Stag Film (2005)

’Stag Film, or The Hunter Forgiven (Actaeon and Artemis)’ was mostly filmed during a visit to Kyoto University of Art and Design in summer of 2005. The deer footage was taken in the nearby city of Nara, where the sacred animals- messengers of the gods- roam unhindered around the precincts of a Buddhist temple, and through both the wooded and the urban areas of the city itself. The narrative is based on the myth of the hunter Actaeon, who was punished by the goddess Artemis for spying on her naked body as she bathed. She changed him into a stag, and he was pursued and torn apart by his own hounds.

The film was also inspired by the many versions of the story depicted in art over the past two thousand years. Notable renditions include those by Titian and Gainsborough, and the one found frescoed onto the walls of Octavius Quartio’s house at Pompeii. The Titian can be seen at the National Gallery in Edinburgh.

At around the same time I made another film inspired by Classical myths and their depiction in art:

Kiddy Fiddler [Ganymede & Zeus].

And also a film based on animals in Japanese myth:

Kitsune San.

Watch the film below. The password is Stag.