Cetaphobia

Cetaphobia 2015
by Erin Coates and Anna Nazzari
HD video with sound, 12 mins

Set in the coastal town of Albany, Cetaphobia is a ghost story that traces the haunting of a married couple trouble by a whale spirit. The ambiguous spirit is an unsettling remnant of the port city's once viable whaling industry. Its presence is awakened after the wife, who is a scrimshander, starts inscribing on the only remaining evidence of its life: a tooth. This action unleashes a dark and cetaceous force, which possesses the scrimshander and her husband. They are drawn back to the site of the Cheynes II, the sunken wreck of the whale chaser, where they are eventually overcome by an unknowable horror.

Cetaphobia was made during an International Art Space residency in Albany, WA, and was first shown in Spaced 2: Future Recall at the Museum of Western Australia, as a part of the 2015 Perth International Arts Festival. This project was supported by the Department of Culture and the Arts, Government of Western Australia.

Director and Producer: Erin Coates and Anna Nazzari
Cast: Scrimshander – Bec Johnson, Scrimshander’s husband – Steve Pratt
Crew: Gaffer – Dion Borrett, Land and underwater best boy – Mark Strickland, Special effects – Michelle Becker, Aerial camera rig pilot – Captain Jon Marsh, Underwater location manager – John Coates, Underwater camera operator – Matt Hawksworth, Assistant diver – Troy Dwyer, Catering – Caroline Coates
Post Production: Editors – Erin Coates and Anna Nazzari, Colourist – Sohan Ariel Hayes, Post production special effects – Juan Zubiaga, Sound design – Roly Skender, Narrator and archival film footage – Carmelo Musca, Composer – Cat Hope, Viola – Aaron Wyatt, Cello – Tristen Parr, Double bass – Libby Browning, Music recording – Stuart James