My first long project, called "Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees" [1991], had a long, complicated incubation period. The project began as an experimental short around 1981, became a feature narrative project around 1985, and was finally released on film and video in 1991. While the film was in theatres, I began an internet version of the project, which began in April 1993, when Wax became first feature sent across the internet, links here:

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/24/business/cult-film-is-a-first-on-internet.html

http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/wax/waxweb/image/tid/5

http://www.indiewire.com/article/critics_notebook_why_the_internet_sustains_smaller_tales_from_the_polish_br

That project, called Waxweb, can be found at http://waxweb.org .  

I worked steadily on this project until about 2000. It was meant both as a sort of "transmedia" [as they say now] version of the film, and as a laboratory for my second project, "The Telepathic Motion Picture of THE LOST TRIBES", which I began at the same time as Waxweb. 

That is to say, I've been at work on this second feature/project for 19 years now. A lot of the technique that I struggled with in the early years of the project... HD video, realtime graphics, very long video narrative, internet distribution... are natural and easy now. In general, it is a lot easier to make a video now, so, just make.

With that in mind, I've decided to follow the logic of this project, and release in reverse... that is to say, with the "making of" first. As I started to say, I spent a lot of time on Waxweb, with the intention of using it as the prototype for a "video/writing" machine that would allow me to make the long story of "...The Lost Tribes". A lot of what I was searching for are implicit in the way we make movies now. Others are not... for instance, writing to or writing with video, in an edit, is still really difficult. I don't mean writing a script meant to be broken down for production... I mean writing and revising while making and looking at pictures in flux. 

So, at a formal level, that is what I am going to work through here, in a simple fashion. I'm going to write through this video project. If this was a series, or a massively multiplayer online game, or whatever, you would call the organized backstory, narrative sections, and research material I have collected while making over the last 19 years by the name of Project Bible.  I'm going to start lurching through this Bible, creating short films that tell the story, or the ideas of the story, or the physical making of it . There will be discontinuities in this presentation which won't be there later on, but I'll provide descriptions and clues which will provide some orientation. Expect a lot of different things. The story is made in many media. It is mainly video, but there are also electrical devices, movietalker paintings, reconstructions of telepathic places, reconstructions of live telepathic performance, recomposition of telepathic music, etc etc. The modern usual. There will be many times in the same place, if that phrase works here.

If you've seen the movie "Wax...", or if you've spent time with "Waxweb", you'll probably be pleased to know that, as a part my following the logic of the project, I've decided to make "...THE LOST TRIBES" a sort of sequel to both. That is to say, Waxweb will blend into Lost Tribes, as will Wax.  I'm curious to see how that works. Expect it to be a bit odd at the start.

So, in a nutshell, whatever that means, I'm inviting you to watch and participate in the making of "The Telepathic Motion Picture of THE LOST TRIBES". And for that, I thank you.