Toby Tatum

A Spell in Fairyland

Tarry, for a while, in the realms beyond the screen - in landscapes of spacial and temporal estrangement. See moons hang suspended in rain-soaked grottos and watch golden-winged creatures flit through the improbable dream-spaces of an adjacent world.

The Nursery of Worlds

From chaos, cosmos arises. Emanating from a cache of Mini DV and HDV material, gathered a decade earlier, The Nursery of Worlds has arisen like a mirage - a hallucination composed of overlapping sheets of translucent imagery.

The Visitation

A torrent of alien lights pours through a rupture in a darkening, terminal world. The Visitation features an original soundtrack by composer Abi Fry.

The Blue Flower

A blue flower blooms on the threshold of the infinite. The Blue Flower features an original soundtrack by composer Abi Fry.

The Butterfly

A warped genesis begins in a paradoxical underwater firestorm, birthing a primal jungle where emergent life hangs suspended in tangles of dripping, vibrant green.

The Garden

Toby Tatum's "The Garden" opens a window onto a realm of enchantment. Here wraiths flicker on moss-bearded rocks, rain washes the spoor-filled air and metamorphic flowers glow with supernatural potency. In this place beyond the screen time languidly dilates, returning us to new rhythms. Here priorities of scale shift, allowing the microcosmic world of small things to assume larger proportions. As darkness descends a surging aurora of prismatic colour arises, dancing on the threshold between worlds.

Night on the Riverbank

The little creatures of the riverbank emerge to bask in the glow of an enchanting moon. Toby Tatum's Night on the Riverbank was created through reworking footage from a forgotten B&W children’s programme. Night on the Riverbank features a magical new score by composer Abi Fry.

Blacklands

A haunting journey through a succession of weird landscapes, where paradoxical ruins are darkened by obscure foreboding and unearthly creatures hover on a threshold between worlds.

The Loom

A place of webs and shadows, where time slows and a strange music signals enchantment. The Loom features an eerie soundtrack by composer Abi Fry, produced by recording the otherworldly sounds issuing from an Aeolian harp. The Aeolian harp, an instrument played solely by the wind, was a prime symbol of the Romantic era. It was thought to have been originally invented by Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680) who was also lowered into the crater of Vesuvius, tried to construct a world language, and studied Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Aeolian harp that features in The Loom was made especially for the film by instrument maker James Parry. Toby Tatum’s film “The Loom is a disturbing work that will patiently involve the spectator in its web” Curtas Vila Do Conde, 2019 festival catalogue.

The Loom

A place of webs and shadows, where time slows and a strange music signals enchantment. The Loom features an eerie soundtrack by composer Abi Fry, produced by recording the otherworldly sounds issuing from an Aeolian harp. The Aeolian harp, an instrument played solely by the wind, was a prime symbol of the Romantic era. It was thought to have been originally invented by Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680) who was also lowered into the crater of Vesuvius, tried to construct a world language, and studied Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Aeolian harp that features in The Loom was made especially for the film by instrument maker James Parry. Toby Tatum’s film “The Loom is a disturbing work that will patiently involve the spectator in its web” Curtas Vila Do Conde, 2019 festival catalogue.

Lost Gardens

Glimpse phantasmagoric gardens: warped, improbable and fantastic. An abandoned Eden has grown strange.

The Toby Tatum Guide to Grottoes & Groves

Enter a landscape of curious subtle enchantment, where sentient shadows brood and magic shines resplendent in streams of illuminated water. The Toby Tatum Guide to Grottoes & Groves features an original soundtrack by composer Abi Fry.

Mental Space

A vision in a dream. Follow a stream of consciousness deep into a world transformed by the shaping spirit of the imagination.

Mental Space

A vision in a dream. Follow a stream of consciousness deep into a world transformed by the shaping spirit of the imagination.

Monsters

A monstrous garden, where stone dinosaurs are enlivened by rampant foliage and gargantuan flowers.

The Green Mind

Enter The Green Mind, where lizards pose in secret grottoes, bats circle twilit jungles and snakes entwine amongst flowers.

A World Assembled

A World Assembled represents Toby Tatum's creation of an improbable realm, stitched together from a kit of warring elements into a fantastic whole.

The Secluded Grove

A pastoral dream-zone of autumnal forests and dark abiding groves conjured with the hallucinatory intensity of a death-bed reverie. The Secluded Grove features an original soundtrack by composer Abi Fry.

The Subterraneans

A series of visions relayed through a heightened consciousness. These views frame the shadowy recesses that offer access to the underworld and draw us closer to the presences that lurk beyond these thresholds.