Spark of Being

Spark of Being is a found footage re-telling of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein by filmmaker Bill Morrison, using archival and educational films. It was created in collaboration with composer and trumpeter Dave Douglas, who composed a score for his six-piece electric ensemble, Keystone. The project was commissioned by Stanford Lively Arts and was developed at Stanford during a year-long residency. Spark of Being has no dialogue, narration, or narrative exposition other than the thirteen chapter headers that appear before each section. As in the original text, the story begins from the perspective of a ship's captain who is exploring polar regions when he takes a mysterious passenger onboard. The passenger is a doctor, who tells how he created a living creature with his own hands. The story is then told from the perspective of this Creature, who describes his education of the world and his ultimately fruitless quest for love, through decaying and distressed archival footage and educational films. The Creature ultimately confronts his Creator and, in a twist on the original story, the Doctor flees the monster, ultimately captaining a boat to the polar regions seen at the beginning of the film. In this way, it is revealed that the Doctor is also the Captain and that the Creature is also a mysterious traveler who boarded the ship to reveal himself as the Doctor. Hence, the film returns full circle with Creator and Creation in reversed and interchangeable roles.