The Third Culture Kid a Film by Paige Fiddes and Masa Mara
When the sun tells you to face north to seek the essence of who you are. And the moon directs you to the ground to find your feet, where do you source the bits and pieces that construct who lies at your core? Where should the child who finds themselves in between spaces and nowhere seek? Who has the answers? In which bodies of water and roots of trees, should the third culture kid uncover themselves? Who do they ask?
The Story of a Third Culture Kid is a fashion film that accompanies a voice that third culture kids could listen to in seeking. Told by Paige Fiddes and Masa Mara, the film is more than just an array of Masa Mara’s line. It is the narrative of looking to the sun and the moon and finding yourself between the stars. In addition, the monologue that drives the film takes us on a journey where we explore the relationship between our inward identity and fashion. And for the third culture kid, in telling their story, it becomes the place where they can unroot their core.
A Journey in Nature
Narrated in nature, The Story of a Third Culture Kid, opens with a lens fixed on a model’s facial features. The remaining three minutes and thirty something seconds are visual expressions of where we assume the Third Culture Kid finds themselves. This is everywhere yet somewhere unknown.
We see the soles of feet kissing the roots of grass. The tears of a sea and where it cries on the shoulders of rocks. Hands and grass as well as grass, something that looks like weeds, and the motion of fingers. Walking. Exploring. Man with people yet feeling alone. A Third Culture Kid among other kids when when really he is alone. And as we continue on the journey, we never leave nature. We walk landscapes with the models and reach many places between spaces.
We watch a journey on this journey too. And when we stop, we believe we do not stop at a permanent destination though. Where Fiddes and Mara make us stop is what we see as a conversation between who lies under the ground and whose feet lie on the ground. In African culture, when we talk to our ancestors, we kneel. In addition, the emblematic beads, mat and the burning of sage in the film are a source of a third culture kid’s core. Who we are lies in those who have gone. And the narrator of this film makes this clear to us in his monologue.
A story in the garments
Throughout the journey we take on this film, the models wear Masa Mara’s garments. We believe that this an attachment to the identity of the Third Culture Kid’s story. Our reasoning lies in our knowledge of the dance between African culture and fashion. If this Third Culture Kid is a child whose sun or moon is found in African skies, then Mara’s colourful prints in his line are an accompaniment to the voice that tells this story. In other words, his line is fitting to tell the Story of a Third Culture Kid. For us, the prints and the colours are a portrayal of the many influences and places that the Third Culture Kid has traveled. The story is in the clothes itself.
Watch the film here: https://youtu.be/CvRlHjb-UTc
