SFCINEMATHEQUE

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Sunday, November 19, 2000

Stereoscopic 16mm Film, Spirit Photographs & Early Cinema

San Francisco Art Institute





“My on-going project is an investigation into the relationship between imagination and moving image technology. Shadow Land…, a stereoscopic 16mm film, is based on the 1897 autobiography of Elizabeth d’Espérance, a materializing medium who could produce full-body apparitions. It shows how one might think of a medium as a kind of “mental projector” and the phantoms as representations of her psychic reality. While 20th century cinema can be described as a “window onto another world”. The 19th century conceived of specters that could cross over into our own world. Hence my decision to photograph with a stereo camera. I will screen the film in conjunction with source material that inspired it, including several rare turn-of-the-century spiritualist films, and slides of spirit photographs from 1870-1915.” (Z. Beloff)