Docuseek | Blood Manifesto

A sharp knife cuts the hand of filmmaker Theodore Ushev. A thin stream of his blood comes to life on a white page.All over the world, idealist revolutionaries shed their blood to denounce injustices. Yet blood is also the very symbol of life. Sketches drawn using the filmmaker's own blood explore this paradox. Why fight for ideals, noble though they may be, if you must die for them in the end? Are rebellion and insurrection egotistical deeds, or are they lessons in pure altruism? These complex and important questions nourish Ushev's musings.In Blood Manifesto, this Canadian of Bulgarian origin signs a violent, brutal and troubling political statement in his own blood and narrates it in his own gravelly voice. Poetic and philosophical, the film remains lucid but fundamentally disillusioned and cynical. The viewer comes away from this dance of symbols shaken and subtly changed.

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Main credits

Ushev, Théodore (film director)
Ushev, Théodore (screenwriter)
Ushev, Théodore (animator)
Ushev, Théodore (performer)
Page, Marcy (film producer)
Popović, Jelena (film producer)

Other credits

Sound designer, Luigi Allemano; foley, Karla Baumgardner; recording/re-recording, Geoffrey Mitchell.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

Animated films; Blood; Dying; Ideologies; Philosophical perspectives; Poetic impressions; Political viewpoints; Rebellions; Revolutionary movements; "Blood Manifesto"; National Film Board of Canada; animation; anishort

WEBVTT

00:00:13.041 --> 00:00:15.542
(man): My blood...

00:00:17.708 --> 00:00:20.583
My blood never lies.

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My blood carries all my secrets.
(heartbeat)

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I can hear its murmurs
in my arteries,

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its incessant monologue.

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(man whistling)

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(people shouting)

00:00:36.667 --> 00:00:41.166
Like water meadows,
boulevards are flooded.

00:00:41.625 --> 00:00:43.417
My blood says
you are more,

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and you are less.

00:00:44.166 --> 00:00:47.417
My blood is real.
My blood is dangerous.

00:00:47.417 --> 00:00:51.708
It breaks my trust,
hanging from heavens.

00:00:51.708 --> 00:00:57.125
Where the wound lies
I\'ve never understood.

00:00:57.250 --> 00:00:59.667
Out of rust,
so passionate,

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impossible to touch.

00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:08.625
My blood is all I\'ve ever known.

00:01:08.625 --> 00:01:13.959
My blood is a burnt field
of roses never grown.

00:01:13.959 --> 00:01:16.417
My blood, an open throne.

00:01:16.417 --> 00:01:19.250
A revolution,
slaughtered as a pig,

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into the palms of a predator.

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My blood is made of love.

00:01:24.583 --> 00:01:26.542
My body\'s made of hate.

00:01:26.542 --> 00:01:30.875
The passing youth,
the ruining old.

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Blood to ashes, ashes to soil,

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soil to love, love to seeds,
seeds to drops.

00:01:38.500 --> 00:01:42.834
Blood to ashes, ashes to soil,

00:01:42.834 --> 00:01:46.917
soil to love, love to seeds,

00:01:46.917 --> 00:01:48.792
seeds to drops.

00:01:48.792 --> 00:01:51.333
Blood to ashes,

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ashes to soil,

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soil to love, love to seeds,

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seeds to drops.

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Drops of my blood...

00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:05.250
(whistling)

00:02:05.250 --> 00:02:08.000
Subtitling: CNST, Montreal

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Blood Manifesto

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