IMMERSIVE FILM SERIES
Films are, by their nature, immersive experiences. For this brief series, Curator (and film buff) Laura Burkhalter invited participating artist Matthew Willie Garcia and Dina Smith, a film scholar and associate professor of English at Drake University, to select movies that explore immersion through genre, aesthetics, and methods of worldbuilding.
The Lighthouse, 2019
Rated R / 109 minutes
Post-film commentary by Laura Burkhalter, Curatorial Manager
Two lighthouse keepers (Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson) try to maintain their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s. Rich in historic detail and filmed to resemble 19th-century photography, this surreal cinematic experience also has roots in the stories of Edgar Allen Poe, Herman Melville, and H.P. Lovecraft.
