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Manual Cinema

Chicago IL

Sarah Fornace

Mementos MoriMementos Mori is a feature-length performance of cinematic shadow puppetry. Shadow puppets interact with live actors insilhouette, while a chamber ensemble and video complete the immersive multimedia experience, imbuing the experienceof attending a movie with a live theatrical immediacy. The story is an original multi-character journey that exploresdigital cultures, death, childhood, and our relationship to the movies.

$26,510

$5,000

Mementos Mori

Created by Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Julia Miller & Kyle Vegeter; Directed by Julia Miller; PuppetDesigner: Drew Dir; Associate Puppet Designer: Lizi Breit; Composer & Sound Designer: KyleVegter; Assistant Composers: Jacob Winchester & Michael Hilger; Assistant Sound Designers: IzzyOlive & Maren Celest; Costume Designer: Marisa Chilberg; Video Designer: Liviu Pasare; LiveVideo Editing: Sarah Fornace; Puppeteers: Kasey Foster, Charlotte Long, Diane Mair, NicoleRichwalsky, Mitch Salm, and Myra Su; Musicians: Deidre Huckaby, Michael Hilger, Alex EllsworthAugust 19, 2014The is a 3-minute excerpt from a workshop presentation of the beginning of the show. The videoshows the multi-screen puppetry setup as well as close-ups of the final image on the live-feed bigscreen. One of our main characters - Melba, a 6 year - old played entirely by a shadow puppet -arrives at a boarding house. We see the new surroundings and the landlady through Melba's eyes.

484.686.7271

3127 W. Belden Ave. Apt 160647

sfornace@manualcinema.commanualcinema.com

VIDEO SAMPLE

CONTACT

P-16

Blair Thomas & Company501 (c)(3):

PAST GRANTS AWARDED

PROJECT

Manual CinemaMementos Mori

Project Description

Manual Cinema creates transformative stories with handmade techniques thatunsetde the

boundary between cinema and theater. Usinghundreds ofpaper shadow puppets, overhead

projectors, actors in silhouette, and live music, we perform original stories that

translate cinematic tropes into extraordinary, handmade shadow puppetry lnspired by

early cinema, our stories are conveyed without dialogue, relying instead on movementjmage, sound, and live music.

Mementos Mori is Manual Cinema's newest and mostambitious showto date, utilizing over

four hundred shadowpuppets, seven overhead projectors, and three screens. Told almost

entirety without dialo gne, Mementos Mori is a multi-chaaacter journey that explores digital

culture, death, childhood, and our relationship to the movies. Co-commissioned bythe

Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago, the showhas been developed in workshop

residencies atboth the MCA and the University ofChicago. M?mentos Mori will receive its

world premiere atthe MCAin January 2015 as a headliner in the Chicago Intemational

Festival of Puppet Theater.

The story of Mementos Mori written by Manual Cinema's artistic directors, draws its

inspiration from mltiad films mnging ftom Ingmar Bergman's lhe Seventh Seol to Pa]ul

Thomas ADderson's Magnolla. A bike messenger iearns ofher own death in a car accident

by way ofFacebook; an elderly film projectionist exchanges his sich analogue heart for a

digital one;and seven-year-old Melba is awakened to the fact ofher own mortalitywhen

she steals a pocket watch belonging to Death hersell Each story is woven together using

shadow puppets, actors in silhouette, live feed video proiection, immersive sound and a live

chamber ensemble.'Despite iti simpte, handm ade fiaterials, Mementos Mo,'i deals with

mature and complex themes and is intended for adults and mature teens. A handmade love

letter to the cinema, Memenfos Mori imbues the experiencing olattending a movie with live,

theatrical immediacy.

Ourshadow puppetry shows have been presented by theatert film festivals, and art

museums alike. Our work typicatly appeals to young, adventurous audience members

interested in nontraditional, interdisciplinary live experiences, and we are often the firct

live puppetry experience that our audience members have. Manual Cinema is committed to

displaying puppetry technique and process. Mementos Mod will onlybe performed with the

puppets and proiectors in full view of the audience, with a live feed camera sefup allowing

simultaneous vie\ /ing ofthe final shadow image. We will also continue our practice of

invitilg the audience onto the stage after each showto handle and puppets add ask

questions ofthe puppeteers and directors.

P-16

Manual GinemaMementos Mori Creation Budget 2014/ 2015

INCOMEl\,4CA Commission/ Perlomance FeeKickslarter Campaign NetSouthern lllinois UniversityCommission/

$10,000$8,ooo

$4,oooHenson Folrndation Proiect Glant $5,000INCOME TOTAL

EXPENSES

$27,000

PERSONNELDirector FeeAd Director FeeChoreographer FeeComposer Fee

$2,000$2,000$2,000$2,000

Puooeteer/ lrusician Fees $9,100PERSONNEL subto{al

MATERIALS

$17,100

acetate printing, paper, prinljng supplies,Puppet Build lMaterials

Video Equipmenta new screen, new camera, and live feed

$3,500

$3,000Sound./ Audio Equipment $1,400MATERIALS sublotal

TRAVEL subtotal

CATERING subtotal

EXPENSES TOTAL

$7,900

$1,000

$1,000

s27,000

Manual CinemaMementos Mori

Artist/Company Description

MANUAL CINEMA combines handmade shadow puppetry, cinematic motifs, and live sound

manipulation to create immersive theatrical stories. Using overhead projectors, multiple screens,

paper puppets, actors, live feed cameras, and a live band, Manual Cinema transforms the experience

ofattending the cinema and imbues it with liveness, ingenuity, and theatricality. Manual Cinema

translates cinematic language into analogue shadow puppetry, emulating montage, camera

movemeng and depth offield using handmade visual effects. Inspired by early cinema, stories are

conveyed without dialogue, relying instead on rich, multi-channel sound desiSn and live music.

Manual cinema was founded in 2010 by five Chicago artists with diverse backgrounds in

theatre, visual arts, music, puppetry, and sound arL They have created two feature length live

cinematic shadow puppet shows; site-specific shadow puppet installations; puppet-based music

videos for Sony Masterworks, Gabriel Kahane, and eighth blackbird; multiple cinematic trailers; a

collection oflive shadow puppet shorts in collaboration with poet Zachary Schomburg and string

quartet Chicago Q Ensemble; and live cinematic shadow puppet adaptations ofStoryCorps stories.

Manual Cinema's work has been presented at the Tehran-Mobarak International Puppet

Festival, X-Fest at SIUE, Handmade Worlds Puppet Festival, The Museum of Contemporary Art

Chicago, The Screenwriters' Colony in Nantucket, The Motorcity Puppet Blast at the Detroit Institute

ofArt, The Future of Storj4elling Conference NYC, the NYC Fringe Festi l, The Poetry Foundation,

The University ofChicago, Hideout Chicago, the Chicago International Music and Movies Festival, the

Puppeteers ofAmerica: Puppet Festival (R)evolution, the Nasty, Brutish, and Short Puppet Slam,

and elsewhere. They won Best in Festival and Best Design at the 2013 Puppeteers ofAmerica

National Puppet Festival and an award of excellence in puppetry from the NYC Fringe 2013

Manual Cinema was ensemble-in-residence at the University ofChicago in the Theater and

Performance Studies program in the fall of 2012, where they taught as adjunct faculty. In 2013

Manual Cinema has held residencies and taught puppetry workshops at the School of the Art

Institute, Chicago, The Future ofStorytelling Conference, NYC, RCAH at Michigan State University,

the Puppeteers ofAmerica: National Puppetry Festival Southern Illinois University, and the Chicago

Park District.

Currently, they are d eveloping Mementos Mon, a multi-character live feature performed with

three screens, to premiere at the Museum of contemporary Art Chicago in lanuary 2015. They are

also creating two short shadow puppet films for release in 2015 fone based on a Virginia Woolf

short story and one based on ecological/meteorological research) and working with Opera Erratica

(Londonl to create a sound installation with shadow puppetry video projection trased on l,o

Cetesfino designed for the windows in the Velez Blanco patio at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in

March 2015.

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