John Who Lives in the dark
John Who Lives in the Dark is a multimedia exploration of the life and works created by John Kapellas, a man who has been forced to live in almost complete darkness for the last fifteen years.
In his mid fifties, John Kapellas suddenly became allergic to artificial and natural light. Due to this rare medical condition, he’s spent the last decade and a half living life by the light of a single flashlight. Many years into living in the dark, a medicine his doctor prescribed started inciting an unending series of traumatic flashbacks and a new type of darkness descended. On the brink of suicide, John turned to circles to save his life.
Project Timeline
The project began with the 2017 Documentary Short, “How to Make a Pearl” which was nominated for a Student Academy Award, an IDA award, won a Lovie Award, screened at film festivals all over the world, and was acquired by The Guardian’s Documentaries division.
In 2018, Hanasik was awarded an Individual Artist Commission from the San Francisco Arts Commission to adapt the documentary short into a full length play. A work in progress reading was held at San Francisco Film Society’s FilmHouse in the Fall of 2019.
In 2021, Hanasik began developing a feature length documentary based on “How to Make a Pearl” and was awarded a Catapult Film Fund Development Grant.
In 2022, Hanasik was named the Fall 2022 Artist-in-Residence at Pasadena City College and was awarded a grant through the Pasadena Art Alliance to create an exhibition of new visual art works based off of the feature film in development. The grant included funds to develop a proof of concept Virtual Reality experience which allows viewers to walk around John’s dark apartment with a digital flashlight.