We Have Decided Not to Die Daniel Askill, 2004

“Impossible to capture in a neat formula, avant-garde cinema is recognisable by its efforts at self-expression or experimentation outside mainstream cinema.” In Daniel Askill’s 2004 film We have Decided not to Die we are introduced to the spectrum of experimental film’s absurdity from the get go by his choice of title. By placing something as defining as death in a non-concerned tone covered by the absurdity of ‘choice’, it instantly invites the audience into the film’s ironic experience of concern surrounding the matrix of humanity. Its three part nature of Birth, In between, and Rebirth are experiment with speed, green screen and time. The alienated woman, dressed in a white swim suit and held underwater only to in the Birth sequence connotes a Monroe effect and the seduction of birth’s prosperity. The water’s continuation of movement as opposed to the In Between car collision emphasise the production of nature as the visual tension of the crash will ultimately fall into a mechanical graveyard of nothingness. We Have Decided Not to Die acknowledges reality yet extends beyond the limit of the audiences’ experience and ability, setting up the film’s abstract and associated form. Askill’s experimental film symbiotically exploits the audiences’ experience allowing the non-conventional narrative and scenes to persuade each individual to create closure through their own imagination.