Part 8

You are going to read an article about an artist who made a film which shows her daughter Billie between the ages of eleven and eighteen. For questions 47-56, choose from the sections (A-D). The sections may be chosen more than once. 

Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.

Which section mentions

[47]______] speculation as to the motives behind the project?

[48]______] praise for the choice of medium used?

[49]______] a difference in attitudes towards the project?

[50]______] a recollection which remains very vivid?

[51]______] details about personal habits which have remained constant?

[52]______] something which the artist wishes to retain?

[53]______] an assertion that the film contains a narrative element?

[54]______] details of how content to be included was approved?

[55]______] a reference to Billie's increased reluctance to reveal true feelings?

[56]______] factors which made Billie feel limited by the project?

Growing up on film

A When artist and film maker Melanie Manchot's daughter Billie was 11, Manchot had the idea of videoing her for just one minute every month until she turned 18. And when she proposed the idea to her daughter, the answer was an instant affirmative as Billie was familiar with the processes involved. She grasped the idea quickly,' Manchot says. 'To me, it was a commitment from the beginning. I wanted it to last for seven years. For Billie, it was much lighter - a "let's try it". Starting as Billie began her last term of primary school, the project slipped seamlessly into their routine. 'It was always at the beginning of the month, Billie back from school, at the end of my working day,' says Manchot. 'We'd go downstairs into the studio. I marked the spot where Billie would stand and where the camera would be and it stayed the same for seven years.

B How does Billie remember the process? She thought that overall it was not that bad though there were times when she was less keen. She says: 'You have to stay in the one spot and there's no sound, so you can't really do much. I think the fact that it was a film, not photos, made it more representative. You can pose for a quick photo but when you're standing there for a minute, it feels more like you. It wasn't digital, so I didn't really see it afterwards. We might film for a year and then it would be sent off to be developed. I didn't have a sense of what it would all be like.' Manchot was equally uncertain: 'I didn't see it for long periods and didn't know what it would become. Billie had veto rights all the way through. She could always tell me that she wanted something to stay private. Then that piece of film would become a portrait for us as a family.'

C Filming for the project finished as Billie turned 18. Shortly afterwards, Manchot was invited to exhibit it. It was as if the whole thing had been planned - the exhibition started five days before Billie was due to go away to university. 'I was looking back at all this film, seeing the years gone by, putting it into a sequence - and Billie was packing up her whole life, ready to leave,' recalls Manchot. The installation, 11/18, is an 18-minute sequence, with a screen for each year. 'There's no story,' says Manchot. 'But in a way, there is. It's the story of growing up.' Billie at 11 looks more playful, more relaxed. She laughs and yawns and shows things to the camera. The older Billie is more still, more wary, more steady and composed. There's the sense of an interior, a holding back. But still there's continuity. Certain gestures - the way she pushes back her hair and looks up, for example - survive from 11 into adulthood. In the final minute, all the images appear at the same time - all the Billies are present together. And then they are gone.

D What's striking for a parent is how fast we can forget our children's younger selves, how completely they vanish. Has making 11/18 helped Manchot hold on to every age and stage? 'When I see young children now, it seems such a distance,' she says. I remember Billie being six clearly and poignantly - we spent a month in Ibiza and I can almost project myself back to that time and see her and feel her, the size, the dimensions. But there are lots of times between that have disappeared because that's what time does - you can't hold on to it. I remember filming Billie so well - some of those memories are so powerful, what she wore, how she rolled up her T-shirt. The marks of where we had to stand are still there on the studio floor and I'm going to keep them there for ever. Maybe part of making this was to allow me as a mother and as an artist to stay more in touch with the many small moments that slip away.'