All for Claire is a short animated love story with a twist the action follows a young man called Lee as he tries to win the heart of the one he loves by offering her a beautiful rose. Each time he draws near to handing her the flower he stumbles into a trial. Claire's character tests and torments the love-struck male character Lee, who continues to pursue Claire. He is sent into unusual worlds and attacked by flying balls, trapped in a red maze, abandoned in a lost city and finally tossed around in a hail storm of blue boxes. Fearing ultimate rejection Lee sits on a rock and waits. Should the all-powerful Claire finally accept the red rose?
All for Claire is an animation that examines themes of power, control and rejection and seeks to challenge hegemonic discourse about disability. Working with internationally recognised dancer and disabled performer Claire Cunningham, motion capture technology was used to create an animation that effectively realised Cunningham’s unique movements. All for Claire was produced for Dadafest International 2010 and features internationally acclaimed disabled dancer and choreographer Claire Cunningham and has two different endings depending on presenter choice; acceptance and rejection.
All for Claire was sponsored by DaDaFest 10 International and BBC BigScreen. It was awarded Best Experimental Film at the UK’s Deaffest, Wolverhampton in May 2011. It has been screened internationally at Bosifest, Serbia 2011, New York City Film Festival, August 2011, Moving Image Film Festival, 2011, Animax Animation Festival, Skopje, November 2011 and Picture This Film Fest, Calgary, Canada, February 2012 All for Claire was shown on the BBC Big Screens in 21 locations nationwide in 2010 and 2011.
All for Claire was selected in 2019 for the British Film Institute (BFI) Disabled Britain on Film permanent collection, attesting to its importance in capturing and raising the visibility of disability art and culture.
Please view it below or go to the BFI website at https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-all-for-claire-2011-online.
The work was written, directed and produced by Simon Mckeown in 2010.
