The Story
TAXI DRIVER is a film about the poetic reality of life behind the wheel: the beauty, the fear, the precariousness and the laughter for a woman taxi driver as night falls on the landscape of the West of Scotland. The film fearlessly meanders through a year of the Driver's life to share the times of bonding, secrets, utter terror and shared hope and laughter to show the reality of women's work under the most extreme​ conditions.
Supported by Creative Scotland and NEON NARUS Trust
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TAXI DRIVER short film will premiere in Scotland and across Europe in early 2023.
Further announcements will be made in due course.
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Photo Virginia Vassilakou
CAST
Jacqueline J Wilde actor
Karen Herbison - actor
Kat Hamilton - actor
Abbie Robertson - actor
Arabella Triton- child
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Director Virginia Vassilakou
Music VRGN
With special thanks to Jeannie-Marie Hamilton and Jodie McCue
Triptych INSTALLATION
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TAXI DRIVER Installation opened with great success at the SCOPE GALLERY in Paisley between 20-24 September 2022.
The TRIPTYCH created by VIRGINIA VASSILAKOU, comprises of three parts of a TAXI DRIVER's multifaceted experience. Night shifts interchanging with day shifts weaving into passengers's lives and diving further into their real fears and backstories. The taxi-as-motion and the taxi-as-rhythm are explored across the cinematic frames layered with disjointed dialogue and a music score by Virginia Vassilakou which highlights the fear, the claustrophobia and the uncertain borders between public and private space. The semi-immersive experience is designed to operate on the spectator's/participant's senses and memory and transgress the boundary of visual and acoustic affect.
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The TAXI DRIVER Installation aims to energise an artistic form of citizen advocacy for positive change and a wider commitment to reflective practice. The creator and cinematographer are both engaged in artistic practice with an activist perspective, generating empathy and passionate engagement and reaching audiences who otherwise would not habitually engage with art or performance. The COVID pandemic has further highlighted the energy of these initial proposals as well as the need to revisit the idea of space as a public/private topological enquiry.
Creatives
Virginia Vassilakou
Creative Direction. Cinematography, Music Virginia Vassilakou has a background in managing cultural & artistic projects. She has worked on severdi artistic endeavours such as multimedia artworks, music production, event curation, film editing, music scores, and more, and has built a multifaceted profile towards creative direction. She has collaborated with Effie on several cultural projects, involving movie creation, theatre productions and community projects.
Effie Samara
Writer and producer
Effie Samara is a doctoral researcher and UNESCO Affiliate Artist at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. Her work explores the dramaturges of exile in the contexts of democracy, justice and restorative art. She has written extensively in the areas of Human Rights, decolonising pedagogy and social justice and is the recipient of the Chancellor's Fund Award the European Cultural Foundation Award and the Playwrights' Studio Scotland Award. Her theatre and film work include SARTRE and the Poetic Constitution for Scotland supported by Cre
ative Scotland, Arts Council England, the University of Glasgow and the British Academy.