Hi,  I’m Kat Poljak, an independent filmmaker and interdisciplinary performance artist based in Philadelphia. My work often features performative spectacles, post-modern dance, sculptural costumes, theatrical practical effects and other worldly set pieces.  

For the past 3 years I’ve been working on a new short film, Source Architecture, an experimental dance film that will explore our unsettling trajectory toward a dystopian future, where humanity evolves into cyborgs devoid of our original humanity. Throughout the film, a cyborg grapples with their own ability to stay human, poses questions about the idealized human body, and catches glimpses through symbolic dreams of a ritualistic dance duet where two humans connect to one another with a red string amidst a vast desolate desert landscape. 

My team and I have already completed the production of all scenes featuring this duet and are currently working to secure funding and resources to facilitate the rest of the scenes featuring the cyborg. We are looking for donations to finish the film and support the many artists who are a part of it.

We've already been generously supported by SCRIBE Independent Media Fund, and Illuminate the Arts . Now we need your help.

Supporters like you are NEEDED to bring this fantastical film to life. Your donation will directly support the final costume, set builds, finishing costs; including music composition, color correction, sound mixing, and pay, for everyone involved in production and post.

ALL CONTRIBUTORS will be able to receive a tax receipt for fully-deductible donations and partially-deductible donations!

Source Architecture is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Source Architecture  must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Simulated bodies and brains engineered for gore, a cyborg examines humanity's evolution into robots.

Source Architecture is a critique of a looming dystopian future; how both socially and physically we are evolving to exist as hybrid machines, cyborgs devoid of our original flesh, heart, and soul. The experimental short film and installation utilizes dance, practical effects and 70’s inspired retro-futuristic aesthetics to display the ways technology and consumerism have corrupted humanity. The piece is from the perspective of a cyborg wandering aimlessly through the vastness of space. As she navigates her synthetic existence, the cyborg is haunted by fragmented memories of an era when civilization still retained its humanity. Through dreams, a surreal dance duet symbolizes a world where authenticity was valued, and connection was genuine. Her only companion is the ship's computer, which appears to her as a small orb. Staring at the tech inside her exaggerated frame, she considers that she was constructed to be ideal, molded for consumption. The only spoken dialogue within the film is artificial discourse between the cyborg and computer which reinforces a sense of profound loneliness. The film's thematic depth is complemented by visceral choreography and symbolic imagery, exploring themes of love, and societal decay. The film will be screened in an installation involving deconstructed textural elements from each scene. This immersive element will engage the audience with an interactive display. A fusion of curated installation and short film, Source Architecture provides audiences an opportunity to reflect on the correlation between our hybrid physical and virtual state of being. 

Source Architecture highlights the next evolution in my artistic journey and builds off my previous experimental dance film, Incredible Machine Glassbody. The imagery within my work frequently exhibits an exaggerated human form so extreme that we see the horror behind glamorizing hyperreal archetypes of beauty. The cyborg’s post-human figure exemplifies building our bodies to fit in with standards of normalcy

This project is the culmination of my research on humanity's evolving social dynamics in the digital age, offering a unique critique of our species' tendency to prioritize individual success within a capitalist framework. Through a surreal dream-like world infused with theatricality, intricate costumes, and ritualistic contemporary dance, the film serves as a reflection on our current sociological structures and the technological evolution of our species.

Our ultimate goals are to not only spark meaningful dialogue and introspection through Source Architecture but also to uplift the marginalized QTBIPOC artists, who make up 100% of our cast and crew.  By providing paid opportunities and connections, Source Architecture helps foster the development of these artists. By sharing this work with the world, we hope to inspire reflection on the human condition in an age of technological excess, empathy, and positive change within our own community.

FUTURE
In the future, we envision presenting Source Architecture through various channels to reach diverse audiences. This includes submissions to film festivals, curated screenings at art galleries and cultural institutions, and digital distribution platforms. Additionally, we plan to incorporate immersive experiences such as live performances and interactive installations to enhance audience engagement.

Katarina Poljak (Writer, Director, Producer) (they/them) is a celebrated independent filmmaker and Performance Artist whose award winning work has been showcased at The Kimmel Center for Performing Arts, Vox Populi Gallery, and several international film festivals.Their often experimental works evoke a sense of surrealist suspense, and criticizes contemporary culture’s obsession with the spectacle of gore. The incorporation of bizarre, macabre, and often unsettling imagery and concepts in Poljak's work elicits profound and visceral responses from viewers. Poljak's latest film, Incredible Machine Glass Body, garnered acclaim with selections and wins at various international film festivals in 2020. They’re currently a Professor at The University of the Arts, School of Film and continue to create provocative film and performance works.

Josh Walker (Producer) (josh/he/him) is a producer, filmmaker and craftsperson based in Philadelphia. Josh is driven to cultivate empathy through radical imagination, storytelling, and silliness. Walker earned a BFA from The University of the Arts in 2018 and attended National Theatre Institute for Advanced Director ‘18. Recent works include: jawbone: an animated film (Director/Producer), Florida! You Kill me! (Director and Co-Creator), Ellsworth (Producer), The Spirit God Gave Us (Associate Producer), No One’s Town (Director and Puppet Maker), Pass Me Over Party (Prague Fringe and Edinburgh Fringe), Edison (Edinburgh Fringe), lemons (United Solo & NYC Summerfest).

Katie Supplee (Director of Photography) (She/her) is an acclaimed filmmaker, and camera woman, based on the East Coast, USA. Collaborating with Diane Burko on Endangered: From Glaciers to Reefs in 2018. Her thesis film, The Last Crop, earned her the prestigious László Pal Emerging Filmmaker Award at the Friday Harbor Film Fest in 2020. From 2019 to 2022, she worked on the Olympic Channel's All Around. Currently, she's filming Our Lady of Staten Island, while receiving mentorship from Diane Burko.

Sydney Donovan (Co- Choreographer), a performer, choreographer, and educator from Philadelphia, graduated from the University of The Arts in 2019. Trained extensively in Franklin Method and Gaga, she performed with Opera Philadelphia in Turandot (2016) and Semele (2019). Notable collaborations include Paul Matteson's How Many Times (2020) and Lilach Orenstein’s She Will Come on Her Own (2021). Sydney was a 2022 Artist in Residence at MOtiVE Brooklyn, and developed The Many in One are Mingled.

Andjela Preradovic (AD / Analog Cinematographer) is a film photographer and cinematographer based in Philadelphia. She immigrated from Bosnia and Herzegovina to study at The University of the Arts in 2017. After moving to the United States, Andjela soon came to enjoy the beauty of using film cameras to express her creativity. She specializes in portrait photography, with focus on fine art, fashion, and documentary.
Andjela uses the camera as a tool to capture the unique qualities of the people and places around her. Film photography allows her to deeply connect with the work through the meticulous process of self-developing, scanning and printing in the darkroom. Forever fascinated, she continues to learn, drawing inspiration from spontaneity as well as the visual ambiguity that comes from one's eye meeting the light and chemicals on the film.

Chloe Marie Newton is a Philadelphia-based Afro-Latina dance artist. She received her BFA in dance from the University of the Arts in May 2017. Chloe is interested in creating collaborative work in hopes to expose how necessary it is for people of color to have the largest voice in artistic spaces. Chloe believes that through art practices we can expose the truth about systematic oppression, erasure, and discrimination that is too often unacknowledged by most people in this country. Chloe dreams of the day humanity recognizes art as the healer.

Grace Malone (she/her), a movement-based artist, writer, and teacher, graduated Summa Cum Laude in December 2022 from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA under the direction of Donna Faye Burchfield. Grace began her dance training at ten years old in Cocoa, Florida where she was born and raised. Over her many years of discovering dance, Grace has found a profound love for modern and contemporary dance and indulges daily in her deep passion for improvisation, expressing her queer identity and joy for dance through free-form movement. Grace has worked with many different dance artists and companies from around the world including Hubbard Street Dance Company, Sheer Spectacle, Kathryn Swords-Thurman, Peter Chu, Tommie-Waheed Evans, Fana Fraser, Helen Simoneau, Scott Jennings, and many others. Working with an ongoing fascination with poetry, story-telling, and reminiscence, Grace’s choreographic process includes a playfully poetic approach that is sure to tap into the inner child of any onlooker who witnesses the story unfold. 

Seamus Lonergans 

Leah Prather 

Lucky Marvel 

Taj Rauch

David Dunnington 

Kyrie Clemmer 

Gina Colacci
 
ADVISORS

9th Planet - Sam Tower/ Nia Benjamin
Mike Attie
Jennifer Zaylea
 Natalie Klett
Scott Newman
Julianna Poljak
Nathan R. Stenberg