A Catalog of Anticipations 2008

A woman drifts back to childhood memories of rural Texas where her discovery of the jawbone of a horse in a field leads to a fascination with, in her own words, "dead things." Her natural history collection of insects and bones takes on a supernatural quality when she finds the corpse of a strange creature that she believes must be a faery. Using still photographs, found objects and unsettling creations that briefly come to life via stop-motion animation (which evokes the work of the Brothers Quay and gives them an even more unreal presence), filmmaker David Lowery tells a phantasmagorical story, part fantastical mystery and part nightmare, as a primal memory. A CATALOG OF ANTICIPATIONS weaves imagination and experience into a haunting tale recalled in snapshots of recollection, a dark fantasy with a tactile texture that grounds it in the physical world and narration that frames it as a coming-of-age moment. - Sean Axmaker