A NIGHT OF RUSHES

– A day in the life of a director in search of a consent-based rehearsal method

A Night of Rushes is an experimental presentation by director and artistic researcher Johannes Maria Schmit, developed as part of his doctoral research project at Stockholm University of the Arts. By means of a film screening, a lecture and a scenic reading, Schmit and his collaborators invite the audience into a critical discussion on consent-based rehearsal methods.

The evening revisits a film shoot in which the framework of a “film take” was re-purposed as a “three-minute game” from Betty Martin’s “Wheel of Consent”. The result was a collection of “rushes” – raw, unedited film material – now re-examined one year later.

Focusing on desire, boundaries, and the agency of the unconscious, the project explores how consent-based practices can shape artistic processes. As a narrative backdrop, the controversial case of Jane Gallop – a feminist literary theorist accused of sexual harassment – has served the ensemble to highlight the dialectic of content and method when “shooting on the Wheel of Consent.”