Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1490572
To build a memory, it was necessary to understand Mayan history that has been recorded and re- recorded, and Mayan history that functions as memory, being passed down from generation to generation orally. Talking to the film's experts, I thought it important to research a Mayan city-state whose innovations with water systems and wetlands would be a foundation, a place to start. By understanding the history, I could understand how to build the Talokanil and their Ajaw (King) Namor. I was guided by the Mayan city-state of Palenque and the story of their Ajaw, K'inich Janaab Pakal I. Pakal became Ajaw when he was twelve years old, leading to the height of Palenque construction and innovation. He died at the unusually old age (for the time) of eighty in 683 CE. He was buried in a sarcophagus in a chamber inside the Temple of Inscriptions and was deified as the maize god for the city of Palenque. This story closely paralleled Namor's story as he too became Ajaw at a young age, and his ability to breath underwater, breath air and walk on land gives him the ability to occupy the three realms, which would make him a deity. Palenque also had sophisticated water control systems that included aqueducts, canals and reservoirs—innovation and technology that would have been passed down generation after generation to the Maya, who in this story, were finally driven into the ocean. A. NAMOR'S CENOTE. PRODUCTION STILL. B. NAMOR'S CENOTE MURAL. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TALOKAN STORY BY GRAPHIC ARTIST KELSEY BRENNAN. C. NAMOR'S CENOTE MURAL. SET PHOTO. D. NAMOR'S CENOTE. PLAN BY TIM CROSHAW. E. NAMOR'S CENOTE. ELEVATIONS BY TIM CROSHAW. A B C D E