‘Equiknoxx, Eternal Children’ is a visual accompaniment to Jamaican collective Equiknoxx's first group album, from which the film takes its name. The 8-minute short features several tracks from the record, along with original music and lyrics written specially for the film.
Filmmakers Eóin MacManus and Neirin Jones traveled to Kingston—Equiknoxx’s home base—in June 2019 to spend time with the group (Gavsborg, Time Cow, Bobby Blackbird, Shanique Marie and Kemikal) on the cusp of the album’s release. The resulting footage became the basis of the project. A collage of 16mm film, video tape, still photography and animation, the film showcases Equiknoxx within the streets of the city that birthed dancehall music, and gave the world soundsystem culture.
Performance and documentary footage collide with wild ‘Limonious in a rubber hose style’ animations by Venezuelan artist Gustavo Dao, making for a hybrid film that defies easy categorization — much like Equiknoxx themselves. Colorful voiceover is provided by dancehall icons Ward 21 and Screechy Dan, while Gavsborg meditates on the album’s meaning and the nature of creativity itself.
“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect. But by the play instinct acting from inner necessity”