Chasing the Whale Who Wasn't: Art, Affect, and Submerged Histories

Old salts, dead whales on parade, brides, showgirls, and young girls. During this creative talk, interdisciplinary artist Alessia Cecchet will screen The Whale who Wasn't and will share her process and recent research on whales and women's bodies.

The Whale who Wasn't is a tale of conquest and destruction that employs fragments of early educational films and animation to develop a science fiction counter-narrative of subjugation and annihilation told from a non-human perspective.

The award-winning film has been exhibited worldwide at many art and film festival venues such as the Seattle International Film Festival, Cork Film Festival, Encounters Film Festival, and Florida Film Festival among others.

Alessia Cecchet is a maker of moving images, interdisciplinary artist, and writer. Originally from Italy, her practice is situated at the intersection of studio and media arts. Grounded in historical and archival research, her work is invested in human and non-human stories of displacement, loss, and suffering. She has just completed a Ph.D. in Film and Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz, successfully defending her dissertation “Eating and Resurrecting the Goats: Animal Bodies, Death, and Western Culture.”

Moby-Dick Marathon & Lecture Series

Host or Publisher San Francisco Maritime National Park Association