Book Launch & Film Screening — Bride of Frankenstein with Shane Denson
Join us for the launch of Shane Denson's latest book, unpacking James Whale's iconic film Bride of Frankenstein (1935), followed by a screening of the film.
Book Launch & Film Signing
Bride of Frankenstein with Shane Denson
Thursday, October 30, 2025
Member Happy Hour: 5:30PM
Public Doors: 6:30PM
Program Starts: 7:00PM
All Ages
Seated Presentation
Limited copies of book available for purchase
View our FAQ page for more info, or contact us at [email protected] with any accommodation requests.
About the Event
In honor of Spooky Season, Gray Area is pleased to host the West Coast launch for Shane Denson's latest monograph, Bride of Frankenstein (2025), a minute-by-minute analysis of James Whale's 1935 masterpiece film of the same title.
Join us for a talk from the author in celebration of the book's release as well as a screening of the original film followed by a cocktail hour and book signing.
Gray Area Members: Join us for a private mixer at 5:30 PM! Our Associate Curator Wade Wallerstein will give a short exhibition tour through Gray Area Gallery, where Alice Bucknell’s SMALL VOID (2025) is currently on view.
About the Book
Alternating between a variety of analytical lenses, including descriptive, historical, and philosophical, this study breaks from conventional forms of film-analytical writing and offers an experiment in defamiliarization and looking anew. In the 1930s, the film opened a space for reflection on the rapid normalization of filmic sound, which it both relies on and estranges. In the 2020s, Bride of Frankenstein brings forth questions of new technological mediums such as artificial intelligence and the transformation of human agency. Shane Denson argues that such associations should not be written off as mere anachronism, but seen, rather, as a strategy of serialization; that is, it is by means of such anachronism that a film like Bride of Frankenstein remains open to new developments and novel situations, and thus comes alive for future viewers.
Denson's Bride of Frankenstein is the inaugural volume in Lever Press's film|minutes series. Titles in the series cut up films into segments of exactly one minute and transform each minute into an innovative tool for thinking with the film. Each volume works rigorously with the concept of “the minute” as a non-cinematic scale/quantity, a means to zoom in on (dis)orderly fragments that do not necessarily respect the confinements of cinematic form or meaning. As a critical practice, the focus on minutes causes disruptions and displacement that create novel connections and perspectives, and uncovers hidden traces, making it possible to watch each film anew.
About the Author
Shane Denson
Shane Denson is Professor of Film and Media Studies and, by Courtesy, of German Studies and of Communication at Stanford University, where he also serves as Director of the PhD Program in Modern Thought & Literature. His research interests span a variety of media and historical periods, including phenomenological and media-philosophical approaches to film, digital media, and serialized popular forms. He is the author of Post-Cinematic Bodies (2023), Discorrelated Images (2020), and Postnaturalism: Frankenstein, Film, and the Anthropotechnical Interface (2014). See shanedenson.com for more information.
Become a Gray Area Member
As a Gray Area Member you get special access to events, behind-the-scenes content and more. Gray Area is a dedicated family of supporters who believe in the power of creative action to catalyze social transformation. Join as a member today to provide sustaining support for our globally unique arts, education, research, and incubation programs.
