Sascha Ciezata Uses Instagram To Serialize His Short ‘Heart of Darkness’

Los Angeles-based animator Sascha Ciezata has reimagined Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella Heart of Darkness as a mixed-media serialized animated short, releasing installments nightly through his Instagram account.

Recalling Conrad’s protagonist Charles Marlow and his experiences as an ivory transporter in the Congo, Ciezata’s Heart of Darkness follows an intrepid subway rat named Marley, in search of the Rat King, navigating the flooded tunnels of New York City in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Ciezata employs still images, short animated Instagram videos, prodigious hashtagging, and in the clip below, snippets of a vibrant Henry Mancini number.

While an entire 22-minute episode of Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty was serialized on Instagram last March, Ciezata’s project might be the first time that an animated project was specifically created for and serialized through Instragram.

New episodes of Ciezata’s Heart of Darkness are released every day at 7pm PT/10pm ET on the @DarkHeartNYC Instagram account.