ABOUT
An amalgalm of ship’s logs from the deep sea and deep space, Sunken Treasure draws us into a journey of exploration that detaches from time and geography, where what is discovered is our own desire for the search. Piloting a boat into the void of a remote water cave in Central Europe, or sinking deep under the Adriatic Sea in scuba gear, the camera sees as if for the first time; experiencing an initial contact. The western narrative of exploration and discovery typified by Jacques Cousteau and the nature documentary genre of the 1970’s provides the historical scaffolding of departure for a voice which plays alternatively with and against the images, opening up meaning and dislocating us from what we see.
Sunken Treasure was shot on location in Slovenia and Croatia with modified infra-red camera gear and underwater cinematography. The karst cave depicted has never before been photographed underwater.
CREW BIOS
Shanna Maurizi (DIrector) is an artist and experimental filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. Her films have garnered festival awards and screened at venues such as Anthology Film Archives in NYC, Other Cinema in San Francisco and the Rotterdam Kunsthal, and her work has been shown at Famous Accountants, Songs for Presidents, White Box and Observatory in NYC, the Santa Monica Museum of Art, and Gallery 825 in Los Angeles among many others. Her short film Late Night with Carl Sagan premiered at NewFilmmakers NYC, her feature documentary How to Make it in Filmmaking was nominated for best emerging director at VisonFest, and Sunken Treasure won the Art and Science Award at the 56th Ann Arbor Film Festival.
Ana Jurcic (sound recordist, voiceover) is a filmmaker and musician based in Rijeka, Croatia. She is a member of FIlmaktiv, a nonprofit organization formed to develop independent culture and promote social change through production, promotion of audiovisual art and informal education. She is also the projectionist for Art Kino Croatia in Rijeka.
Julia Shirar (Sound Design) is an artist and sound designer based in Queens, New York. Her credits include Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola), Adaptation (Spike Jonze), The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola), Night Moves (Kelly Reichert), Ballast (Lance Hammer), and many more.
Dana Schechter (Composer) is a bassist, lap steel guitarist, composer and touring performer based in Brooklyn, NY. A San Francisco native, she began on upright bass at age 12 and moved to bass guitar at age 16. Over the course of her career, she has traveled and recorded internationally with her own musical project Insect Ark as well as a wide variety of artists such as Zeal & Ardor, M. Gira’s Angels of Light (Swans), Wrekmeister Harmonies, Arabrot, Gnaw, American Music Club, Bertrand Burgalat, Botanica, and more
T.O. Sterrett (Composer) has worked in the NYC theatre scene for more than 20 years, including work on Broadway as Pianist and Assistant Conductor for WICKED, CATS, The Book of Mormon, and many more. He was the Music Director and did the arranging for the off-Broadway production Gutenberg! The Musical! and has played keyboard accompaniment for Megan Hilty, Michael Crawford, Carol Channing, Nell Carter, Elaine Stritch, Shirley Bassey, Sam Harris, Taye Diggs, Petula Clark, Livingston Taylor, and more