I first discovered Pennhurst in 2007, then spent the winter of 2007/2008 making this short film and photo essay. At first it was Pennhurst's dramatic decay that interested me, but the more I learned the more its fascinating story began to unfold. This was before the TV ghost shows came, before it was sold by the state and made into a commercial haunted house. Back then it really was a lost and forgotten place: isolated and abandoned for twenty years in the woods of Pennsylvania. Although scrappers, vandals and the elements had taken their toll, there was still enough left to help tell its incredible tale.