You Don't Have To Go Home, But: Documentary Title, DVD & Zine Design
My approach to this project was to think of the titles and credits as representing both the dancers themselves and the lights inside night clubs – brightly coloured and always in motion.
This Blackstar Film Festival featured documentary by Aidan Un is an ode to dancing bodies, a grimy love letter to Philadelphia, a story about what to do when the DJ has played the last song, the club’s lights have come on and you gotta go . . . somewhere. Following three dancers at different stages of their lives, with legendary Philly dance party Second Sundae as backdrop, this documentary film examines the possibility of spiritual fulfilment in a socioeconomic configuration that ultimately doesn’t value the practices that make us free.
Title, credits and classic footage animations by Bret Syfert (@hydeslovelies). Thank you to Aidan Un for trusting my vision of his vision. Thank you to Steve Believe for the introduction and support. To be a creative contributor to this intimate portrayal of the Philadelphia dance scene so many years after being born from it was a gratifying gift in itself.
I modelled the hand written and animated credits at the end of the film on the Tallhand Punchline font created by myself and Curve (@the_curvazoid), an appropriate choice due to the Second Sundae event's long standing use of our Tallhand fonts in their promotions.
"[A] stunning piece of nonfiction ... an essential document of dance as an act of collectivism and artistry, and of Philadelphia as a hub of Black culture." – Celia Mattison for Impulse Magazine
"[An] impeccably composed film-essay … a poised, thumping, esoteric theorization of working-class collective survival through dance." – Sophie Lewis for e-flux
"Un took an immersive approach to documentation and cinematography. You Don’t Have To Go Home, But… is captured almost entirely with his handheld camera, which requires him to become a part of the cipher." – Caitlin Green for cinéSPEAK