Premiere  

Nevermore can be viewed as a gothic tale set in present-day Baltimore. By tracing the legend of Edgar Allan Poe, a famous American writer who lived in Baltimore between 1833 and 1835, the film explores Poe’s ghostly oeuvre in the popular imagination. It also depicts different communities and protagonists that are connected through Poe’s legacy, as well as the social divisions between them.

The storyline departs from the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum, which shares a common wall with Poe Homes – the oldest social housing project in Baltimore. By capturing the daily activities of museum workers as well as of the people living in the nearby government housing, the film concerns itself with the shared imagination of Baltimore’s citizens as well as questions of urban alienation and racial division. However, instead of focusing on the monstrosity and dark romanticism associated with Baltimore as a city with high levels of crime, the film focuses on the mythology of fantasies and desires, which play out in the lives of its characters. These figures – from devoted fans of the Baltimore Ravens football team, named after Poe’s famous poem, to a celebrated Michael Jackson impersonator and dedicated Poe fan who is an embodiment of the Gothic himself – are also coordinates on a map of Poe’s continued existence. By depicting them, Nevermore examines how, in the words of Teju Cole: “cities are congested with traces of material history and the spiritual traces of those histories, including some very dark events.”

Gerda Paliušytė

Gerda Paliušytė (b. 1987) is a Vilnius-based artist and curator. Her films tend to engage with a range of cultural agents, including historical and popular characters and their relationship with social reality. Paliušytė’s films are concerned with tacit agreements, the desire to connect, and the temporality of collectivity. Most of her work makes use of various documentary practices, including docu-fiction. Some examples of Paliušytė’s films include “The Road Movie”, a story about the band’s “ONYX” stay in Vilnius, “A Desire For Things To Work”, depicting a night journey in Amsterdam voiced by telephone sex workers, and “Nevermore”, a documentary about the legend of American writer Edgar Alan Poe in Baltimore.

Selected Filmography

The Road Movie, 2015
A Desire For Things To Work, 2016
Nevermore, 2020