Can subjective consciousness be studied objectively? And what remains of us when our internal landscape fragments? Those are just two of the questions explored by the new feature film Conscious, about the mysteries of the brain from writer and director Suki Chan, a London-based artist and filmmaker. Her debut feature will world premiere on March 14 in the 23rd edition of CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival.
The film from Aconite Productions and Conscious Productions Studio looks at what it means to be conscious through the lens of dementia. As such, in Conscious, the mysteries of the brain meet the lived reality of the minds of three women navigating dementia. And neuroscientist Anil Seth, who has dedicated his career to studying consciousness, finds his professional and personal lives intersect as scientific questions become personal.
Taking audiences beyond what we see are unusual visuals and rich, textured soundscapes as Conscious invites viewers inside altered landscapes of awareness. The creative team promises “an optimistic, cinematic experience, taking us closer to understanding the strength and frailty of the human mind.”
Produced by Aimara Reques, Teresa Grimes and Chan, Conscious features cinematography by David Lee and Catherine Derry and music by Dominik Scherrer. Chan edited the film with Michael Ellis, an editor who is known for the likes of Hollywood blockbuster Superman, starring Christopher Reeve, and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Chris Parks (The Tree of Life, The Fountain) contributed microscopic cloud tank imagery. The film was financed by Screen Scotland, BFI/Doc Society and Sundance/Sandbox Films. Aconite Productions is handling sales.
THR talked to Chan and Ellis about Conscious and taking viewers inside the mysterious world of the human brain.
Suki, why did you want to make a film about dementia and how people navigate it, and how did your personal background and experiences play into it?
Chan I set out to make a film about the nature of consciousness, with dementia intended as one chapter. I was inspired by Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man, to view the human lifespan as a series of shifting stages of awareness – with dementia as a later stage of that journey.
My fascination with the brain stems from years of making work about perception, but it became more personal during my first pregnancy. I found myself wondering about my son’s sensorium inside the womb – what was his experience, and what was he aware of?
Growing up as the youngest of five, I have always been surrounded by older people. In Chinese culture, we have a proverb: “A family with an old person has a living treasure of gold.” I grew up caring for my grandmother and witnessed her gradual physical and mental decline. More recently, I have been navigating a similar journey with my own mother, who was diagnosed with dementia last year.
For me, I see human consciousness as a bell-shaped curve – rising in our early years and receding in our later ones. As an artist, I am drawn to these overlooked, taboo or transitional spaces of human experience. Rather than choosing a subject with a more immediate link to consciousness, such as locked-in syndrome, I was drawn to the complexities of dementia and the profound implications for how we understand the self.
I was so surprised to also hear the ladies featured in the doc mentioning things they like about the new them?! Did you learn things you didn’t expect and that surprised you?
I met Pegeen O’Sullivan during my artist residency at Belong care homes. I wanted to learn about the experiences of people living with dementia, and how their families and friends are impacted. It was a transformative experience, and Pegeen’s story really struck me – when she told me that she was no longer afraid. I became aware of another narrative of the dementia story – as well as stealing our memories, and dismantling the self, dementia can also rid us of our fear and childhood traumas.
Before I began my research, I shared the common assumption that dementia was about memory loss. It was inspiring to hear Wendy Mitchell speak about the “gifts of dementia.” Seeing someone find silver linings with such a cruel disease was incredibly empowering for me.
Wendy, who was once a very reserved and private person and talked about this “gregarious alien” she had become. Instead of the decline, I witnessed an expansive new way of being. Her world actually became larger through the people she met and the new experiences she had: from writing her Sunday Times bestseller books, being awarded two honorary doctorates and taking part in a wing walk (being strapped to the top of an airplane) to raise money for a charity, Minds and Voices. All this, she did after her dementia diagnosis.
To witness her transform adversity into a form of personal growth – especially when the public perception of the disease is so bleak – completely changed my perspective.
I loved how you mixed the science, the mystery and the human and very personal stories. Did you always know you wanted to mix these things, or did you start off with a different approach?
As an artist, I’ve always valued the freedom to weave together seemingly separate disciplines. I see science and philosophy not as distinct fields, but as different lenses through which we contemplate the same mysteries. Having been in dialogue with scientists for many years, I’ve realized that while we share a fundamental curiosity about the same subjects, we explore them towards different endpoints.
For this film, I wanted to highlight the parallels between the micro and macro, between biology and nature. Looking at the intricate architectures of the brain or the microscopic structure of the eye, it felt like I was looking at another world, the landscapes felt almost extraterrestrial. It made me realize that our brain is as vast and mysterious as deep space; we don’t need to look beyond the atmosphere to find new worlds – they are already within us.
I don’t know how best to describe it, but some of the visuals and soundscapes made me feel like you are taking me inside the mysterious world of the brain or into another dimension.
The visuals are intended to transport viewers to the inner worlds of the protagonists. With Wendy, we explored visual metaphors that could depict her changing experiences with dementia – of fog descending on the brain, what a bad day with dementia felt like, as well as the electric storms that break out in her brain.
I would create storyboards to show Wendy how I intended to depict her experiences emotionally. I remember on one visit, she told me how she recently had a really bad time with dementia, and it felt like one of the imageries I had created for our film. I knew immediately which she meant – the aerial shot of the U.K. at night, with networks of roads glistening and dying out composited in VFX to hint at the loss of neural connections.
How important was it for you to play with the storytelling forms and make it different from a traditional medical documentary?
I’ve never made a traditional medical documentary. As an artist, I’ve always played around with storytelling forms. Conscious allowed me to bridge the gap between experimental art and narrative cinema. I found that by leaning into a stronger narrative structure, it would help me to tell the stories that my protagonists have entrusted me to tell.
Through this film, I discovered that I really like the narrative structure and working with actors. It’s something that I’d love to do more of in the future.
And how did you collaborate with Michael Ellis on this?
I first spoke to Michael because I was trying to get a DCP (Digital Cinema Package) made. My gallerist at the time (and one of the producers for Conscious), Teresa Grimes, recommended that I speak with her friend Michael. I had no idea that he was the editor of the 1978 Superman with Christopher Reeve – a film I was captivated by as a child.
Later, I remember emailing him for some advice on how to cut down my film, Fog In My Head, from 45 minutes to 35 minutes for festivals. I think he said he would think about it. Two weeks later, he surprised me by sending over a re-cut version he’d worked on independently. I hadn’t expected that level of initiative, but I was incredibly grateful for his vision and collaboration.
We had such a natural rhythm in that process that we carried on with the same method into the feature – I assembled the initial edit from my script and how I had planned the shoots, and then Michael helped to refine the cuts and later helped shape the narrative structure.
Up until this point, I’ve always edited my own films, so it was wonderful to share this process with Michael, and I’ve learnt so much from working with him.
Michael, why did you want to work on Conscious, and what can you share about how you collaborated with Suki on its storytelling form, structure and visuals that are unlike any traditional medical documentary?
Ellis I looked at Suki’s work and was impressed by her strong visual sense, both as a camera operator and director. This film was a considerably extended version of her short film Fog in my Head, a beautifully composed compendium of interviews, landscape photography, and impressionistic microscopic cinematography, which serve to illustrate the states of mind of the protagonists. The combination of these elements, together with some atmospheric music by Dominik Scherrer, made for an engrossing experience.
My involvement began by advising and commenting on the work as it progressed, reacting to Suki’s assembly and trying to be constructive.
At one stage, we both had the material on hard drives and could exchange cut lists to keep synchronized, but there were a few bugs in our system, and ultimately it was clearly better to work from saved copies of the film.
Then, at a certain point towards the end, following some audience screenings, it was decided to try a new approach, so I did a radical reshuffle of the scenes to try to inject some dramatic tension and dynamism as far as possible. This narrative concept seemed to work well and gained general approval, and that’s the version to be seen now.
Did you have any models or inspirations you based the approach on, Michael? And how different do you see Conscious as being from your past work?
Ellis No, I have only done one other documentary, so I used my instincts and experience in other areas of film.
My history is exclusively in feature films, other than the one documentary, so it has been quite a different experience in most ways.
Suki, do you have any new film projects in the works?
Chan I’m currently at a fascinating crossroads. Part of me wants to continue my exploration into consciousness, expanding into AI or animal consciousness. However, I’m also feeling a strong pull towards a very different, more personal narrative project. It would be a project rooted in my own history – drawing on my memories of growing up and working in a Chinese takeaway from the age of 10.
Both paths feel right – one is a continuation of Conscious, and the other is a return to my roots and identity.
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