Wood

Wood is a short experimental music video / film based on an original song by Disparition, extending the conceptual framework of the album 1989 into a cinematic form. Where the album constructs a detailed aural narrative of the final days of the Communist era in Eastern Europe—drawing on 1980s-era synthesizer compositions, archival samples from the Romanian Revolution, and modern found sound—the film translates this approach into image. Through a stark assemblage of found footage from the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Wood examines historical collapse, state violence, and the fragility of memory. The short film includes footage sourced from Archive.org and YouTube.

Created in October 2009, the film mirrors the album’s method and mood, refusing linear narrative in favor of accumulation, repetition, and rupture. Operating as both political meditation and elegy, Wood asks how histories of revolution are constructed, mediated, and forgotten.

Content Warning: This film contains graphic images and videos of the violence and death that occurred under the totalitarian regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu.

Directed by Deepthi Welaratna (USA)