Terra Incognita

Directed by Eric Leiser

Colonial race to the poles and its consequences

Terra Incognita is a multi-plane cut out animation made from photocopies of 19th century illustrations made during the race to the poles and drawings by Eric Leiser. For the puppet performance it was flat-rod puppets on a proscenium stage with a screen behind them, onto which the animation Terra Incognita is projected. Many of the sea monster puppets and ships performed in sync with the animated ones, along with splashes of water and powdered chalk to mimic snowfall. These techniques came from my time studying puppet theater in Prague, in 2002, and learning from Svankmajer and Svankmajerova. It was a lot of fun to both animate and to perform live with Jeffrey's wonder score. At the same time the film comments on the colonial race to claim the Arctic by various countries—a race that, in a sense, is still going on today, but this time again for oil—and the murders of the Inuit people who had inhabited the land for millennia.