Seances (film)

Seances grew out of Maddin's Hauntings project. Noah Cowan, a former director of the Toronto International Film Festival, told Maddin "he didn’t think it was possible to make art on the Internet", which "reminded [Maddin] of what people said about cinema when it was starting out, when the moviolas and kinetoscopes were considered artless novelties." However, Maddin abandoned this approach to the project to focus more fully on original script creation, partnering with writers Evan Johnson and Robert Kotyk, with additional writing by Maddin’s wife Kim Morgan and American poet John Ashbery. Maddin and Johnson also co-directed and shot, concurrently, a feature film titled The Forbidden Room, with the same writers. Although often misreported as the same project, The Forbidden Room “is a feature film with its own separate story and stars” while “Seances will be an interactive Internet project.” Many of the actors in Seances also appear in The Forbidden Room. ==Algorithmic storytelling==

Each viewer sees a unique film. Software designed by Halifax-based Nickel Media utilizes an algorithm to create the narrative from scenes shot by Maddin, to form a 10- to 13-minute film, each with a unique title. ==Launch==

On April 14, 2016, Seances was launched online as part of Tribeca Film Festival's Storyscapes program. ==List of "resurrected" films==

In addition to reimagining lost films, Maddin is also "resurrecting" projects that were planned but never filmed. Maddin has stated that he will not be parodying or otherwise mimicking the approach of the directors whose films he is reenvisioning, but rather tried to capture the imagined "spirits of the films, rather than of their directors." • Dream Woman (lost Alice Guy movie, 1914, USA) • Thérèse Raquin [or Shadows of Fear] (lost Jacques Feyder, 1928, Germany) • Gardener Boy Sought (lost George Schnéevoigt, 1913, Denmark) • Poto-Poto (unrealized Erich von Stroheim project) • Rausch [Intoxication] (lost Ernst Lubitsch, 1919, Germany) • The Strength of a Moustache (lost Mikio Naruse, 1931, Japan) • Lines of the Hand (unrealized Jean Vigo; his daughter Luce Vigo acted in this) • Over Barbed Wire (unrealized Aleksandr Dovzhenko, USSR) • Fist of a Cripple (lost Tetos Dimitriadis, 1930, Greece) • Blue Mountains Mystery (lost Lottie Lyell, 1921, Australia) • Idle Wives (lost Lois Weber, 1916) • Resurrection of Love (lost Kenji Mizoguchi, 1923, Japan) • Tararira (lost Benjamin Fondane, 1936, Argentina) • Bits of Life (lost Lon Chaney, Sr. & Anna May Wong, 1921, USA) • Ladies of the Mob (lost William Wellman) • Hello Pop! (lost Jack Cummings, 1933, USA) • Sperduto nel buio [Lost in the Dark] (lost Nino Martoglio, 1914, Italy) • The Blind Man (Alfred Hitchcock, unrealized) An additional film, How to Take a Bath (lost Dwain Esper sexploitation film, 1937, USA) was scripted by American poet John Ashbery and completed in 2010." Montreal The following works were refilmed at Centre PHI, Montreal, July 7–20, 2013. • Saint, Devil and Woman (Frederick Sullivan, 1916) • Tokyo’s Ginza District (Tsunekichi Shibata, 1898, Japan) • Gabriele, the Lamplighter of the Harbour (Elvira Notari, 1919, Italy) • Der Janus-kopf (F.W. Murnau, 1920, Germany) • Women Skeletons (Guan Heifeng, 1922, China) • Scout Day (Albert Tessier, 1929, Canada) • The Scorching Flame (1918, Armand Robin, Canada) • The Red Wolves (Joseph Roth) • Trumpet Island • The Forbidden Room • Drakula Halala • Dalagang Bukid ==Recognition==

In April 2017, Seances received a Webby Award nomination in the Art & Experimental/Film & Video category. ==References==