PJ Harvey and Seamus Murphy
Murphy’s career in photojournalism took him all over the world, from Afghanistan to the Balkans and, more recently, Syria. One day, PJ Harvey crossed his path. They decided to work together.
A Dog Called Money is an unlikely film made by an unlikely pair. How did it come about?
Polly Jean Harvey came to my exhibition in 2008, and she later contacted me. She was doing research for what became Let England Shake, an album she wrote first through lyrics, which dealt with the First World War and the British Empire. When I returned from trips to Afghanistan and Iraq, we met to brainstorm, and she asked me to direct a few videos for that album.Â
So there was some mirroring between your interests and hers?
Yes. She sent me some demos, and I immersed myself in her music (which I hardly knew then). I directed two videos then we finally decided to create one for each track on the record. I went back to my travels and my photography work, but our collaboration went so well that we decided to try something else.
Since I travel a lot, I felt like taking her with me. That idea came about in 2012 – it dawned on me, and she said yes. Our first trip to what became that film was in Kosovo. We realised that collaborating on music on one side and a film on the other would work.
It feels like you were constantly experimenting: during the trips, filming PJ when she was writing her notes, and when she was recording her album Hope Six Demolition Project at Somerset House. Is it what happened, or did you plan this?
We first went on a few trips. She was trying to write an album and the film was my side. I read her notebook from the time we travelled before I went to Somerset House and decided when to record and film certain songs. One thing I knew was that I didn’t want a camera following her, and I didn’t want to interview her. She agreed with that.
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We knew instinctively where our boundaries were. We didn’t want to interfere with the other’s creative process, but we were always open to discussion and collaboration. We talked a lot. I was dealing with another artist as an artist myself, a filmmaker. The management never intervened; I stayed away from the music industry until the very end and the last part of the editing.
So it’s pretty clear that it is your film, and not her movie, or a film about her?
PJ is a person with no ego. She’s very humble and doesn’t acknowledge fame. From the beginning, she said: “This is your film.” She even refused to be on the poster at first! We worked with a meagre budget and total independence. It was an artistic experience and an exploration with no frame or limitation. An immediate experience.
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The scenes are set in Kosovo, Afghanistan, London and then in Washington DC, in the neighbourhood of Anacostia. It subliminally represents a dialogue between the West and the East, was that decided on purpose?
As we talked about places like Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo and what was happening in the world, it seemed obvious that the world is so divided into places as much as people. So we decided to go to DC, the centre of Western power – not to show some shiny rich places, but to be honest about some places of neglect that exist, suffering created by the same government that went to war in Afghanistan or Iraq. By contrast, in Kosovo, most citizens are very grateful to the US. They adore Bill Clinton or Tony Blair. ‘Tonyblair’ – in one word! – has been used for babies’ names there… So it’s all about these contrasts.
Some would say A Dog Called Money is a political film, in the deep sense, I would say that. Do you agree?
I believe everything is political, so, of course, of course. But it’s not overtly political. The title came from a real dog in Anacostia named ‘Money’. It’s much more like poetry. It’s how I assembled the film, some images and sounds of chaos. The relevance is in the connections between all the places we went to. I didn’t try to deliver a message or to push my point of view but to deliver ideas artistically. I hope a message can come across, but it’d be very humane and fragile.
A little like the figure of PJ Harvey walking in the streets of Kaboul…?
Indeed. She looks so small, almost like a spirit, but we both always felt it was important to be there. For Polly, it was almost about smelling the Earth, being present, stop relying on books and magazines to connect with the rest of the world. First, she was writing, then came the travels. Then her writing evolved differently, and my film came to life.
A Dog Called Money is available to stream now.
