Join us to kick off the Winter 2016 semester for the first of our seven classes on “Documenting Horror.” First up, Kristopher Woofter leads us into the world of witchcraft and the occult with this discussion of the convergence of documentary and horror in the pseudo-documentary. We will look at two key examples of the critical pseudo-documentary, THE HELLSTROM CHRONICLE (Walon Green), and Benjamin Christensen’s silent horror documentary, HAXAN: WITCHCRAFT THROUGH THE AGES (1922 Sweden, Denmark). HELLSTROM–an apocalyptic mash-up of 70s anthropocentric paranoia, mockumentary mischief, and beautiful insect photography–won the 1971 Oscar winner for best documentary. A full screening will be devoted to HAXAN one of the most phantasmagorical visions of witchcraft and the occult ever produced, and also the costliest silent film ever produced in Scandinavia. Taking nearly three years to produce, HAXAN is a genre-bending film full of sublime black-and-white and hand-tinted colour imagery, vicious dark humour, and controversial scenes of sexuality and violence that were cut for the film’s distribution. We will screen the 1-hour, 44-minute restored version of the film (2001), with English intertitles, and a newly re-recorded score.