Video

Libeau’s visual aesthetics tow the line of discomfort and delicate touch, an obsessive ongoing game of sensory roulette. Whether directing video work for her own projects or those of others, Libeau/Magee revels in the tensions between “poor” and “wealthy” technologies and images. Sumptuously shot clips are perturbed by their unsettling or mundane contents.

Libeau’s video work seizes on the contingencies of poor-quality “found” footage (often calling to the cultural landscape of their home country Aotearoa New Zealand) and the possibilities of chop-up methods. Technologies at hand are embraced with vigor: low-resolution handy-cam work parallels the DIY / “amator” philosophies that pervade Libeau’s work and those of their peers. This echoes Maya Deren’s treatise that “the most important part of your equipment is yourself”.

Weird Weather
i.e. crazy

dir. Frances Libeau

From the album Country Justice

Country Justice
i.e. crazy

dir. Holly Mia

From the album Country Justice

Praying Mantis
i.e. crazy

dir. Maggie Magee (aka Claire Duncan)

From the album Non Compos Mentis, released in 2017 on Muzai Records.

Praying Mantis features chop-up collaged visuals of the sensuous and the squeamish - a comforting lick of toffee, the soft twinkle of perfectly manicured nails on a desktop, or the garish bright splash of blood on pink butcher’s scrubs. Directed and intuitively edited by Maggie Magee, the video comprises footage of serious ASMR YouTubers ASMRTHECHEW & ASMRDeutscheVita, as well as a spread of other dubiously obtained material. A song musing on the cannibalistic nature of sexual appetite, Praying Mantis sees fluids spilled, spent, sucked and swallowed, limbs ingested and rejected, bodies fused together as in Medusian stone - death, stasis; immortality.

The Ape (Plastic Surgery Song)
i.e. crazy

dir. Literal Fuck (aka Claire Duncan & Veronica Crockford-Pound)

DOP – Joseph Griffen
Editor – Luke McPake

Performed by Maggie Magee with:
Vodka Mocktail
Bitch on Bike 
Spag Bol Malaise
Betty Blooper

From the album Non Compos Mentis, released in 2017 on Muzai Records.

An Incident on the Edge of Town
i.e. crazy

dir. Maggie Magee (aka Claire Duncan)

Featuring footage from "Housing in New Zealand", produced by Public Works Department Film Unit in 1945 (AAOJ W5034/1798).

Extra footage shot by Sean Kelly at Bach 62.

From the album Non Compos Mentis, released in 2017 on Muzai Records.

"A nation’s prosperity isn’t measured in exports and show and false fronts. It’s in the way people live and how much sun they get... where the kids grow up and how sanitation works.”

You’re a Stranger (to me now)
i.e. crazy

dir.  Claire Duncan.
Starring Maggie Magee.

Shot by Sean Kelly at Bach 62.

From the album Non Compos Mentis, released in 2017 on Muzai Records.

Bury
Seth Frightening

Made by Claire Duncan at Bach 62

Seth Frightening performing 'Bury'

From the album But We Love Our Brothers and Sisters, 2015

Land of the Long White Stain
A Love Letter to Music on the Margins

ft. 

Seth Frightening
Shab Orkestra
i.e. crazy
Girls Pissing on Girls Pissing

Lumière Industries 2015

Written and Directed by Claire Duncan
Produced by Melinda Jackson
Director of Photography: Joe Hitchcock
Editor: Luke McPake
Series Producer: Tim Wong

“Claire Duncan’s ‘love-letter to music on the margins’ punctures the romantic view of the touring musician (with withering narration playing over images of rural backwaters) while simultaneously affirming the virtues of self-expression, and the special transience of live performance. Featured are interviews and arresting performances from some of NZ’s most singular new artists: Seth Frightening, i.e. crazy (the director’s musical alias) and Girls Pissing On Girls Pissing.“

– NZ on Screen