Finger in the Spring (2025), 14:48

• Director: Andie Madsen

• Camera: Andie Madsen

• Sound: Andie Madsen

• Editor: Andie Madsen

Artist Statement

When I pulled up to the Baptist Church Hall in Stroud to shoot with the dancers and musicians of Boss Morris, I had a plan. As a longtime fan of British folk horror films like The Wicker Man (1973) and  Penda’s Fen (1974), and newer takes on the genre like Midsommar (2019), I couldn’t wait to dive into the aesthetics of the ancient English folk dance that Boss practices. I wanted to make something strange and off-putting, an homage to these films that I loved so much. I was all the way across the Atlantic to shoot after all. 

But when I stepped inside the hall, I was greeted by a cacophony of laughter, fiddle music, and ideas for costumes and formations and Beasts (the huge animal costumes a dancer will sometimes wear during a performance) nearly bouncing off the walls. I spent the next six weeks with Boss, observing and documenting as they prepared for their second annual springtime festival: Finger in the Spring. Boss very kindly folded me into their world during that time. 

Unsurprisingly, the film quickly morphed into something much more joyous than I had anticipated. Boss’s natural humor and creativity transformed every shoot into something magical. The music of Miranda Rutter, Sam Sweeney, and Rob Harbron fill the project—well over half of the runtime, in fact—with life. Every shot was chosen with the love I developed for these incredible artists.

And the color grade was inspired by The Wicker Man.

My hope for the film is that the joy of artistic community, between the artists themselves, as well as with myself as filmmaker, comes through.