JEAN LAURENZ

DESCENDED

This 27 minute film is an abstract ghost story inspired by the life and work of Lafcadio Hearn, an overlooked 19th century writer and cultural preservationist. Hearn’s examinations of race, marginalized spiritual communities, and the beautiful strangeness of humankind remain resonant today, 150 years later. Riddled with Hearn references, the film weaves thematic materials, quotes, and metamorphic vignettes from his haunted life and morbid imagination. It highlights his fascination with Buddhist inflected eastern ghost stories and symbols. Maria Finkelmeier’s music forms a narrative engine as the artists uncover Hearn’s philosophies on eternal memory, infinite wisdom, and supernatural interference. Jean Laurenz, a director, producer, musician, and Hearn descendant, plays the journeyer and encounters what could be her heritage, her past, her karma, or her infinity.

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LAFCADIO HEARN
Hearn (1850-1904) was an eclectic writer and nomad who never found his grounding in a permanent home or literary genre. He wrote about racial inequities and police brutality, while also documenting Voodoo folk songs, Japanese ghost stories, and global folk traditions. His documentation of underrepresented American and global cultures along with their endangered spirit worlds make him a preservationist worth remembering. In his day, Hearn stood with literary giants like Poe, Stevenson and Whitman, but his name only remains prominent in small pockets outside of Japan. Traumatized in boyhood, Hearn blends his unique, fear-inspired perspective into metaphysical literature, uniting cognitive existence with paranormal spaces. He looked beyond the fleeting facade of human emotion and into the depths of its phantom grip.

Hearn’s Great-Great-Grand Niece, Jean Laurenz, Maria Finkelmeier, and Four/Ten Media, explore the turbulent undertones and uncanny narratives of Hearn's celebrated 19th century macabre stories. The film pulls inspiration from all corners of Lafcadio Hearn's writings, but there are 5 particular pieces which galvanized its narrative content and musical compositions. These pieces are, "A Drop of Dew, Of Moon-Desire, Nightmare-Touch, Mujina, and At Hakata".