A Brother Like No Other

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ANGÈLE — JALOUSIE from Neels Castillon on Vimeo.

Directed by Neels Castillon & Léo Walk Dancers • Angèle VL, Fanny Sage, Johanna Faye, Mellina Boubetra, Nicolas Huchard Production Company • motionpalace.tv Executive Producer • Ariane Cornic Producers • Marie-Gabrielle Glock, Emilie Mallen Production Coordinator • Sandrine Laveau Cinematographer • Eric Blanckaert 1st AC • Kevin Rosé 2nd AC • Katia Hamnane Set Designer • Jérôme Krowicki Gaffer • Lucas Schwartz 1st & 2nd AD • Thibaut Koralewski, Louis Arnoux Hair & Make up • Ophélie Secq, Karen Ze Eyenga Location Manager • Margot Malo Editor • Sébastien Rouquet Colorist • Arthur Paux Post-production & VFX • Fix Studio VFX Supervisor • Benjamin Laborde Flame Artist • Anne Georges, Aurélie Villard 2D Artist • Ewald Aloeboetoe, Océane Brochard, Maxime Servoise VFX Coordinator • Caroline Goujard Post-producer • Cédric Herbet Chief planner • Stéphanie Hilbert Camera & Lenses provided by RVZ A massive thanks to all the RVZ team, Espace Niemeyer, Rouje & Made.

間 MA — The Space between all things from Neels Castillon on Vimeo.

The Japanese language has a gift for describing situations and phenomena rendered ineffable in the English language; such as the moon’s reflection on water, the therapeutic benefits of spending time in the forest, and sunlight streaming through trees. Inspired by the beauty of the untranslatable, director Neels Castillon’s latest dance film explores ‘Ma’—the Japanese concept of the space between all things. ‘Ma’ is the comfortable silence that fills conversation; it is the invisible but discernible warmth between a couple; ‘Ma’ can exist in everything from flower arrangements to theater.

The project was shot during an ice storm in Iceland earlier this year with Paris-based dancer Fanny Sage and musician Awir Leon. “It was an obsession for me to find a place where you could feel the immensity of nature,” says the director. “I wanted the characters, Fanny and Awir, to get lost in the landscape, let them feel small, facing the elements."

By foregrounding sweeping mountainsides and dramatic ice caves, Castillon brings the Japanese appreciation of voids and empty space to screen. Sage’s delphic movements are less about dance and more about how her body describes the void around her; Leon’s celestial vocals are not about melody but how he uses music to describe silence.

“The feeling of loneliness is what made me want to create this project,” says Sage, who has worked on both commercial and artistic projects as an actor, choreographer and dancer. “There is a contrast I love in Japanese culture which is a great source of inspiration to me— that emptiness and fullness can coexist. This is dance as it moves me: Fragility and strength.”

Angel Lambo, Nowness — June 17, 2020.

written & directed by Neels Castillon original idea & choreography by Fanny Sage music — 'Wolf' by Awir Leon ( courtesy by Alter K)

production company — Motion Palace

cinematographer — Eric Blanckaert 1st assistant camera — Kévin Rosé sound design & mix — Yann Rouquet editor — Neels Castillon colorist — Arthur Paux producer — Emilie Mallen producer — Louis Arnoux production manager — Kiljan Paoli executive producer — Ariane Cornic production coordinator — Sandrine Laveau production service — Comrade Films post-production — Motion Palace camera and lenses — RVZ

NESPRESSO • MADE WITH CARE — NICARAGUA from Neels Castillon on Vimeo.

In this new 2021/2022 global campaign, Nespresso has the ambition to elevate coffee as an art, celebrate coffee farmers as artists. The campaign conveys the stories of how the action of caring elevates and defines a unique Nespresso coffee, by taking part of the renewal of the whole brand identity and imagery of Nespresso, breaking communication codes of the category in product, coffee farmers and craftsmanship representation.

The two first TVCs of the Master Origins range were shot with real coffee producers on location in Costa Rica & Nicaragua.

Directed by Neels Castillon

Client — Nespresso Voice Over — George Clooney Creative Agency — MC Cann Production Company — RSA Films Agency — Hogarth Worldwide

RSA FILMS GLOBAL CREW Executive Producer — Debbie Garvey Producers — Holly Wolfers Production Manager — Boris Franchi Travel Coordinator — Lily Moore Movement Director — François Przybylski 1st AD — Louis Arnoux Cinematography — Romain Alary 1AC — Etienne Burguy Sound Engineer — Alexandre Le Mouroux Camera and Lenses — RVZ

MC CANN Creative Director — Neil Ward-Baskin Art Director — Myriam Davaf Art Director — Mathilde Champeaux Group Account Manager — Frederic Guiraudoi Account Manager — Elsa Fenelon Project Manager — Michelle Leclerc

HOGARTH Head of Integrated Broadcast Prods — Dee Butler Senior Producer — Fiona Campbell

MOTION PALACE Executive producer — Ariane Cornic Editor — Sébastien Rouquet Color Grading — HerveBays Music — Awir Leon Sound design — Yann Rouquet Record & Mix — Benzene

COSTA RICA CREW Farmers — Joshua & Jordan Executive Producer — Gustavo Paris Pacheco Senior Producer — Gustavo Jimenez Chavarria Production Coordinator — Gimena Cortes Ramirez PA — Christian Granados Vindas Location Scout — Ana Lucía Arias Bustamante Location Scout — Harold Calderon Translator — Marian Barrantes Art Director — Carlos Amador Umaña Art Assistant — Alvaro Elizondo Mora Art Assistant — Elizabeth White 1st A/C — Juan Quesada Retana Gaffer — Roberto Valerio Madrigal Best Boy — Luis Marin Ulate Craft Person — Isabel Rivas Luna On Location Medic — Carlos Murillo

NICARAGUA CREW Farmers — Cindy & Anderson Executive Producer — Gustavo Paris Pacheco Senior Producer — Gustavo Jimenez Chavarria Production Coordinator — Ana Lucía Cantillano PA— Christian Granados Vindas Location Scout — Ronny Cajina Translator — Marian Barrantes Art Director — Carlos Amador Umaña Art Assistant — Mauricio Lara 1st A/C — Marcelo Bandelwerg Gaffer — Roberto Valerio Madrigal Best Boy — Ramiro Baldizon Craft Person — Bruno Cortina

Shukran: 10 Days in Palestine (Trailer) from dream hampton on Vimeo.

Forthcoming feature documentary by Ahmad Abuznaid.

How to Transplant a Rose Bush “Whatever you do, do not stop making your push-ups: your spiritual push-ups, your mental push-ups, your financial push-ups, your physical push-ups. When your ship comes again, and it will, you want to be ready to take it sailing." -- Zane Ibrahim

Remembering the Call of Islam

Call of Islam march in the 1980s. Pic: Yunus Mohamed When I published my first book in 2014, a community in Pretoria invited me to share with them the significance and the reasons for writing Punching Above Its Weight… To be launched in 2017.

I am most grateful for this opportunity to speak to you today, at the Rasooli Centre, on my first book, Punching Above Its Weight – The Story of the…

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HANIA RANI — F MAJOR from Neels Castillon on Vimeo.

A magnetic and meditative dance on the deserted shores of Iceland.

nowness.com/topic/dance/hania-rani-f-major-neels-castillon

« Listening to Hania's music over and over, I began to dream of a single sequence shot that would follow her music floating in the wind of an unreal Icelandic landscape. I asked each dancer to give a personal interpretation of Hania's song. We were very lucky to succeed in this insane artistic performance despite the great cold (minus 7 celsius), it was such a moment of truth. Shot in Iceland on February 23, 2020. »

Directed by Neels Castillon Music by Hania Rani Dancers — Mellina Boubetra, Janina Sarantšina, Fanny Sage Cinematography — Éric Blanckaert 1st AC — Kévin Rosé 2nd AC — François Przybylski Set Designer — Odin Deray Producers — Emilie Mallen, Louis Arnoux Production Manager — Kiljan Paoli Executive Producer — Ariane Cornic Production coordinator — Sandrine Laveau Editor— Sébastien Rouquet Colorist — Sébastien Mingam Production Company — motionpalace.tv Production Service Iceland — Comrade films Label — Gondwana Records Stylism — Sézane Camera & Lenses — RVZ

Part 1: Jordan, Sweet Jordan

Part 1: Jordan, Sweet Jordan

Notes from a week of sightseeing, in three parts.

View from Queen Alia Airport in Amman, Jordan.

She said, “I need to have my work visa renewed and the closest place for me to go is Amman, Jordan. I don’t want to do this alone. Can you meet me there? It will take about a week…” I had just begun to recover after almost two weeks in Abuja, Nigeria for a hectic work engagement. By that Sunday, my…

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A Brother Like No Other

A Brother Like No Other

The loss of Faried Jacobs and the pain of letting go

He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother: Zuleiga, Faried and I bracing the cold in Hout Bay on one of the many family trips we took together.

You took me by surprise. I expected that I would simply fly down to be at your bedside at Groote Schuur Hospital to hold your hand and you would look at me with a bemused smile, as you usually did, and say, “This…

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The grandmother of just girls

The grandmother of just girls

My mom with her granddaughter, Bilqis, on her lap. Bilqis’s cousin, Omar is standing.

I never really met my grandparents from either my mom’s side or my dad’s. I lie. I met my dad’s dad. Twice. Once in Kingsley Street in Salt River when I was about eight years old. My mom had to say to me, “This is your grandfather.”

I saw this older version of my dad in his sleeveless vest and long white…

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The Day Auntie Lêga Turned 80

The Day Auntie Lêga Turned 80

A story about birthdays and litanies and how traditions die out…

Auntie Lega on her 80th with six of her seven children.

It was Auntie Lêga’s birthday this weekend. It was her 80th celebration. Seven kids, 20 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren in addition to extended family and friends flooded the house of her son, Ismail, to mark this amazing milestone. A huge tent with rows of trestles…

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Two Rivers

Pic by Cosmic Timetraveller on Unsplash

Two rivers descend from their mountain source Over the edge, barefoot towards their destinies One finds open horizons, free flowing courses The other, hidden beauty, silent testimony

Two rivers race towards the shoreless ocean Boulders to pebbles, meandering their flow One becomes a city slicker in slow motion The other, to an ancient oasis it shall go

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That Feeling When You Fly

That Feeling When You Fly

Pic by Julia Revitt on Unsplash

The standing and the folding The proud amongst the humble The asking and the holding It all begins to crumble

The open and the secret The silence and the noise The profane wrapped in sacred The quiet informs the voice

The salute and the worship The body and the soul Resolute and with purpose Drink water from the bowl

On the carpet, on the sand The wall…

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Four posters inspired by Rumi

Four posters inspired by Rumi

If there is one poet that can speak to the heart of spirituality with a timeless relevance and cutting across different persuasions, then Rumi is most certainly the master. Raised on stories of his life by my dad, I have only really begun to make sense of Mevlana Jalalluddin Rumi recently.

His poem below hit such a chord with me, that I named my guitar ‘Rumi’:

Today, like every other day, we wake…

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Commemorating Johnny Issel in design

Commemorating Johnny Issel in design

In 2011, on 23 January, an icon of the struggle for freedom and democracy in South Africa passed away. Johnny Issel was not just central to the formation of the United Democratic Front, he also played a critical role in the life of so many community organisations and activists from that era. I cut my teeth in media at Grassroots Publications that would not have existed if not for Johnny.

It was…

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Auguries of Innocence is a poem of 132 lines by William Blake, possibly written in 1803 but published in 1863. It is the first four verses, however, that found popularity.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour

I studied the poetry of Blake when I was at university and committed a number of verses from his works to memory. Years later, a good friend and mentor, Zane Ibrahim reminded of the above four lines to help me see the light at a time of emotional turmoil.

It is to honour that moment that I have designed the following poster series.

To see a world in a grain of sand Auguries of Innocence is a poem of 132 lines by William Blake, possibly written in 1803 but published in 1863.