Synopsis

Suture (a.k.a. Clark and Julia J. Clarendon and the Next Best Thing to Being on the Dark Continent Itself, 1996, 56:00, 3/4") is a pseudo-documentary about Clark and Julia J. Clarendon, a fictionalized natural history filmmaking duo based on the lives of several late nineteenth and early twentieth-century figures including Theodore Roosevelt, Carl and Mary Akeley and Martin and Osa Johnson. As the trustworthy narrator announces at the start of the film: "Between 1896 and 1936, the Clarendons single-handedly produced more than thirty-seven wildlife and ethnographic cinema classics. Under the auspices of New York City's American Natural History Museum, Clark and J.J. were able to make the strange and exotic familiar to millions of Americans. Throughout their careers as taxidermists, big game hunters and filmmakers, it was education and a genuine love for nature that fueled their passion for preserving the natural world on celluloid. Highlighted in this authoritative historical document is Clark Clarendon's final achievement, the epic museum diorama: Hall of Africa!" Suture features Keith Sanborn as Clark Clarendon.