Brannigan's march

Knudsen, E

Abstract

On losing his job, Philip Brannigan finds himself unable to return home to face the family with his news. His entire material world is about to collapse. In his confused state, and challenged by an elderly stranger, he adopts a religious sandwich board found in the park where he has spent the night.

And so begins his journey across the UK.

What at first seems like the aimless wandering of a confused man, gradually turns into a specific march towards Brannigan's childhood home. It is a journey carried out on foot over a period of five or six days and one that takes him from the west of England to the east coast. On this journey, Brannigan experiences a number of encounters which are fuelled by the message on his sandwich board: "The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth". These are experiences that range from the sublime to the brutal, the mundane to the revelatory. They are experiences and encounters that reveal a changing external social landscape, as well as an evolving inner spiritual world.

Arriving on the east coast, Brannigan is faced with the reality that there is no home to go back to, no past in which to take shelter, and in his deepest moment of despair he discovers, through his interaction with the sea that destroyed his childhood home, a new strength and a new way of understanding his life.

This is an experiential story: we are invited to immerse ourselves in the detail of Brannigan’s experience and to see the imagery of the everyday contemporary world in a mythological and mystical light.

Citation

Knudsen, E. (2004). Brannigan's march

• Digital Artefact Type: Video
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2004
• Deposit Date: May 11, 2010
• Publisher URL: http://www.onedayfilms.com/page/brannigans