The Darkness of Future Past: David Lynch’s Cinema in Retrospect & Afterlife has been canceled
MacGuffin Media has received cease-and-desist letters from attorneys representing the David Lynch Estate, calling for the cancellation of this conference. While we respect the Estate’s role in protecting David Lynch’s name and legacy, we also believe this gathering was conceived as a scholarly program and is a legitimate expression of public discussion. However, after careful consideration, we have decided not to move forward.
We’re very sorry for the disappointment and remain grateful for the enthusiastic interest the event received.
Heartfelt thanks and deep respect go out to the 15 speakers from around the world who signed on—without financial compensation—to participate, as well as to the volunteers behind the scenes, without whom the event would never have been possible in the first place. Their generosity, positive spirit and support have already made the world a better place. They deserve a big round of applause.
An extraordinary gathering of speakers
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![Joel Gunz]()
Joel Gunz
Host, The Darkness of Future Past: David Lynch’s Cinema in Retrospect & Afterlife and HitchCon International Alfred Hitchcock Conference; filmmaker and writer, most recently, “Hitchcock’s Hermetic Hermeneutics” (ed. David Sterritt, forthcoming, 2026).
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![Phil Ford]()
Phil Ford
Co-host of the influential Weird Studies podcast, professor of musicology at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and affiliate faculty in IU’s Cognitive Science Program.
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![J. F. Martel]()
J. F. Martel
Prolific writer on art, culture, religion, and philosophy, co-host of the Weird Studies podcast and author of Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice with an introduction by novelist Donna Tartt.
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![Eric Wargo]()
Eric Wargo
Author of the acclaimed Time Loops: Precognition, Retrocausation, and the Unconscious and From Nowhere: Artists, Writers, and the Precognitive Imagination.
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![Thomas Leitch]()
Thomas Leitch
Kirkpatrick, Jr. Chair of Writing at the University of Delaware. His most recent books are the edited collection The Scandal of Adaptation and the textbook Engagements with Adaptation.
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![Kelly Bulkeley]()
Kelly Bulkeley
Author of several books on Dreaming, most recently, Lucrecia the Dreamer: Prophecy, Cognitive Science, and the Spanish Inquisition; senior editor of the APA journal Dreaming.
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![Erin Bradfield]()
Erin Bradfield
Teaching Professor in Philosophy at Santa Clara University and author of an upcoming monograph on David Lynch’s Twin Peaks.
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![Nathan Seckinger]()
Nathan Seckinger
Theorist of magical and animist philosophies with an educational background in ancient philosophy and comparative world religions.
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![Katy Coakley]()
Katy Coakley
Katy is a recent graduate from the Loyola School of Communication in Chicago. Her film “There’s No Planet B!” was a finalist at the Texas Documentary Film Festival.
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![David Titterington]()
David Titterington
A writer for the 25 Years Later online journal since 2019, David’s work was featured in the book David Lynch and the American West.
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![Nick Haeffner]()
Nick Haeffner
Author, lecturer and musician. Author of the monograph Alfred Hitchcock (2005) and chapters in The Blackwell Companion to Crime Fiction (2011). Taught film studies at Birkbeck College/BFI, Boston University and beyond.
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![Stella Castelli]()
Stella Castelli
Senior lecturer at the English Department of the University of Zurich. Author, doctoral dissertation, Death is Served: American Recipes for Murder - A Serial Compulsion (2020).
Join the conversation for a strange and wonderful weekend.
David Lynch’s sudden passing last year left behind an extraordinary body of work, and, one year on, we can look back on it as a now-completed whole—while also considering how it might continue to speak to us in the future. Join scholars, philosophers and artists from around the world to explore Lynch’s work through presentations, panels and Q&As. Meet your fellow Lynchians and participate in open group discussions that will go late into the evening. Costumes (and damn good coffee) encouraged.
Session times
Sessions will begin at 9:00 a.m. Pacific and end around 4:00 p.m. Pacific, to be followed by after hours open group discussion.
Conference recording
Can’t make the whole weekend? Video recordings will be available to registered ticketholders.
Featured Session
But who is the Dreamer?
An exploration of Lynch’s cinematic dreams—and those times when the dream leaps off the screen and into the material world.
The Darkness of Future Past is an independent scholarly event and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by David Lynch or his estate.