Canadian Premiere
Camera Lucida

Topology of Sirens

Directed by Jonathan Davies

Hosted by Director, Jonathan Davies and Producer, Tyler Toarmina.

Credits  

Official selection

FID Marseille 2021
Black Canvas Contemporary Film Festival 2021
Chicago Underground Film Festival 2021
Sarasota Film Festival 2022
Jeonju International Film Festival 2022

Director

Jonathan Davies

Producer

David Croley Broyles, Meredith Cohen, Tyler Taormina, Sergio Uguet de Resayre

Writer

Jonathan Davies

Cast

Sarah Davachi, Whitney Johnson, Jeff Kober, Samantha Robinson, Courtney Stephens

Cinematographer

Carson Lund

Sound Designer

Jonathan Davies

Editor

Carson Lund

contact

Omnes Films

USA 2021 105 mins OV English

“An offbeat combination of erudite esoterica and sensory pleasures”
- Neil Young, SCREEN DAILY

Cas (Courtney Stephens), an academic and amateur musician, moves into her aunt’s old home. The discovery of a mysterious hurdy-gurdy—a hand-cranked, fiddle-like string instrument popular during the Renaissance—prompts another: microcassette tapes nestled in the instrument, labeled with cryptic symbols, and containing stranger, abstract soundscapes. Cas’s curious detective story begins, an investigation and pilgrimage through the lush landscape of a charming California town populated by post-hippie audiophiles, musical experimentalists, analog tinkerers, community TV VJs, niche luthiers and conservationists of things both old and beautiful—a myriad of encounters that invite her to reflect on her on own history and practice.

An Omnes Films production (HAPPER’S COMET, also among this year’s selections, and HAM ON RYE), TOPOLOGY OF SIRENS is a fantastical, shimmering debut from music supervisor-turned-director Jonathan Davies. Overtly inspired by ‘90s PC point-and-click adventure games such as Myst, yet seemingly operating like a once-removed, sun-kissed subversion of L.A.-set noirs (think an airier, female-led LONG GOODBYE), TOPOLOGY seems to exist outside of time and worldly preoccupations. A balm for weary souls, it takes the call of its titular sirens as both narrative logic and supernatural destination. And as Davies unveils one clue at a time, we begin to hear and see the world like his protagonist. For audiophiles and fans of works such as Sara Adina Smith’s THE MIDNIGHT SWIM or Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s MEMORIA, here is a film perfectly attuned to life’s mysteries, and to the frame of mind necessary to discover them. – Ariel Esteban Cayer