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Event
My Grandfather the Spirit Doctor and Me: On Medicine, Storytelling, Film and The Radio Illustrated Lecture with Chiara Ambrosio, London Based Filmaker
My Grandfather the Spirit Doctor and Me: On Medicine, Storytelling, Film and The Radio
Illustrated Lecture with Chiara Ambrosio, London Based Filmaker
Date: Monday, June 22
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8
Location: Morbid Anatomy Museum, 424 Third Avenue, 11215 Brooklyn NY
Tonight's talk will take you on a journey through a unique family history, one which spans the realms of medicine, technology, spiritualism and the quest to contact the dead, the moving image and radio waves. Located on that fertile ground on which science and art intersect, it will explore the fundamental role of the imagination in asking questions about the world, pushing its boundaries beyond known thresholds and into the dark maelstrom from which all knowledge, myths and stories can be gleaned.
In the words of the speaker:
"My grandfather was an orthopedic doctor, who specialized in the mending of bones, the invisible architecture and fundamental scaffolding for the physical body that constitutes us. He also loved tuning into the frequencies of the long-distance wave radio that he kept in his attic, listening out for disembodied voices that might reach out to him in secret codes across unimaginable distances.
His father (my great-grandfather) was a neurologist, working at the turn of the 20th century on trying to understand the inner workings of the mind and the soul at a time of great change, while the world transformed into something new and unknown before his eyes. He was also a Medium who held regular séances (to which my grandfather participated as a young man) and a contributor to "Luce e Ombra, the largest spiritualist journal in Italy at the time.
Before him, my great-great grandfather was also a doctor, whose handwritten notebooks contain a wealth of alternative remedies to ailments ranging from the flu to the plague. He, too, was dedicated to penetrating the fabric of the known physical world, to dip his hand into the darkness and see what he might find there, a pioneer of walking with his eyes closed, hunting for cures at a time when there weren't any available, his only compass his curiosity and an ability to imagine what questions to ask.
Nothing much has changed since then.
Although not a doctor, I am a filmmaker and my work too engages with the physical act of looking as a way to explore and penetrate into the fabric of the real to reveal all that it contains. My films pay witness to my experience of the world- right here and right now- while attempting to insert this specific experience within a larger narrative that incorporates the unseen, the unknown, the poetic and surreal. Looking as a ritualistic act of engagement and re-enchantment, so that we may see the world anew."
The Morbid Anatomy Museum is a non-profit institution. We survive on your donations. If you like what we do and want to support us, please consider making a donation along with your ticket price!
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LocationThe Morbid Anatomy Museum (View)
424A Third Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
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