''Seances'' is a 2016 interactive project by filmmaker and installation artist

Guy Maddin Guy Maddin (born February 28, 1956) is a Canadian screenwriter, director, author, cinematographer, and film editor of both features and short films, as well as an installation artist, from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Since completing his first film in ...

, with co-creators

Evan Johnson ''For the Canadian filmmaker, see Evan Johnson (filmmaker).'' Evan Johnson (born August 21, 1994) is a professional Canadian football offensive lineman for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college foo ...

and Galen Johnson, and the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

, combining Maddin's recreations of

lost film A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress. Conditions During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...

s with an algorithmic film generator that allows for multiple storytelling permutations. Maddin began the project in 2012 in Paris, France, shooting footage for 18 films at the

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

(this installation was titled ''Spiritismes'', the French word for "seances", leading to press confusion about the project title) and continued shooting footage for an additional 12 films at the Phi Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Paris and Montreal shoots each took three weeks, with Maddin completing one short film of approximately 15–20 minutes each day. The shoots were also presented as art installation projects, during which Maddin, along with the cast and crew, held a “séance” during which Maddin "invite the spirit of a lost photoplay to possess them."

Production history

''Seances'' grew out of Maddin’s ''Hauntings'' project. Noah Cowan, a former director of the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

, told Maddin "he didn’t think it was possible to make art on the Internet", which "reminded

addin In computing, a plug-in (or plugin, add-in, addin, add-on, or addon) is a software component that adds a specific feature to an existing computer program. When a program supports plug-ins, it enables customization. A theme or skin is a preset ...

of what people said about cinema when it was starting out, when the moviolas and kinetoscopes were considered artless novelties." Maddin began with the idea of “shooting adaptations of lost films” and originally conceived the project as making “title-for-title remakes of specific lost films” but altered this plan in favour of producing original material as the project developed. Maddin completed 11 films to show as installation loops for Noah Cowan and the

’s Bell Lightbox theatre for this 2010 ''Hauntings'' project. At the

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

2012 festival, Maddin announced that he had begun production on the ''Seances'' project, for which he would shoot one hundred short films within a hundred-day span, at locations in Canada, France, and the United States. However, Maddin abandoned this approach to the project to focus more fully on original script creation, partnering with writers

and Robert Kotyk, with additional writing by Maddin’s wife Kim Morgan and American poet

John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...

. 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 In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specificat ...

to create the narrative from scenes shot by Maddin, to form a 10- to 13-minute film, each with a unique title. The number of films ensures "hundreds of billions of unique permutations."Romney, Jonathan. "A Canadian in Paris." ''Sight & Sound'' (May 2012).

Launch

''Seances'' was launched on April 14, online and as part of

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

’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." Films will not be shown in their entirety, but rather, offered as fragments in order to be recombined online.

Paris

The following films were filmed at Centre Pompidou, Paris, February 22 - March 12, 2012.Maddin, Guy, Evan Johnson and Robert Kotyk. ''Séances: Project Manual''. Designed by Galen Johnson. Cinema Atelier Tovar, 2012. * '' Dream Woman'' (lost

Alice Guy Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

movie, 1914, USA) * ''

Thérèse Raquin ''Thérèse Raquin'' is an 1868 novel by French writer Émile Zola, first published in serial form in the literary magazine ''L'Artiste'' in 1867. It was Zola's third novel, though the first to earn wide fame. The novel's adultery and murder ...

r Shadows of Fear' (lost

Jacques Feyder Jacques Feyder (; 21 July 1885 – 24 May 1948) was a Belgian actor, screenwriter and film director who worked principally in France, but also in the US, Britain and Germany. He was a director of silent films during the 1920s, and in the 1930 ...

, 1928, Germany) * '' Gardener Boy Sought'' (lost

George Schnéevoigt George Schnéevoigt (born Fritz Ernst Georg Fischer; 23 December 1893 – 6 February 1961) was a Danish film director, cinematographer, and actor of the 1910s to early 1940s. Schnéevoigt was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 23 December 1893 t ...

, 1913, Denmark) * ''

Poto-Poto Poto-Poto is one of the original residential neighborhoods of the city of Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of the Congo. History Poto-Poto was originally demarcated by French colonizers in 1909, to the northeast of the central part of town ...

'' (unrealized

Erich von Stroheim Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria von Stroheim (born Erich Oswald Stroheim; September 22, 1885 – May 12, 1957) was an Austrian-American director, actor and producer, most noted as a film star and avant-garde, visionary director of the silent era. H ...

project) * '' Rausch ntoxication' (lost

Ernst Lubitsch Ernst Lubitsch (; January 29, 1892November 30, 1947) was a German-born American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as ...

, 1919, Germany) * '' The Strength of a Moustache'' (lost

Mikio Naruse was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 89 films spanning the period 1930 to 1967. Naruse is known for imbuing his films with a bleak and pessimistic outlook. He made primarily shomin-geki ("common people drama") films with female protagonists, ...

, 1931, Japan) * '' Lines of the Hand'' (unrealized

Jean Vigo Jean Vigo (; 26 April 1905 – 5 October 1934) was a French film director who helped establish poetic realism in film in the 1930s. His work influenced French New Wave cinema of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Biography Vigo was born to Emil ...

; his daughter

Luce Vigo Luce may refer to: People * Luce (name), as a given name and a surname * Luce (singer) Places * Luče, a town in Slovenia * Luce, Minnesota, an unincorporated community * Luce Bay, a large Bay in Wigtownshire in southern Scotland * Luce Co ...

acted in this) * '' Over Barbed Wire'' (unrealized

Aleksandr Dovzhenko Oleksandr Petrovych Dovzhenko or Alexander Petrovich Dovzhenko ( uk, Олександр Петрович Довженко, ''Oleksandr Petrovych Dovzhenko''; russian: Алекса́ндр Петро́вич Довже́нко, ''Aleksandr Petro ...

, USSR) * '' Fist of a Cripple'' (lost Tetos Dimitriadis, 1930, Greece) * '' Blue Mountains Mystery'' (lost

Lottie Lyell Lottie Lyell (born Charlotte Edith Cox, 23 February 1890 – 21 December 1925) was an Australian actress, screenwriter, editor and filmmaker. She is regarded as Australia's first film star, and also contributed to the local industry during the ...

, 1921, Australia) * '' Idle Wives'' (lost

Lois Weber Florence Lois Weber (June 13, 1879 – November 13, 1939) was an American silent film actress, screenwriter, producer and director. She is identified in some historical references as among "the most important and prolific film directors in the e ...

, 1916) * '' Resurrection of Love'' (lost

Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, who directed about one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956. His most acclaimed works include ''The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums'' (1939), ''The Life of Oharu'' (1952), ''Uget ...

, 1923, Japan) * '' Tararira'' (lost

Benjamin Fondane Benjamin Fondane () or Benjamin Fundoianu (; born Benjamin Wechsler, Wexler or Vecsler, first name also Beniamin or Barbu, usually abridged to B.; November 14, 1898 – October 2, 1944) was a Romanian and French poet, critic and existentialist ph ...

, 1936, Argentina) * ''

Bits of Life ''Bits of Life'' is a 1921 American film produced and directed by Marshall Neilan. The cast included Lon Chaney and Noah Beery, Sr. For her performance in this film, Anna May Wong received her first screen credit. It is notable as an early an ...

'' (lost

Lon Chaney, Sr. Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American actor. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and affli ...

Anna May Wong Wong Liu Tsong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961), known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered the first Chinese-American movie star in Hollywood, as well as the first Chinese-American actress to gain intern ...

, 1921, USA) * ''

Ladies of the Mob ''Ladies of the Mob'' (1928) is a 1928 American silent film, silent Crime film, crime Drama (film and television), drama film directed by William A. Wellman, produced by Jesse L. Lasky and Adolph Zukor for Famous Players-Lasky, and distributed by ...

'' (lost

William Wellman William Augustus Wellman (February 29, 1896 – December 9, 1975) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and military pilot. He was known for his work in crime, adventure, and action genre films, often focusing on avi ...

) * ''

Hello Pop! ''Hello Pop!'' is the third of five short films starring Ted Healy and His Stooges released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on September 16, 1933. A musical-comedy film, the film also featured the Albertina Rasch Dancers and Bonnie Bonnell (Healy's gir ...

'' (lost Jack Cummings, 1933, USA) * '' Sperduto nel buio ost in the Dark' (lost

Nino Martoglio Nino Martoglio (Belpasso, Paternò, 3 December 1870 — Catania, 15 September 1921) was an Italy, Italian writer, publisher, journalist and producer of theatrical works. He wrote mostly in Sicilian language, Sicilian and likewise, his theatrical w ...

, 1914, Italy) * ''

The Blind Man ''The Blind Man'' was an art and Dada journal published briefly by the New York Dadaists in 1917. History Henri-Pierre Roché and Marcel Duchamp, visiting from France, organized the magazine with Beatrice Wood in New York City. Mina Loy also c ...

'' (

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

, unrealized) An additional film, '' How to Take a Bath'' (lost

Dwain Esper Dwain Atkins Esper (October 7, 1894 – October 18, 1982) was an American director and producer of exploitation films. Biography A veteran of World War I, Esper worked as a building contractor before switching to the film business in the mid-19 ...

sexploitation A sexploitation film (or sex-exploitation film) is a class of independently produced, low-budget feature film that is generally associated with the 1960s and early 1970s, and that serves largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit s ...

film, 1937, USA) was scripted by American poet

and completed in 2010." Footage from this film appears in ''The Forbidden Room''. In addition, Ashbery has given

a copy of his collage-play ''The Inn of the Guardian Angel'', which was produced from ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' obituaries and 1930 Hollywood

fanzines A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''-zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by fan (person), enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) ...

, to "strip-mine for dialogue for the lost films."

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 was one of Japan's first filmmakers. He worked for the photographer Shirō Asano and the Konishi Camera shop, the first in Japan to import a motion picture camera. Along with Kanzo Shirai, he made the earliest films in Japan, mostly of geisha, ...

, 1898, Japan) * ''Gabriele, the Lamplighter of the Harbour'' (

Elvira Notari Elvira Notari (born Elvira Coda; 10 February 1875 – 17 December 1946) was an Italian film director, one of the country's earliest and most prolific female filmmaker. She is credited as the first woman who made over sixty feature films and about ...

, 1919, Italy) * '' Der Janus-kopf'' ( F.W. Murnau, 1920, Germany) * ''Women Skeletons'' ( Guan Heifeng, 1922, China) * ''Scout Day'' (

Albert Tessier Albert Tessier ((); March 6, 1895 – September 13, 1976) was a French-speaking Canadian priest, historian and a film maker. He was born on in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, Mauricie. Life as a Priest and Educator He was ordained priest by Monsign ...

, 1929, Canada) * ''The Scorching Flame'' (1918, Armand Robin, Canada) * ''The Red Wolves'' (Joseph Roth) * ''Trumpet Island'' * '' The Forbidden Room'' * '' Drakula Halala'' * ''

Dalagang Bukid ''Dalagang Bukid'' (English: ''Country Maiden'') is a 1919 Filipino silent film. Directed by José Nepomuceno, it is recognized as the first full-length Filipino produced and directed feature film. An adaptation of the Tagalog sarsuwela of th ...

Recognition

In April 2017, ''Seances'' received a

Webby Award The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories include ...

nomination in the Art & Experimental/Film & Video category.

References

External links

*
PHI Centre webpage for ''Seances''NFB blog item on ''Seances''
* {{NFB interactive works Films directed by Guy Maddin National Film Board of Canada films Lost Canadian films Canadian silent films Films shot in Paris Films shot in Montreal Interactive films Algorithmic art Films produced by David Christensen Canadian avant-garde and experimental short films