DESCENDED
Exploring the supernatural legacy of Lafcadio Hearn through sound, light, and story.
Hearn’s Great-Great-Grand Niece, Jean Laurenz, and Maria Finkelmeier explore the turbulent undertones and uncanny narratives of Lafcadio Hearn’s celebrated 19th century ghost stories. The theatrical performance, album, and film are inspired by Hearn’s magnetic pull in his contributions to American journalism, his interpretation of Japanese ghost stories, and his documentation of underrepresented global cultures and endangered spirit worlds.
Riddled with Hearn references, the project weaves thematic material, quotes, and metamorphic vignettes from his haunted life and morbid imagination. It highlights his fascination with Buddhist inflected ghost stories and symbols.
Maria Finkelmeier’s music forms a narrative engine as the artists uncover Hearn’s philosophies on eternal memory, infinite wisdom, and supernatural interference. Jean Laurenz’s trumpet and vocals call her ancestry into the present sphere through pointed sound and expressive story.
Through DESCENDED, audiences will meet the entry point into life’s deepest questions; questions whose fibers weave into every ghost story, spiritual mantra, and subliminal experience - questions whose answers lie just beyond the grasp of cognition, discoverable only through a transformative portal beyond human touch.
“Finkelmeier and Laurenz create an eerie musical backdrop to explore Hearn’s world, complete with recitations from his writings. It’s ethereal, strange, and hard to get out of your head once you hear it.”
—David Weininger
The performance features and is co-directed by Laurenz, Finkelmeier and Greg Jukes, with spoken word by Buzz Kemper, visuals by Xuan and Four/Ten media, with coordinated lighting design. The 55-minute show was premiered at the National Gallery of Asian Art in September 2023.
The project was originally incubated at the Harvard Art Lab in October 2019, then at the University of Wisconsin in 2022, and Boston Conservatory at Berklee College of Music in 2023. Its creation was funded by the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Photos by Karl Johnson Studios.
The Film
The 27 minute film is an abstract ghost story in itself.
Co-directed by Laurenz and Four/Ten Media, the film weaves thematic materials, quotes, and metamorphic vignettes from Hearn’s haunted life and morbid imagination. Jean Laurenz plays the journeyer and encounters what could be her heritage, her past, her karma, or her infinity. Maria Finkelmeier’s music connects the vignettes through haunting melodies, sound design, and quotes performed by Buzz Kemper.
Awards and Film Festival Selections
Wisconsin Film Festival, 2021
Official Selection
Macabre Faire Film Festival, 2021
Official Selection
London Music Video Festival, 2021
Official Selection
International Music Video Awards, 2021
AWARD: Best Musical Film, February edition
Music Video Underground, International Music Video Competition, 2021
AWARD: Best Short Film, February edition
Toronto Film Channel Awards, 2021
AWARD: Best Art Film, monthly
AWARD: Best Directing of the month
Toronto International Women Film Festival, Award Winner, 2021
AWARD: Best Female Composer, February Edition
International Short Film Awards, 2021
AWARD: Best Experimental Music Video
Munich Music Video Awards, 2021
Official Selection
Hollywood International Golden Age Festival, 2021
Official Selection
Kosice International Film Festival, 2021
Official Selection
Rome Music Video Awards, 2021
AWARD: Best Musical Film (Feature)
High Tatras Film & Video Festival, 2021
AWARD: Best Musical Film Short
Music Video Awards, 2021
Official Selection
About Lafcadio Hearn
Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was an eclectic writer and nomad who never found his grounding in a permanent home or literary genre. He wrote about racial inequities and systemic issues, while also documenting Voodoo folk songs, Japanese ghost stories, and global folk traditions.
Hearn’s examinations of race, spiritual communities, and the beautiful strangeness of humankind remain resonant today, 150 years later. In his day, Hearn stood with literary giants like Poe, Stevenson and Whitman, but his name only remains prominent in small pockets outside of Japan.
Traumatized in boyhood, Hearn blends his unique, fear-inspired perspective into metaphysical literature, uniting cognitive existence with paranormal spaces. He looked beyond the fleeting facade of human emotion and into the depths of its phantom grip.