Burn the Celluloid

Adam Tarin

Video (3:59 RT) and Film Script, 2020

Burn the Celluloid by Adam Tarin is a film trailer accompanied by a digital image series of pages from the screenplay. Set in a future world consumed by darkness and devoid of any energy sources, Burn the Celluloid explores the significance of film as a tool for the documentation and preservation of history for future generations. In this dystopia, film strips become the most valuable resource when a man discovers that the camera can be reverse engineered to project light from old film reels and produce a new source of energy. However, the film strips are highly flammable and limited in quantity. To generate light, not only must people risk their lives, they must also sacrifice the images captured on the film strips. The original images and memories of the films are burned away and lost forever.

Burn the Celluloid not only reveals the impact of our actions on the environment, but also imagines their repercussions on culture and history. Having worked with film throughout his life, Tarin believes that film plays a large role in the history of humanity. In this work, he presents a world where society has to choose between art and survival. However, without film or other means of artistic expression, how will humanity come to understand and interpret the world around us?