Carcasses, birdsongs and space dogs: aesthetics of representing dead and extinct animals in experimental film

Cinematic (after)images of dead and extinct animals can be transformative, providing aesthetic encounters with and helping process grief, loss and trauma. Interestingly, compared to narrative cinema, experimental films devote more attention to images of animal death and species disappearance, turning them into a palpable, timeless and meaningful spectacle. Addressing the ways in which experimental film raises questions of animal death and extinction, I discuss how Stan Brakhage’s Sirius Remembered, Deborah Stratman’s Laika and Samy Benammar’s kauaʻi ʻōʻō preserve dead and extinct animals in forms that extend beyond their traditional media representation as commodified, fetishized, victimized or pitiable objects, visceral attractions, dramatic spectacles or evolutionary failures. Building on the theory of afterimages as a visual afterlife, I argue that afterimages of dead animals often relate to the rites of mourning and highlight the affective agency of vanishing animal lives, presenting animal corpses as material, spectral entities with an embodied (non)presence. Meanwhile, afterimages of extinct animals speak of irretrievable loss precisely through avoiding the physical reconstruction of a species, reflecting on the impact of its past existence and human intervention in the natural world. Bringing together film and animal studies with media aesthetics, my study sheds new light on the aesthetics of representing dead and extinct animals in experimental film where animals are given a ghostly, illusive, but distinct presence, becoming central characters and acting agents driving the narrative.