3LD Art & Technology Center will present a production workshop of REID FARRINGTON's performance installation THE PASSION PROJECT beginning June 19th. THE PASSION PROJECT is spun from the reels of the last great silent film, Carl Th. Dreyer's 1928 masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc. Dreyer tells his story through the eyes of Joan, using close ups and fast cuts to communicate the severity of her situation. It remains one of the most fascinating portraits of emotion ever captured on film. With support from the Danish film Institute and The University of Copenhagen, this performance installation includes every frame Dreyer shot in relationship to the film, including the reels that -- like Joan herself -- were lost to fire.
THE PASSION PROJECT explodes the film into the three dimensions; placing the audience inside the film, sitting next Joan, subjecting them to her interrogators and the relentless rhythm of 30mm film projection. Using a single live actor and multiple projection surfaces, THE PASSION PROJECT explores the intersection of performance and film. It uses Dreyer's classic film as the main narrative along with the history behind the making of the film, a discussion with a Danish archivist, the story of making this project, and Joan's story; her trial, torture, and execution.THE PASSION PROJECT is also an archival piece. The Passion of Joan of Arc is an artifact that has endured a similar fate as the woman the film portrays. Dreyer released his film in 1928. The master negative was lost to fire that same year, forcing Dreyer to release a second film cut from his outtakes. In 1935, that film was lost to fire. Many "bastardized" prints circulated around Europe and the US until in 1980, a print believed to be from the master negative was found in a broom closet of a mental institution in Norway. With the help of Casper Tybjerg, the leading Dreyer scholar from the University of Copenhagen, and the Danish Film Institute, this piece uses every frame of film still in existence connected to The Passion of Joan of Arc.: the Oslo print found in 1980 in Norway, the Lo Duca print reedited in Paris in 1957, and the Krog print edited by Dreyer in 1938.Videos