The first Shift Key offering is Shezad Dawood’s, Leviathan Cycle, Episode 1: Ben (2017). MOCA exhibited elements from Shezad Dawood’s Leviathan, an ambitious ten-part film cycle in fall 2019; the first episode can now be watched in full on MOCA’s website from Saturday, March 21–Friday, March 27. Dawood’s episodic “monster” encourages us to contemplate urgent issues, expands upon diverse research and bridges disciplines and borders to include local voices within a global forum.

“The world was ending as it had been doing for millennia.” The pilot episode, Ben, in Dawood’s epic film series combines found footage with new film and images, set against spoken word with a powerful soundtrack. We are plunged into a near future where a solar disaster has wiped out a large part of the human population. The protagonist, Ben, reminisces about his childhood spent roaming the back corridors of the Natural History Museum in London (containing, amongst other marvels, Darwin’s original specimen jars from the Beagle expedition), and his youthful fascination with the giant squid preserved in the Marine Research labs.

Learn more @leviathancycle‘s Instagram.