The Tesla World Light (2017)

Directed by

Matthew Rankin

Genre

experimental film

Country

Canada

Runtime

8 min

Rating

5.2 of 10 from 4 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

In black and white animation, the film imagines the final years of Nikola Tesla in 1905 New York. He pleads with J.P. Morgan for funding and tends to a pigeon he loves. The story uses Tesla's own words from his letters and interviews.

dreamlikemelancholicwhimsicalsurrealbittersweetcerebrallyricalintimate

What happens

The Tesla World Light (French: Tesla : lumière mondiale) is an 8-minute 2017 black and white avant-garde film by Montreal director Matthew Rankin imagining the latter days of inventor Nikola Tesla in 1905 in New York City. Rankin has stated that he was interested in exploring Tesla's optimistic utopian vision. The film is a fanciful amalgamation of elements from Tesla's life including his 1905 pleadings for J.P. Morgan to continue funding his World Wireless System and his love for a pigeon. Rankin has stated that "everything in the film is drawn from something [Tesla] wrote or said." The film uses excerpts of Tesla's actual letters to Morgan, which the filmmaker found in the Library of Congress; even a reference to Tesla falling in love with an "electric pigeon" was based on an interview with Tesla, according to Rankin. The film is produced by Julie Roy for the National Film Board of Canada. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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