Inside their streetlamp-lit car, we meet Danisa “the Serpent” Martis, an Australian-South East Asian drag and performance artist. We learn that in the beginning, this car is where they used to apply their makeup before gigs — under a streetlight in a deserted carpark, for doing this in their family home was never an option.

As Danisa emerges from their car, they transform into a golden, shimmering entity. Channelling their internal struggles through expressive movement, we watch as they’re liberated from fears of familial perception, change and consequence; the car from which they once hid is now their stage, where they metamorphosise and assume their final form as a bursting light, a star.

A journey of freedom through the language of movement, BURST is a short movement film directed by Melle Branson in collaboration with cinematographer Tim Fitzgerald, editor Denzil Heeger and composer Louis Freye-Harvey, choreographed by Bobby Knox and commissioned by the Minderoo Foundation Artist Fund.