Bill Domonkos and Helen Harder (a.k.a. Eleanor Sugg)

Bill Domonkos is an award winning experimental filmmaker and media artist. His work has been broadcast and exhibited internationally in cinemas, film festivals, galleries and museums.

Helen Harder (a.k.a. Eleanor Sugg) was born in 1918. She was a flight instructor in the Woman’s Army Air Corps during WWII. Her other interests included writing poetry, astrology and spirituality. After the war, she raised a son as a single mother. She died in 1984.

From Helen Harder’s Archive

The Poppy (2009)

The Poppy is a short experimental film by Bill Domonkos inspired by the poetry of Eleanor Sugg. Using a combination of manipulated archive film footage, digital animation and special effects, the film evokes an inner landscape of poetic juxtapositions, exploring themes of identity, isolation, longing and alienation.

“My experience with the archive was initially very unsettling. I felt as if I had stepped into a stranger’s house and started rummaging through their drawers. I was immediately attracted to all the deeply personal poetry Helen wrote. Some of the titles were ‘Melancholia,’ ‘The Poppy,’ ‘Gloom,’ ‘Mediation of a Lonely Heart,’ ‘Soliloquy of Despair,’ ‘Invocation to Death,’ and “Madness,’ to name a few. As someone attracted to the darker side of human nature, I found Helen’s personal, uncompromised poetic voice captivating.”

– Bill Domonkos