Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles
Dec 16 - Dec 22, 2011
(John Foy, 2011, USA, HDCam, Blu-ray, 85 min)
Seattle Premiere!
For many, the hundreds of cryptic plaques embedded in the asphalt of streets across the United States and South America are just another detail in their day-to-day scenery. For John Foy, his documentary team and outsider artist Justin Duerr, they are a compelling gateway to a decades-old mystery. Foy's directorial debut, Resurrect Dead brings viewers a rare and earnest look into the enigmatic Toynbee Tiles as Foy attempts to understand what the tiles might mean and find the artist who made them. Over the course of the investigation, however, Foy skillfully shifts the film's focus from the increasingly strange trajectory of his team's cultural detective work to the personal connection they develop with finding answers to their questions. This intriguing documentary debuted at the Sundance 2011 U.S. Documentary Competition, and earned Foy the U.S. Documentary Directing Award.
"It qualifies as one of the really unexpected winners of the movie year" —Everett Herald
"Remarkably sincere...works splendidly as a threadbare urban mystery, teasing out details and complications without withholding too much information." —Seattle Weekly
"Recommended: The director clearly knows how to build a suspenseful atmosphere." —The Stranger
"Along the way "Resurrect Dead" emerges as being about something other than the Toynbee tiles: the fascination we have with the unknowable, and the way that we can both want an answer and not want it — because an answer means the end of the trail." —Seattle Times
"An uncommonly sensitive and layered portrait of outsider-dom" —Eric Hynes, The Village Voice
