Video for The Database of Religious History

The Database of Religious History (DRH), a research tool led by Edward Slingerland at the University of British Columbia, is an online encyclopedia documenting the cultural history of religions.

My mission was to translate the purpose, features, and depth of the database into a short video for both specialized researchers and general audiences.

Exploring Religion’s Past, Present, and Future shows how the DRH converts qualitative historical data into a searchable resource, allowing the evolution of religious beliefs and practices across time and space.

The project’s main challenges were twofold: accurately representing diverse religious traditions, and giving tangible form to an abstract system - the database itself.

The film moves fluidly across scales: from abstract data to individual people, from conceptual categories to lived realities.

Scenes, characters, and visual motifs were designed to reflect cultural diversity without fragmentation, maintaining coherence while acknowledging complexity.

This video allowed the DRH to make its project understandable beyond academic circles, broaden its audience, and highlight its research at scientific events and online.

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