The Illuminator, with Ulysses Black
The film is currently available to watch here for a limited time
The Illuminator is a 20 minute original puppet film by Devil Monkey Pictures - a 2020 lockdown collaboration between Daisy Jordan and Ulysses Black. It is a black comedy, inspired by the comic illustrations of medieval marginalia and the unsung female illuminators that created them. It tells the tale of a medieval nun scribe, faced with an impossible task, who accidently summons a devil, who corrupts her with creativity and offers her a solution: collaboration. Before long, the fun doodles in the margins of the page begin to take on a life of their own, as Sister Ligarda’s creativity runs amok, testing her devotion and piety, sanity and life’s calling.
“…so successfully daring… the stop motion was not simply charming, but it also reflected so well the world of the imagination… The circular narrative was also terrifying… A real technical and narrative accomplishment!” - Craig Jordan-Baker, author.
The film was created using live glove puppetry and stop frame paper animation, blending humour and whimsy with a dark subversion. It was funded by Folkestone Puppet Festival, 2020.
Original story by Daisy Jordan and Ulysses Black; Puppet creation, art work and live puppetry by Daisy Jordan; Cinematography, direction and lighting design by Ulysses Black; Stop frame animation, voices and sound design by Jordan and Black; Open-sourced sound effects sourced from freesfx.com; commissioned sfx by Rebecca Dyer.
Principle music by Hildegard von Bingen, performed by “Alba” and Oxford Camerata. licensed for use by Membran Music Rights Management Ltd and Naxos Music UK Ltd. Additonal music by Giovanni Ambrogio, performed by Ed Lewes and Gerhard Kanzian, licensed for use by MPCS Ltd for Sonoton Music.