Sarah Kasher has used her emotions as a guide for her art since the creation of her debut film, “Bottled Up.” She creates melancholic films as a platform to both escape and explore her emotions. Common symbols and motifs proliferate her work, such as extended use of water, which exhibits a beautifully temporal effect on material, a certain manipulation of light that can only be captured on film, and an obsession and fascination with the word ‘love.’ Beyond her past work, she is eager to explore other sides of film making. Her films stem from pain, and she is ready to explore films which stem from growth, happiness, anger and humor. To her, sadness is “monstrously monotone” at times.

In one of her more controversial opinions, she does not believe in a cohesive, perfectly linear plot thread for her films. She writes, “my films are open to thematic interpretation, with a particular focus on stylistic presentation around a core idea or emotion.” To this end, she strives to include music, which she finds compelling. “I usually start with a song, then play with ideas to the motions of the song and try to come up with something comparable to work of filmmakers like David Fincher when he directed for Madonna. I rarely ever start with a plot line in mind, though they sometimes develop. Music is the cornerstone to my creative brain.” This hampers her slightly because it disallows her from entry into many competitions, but she still opts to use music as a way to coordinate her films with an external rhythm.

As a film student in Capetown, South Africa whose passion is visual art, her time at The University of Cape Town has left her with mixed emotions about which she writes: “The University of Capetown is at its heart an academic institution – the projects offered are largely academic in nature, comprising papers, tests and exams; all of which make it difficult to express my creativity. However, I managed to create a portfolio during my undergraduate studies, despite the limited amount of time I had to do so… Creating visual art and design is something which helps me mentally.”

Vimeo: Sarah Kasher