted pastel scheme resulting in some very visually striking frames.
He clearly took leaps and refined his technique by the time he worked on Lil Late's Forever (2022), which took place in Los Angeles. The lighting, slow shutter effects, and bustling movements come together to paint a neon city scene, but they also invoke dreamy and nostalgic emotions.
At this point, Taha had already begun exploring the idea of healing and soul searching through the body language and movements of his performers, like when he collaborated with the German artist GHEIST on their experimental musical film, Egos (2021).
In his short dance project, Rise (2022), his grip on choreography is on full display. He's able to visually capture complex concepts such as the power of human connection. He explores the tumultuous world of strangers learning of that human connection through body movement and dance. His innovative use of recorded speech, dance, and atmospheric music was first-rate and rightfully won him Gold at the acclaimed 1.4 Awards.
Taha Ismail is still a young but phenomenal creative in the arts industry. He co-founded and leads the creative direction for his production house named, Collective Unconscious, and if he continues on this multidisciplinary journey with the support of like-minded artists and professionals, his is certain to be a name to remember.
Tasawar Sattar is an Editorial Assistant at Dhaka Tribune
