This experimental horror film (full running time: approximately 40 minutes) is a Patreon Exclusive: for as little as $3 you can download the entire film, plus the audiobook, original music, and a slew of other goodies only available to patrons. Go to www.patreon.com/DavidErikNelson to learn more.
In the Sharing Place
This film is based on the short story of the same name, which first appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction in 2018, and was later included in the anthology New Voices of Science Fiction (Tachyon, 2019).
The narration is by Sea Stachura. Sea is an award-winning journalist currently living and working in the American South. You may recognize her voice from her work with National Public Radio, including her six-part series for Georgia Public Radio, Shots in the Back: Exhuming the 1970 Augusta Riot (which was recognized by the RTDNA with a 2021 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion).
The sound engineering and original score were written and performed by multiple Grammy™-award winning musician/producer John Churchville.
The video itself was created by David Erik Nelson, and culled from the vast public domain collection of the Prelinger Archives.
Trigger Warning: This is a post-apocalyptic speculative horror story. The first sentence pretty accurately sets the tone: “Children are brought to the Sharing Place because a loved one has died. …” The film is composed of clips from public domain news reel and educational film footage from the 1920s–1970s. These include depictions of atomic tests, scientific experiments, and animal interactions that some may find upsetting or unsettling. That said, nothing here is more explicit than what was regularly shown to grade schoolers in the early 1980s (except for the hula girl, I suppose).