MOVIE NOTES
“Stuffed”
A Documentary that Pumps New Life into the World of Taxidermy
Written by Sarah Verno
22 October 2020
It’s more than working with “dead stuff”. It’s artistry. It’s natural history. It’s storytelling. It’s science. It’s protecting, archiving, and honoring species. It’s fashion. It’s passion. It’s taxidermy. 
“Taxidermists don’t do what they do because they see death. They do what they do because they see life.”
Following its outstanding debut at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, “Stuffed” is now available on Hoopla (for FREE if you have a library card). The documentary takes viewers inside the uniquely beautiful and rather engrossing world and subcultures of taxidermists.

From the studios of individual artists to renown museum curations, through the artistic processes and mastery required to win the World Taxidermy Competition, this film was nothing short of fascinating.

Here are a few of my personal takeaways along with my favorite quotes from the documentary.

 

A FEW THINGS TO NOTE.

*Taxidermists love animals. A lot. In fact, many modern taxidermists only work on animals that died of natural causes and/or in captivity. None of the artists featured in Stuffed work with anything that hasn’t died naturally and been acquired ethically.

*All of the pictures and quotations are property of the documentary film.  

the heart of taxidermy is deeply rooted in respect for & admiration of nature.

“It’s not about just identifying something, but when you start to know what things are and identify them, you start to care about them.”

Allis Markham, Prey Taxidermy

Details make all the difference.

“The art of taxidermy is recreating the animal precisely… breathing life into it. Because if you just take all the measurements, the casting, all that references you get from the specimen and assemble it, you got a dead animal. You’ve gotta know the animal. You’ve gotta know nature. You’ve gotta know how they behave, what they eat, where they live…”

Taxidermy is not for the faint of heart.

“We get so involved in these pieces. It’s this pouring out of everything. Every fiber of your being. You’re feeling the highs, the lows, the anxiety, every emotion you could possibly go through as an artist being poured into this piece and hopefully this euphoric moment at the end.”

George Dante, Taxidermist

artistic expression + scientific preservation.

“Maybe you [a taxidermist] do end up like Van Gogh, a tortured artist cutting off an ear. But if we cut off an ear, at least we’d make something from it.”

Allis Markham, Prey Taxidermy