Screenshots #6: I Walked with a Zombie / March 2010

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The sixth issue of Screenshots consists of 48 pages of watercolors based on the film I Walked with a Zombie (1943) by Jacques Tourneur.

In Tourneur’s film, the zombie is not an imminent threat, but a permanent reminder of a past that won’t go away, an undead memory. The horror, here, lies in how haunted a life can become, as opposed to horror being derived from shock effects and gore. It’s a slow-burner of a horror movie, full of symbols and hints that provide a glimpse into a world that remains incomprehensible, a world governed not by the laws of physics or logic, but by the tribal rites of voodoo, and above all by the magic of inventive, evocative filmmaking.

The series of 22 watercolors in this book builds on the film’s premise of being followed, literally and figuratively: being haunted. The zombie, devoid of life, yet undead, lives with the other protagonists for the sole purpose of being a constant presence, like a disease, or a curse. The film’s ambivalent atmosphere (tropical yet sinister, light yet tense) and haunting imagery is reimagined using a wide spectrum of the diffuse effects and sharp edges of watercolor painting, in a sepia palette that returns us to the past, like a memory.

Screenshots #6: I Walked with a Zombie is a strictly limited, numbered edition of 50.

Facts & Figures
Mission Statement: Screenshots is an homage to film in the form of a picture fanzine: A series of books of drawings (or paintings or mixed media works) based on images from films. The screenshots (often also called screen captures or screen grabs, i.e., still images from a paused film) that serve as the basis for the drawings are selected through a predetermined principle that varies from issue to issue. For example, for the first issue of the series, Conte de printemps (A Tale of Springtime, 1990) by Eric Rohmer (56 pages, 25 drawings in watercolor and pencil; February 2009), the starting point was that each image was to be a literal screenshot by having an actual television or computer screen in the frame. In interpreting films through the media of drawing and books, each appropriated series of screenshots turns into a subjective take on cinematic memory, a play with narrative forms and their inherent properties of drama and artifice. The narrative feature film is transformed into a fragmented series of still images in a book - a complex, collaborative production is processed through the intimate and personal act of drawing and self-publishing.
Founded: February 2009, by Manfred Naescher
Based in: Berlin, Germany
Editors / Designers: Manfred Naescher
Periodicity: Approximately bi-monthly
Language: English, but usually purely visual
Format: A5 (8.25 by 5.75 inches), staple-bound, 36 to 64 pages, full color
Circulation: 50, numbered
Price: SONDERANGEBOT / SPECIAL OFFER 6 €
Web: manfrednaescher.com
Contact: manfred (at) manfrednaescher.com