Time: 7 pm EST
Admission: $8 - Tickets HERE
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As part of our Valentine’s Day offerings, join filmmaker Ronni Thomas as he shares one of the strangest love stories in American History. Carl Tanzler, also known as Count Carl von Cosel, was found in 1940 Key West to have been living with the corpse of a former patient of his for 7 years. The corpse belonged to Elena Hoyos who was only 22 years old when she died of tuberculosis. The considerably older von Cosel had become obsessed with the young girl, and was determined to cure her fatal illness. So, when she finally died, he had to adjust his thinking from curing an illness to curing death itself. This is no ordinary story of grave-robbing and necrophilia - It's a gothic romance, filled with mad science, mysticism, and the supernatural.
In this illustrated lecture, Thomas will trace the grim, and yet unexpectedly uplifting story through pictures, video and audio excerpts from Cosel's bizarre journal of events.
Filmmaker Ronni Thomas' films have screened at festivals around the world as well as museums and institutions ranging from Carnegie Hall and The MET in NY to the Horniman Museum in the UK. They've been Honored by BAFTA, Tribeca Film Institute, Raindance Film UK, The British Independent Film Awards, and many other prestigious venues. Ronni got his official start in film at Troma in 2000, producing DVD content for the legendary horror outfit. From there, he teamed up with underground maverick Lech Kowlaski (DOA, The Boot Factory) and together they made Hey Is Dee Dee Home with Punk icon Dee Dee Ramone. Eventually, he found his place in short film and digital content working heavily with Morbid Anatomy and the now-defunct Brooklyn Observatory. His award-winning short narrative Radio Girl featured a collaboration with long time composer and friend Stephen Coates (The Real Tuesday Weld) and The Witch director, Robert Eggers. His Midnight Archive web series went on to critical acclaim both on the small and big screens, garnering praise from Time.com to boingboing and io9, to Forbes magazine, before being co-opted for Discovery Channel's digital network. His short doc Walter Potter: The Man Who Married Kittens, would be nominated for best short at the prestigious Tribeca Film festival, Raindance Film Fest, and Hot Springs International and win honors at Morbido fest Puebla, Mexico. Recently his AMC digital series The Broken and the Bad is a 6 film docu-series on the real-life themes of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul and features Giancarlo Esposito. In 2021, his first feature, The Kybalion, a documentary that looks at the 7 principles of hermetic philosophy, will make its debut. He is currently in pre-production for Von Cosel - a feature narrative film based on the uncanny 'true' story of 1930s Key West's most charismatic necrophiliac, Carl von Cosel. For films and more information, visit themidnightarchive.com.