John Henry Hinkel’s Atlanta-based Liaison Pictures, behind Charlie Kaufman‘s “How to Shoot a Ghost,” has joined France’s Because the Night Productions on the doc-feature “Behemoth Ann Holds a Seance,” currently taking part in Locarno’s Match Me! networking platform.
Directed by Isidore Bethel, Vicki Bethel and Daniel Hymanson, “Behemoth Ann Holds a Seance” remembers Arthur Douglas Thayer, an artist, designer, writer and educator who spent a lifetime crocheting creatures.
After his dad’s unexpected death, Isidore helps his mom Vicki organize an exhibit of her late husband’s crocheted creatures at the world’s busiest airport as post-mortem bureaucracy, looming debt and two hungry cats threaten the household’s sanity.
“After Doug’s death, filmmaking emerges as a remedy for Isidore, Vicki, and Daniel,” explains Anne-Laure Berteau, founder of Because the Night Productions. “Shooting and editing become ways of rewriting their lives – of transforming sorrow into a story that transcends reality. Cinema here is a radiant force, connecting ghosts and the living, art and the everyday.”
Liaison Pictures’ recent credits include Kaufman’s “How to Shoot a Ghost,” which bowed last year in Venice, and “Coroner to the Stars,” by Ben Hethcoat and Keita Ideno, about former Los Angeles chief medical examiner Thomas Noguchi, which premiered at the 2025 Slamdance Film Festival in L.A. Other works, such as “Shotplayer,” by Sam Shainberg, and Elena Parasco’s “I’m Not Home,” screened at SXSW and Tribeca, respectively.
