Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa, Associate Professor of Film and Media at Seattle University, focuses his research on the history of scientific filmmaking, nontheatrical film, and animal studies. But except for a couple of intriguing threads related to this work, his selections branch out and revel in spectacle and fantasy.

Ben is the author of The Celluloid Specimen: Moving Image Research into Animal Life. He is currently working on two other book projects, tentatively titled Against Encounter: The Problem of Organicism in Animal Documentary and Beastly Futures: Rightwing Animal Aesthetics in the 21st Century.

Films mentioned:

• The Grateful Mice (1908) - Giovanni Vitrotti
• Legend of a Ghost (1908) - Segundo de Chomón
• The Harvest (1908) - unknown
• The Frog (1908) - Segundo de Chomón
• The Electric Hotel (1908) - Segundo de Chomón
• Sinners (2025) - Ryan Coogler
• Grandma’s Reading Glass (1900) - George Albert Smith
• The Great Mouse Detective (1986) - John Musker, Ron Clements, Dave Michener, and Burny Mattinson
• Maximum Overdrive (1986) - Stephen King
• Excursion to the Moon (1908) - Segundo de Chomón
• A Trip to the Moon (1902) - Georges Méliès
• Under the Skin (2013) - Jonathan Glazer
• The Dancing Pig (1907) - unknown
• The War and the Dream of Momi (1917) - Segundo de Chomón