Relict: A Phantasmagoria (2020)

Two-channel experimental documentary expanded cinema performed with magic lanterns & hand-drawn animation projections.

35-minutes  [magic lantern projection, handmade 65mm film magic lantern slides, digital projection, pre-recorded audio, and fog machine]

Relict: A Phantasmagoria is an experimental documentary performed with antique magic lanterns and hand-drawn animation.  Invoking the history of magic lantern phantasmagoria as an exercise in belief and perception, Relict considers the zeitgeist of pseudoscience, fake news, religion, and documentary ethics collapsed within contemporary cryptozoology.

Adapting modern cryptozoological lore such as Bigfoot hunts and the Loch Ness Monster to hand-drawn magic lantern slides, Relict employs the visual language of magic lantern phantasmagoria through slides based on antique designs, including geared slides and dissolving views.  These pre-cinematic images are infused with the aesthetics of veracity in current nonfiction filmmaking, including CGI speculative animated documentary, thermal imaging, and interventions of rotoscoped documentary re-enactment.  The narration on skeptical cryptozoology is nested in a collage of audio including interviews with Dr. Brian Regal (Keane University), a leading historian of science on the politics of skepticism in cryptozoology; recent creationist sermons; and excerpts of pseudoscientific wildlife documentaries ranging from Disney’s infamous White Wilderness (1958) to the Discovery Channel’s Mermaids (2012).

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cryptozoology noun

cryp·​to·​zo·​ol·​o·​gy | \ ˌkrip-tə-zō-ˈä-lə-jē  , -zə-ˈwä-\

The study of and search for animals and especially legendary animals (such as Sasquatch) usually in order to evaluate the possibility of their existence.

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Performances

Excerpts performed at:

 

Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles

Automata L.A. | Dissolving Sights: Projection Exhibition

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WIP Performance: 

San Diego Underground Film Festival

 

Press: KPBS San Diego Interview

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Credits

 

Director

Melissa Ferrari

Magic Lantern Slides

Melissa Ferrari & Benni Quintero

Animation

Melissa Ferrari, Jessica Goh, Sammy Lamb

Sound Mix

Craig Smith

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65mm Film 

FotoKem

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Music

Largo by Johann Abraham Peter Schulz.

Performed by Thomas Bloch on glass harmonica.

Courtesy of Naxos of America, Inc.

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Interview

Dr. Brian Regal. Keane University.

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Sermon

“Cryptozoology in the Bible.” Pastor Jason Robinson.

Mountain Baptist Church. West Virginia, October 21, 2018. 

Courtesy of archive.org.

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Archival Audio from archive.org

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