Time: 7 pm EDT
Admission: $5 - Tickets HERE
This screening will take place virtually, via Zoom. Ticket sales will end at 5 pm EDT the day of the lecture, after which a link to the conference will be emailed to ticketholders. Ticketholders may request a video recording AFTER the lecture takes place by emailing proof of purchase to info.morbidanatomy@gmail.com.
Tonight, join former Morbid Anatomy Museum filmmaker in residence Ronni Thomas for a virtual screening of his 2014 short film Walter Potter along with four other short films he's made through the years working with Morbid Anatomy and his Midnight Archive web series. Viewers will be provided with links to each film in case of technical difficulties, in which case we will watch them individually, preceded by an introduction by the director and followed by a Q and A.
Walter Potter: The Man Who Married Kittens: 18 Minutes - This short introduces the viewer to five hardened collectors who have an endearing reverence to the legacy of Walter Potter. Throughout the film, we get to know Potter's work as well as what fuels the minds of certain kinds of collectors.
Clockwork Monsters: 5 minutes - The focus of this short film is on legendary automata sculptor and artist Thomas Kuntz. Thomas' work has long been revered by collectors and fellow artists, most notably Guillermo del Torro, who commissioned a piece for his film Crimson Peak. His work is part technology, part alchemy.
The Occult Collector: 7 minutes - Collector Calvin von Crush has one of the largest collections of occult and paranormal memorabilia including objects and artifacts from the famed paranormal researchers Ed and Lorraine Warren. In this short film, we meet a live 2-headed turtle, the skeleton of a murdered prostitute, and many other strange creatures and cursed objects.
Wax: 4 mins - Artist Sigrid Sarda creates marvelous and uncanny works of sculpture using plaster casts and wax. Her process and works are truly one of a kind and both beautiful and deeply unsettling at the same time. In this short film, she discusses her process and love for wax
Phantasmagories: 5 mins - In this short film, the late Mervyn Heard gives his perspective on the history of the French Phantasmagorie shows. These events of the 18th and early 19th century presented viewers with 'magic lantern' scenes of floating ghosts, skeletons, and demons projected in a darkened room, and set the tone for early Hollywood horror as well as 'spook shows' of early vaudeville.
TIME PERMITTING - Ghosts and Gadgets: 8 mins - in this short film, collector Brandon Hodge shows us around his immense collection of spirit communication devices, in particular the mysterious 'planchette' which was purported to spell out words and thoughts from the spirit plane.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Director Ronni Thomas has been making films professionally since 1999, beginning his career at the legendary Troma films. His 2003 documentary Hey is Dee Dee Home chronicled the tragic life of Dee Dee Ramone. In 2011, His Midnight Archive web series was met with critical acclaim and he was the filmmaker-in-residence of the now-defunct Morbid Anatomy Museum. His short film Walter Potter: The Man Who Married Kittens premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival and won honors at Morbido in Puebla, Mexico. Most recently he is the writer, producer, and director for the forthcoming AMC Digital series The Broken and The Bad, a documentary film companion to Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul featuring Giancarlo Esposito.