Official Selection

United Kingdom 2018
Duration: 12:45
Directed by: Epoh Beech
Screenplay: Epoh Beech
Animation: Epoh Beech
Technique: Hand drawn animation
Music: Esben Tjalve
Production/School: Epoh Beech
Dialogue language: English
Subtitles language: English

Epoh Beech's The Masque of Blackness is a hand drawn animation re-imagining Ben Jonson's 1605 play The Masque of Blackness and Joseph Conrad's 1899 novella Heart of Darkness. The animation weaves both texts together and explores the spirit of place to take you on a journey from West Africa to the Thames in London and the Rhine in Germany. It has themes of moonlight, oceans, rivers, unexplored territory and mythological symbolism. Our guides on the journey are Hermes, a grey seal, and Pegasus, the winged horse, they are both unconstrained by the straight jacket of time.

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