You Shouldn't Leave Here

Synopsis

You Shouldn’t Leave Here is a video diary of one’s permanent return to their hometown. A diary that evolves into a study of the political and social disengagement bred within the white middle class of Canada. The film focuses on the minute details in the life of an unnamed, anonymous narrator – Someone who has found themselves lost in repetition. Dated digital footage of city roads, park trails, and industrial landscapes represent the subject’s worldview. These images culminate into a harsh work that is equal parts city symphony as it is a home movie.

Artist Profile

Callon Murphy

Callon Murphy is a new filmmaker currently residing in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. He has an interest in micro-budget digital filmmaking and has completed 4 projects of the sort: A city symphony, "You Shouldn't Leave Here", a visual poem, "Floating Man", and two experimental travelogues, "A Hotel on the Niagara River" and "Monotonia".

Credits

Director Callon Murphy
D.O.P Paige Stampatori
Editor Callon Murphy
Sound Callon Murphy

Director's Statement

This project originated during my commute to and from my day job in early 2020. I had just finished school and was beginning my career in software development in Waterloo, Canada. As expected, I was discovering my place in this world and I quickly became disillusioned and incredibly emotional. I felt like all that was being presented to me was an unchangeable, unshakeable, and monolithic way of living. I put all of that energy and emotion into this film. I decided I would document little pieces of my life and accompany that footage with the inner thoughts of someone who was not me, but of the person, I would never want to let myself become. That being, someone who is completely disengaged from our world. Both socially and politically. To put it simply, this project acted as an outlet for me to exercise and reject all of the angst I was feeling in the spring of 2020. Finally, I also wanted to touch on the horrific and shameful ongoing genocide being enacted by colonial institutions on the indigenous peoples of the unceded territories of North America. Through repetitive and evocative found-footage imagery, I hope to highlight the unforgivable history of Residential Schools and the continuous loss of indigenous autonomy. If nothing else, I hope my film instills the need for dramatic and radical change in my ommunity. Up to and including the abolishment of any colonial government. Canada’s white majority must be aggressively vocal for decolonization.