The ‘?’ Motorist revisited in Virtual Reality a homage to Walter Robert Booth 1869–1938.
Walter Booth was a pioneer of British film. Like many early filmakers,
he had a background as a magician. His use of magic tricks and
experimentation with the film medium made him one of the great
innovators of his generation.
Booths’ film The ‘?’ Motorist opens with a couple driving a car and a
police officer chasing them. The couple escapes by driving straight up the wall of a building and shoot off into the sky. They fly to the moon and beyond to the rings of Saturn. Eventually, they fall back to earth, crash through the roof of a courthouse and end up being chased by the police again.
In my version, a T-Ford arrives on the moon with two women at the
wheel. They land and discover a small and beautiful movie theatre, a
reminiscence to the early cinemas found on fairgrounds in the early 19th century. Inside the cinema, Booths’ original film starts and we get to experience the movie with the same fresh eyes the public once had in
back in 1906.
I wish to explore Virtual Reality with the same creative lust and imagination that our forefathers like Walter Booth once did with film.
