DIRECTOR
heatherdfreeman.com
HEATHER D. FREEMAN
Heather D. Freeman (b. 1974) is Professor of Art (Digital Media) at UNC at Charlotte. She holds a BA in Fine Art and German Studies from Oberlin College (1997), an MFA in Studio Art from Rutgers University (2000), and has taught at UNC Charlotte since 2006. Previously, Freeman worked as an art director, graphic designer, editor, and animator in New York and New Jersey and has also taught art, graphic design, and visual rhetoric since 2001. She is also author of The Moving Image Workshop: Introducing animation, motion graphics and visual effects in 45 practical projects (Fairchild Press). Additionally, Freeman is Director of D+ARTS, the College of Arts + Architecture's Digital Arts Center.
Regardless of media, Freeman's artworks combine traditional and digital technologies to weave together the symbolic forms of science, mythology, and popular culture. Her animations have screened internationally and won numerous awards, while her prints and mixed media works have appeared in group and solo shows around the country.
To view her previous works, please visit www.HeatherDFreeman.com.
HAMILTON WARD
PHOTOGRAPHY ADVISOR
www.hamiltonyoungward.com
Hamilton Young Ward is a videographer, illustrator and designer based out of Charlotte, North Carolina. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, BFA in Digital Media. His style is inspired by mid-century illustration and minimalism.
He has shown work at the Greenville Museum of Art in Greenville North Carolina, as well as The Rowe Gallery of Art, at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His film "Miss Addie Johns - Brewton, AL" was shown at the Indie Grits film festival in Columbia, SC.
His film "Ronnie Ward - Brewton, AL" was shown at the Visions6 film festival, where it won Excellence in Experimental film.
Hamilton is currently showing work in the ZaPOW! Gallery in Asheville, North Carolina, as well as White Walls Gallery in Forest City North Carolina. He takes inspiration from Pop Culture, video games, 1940’s Americana and Southern Folklore and Legends.
INTERVIEW SUBJECTS
Prof. Patrick Bergemann Assistant Professor of Organization and Management at the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. (At the time of the interview, Prof. Bergemann was Assistant Professor at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago.)
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Dr. John Callow Visiting lecturer at the University of Suffolk specializing in 17th-century politics and popular culture. Author of Embracing the Darkness: A Cultural History of Witchcraft.
Dr. Vikki Carr An independent scholar researching witchcraft beliefs of Early Modern England and Scotland, demonic beliefs, the North Berwick witch hunt, magic, print culture, and the animal familiar in Early Modern England.
Dr. Nicholas Christakis, the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, Director of the Human Nature Lab, and author of Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society.
Dr. Alexander Cummins, a “consultant, poet, diviner and historian” researching early modern European and early American religion, philosophy, medicine, and magic, and author of the essay 'Transatlantic Cunning: English Occult Practices in the British American Colonies' in the book Prophecy and Eschatology in the Transatlantic World, 1550 - 1800
Prof. Owen Davies Reader in Social History at the University of Hertfordshire and author of Grimoires: A History of Magic Books, Popular Magic: Cunning-folk in English History, and America Bewitched: The Story of Witchcraft After Salem.
Susan Etlinger Industry analyst focusing on the business and ethical implications of Artificial Intelligence and related technologies at the Altimeter Group
Prof. Marion Gibson Associate Dean for Education in the College of Humanities, and Professor of Renaissance and Magical Literatures at the University of Exeter, and author of Early Modern Witches: Witchcraft Cases in Contemporary Writing, Reading Witchcraft: Stories of Early English Witches, and Rediscovering Renaissance Witchcraft.
Douglas Guilbeault is Assistant Professor in the Management of Organizations within the Haas Business School at the University of California, Berkeley, and has a background in philosophy and cognitive linguistics.
Dr. Dan Harms Associate Librarian at SUNY Courtland, author of The Book of Oberon, The Long-Lost Friend: An American Grimoire, and Of Angels, Demons, and Spirits: A Sourcebook of British Magic.
Alex Hogan Managing Partner in Etic Labs a research and development laboratory consisting of scientists, technologists, and artists interested in the development of new methods and technologies to promote and sustain collective social activism and the use of public data.
Prof. Ronald Hutton Head of the School of Humanities and Professor of History at the University of Bristol and author of Triumph of the Moon and The Witch: A History of Fear from Ancient Times to the Present.
Srijan Kumar Assistant Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the School of Computational Science and Engineering, and a former postdoctoral researcher in data science, machine learning, and cyber safety in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University.
Prof. Sean McCloud Associate Professor of Religious Studies and American Studies, and Communication Studies Faculty Affiliate at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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Dr. Charlotte-Rose Millar, a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Queensland, specializing in early modern English witchcraft, popular print, devils, and ghosts, and author of Witchcraft, the Devil, and Emotions in Early Modern England.
Dr. Paolo Parigi Lead Trust Scientist for AirBnB, Associate Director for Computational Social Science, IRiSS at Stanford University, and author of The Rationalization of Miracles.
Dr. David Rand Associate Professor of Management Science and Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, an affiliate of the MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, and the director of the Human Cooperation Laboratory and the Applied Cooperation Team. Associate Professor of Psychology, Economics, and Management at Yale University at the time of the interview.
Dr. Samira Shaikh Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department in the College of Computing and Informatics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Prof. Tim Weninger Assistant Professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Notre Dame with appointments in the Interdisciplinary Center for Network Science and Applications (iCeNSA) and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
Dr. Samuel Woolley Assistant Professor of Journalism at the University of Austin at Texas, Research Director at the Oxford Internet Institute's Computational Propaganda Project, and Director of the Digital Intelligence (DigIntel) Lab at the Institute for the Future.
THANKS
Film Extras
Anna Kenar
Quinn Murphy
Stephanie Robichaux
Hamilton Young Ward
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UNC Charlotte Interns
Graphics and Storyboards - Michael Buschine, Austin Isham, Nathaniel C. McCain, Kevin Rodriguez
Storyboards and Animatics - Mylek McNeill
Character Design and 2D Animation - Dmitry Andronik
2D and 3D Animation and Modeling - Liam Neill
Animation - Ethan Maraon, Khalajia Smarr, Ryan Wells
Podcast Sound Design - Charlie A. Franco
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Music
Pearce Roswell / Epidemic Sound
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Podcast and Film Sound Design and Mix
All sound design and mix by Heather D. Freeman, with additional sound design by UNC Charlotte Digital Media BFA student Charlie A. Franco (podcast episodes 11, 12, and 15) and Seth Grant of Seth Grant Media (podcast episodes 16 through 21).
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Photography
Thanks to Hamilton Young Ward for photography, film, and early production assistance. Other photography by the director, plus stock footage from Shutterstock.com.
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Additional Interviews, Phone, and Skype Calls
Amy Canevello, Chad Edwards, Emily Erikson, Emilio Ferrara, Judith Hewitt, Peter Hewitt, Jo Guldi, Filippo Menczer, Anna Karoline Kaiser (nee Mitschele), Jakub Kalensky, Darius Kazemi, Celine Latulipe, Stephan Lewandowsky, Ben Nemmo, Bonnie Noble, Allison Parish, Gordon Pennycook, Marc Pizzato, Rob Sherman, Svitlana Volkova, Elizabeth von Briesen, Tabea Wilke, and Deborah Willis.
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Additional Email Exchanges and Research Sources
Wolfgang Behringer, Donara Barojan, Vivienne Crowley, Johannes Dillinger, Peter Elmer, Julian Goodare, Phil Howard, Gary Jensen, Sara Mastros, Takis Metaxas, Isaac Reed, James A. Serpell, Eva Pocs, Andreas Sommer, Kate Starbird, V.S. Subrahmanian, and Emma Wilby.
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In-Kind, Travel, and Financial Support
Notre Dame Universities A/V Services and Multimedia Production Specialist Wes Evard; Yale University’s Human Nature Lab (and another thank you to Nicholas Christakis); the D+ARTs Digital Arts Center of UNC Charlotte’s College of Arts + Architecture (disclosure: Heather Freeman was co-directly at the time); the UNC Charlotte Department of Art & Art History and Chairs Eldred Hudson and Lydia Thompson; the UNC Charlotte Office of Research and Economic Development which provided a Faculty Research Grant for this film and podcast; the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle, Cornwell, its staff, and Director Simon Costin; Jay Morong, Will Davis, Rodney Stringfellow, and the rest of the UNC Charlotte film-making community.
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Additional Thanks
My friends, colleagues, and students (past and present) at UNC Charlotte; my family, especially Jeff and Quinn Murphy (I couldn't have asked for better quarantine buddies); the #kithic community of Thorn Mooney's Patreon; and all the listeners who offered me so much encouragement, kind words, suggestions, and support. Thanks to each and every one of you.
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