The pioneering director Mark Pellington first came to prominence during MTV’s golden age of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Creating a style led by the innate emotion of music and the darker side of pop culture, his zeitgeist-defining videos take in the hypnotic roaming buffalos of U2’s “One,” the ferocious cut-and-paste energy of Public Enemy’s “Shut ‘Em Down,” and the visceral, saturated colors of “Jeremy” by Pearl Jam. Pellington’s new film project, Honesty, is inspired by poet David Whyte’s liberating essay of the same name. Dealing with loss, powerlessness and fear, the work is more akin to a performance art piece, with 32 individuals invited to participate in an emotional purge and emancipation of grief. Here Pellington discusses what inspired him to interpret Whyte’s thesis. 

“The words written by David blew me away. They don't preach but they speak their own beliefs in a very strong and challenging way. Each person was cast randomly having no knowledge of the essay. They were only asked if they had experienced loss. They entered the room four at a time and were asked to simply walk forward, stand in front of the camera and listen to the soundtrack–the poem read by David accompanied by Jeff Rona’s sound design and score. 

“It was a beguiling and odd experiment. I had spent so much creative energy in the past 10 years exploring grief after the death of my wife and my mother. By seeing fresh grief and the processing of trauma in these subjects, some very raw, it aided me in reflecting on the universality of this deep feel-ing, and hence made me less isolated, less selfish, more compassionate and empathetic. It was freeing

“I've thought of releasing the footage as Honesty singles, to let the entire experience wash over you. Not a Warhol type of endurance film, but certainly three minutes of pure processing, seeing the shifts people took listening to the powerful words.”   

Ana Rosado is a freelance fashion and culture journalist based in London.