George Eastman Museum

This audio tour has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio, do not necessarily represent those of the NEH. Transcript For the final film in the trilogy, Edge of Alchemy, I wanted to develop a relationship between two women. I decided to work with the silent-era actresses Mary Pickford and Janet Gaynor, both of whom project a sense of interiority and psychological complexity in their portrayals, which is something I’m always looking for. It occurred to me that it might be interesting to present a version of the Frankenstein story but with a gender reversal that would illuminate the classic story in a new way. I’m an avid gardener and I had been thinking about bees and hive decline, and I decided that that crisis could present an entry point for the film and help define the characters. Mary Pickford plays the “scientist” and Janet Gaynor the “creature’ she creates. I took elements from o