Vali's World (1984)

Filmed in New York, Positano, and Naples, featuring Vali Myers, George Plimpton, Gianni Menichetti, and Arden Mason. Directed by Caterine Milinaire. Music by Arden Mason. Telltale Associates Inc. © 1984 Vali Myers (1930-2003) was an Australian born, global artist who lived the natural world through an artistic and magical vision. Vali embodied her art in a total awareness of her surroundings and its experience. She bonded with animals and people on a single level. Her art production is a mapping of these worlds where spirits evolve and communicate with each other through forms.

Brion Gysin Teaching

cut ups slightly modified by modern means with lecture by Bryon Gysin track 04 called "Teaching" from LP, live London 1982

Rik Mayall - Lord of Misrule

He may have died in 2014, but his name will liveth for evermore.

The Man Who Bought Mustique

Lord Glenconner, a Scot, once owned Mustique, a verdant island in the Caribbean. He lives in St. Lucia with wife Lady Anne Coke (herself an Earl's daughter and lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret) and their sole surviving son, Christopher, disabled by an accident. Glenconner visits Mustique, explores old haunts, and prepares an outdoor lunch for the Princess. He gets on with his wife; he's charming, irritable, waspish, a snob. With Margaret, he's unctuous and outrageously ribald. It's up close and personal with this aging, white-robed, old-moneyed European amongst black workers and nouveau riche Americans. A portrait emerges of the rich against the backdrop of third-world paradise while Lord Glenconner shouts, stamps his feet, throws things and demands obedience of anyone who happens to be useful at the time.

Kent Adonai, who features a few times in the film ,was left £22 million by Lord Glenconner when he died in 2010. Lord Glenconner's grandson Cody was thought to be his heir but was only left a single stone phallus from India.

The Story of Fascism in Europe

 

In this one-hour special, Rick travels back a century to learn how fascism rose and then fell in Europe — taking millions of people with it. We'll trace fascism's history from its roots in the turbulent aftermath of World War I, when masses of angry people rose up, to the rise of charismatic leaders who manipulated that anger, the totalitarian societies they built, and the brutal measures they used to enforce their ideology. We'll see the horrific consequences: genocide and total war. And we'll be inspired by the stories of those who resisted. Along the way, we'll visit poignant sights throughout Europe relating to fascism, and talk with Europeans whose families lived through those times. Our goal: to learn from the hard lessons of 20th-century Europe, and to recognize that ideology in the 21st century.

The Grateful Dead Movie

 

The Grateful Dead Movie, released in 1977 and directed by Jerry Garcia, is a film that captures live performances from rock band the Grateful Dead during an October 1974 five-night run at Winterland in San Francisco. These concerts marked the beginning of a hiatus, with the October 20, 1974, show billed as "The Last One". The band would return to touring in 1976. The film features the "Wall of Sound" concert sound system that the Dead used for all of 1974. The movie also portrays the burgeoning Deadhead scene. Two albums have been released in conjunction with the film and the concert run: Steal Your Face and The Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack.

Deadheads, San Francisco 1974

An Illegal Rave (a dance drama)

 

The film consists of a live DJ (Jätten - The Giant https://www.facebook.com/musikfantast) who plays at a illegal rave party where a dark, but also funny, story takes place. In the crowd, a group of actors move around and interact with the party participants. Most people are unaware that the person they are talking to has a microphone and is a character in the movie. So much of what you hear and see is improvised. The cohesive thing is that everyone pretends to be at an underground rave for criminals. A bit like the Boiler Room.

The story is about Sandra who has robbed a jeweler's shop and will flee the country with the loot. Her plan is to find someone with a boat that she can pay for. She tries her luck at an illegal rave, which goes as it goes.

Directed by Samuel Olsson

Producer: Quinn Cordukes

Sound: Niclas Carlén

Production by: JAQ Studios

English and Swedish subtitles available! (click on Settings at the bottom of the video and select language)

"The Glittering Mile" (1964)

The entire 1964 documentary about Sydney's Kings Cross "The Glittering Mile*. David Low's classic narration says it all: King Cross is a "glittering mile of dreams, delusions, hopes and headaches, where life comes out of an espresso machine and you can have it any way you like it."

In some ways, Kings Cross, described as Sin City, hasn't changed at all. One Sydney alderman wants to clean it up, another says it's worth a million dollars a year the way it is.

American singer Wayne Newton, the so-called King of Las Vegas, has just flown in and is seen rehearsing for his opening night at the Silver Spade Room at the Chevron Hotel. He's singing Danke Schön — "Thank you for all the joy and pain."

Outside, the people celebrate the bohemian way of life and complain about the weirdos who congregate there. A dancer at the Pink Pussycat tells a reporter, "Well, you get a lot of creeps around here, I know that. You get pestered walking from one club to another." A New Zealander and his mates perform an impromptu haka outside one strip club.

Dancing girls. Another voiceover demonstrates the way women were portrayed in the media in the '60s: "If it's company you're after, there are plenty of girls at the Cross. The place is full of girls, coming and going. It's hard to understand what keeps them busy all night long." And another: "You can be catered for at places where the girls are provided to please you, but you mustn't touch."

The manager at the Pink Pussycat, "Last Card Louie" says, "I've seen the (striptease) show 39,000 times. It's just one of those things. I don't know what to think about it, to tell you the truth."

Another sign that some things never change is the "frequently heard demand around the Cross" for more police ... and for more police on the beat. One resident even keeps a diary of all the crimes that she hears and sees from her flat.

An interviewer speaks to the infamous "witch of Kings Cross" Rosaleen Norton at the Apollyon Lounge, a cafe that she used to frequent. A robed Rosaleen Norton performs a banishing ritual by inscribing a pentagram in the air with her ceremonial athame, or dagger, thereby purifying and defining the ‘sacred space’ associated with the ritual. However we know that Norton was not always robed during her ceremonial performances because she confirmed in her interview with D.L. Thompson that ‘ceremonial attire ranges from nakedness to full regalia – robes, hood, sandals and accessories...’. Norton appeared during her interview with Thompson clad only in her dark leather ‘witch’s apron’, naked from the waist up, although she later posed for a photograph wearing a cat’s mask in addition to her apron. During Norton’s interview with Thompson her fellow coven members wore ritual animal masks to disguise their identity and referred to each other by using code names like the Rat and the Toad, thereby remaining effectively anonymous. (see Neville Drury's article on Roie)

The excerpt ends with an all-male revue. The narration reads: "A few years ago an all-male revue like Les Girls would have been out of the question in Sydney, as it would in most places where people like the differences between the sexes to be clear and obvious. Today, it's part of the Kings Cross scene." And now years later, it still is ... with the Gay Mardi Gras now one of the highlights of Sydney's social calendar.

The Glittering Mile is a fascinating stroll down memory lane ... looking at Kings Cross as it really was in 1964.

The Clash - BBC4 Documentary (2014)

 

Built around the earliest, until now unseen, footage of The Clash in concert, filmed by Julien Temple as they opened the infamous Roxy club in a dilapidated Covent Garden on 1 January 1977, this show takes us on a time-travelling trip back to that strange planet that was Great Britain in the late 1970s and the moment when punk emerged into the mainstream consciousness.

Featuring the voices of Joe Strummer and The Clash from the time, and intercutting the raw and visceral footage of this iconic show with telling moments from the BBC's New Year's Eve, Hogmanay and New Year's Day schedules of nearly 40 years ago, it celebrates that great enduring British custom of getting together, en masse and often substantially the worse for wear, to usher in the new year.

New Year's Day is when we collectively take the time to reflect on the year that has just gone by and ponder what the new one might hold in store for us. Unknown to the unsuspecting British public, 1977 was of course the annus mirabilis of punk. The year in which The Clash themselves took off, catching the imagination of the nation's youth. As their iconic song 1977 counts us down to midnight, we share with them and Joe Strummer, in previously unseen interviews from the time, their hopes and predictions for the 12 months ahead.

The Strange Story of Joe Meek (Arena, 1991)

Robert George "Joe" Meek (5 April 1929 – 3 February 1967) was an English record producer, musician, sound engineer and songwriter who pioneered space age and experimental pop music. He also assisted the development of recording practices like overdubbing, sampling and reverberation. Meek is considered one of the most influential sound engineers of all time, being one of the first to develop ideas such as the recording studio as an instrument, and becoming one of the first producers to be recognized for his individual identity as an artist.

Meek became fascinated with the idea of communicating with the dead. He would set up tape machines in graveyards in an attempt to record voices from beyond the grave, in one instance capturing the meows of a cat he believed was speaking in human tones, asking for help. In particular, he had an obsession with Buddy Holly (saying the late American rocker had communicated with him in dreams). By the end of his career, Meek's fascination with these topics had taken over his life following the deterioration in his mental health, and he started to believe that his flat contained poltergeists, that aliens were substituting his speech by controlling his mind, and that photographs in his studio were trying to communicate with him.

Meek was affected by bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and, upon receiving an apparently innocent phone call from American record producer Phil Spector, Meek immediately accused Spector of stealing his ideas before hanging up angrily. His professional efforts were often hindered by his paranoia (Meek was convinced that Decca Records would put hidden microphones behind his wallpaper to steal his ideas), depression, and extreme mood swings. In later years, Meek started experiencing psychotic delusions, culminating in him refusing to use the studio telephone for important communications due to his beliefs that his landlady was eavesdropping on his calls through the chimney, that he could control the minds of others with his recording equipment, and that he could monitor his acts while away from the studio through supernatural means.

Meek was also a frequent recreational drug user, with his barbiturate abuse further worsening his depressive episodes. In addition, his heavy consumption of amphetamines caused him to fly into volatile rages with little or no provocation, at one point leading him to hold a gun to the head of drummer Mitch Mitchell to 'inspire' a high-quality performance.

Meek's homosexuality – at a time when homosexual acts were illegal in the UK – put him under further pressure and he was particularly afraid that his mother would find out about his sexual orientation. In 1963 he was convicted and fined £15 (equivalent to £316 in 2019) for "importuning for immoral purposes" in a London public toilet, and was consequently subject to blackmail. In January 1967, police in Tattingstone, Suffolk, discovered two suitcases containing mutilated body parts of Bernard Oliver. According to some accounts, Meek was afraid of being questioned by the Metropolitan Police, as it was known they were intending to interview all of the gay men in London. This was enough for him to lose his self-control.

Meek always walked everywhere outside the studio wearing sunglasses, fearing recognition by local gangsters such as the Kray twins, who he feared would attempt to steal his acts or blackmail him regarding his homosexuality.

Meek's depression deepened as his financial position became increasingly desperate. French composer Jean Ledrut accused him of plagiarism, claiming that the melody of "Telstar" had been copied from "La Marche d'Austerlitz", a piece from a score Ledrut had written for the film Austerlitz (1960). The lawsuit meant that Meek did not receive royalties from the record during his lifetime, and the issue was not resolved in his favour until three weeks after his death in 1967.

On 3 February 1967, Meek killed his landlady Violet Shenton and then himself with a single-barrelled shotgun that he had confiscated from his protégé, former Tornados bassist and solo star Heinz Burt, at his Holloway Road home/studio. Meek had flown into a rage and taken the gun from Burt when he informed Meek that he had used it while on tour to shoot birds. Meek had kept the gun under his bed, along with some cartridges. As the shotgun had been owned by Burt, he was questioned intensively by police before being eliminated from their enquiries

 

Raphael - A Mortal God

This documentary on Raphael edges towards the hysterical at times and the segments where modern artists recreate his works seem obscure. But it is well made and gives a good idea of how brilliant the famous painter and architect was. The suggestion that Raphael died of syphilis is also unfounded. The sudden onset of his fever and the rapid decline he experienced seems to suggest it was an acute infection, possibly pneumonia and that the blood letting that was prescribed, a common practice at the time, weakened him to the point of death. 

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Italian: [raffaˈɛllo ˈsantsjo da urˈbiːno]; March 28 or April 6, 1483 – April 6, 1520), known as Raphael (/ˈræfeɪəl/, US: /ˈræfiəl, ˈreɪf-, ˌrɑːfaɪˈɛl, ˌrɑːfiˈɛl/), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.

Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop and, despite his early death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome, much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking.

After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael's more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (1504–1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates.

Raphael saved the Coliseum, the homes on the Palatine Hill, the Forum and the Curia, the arch of Constantine and various temples and many others.

On Good Friday, April 6th, 1520, Raffaello Sanzio, one of the greatest painters of the Renaissance, died. Raphael, as he is known in English speaking circles, had asked to be buried in the Pantheon, and his request was granted, making him the first artist to be accorded such an honour. 

Raphael's epitaph hails him as a preeminent painter and rival of the ancients; it also implies that he died on his birthday, which may or may not be true. Vasari simply states that Raphael was born on Good Friday, 1483, which in that year fell on March 28th. However, another source states that he was born on April 6th. 

By the 19th century Raphael had become a cult figure and on September 14th, 1833, Pope Gregory XVI (r. 1831-46) ordered that his tomb be opened to verify that the artist was really buried there. The tomb was opened in the presence of a host of distinguished figures from the worlds of art, the church, politics and medicine. A skeleton was discovered and the doctors declared (on what grounds?) that this was, indeed, the earthly remains of Raphael. The event was duly recorded in a painting by Francesco Diofebi (1771-851). 

The skeleton was transferred to an ancient sarcophagus, a gift from the pope, on which were inscribed the last two lines of his epitaph: 'Ille hic est Raffael, timuit quo sospite vinci, rerum magna parens et moriente mori.' They have been attributed to Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), a Venetian humanist, scholar and writer, who first met Raphael at the court of Urbino.

The couplet was beautifully translated by the English poet, Alexander Pope (1688-1744), in the last two lines of his Epitaph on Sir Godfrey Kneller (1723): ‘Living, great Nature feared he might outvye Her works; and, dying, fears herself may dye.’ Kneller, who was a very successful German portrait painter, is interred in Westminster Abbey, London. 

Antonin Artaud's The Theatre and the Plague

Antonin Artaud’s The Theater and the Plague is an international cinematic reading of the essay "The theater and the plague“ by the French poet Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Directed by Wolfgang Pannek, co-director of Taanteatro Companhia (São Paulo, Brazil), the project is a collaboration of artists and academics from five continents and engaged in multiperspectivist reflection on the critical tension between „death and cure“.

In The Theatre and the Plague, the first, now prophetic-iconic text from his best-known book, The Theater and its Double, originally presented as a peformative lecture on April 6, 1933, at the Sorbonne, Artaud develops the foundations of the „Theater of Cruelty“ by establishing an analogy between the rupture of the civilizational order caused by the "plague" and the "convulsive passions" triggered by the virulence of his transgressive theatrical poetics.

The Artaudian text was divided into 8 distinct segments (in turn divided into sub-segments), each with a specific thematic focus. Each collaborating artist accepted the challenge of developing an audio-visual dramaturgy (and recording Artaud's text in their respective language), corresponding to the segment to be addressed. The only creative indication given to the artists was to perform a cinematographic reading of Artaud's text in the light of their subjective experiences conected to their respective geographical locations, and under the conditions of limited circulation and social distancing in pandemic times. This work process, recorded with simple digital cameras, cell phones or IPads, resulted in a set of 18 films, lasting between 4 and 11 minutes each).

In addition, the audio-visual collection of these cinematic narratives was re-edited for the feature film Antonin Artaud's The Theater and the Plague (62 min., 11 languages, English subtitles). The film presents the text of “The Theater and the Pest ”in its entirety and brings together people, landscapes and sensibilities ranging from São Paulo to Paris, from Brisbane to Garðabær, and from Maputo to Khon Kaen.

The Swedish Theory of Love (2015)

This documentary from 2015 by Erik Gandini (Surplus: Terrorized Into Being Consumers, Videocracy) examines the social and political landscape of Sweden in terms of relationships, family and love. (There are precoded English subtitles available by clicking the CC button in the bottom left corner). The implications of such basic social elements as attachment and interaction with other people are probably obvious. 

I have lived in Sweden for 20 years and am still continually surprised by the society. It is a culture of contradictions. On the one hand incredibly individualistic and with remarkably high degrees of personal freedom and choice. But on the other hand, it is totally conformist and always struggling for a homogeneity that seems to be slightly out of reach or pragmatically impossible. It is a segregated society, built along deepening ethnic and more recently economic fault lines, but at the same time social mobility is more available than in any other country I have encountered, with free education, high standards of housing and well paid jobs in a unionised workforce. It is a supremely psychological culture, by which I mean discourse is performed according to an established set of ideas, but there is little room for sarcasm, surrealist humour or satire (parody is the norm when it comes to humour). In many countries one could say the norms and proclivities of hegemonic culture are based on a consensus enforced by media, education and public opinion. But in Sweden there are few alternatives. Ideas are accepted and distributed or shared according to a very stable hierarchy of knowledge. An example that still makes me smile is how news broadcasts are often accompanied by an 'expert' who explains the rapport as part of the news. Analysis of social and political issues is conducted from the top down, and the vast majority of people do not question it. 

Everything from sexuality to political dissent is organised by the State. For example RFSU - Riksförbundet för sexuell upplysning (The National Association for Sexual Enlightenment) is just one of many organisations that is state sponsored and devoted to organising the intimate lives of Swedish citizens via a complex network of media and educational channels. The annual Pride festival is also managed and financed by RFSU. In one sense the work of RFSU is very progressive, and personally I support it. But there is no alternative. Revolutionär Pride Stockholm and Anarchopride are two examples of recent attempts to radicalise Pride and move it away from the 'Pink Washing' commercialisation and political photo opportunity is has become. But any questioning of the official discourse in Sweden is shut down very quickly by an activation of a carefully controlled public opinion. I believe this level of manufactured consent and crafted public opinion comes from the same forces described in "The Swedish Theory of Love". 

You can click through to the events page for the 2020 Revolutionär Pride

AÏsha Devi Talks Frequencies, Transcendence and Performance

Aïsha Devi uses her voice to break through the din of our current musical moment.

Singer, producer and performer Aïsha Devi speaks with Chal Ravens about her personal philosophy, why the voice is her preferred instrument and how she looks at ritualistic traditions as a source of inspiration for a new transcendental electronic music.

Aluna

Aluna means "conscience ". Enter the last theocratic chiefdom in America, hidden for centuries on a mountain in Colombia. The Kogi have made this amazing documentary to help us understand how to avoid the destruction of the world that they are trying to protect, and of ourselves.

You Are What You Eat (1968)

The great hippie home movie, You Are What You Eat (1968) is a strange, psychedelic and convoluted film as incoherent as its hippy brethren 200 Motels (1971) and Rainbow Bridge (1972). It belongs with that small collection of movies in which more people own the soundtrack than have actually seen the film. The soundtrack is phenomenal. The bright yellow cover is as eccentric as the vinyl itself that features audio cut-ups, squealing Moog synthesizers, relentless psychedelic improvisations, lounge music, Tiny Tim oddities, and the final appearance of The Hawks before they changed their name to The Band.

The list of those involved with the film is an incredible roster of counter culture heroes and weirdos. Tiny Tim, The Electric Flag, Frank Zappa, Peter Yarrow, Paul Butterfield, Superspade, David Crosby, Hamsa El Din, Barry McGuire, the radio personality Rosko and several others.

Superspade was William E. Thomas. William E. Thomas, a 26-year-old black man, was known to just about everyone in the scene as “Superspade,” a moniker he embraced by wearing an oversized button proclaiming “Superspade, faster than a speeding mind.” Superspade was a dealer for legendary LSD maker Owsley. On 3 August 1967 Thomas made a drug run to Sausalito with a reported $35,000-$55,000 in cash to buy the makings of a massive batch of LSD. Thomas' body was later found stuffed in a sleeping bag and hanging 38 feet off a 300 foot cliff in Point Reyes. He had been shot through the back of the head and stabbed in the heart. Only $15 remained of the wad he'd brought with him to make his score. He and his girlfriend had been planning to move to Europe following this one last drug scheme. The murder of William “Superspade” Thomas is still unsolved and is being handled by the cold case unit of the Sausalito Police Department.

Nowsreal (1968)

Nowsreal was created in the spring of 1968, shot between equinox and solstice by Peter Berg and Kelly Hart. It depicts the final months of the San Francisco Diggers/Free City Collective before they were disbanded in June of that year. The Diggers were a radical community-action group of activists and street theatre actors operating from 1966 to 1968, based in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. Their politics have been categorized as "left-wing"; more accurately, they were "community anarchists" who blended a desire for freedom with a consciousness of the community in which they lived. The Diggers' central tenet was to be "authentic," seeking to create a society free from the dictates of money and capitalism.

The Diggers were closely associated and shared a number of members with the guerrilla theater group San Francisco Mime Troupe. They were formed out of after-hours Mime Troupe discussions between Emmett Grogan, Peter Coyote, Peter Berg, and Billy Landout. They fostered and inspired later groups like the Yippies.

The Diggers were urban activists who ran free kitchens, free stores, organised culture and art events and ran free medical clinics. They used theatre techniques to promote social equality and open public space and protested against the developing market economy and the rule of capital.

In the film a poetry action at San Francisco Town Hal is documented, which was covered by the SF Chronicle :

"The Free City Collective held a press conference and presented a "Modest Proposal" contaning five requests of The City administration, including refurbishment of empty city-owned buildings for free housing, distribution of surplus food and materials through a network of ten neighborhood free stores, setting up presses and trucks for free news distribution throughout the city, providing resources for neighborhood celebrations, and the opening of the parks for free life acts "all permit authority to be rescinded." After the proposal was read, one of the Diggers began reading a poem on America while wearing an American flag shirt. The police arrested him for violating a law against defiling the flag. A second man was arrested for profanity after shouting "Fuck" (the newspaper account described it as "a four-letter word meaning to make love." Ron Thelin (not named, but captioned in a photo) was arrested for wearing a mask after Judge Albert Axelrod informed that it was a violation of the Penal Code. A fourth man was arrested while trying to prevent Ron's arrest. A woman was also arrested, but no reason indicated. Terrence Hallinan, the Diggers' lawyer, charged that talks with the Mayor's Office had produced no results except for pressure from The City on produce market vendors to discontinue supplying free fruits and vegetables to the Diggers. He also said that the police had ordered the noon poetry events off the Polk street steps of City Hall. The SF Chron article quotes "Peter" aka "William Bonney" as saying that "San Francisco can 'burn or turn into a model for the rest of the cities to follow, with radical alternatives to riots and all those corny numbers.'" The Diggers provided free apples to the crowds. Other days they had provided free oranges and strawberries.

Subsequently, all charges were dropped on all five defendants at a court hearing on May 22 at the request of the assistant district attorney who declared that "there was a lot of confusion as to what went on at that poetry bust." Those who had been arrested included: Ronald Thelin, 30, 1324 Willard St. (arrested for "intent to conceal his identity," Section 650a of the Penal Code); Thomas Baker III, 26 (arrested for wearing an American flag); Charles Perkel, 21, 1360 Fell St. (arrested for profanity); Phyllis Wilner, 19, 110 Pierce St.; Israel Jacton, 1324 Willard St. The article mentions that the Asst. D.A. (Granklin Gentes) at one point "began to fidget nervously with a sheaf of papers" and that after the end of the proceeding, he "walked hurriedly out of court.""

The Digger Free Family left behind a plethora of historical evidence—street sheets, articles, posters, oral histories, memoirs, but scant photographic evidence. NOWSREAL helps fill that gap—the film that Peter Berg and Kelly Hart created (along with the active participation of the rest of the Diggers/Free City Collective) in the spring of 1968. Judy Goldhaft explained that Peter envisioned Nowsreal as a visual tribal history in the way that Plains Indians would sometimes paint their tipis with symbols that contained an intimate narrative of significant events. In the film we see the final cycle of Digger events in San Francisco before dispersal, starting with the month-long daily "Noon Forever" events on City Hall Steps. At one of these, Freeman House announces "A Modest Proposal" that lays out the vision of Free City including refurbishment of empty city-owned buildings for free housing, distribution of surplus food and materials through a network of ten neighborhood free stores, setting up presses and trucks for free news distribution throughout the city, providing resources for neighborhood celebrations, and the opening of the parks for free life acts "all permit authority to be rescinded." On that particular day (May 8 1968), Ron Thelin was busted by the SF Police for wearing a mask in public, and Ama was busted for wearing a shirt in the design of an American flag. The film depicts their arrests among numerous other happenings in that spring of 1968 leading up to the flashback (literally) depicting the Summer Solstice celebrations.

The Great Plague

The Great Plague of 1665 killed 100,000 Londoners – one in three of the people living in the city. While kept diaries have provided terrifying testaments to the horrors of that summer, other stories have been hidden in the archives of London churches for centuries. Rare documents unearthed in some of the cities oldest places of worship now tell the story of what it was like for an ordinary person, more often than not living in poverty, as the plague swept through London. This factual drama follows the lives of those living in Cock and Key Alley, one of the dank and dismal yards squeezed between Fleet Street and the Thames – and brings to life 17th Century London at one of its most frightening moments.

Road to Kathmandu (1977)

Overland trip from London to Kathmandu, full version.

Shadows (1958)

Shadows is a 1958 American independent drama film directed by John Cassavetes about race relations during the Beat Generation years in New York City. The film stars Ben Carruthers, Lelia Goldoni and Hugh Hurd as three African-American siblings, though only one of them is dark-skinned. The film was initially shot in 1957 and shown in 1958, but a poor reception prompted Cassavetes to rework it in 1959. Promoted as a completely improvisational film, it was intensively rehearsed in 1957, and in 1959 it was fully scripted.

The film depicts two weeks in the lives of three siblings on the margins of society: two brothers who are struggling jazz musicians and their light-skinned younger sister who goes through three relationships, one with an older white writer, one with a shallow white lover and finally one with a gentle young black admirer.

Bauls of Bengal

The Baul or Bauls (Bengali: বাউল) are a group of mystic minstrels of mixed elements of Sufism and Vaishnavism from Bengal region, comprising Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Barak Valley. Bauls constitute both a syncretic religious sect and a musical tradition. Bauls are a very heterogeneous group, with many sects, but their membership mainly consists of Vaishnava Hindus and Sufi Muslims. They can often be identified by their distinctive clothes and musical instruments. Lalon Shah is regarded as the most celebrated Baul saint in history.

Although Bauls comprise only a small fraction of the Bengali population, their influence on the culture of Bengal is considerable. In 2005, the Baul tradition of Bangladesh was included in the list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

The Metaphysics of Panpsychism (2016)

The Metaphysics of Panpsychism. 

Alfred North Whitehead's Process Philosophy, the Mystery of Consciousness and the Mind-Body Problem (2016)

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Compilation by Michael Schramm

Background Music by Michael Schramm

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Speakers & Quotations: 

Charles Birch, Susan Blackmore, David J. Chalmers, Daniel C. Dennett, Freeman Dyson, David Ray Griffin, Charles Hartshorne, Nicholas Humphrey, Christof Koch, Colin McGinn, Thomas Nagel, Karl R. Popper, John R. Searle, Rupert Sheldrake, Galen Strawson, Alfred North Whitehead. 

Tags:

panpsychism, consciousness, mind-body problem, process philosophy, process metaphysics, materialism, (property) dualism, quantum physics, indeterminism, free will

Squatting (2009)

Squatting is a film by Larissa Matteyssen which follows anarchists and activists, who occupy different empty buildings and territories - from rooms, houses and industrial buildings to complete villages and ports. Dutch and Russian activists are telling about their experiences of squatting and reactions of authorities to self-organisation. Anti-squatters explain why they are in side of the state.

More on the subject:

 * http://video.squat.net

 * https://vimeo.com/6812727

 * https://documentaryheaven.com/the-art-of-squatting/

Aelita: Queen of Mars

Aelita (Russian: Аэли́та, pronounced [ɐɛˈlʲitə]), also known as Aelita: Queen of Mars, is a silent film directed by Soviet filmmaker Yakov Protazanov made at the Mezhrabpom-Rus film studio and released in 1924. It was based on Alexei Tolstoy's 1923 novel of the same name. Nikolai Tseretelli and Valentina Kuindzhi were cast in leading roles. It is the first science fiction film made in Russia

Though the main focus of the story is the daily lives of a small group of people during the post-war Soviet Union, the enduring importance of the film comes from its early science fiction elements. It primarily tells of a young man, Los (Russian: Лось, literally Moose), traveling to Mars in a rocket ship, where he leads a popular uprising against the ruling group of Elders, with the support of Queen Aelita who has fallen in love with him after watching him through a telescope. In its performances in the cinemas in Leningrad, Dmitri Shostakovich played on the piano the music he provided for the film.

In the United States, Aelita was edited and titled by Benjamin De Casseres for release in 1929 as Aelita: Revolt of the Robots.

What Happened to Kerouac?

Jack Kerouac is the author of On the Road and a pivotal figure of the 1950s countercultural revolution. This portrait shows what happened when fame and notoriety were thrust upon an essentially reticent man. What Happened To Kerouac? is a lively and revealing investigation into the man’s personal history and creative process. Kerouac speaks for himself most eloquently in television appearances with Steve Allen and William F. Buckley, along with a fine visual tribute featuring his poetry. The result is a touching and exhilarating film about a troubled writer whose influence is still being felt all over the world. Featuring Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William S. Burroughs, Steve Allen, William F. Buckley, Charlie Parker, Neal Cassady, Carolyn Cassady, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure and Gary Snyder.

Charles Mingus - Triumph of The Underdog

Don McGlynn's uncompromising and soulful documentary look at the tumultuous life of musician and rebel Charles Mingus is fascinating stuff. Mingus said of himself "I am half black man, half yellow man, but I claim to be a Negro. I am Charles Mingus, the famed jazz musician--but not famed enough to make a living in America." His statement summed up the conflict that plagued this musical genius his entire life: volatility, pain, prescience, and raw rage roiled inside a complex man, composer, bass player, and trombonist who transcended labels and refused to be pigeonholed into a single musical style--and who did not achieve real fame until late in his career. The documentary is full of well-preserved footage and contains interviews with many Mingus followers like Wynton Marsalis as well as performances by icons Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, and Gerry Mulligan. The film traverses past the musical legend with insight and information into Mingus's personal life, his civil rights activism, and his final triumph in the music world--just as his body began to deteriorate from Lou Gehrig's disease--to his eventual death in 1979. Mingus left a legacy composed of genius, vulnerability, brilliance, anarchy, and, as one friend noted, "the entire range of human emotion that is reflected in his music. 

Ladakh: A Documentary

The isolated region of Ladakh in northern India has changed rapidly in the past two decades due to sudden and shocking contact with the outside world. Tourists love to frequent the unique Himalayan region wedged between Tibet and Kashmir, but their presence is not without consequences.

HOME - Yann Arthus-Bertrand (English version)

"We have created phenomena that we cannot control"
Home is a 2009 documentary directed by French photographer, reporter and environmentalist Yann Arthus-Bertrand and produced by Luc Besson. The film is almost entirely composed of aerial shots of various places on Earth. It shows how tightly linked Man and nature are, and how humanity is threatening the ecological balance of the planet. The English version of the film is narrated by Glenn Close. 

 Yann Arthus-Bertand is especially known for his book Earth from Above, published in 1999. As a aerial photographer, the main goal of his work is to help people see how beautiful Earth is and to raise awareness of the negative impact of human activities on our ecosystem.

MOVE narrated by Howard Zinn

MOVE is a black liberation group founded in 1972 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by John Africa (born Vincent Leaphart) and Donald Glassey, a social worker from the University of Pennsylvania. The name is not an acronym. The group lived in a communal setting in West Philadelphia, abiding by philosophies of anarcho-primitivism. The group combined revolutionary ideology, similar to that of the Black Panthers, with work for animal rights.

The group is particularly known for two major conflicts with the Philadelphia Police Department. In 1978, a standoff resulted in the death of one police officer, and injuries to several other people. Nine members were convicted of killing the officer and received life sentences.

In 1985, another confrontation ended when a police helicopter dropped a bomb on the MOVE compound, a row house in the middle of the 6200 block of Osage Avenue. The resulting fire killed six MOVE members, and five of their children, and destroyed 65 houses in the neighborhood. The police action was strongly condemned. The MOVE survivors later filed a civil suit against the city and the police department, and were awarded $1.5 million in a 1996 settlement. Other residents displaced by the destruction of the bombing filed a civil suit against the city, and in 2005 were awarded $12.83 million in damages in a jury trial.

The Secret Life of Edward James (1978)

The Secret Life of Edward James, George Melly's documentary film from 1975. The film is a biography of surrealist art collector Edward James. James was patron of René Magritte, Leonora Carrington and Salvador Dalí (the Mae West Lips sofa was originally designed for his house Monkton), and lived the only life a responsible aristocrat can lead: inventing impossibilities and flouting convention. 

James' life is a catalogue of incredible moments: the argument of his royal paternity, defacing his Lutyens-designed home with surrealist flair, his scandalous divorce and bisexual forays. All of this was a prelude to his final monument: Las Pozas. A surrealist sculpture garden filled with gigantic concrete structures that burst out of the Mexican jungle, it is full of needless and wonderful invention.

Not screened since its first appearance over 35 years, this film is a serious addition to the canon of British eccentricity. Jazz musician and art historian George Melly teases out James' unique character as only a fellow member of the rarefied clan could. The film includes footage of Leonora Carrington, the great surrealist artist, as she smokes, drinks and laughs at a gathering and working in her studio on a drawing.

Edward James​ was charming, eccentric, generous and immensely wealthy. For most of his life, his greatest talent was placing himself in interesting situations, often having used his wealth to make them happen. In 1931, he was the first to publish John Betjeman, who had been a fellow student at Oxford. In 1933 he financed the final collaboration between Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. When Salvador Dalí was nearly suffocated by the diving suit he wore to the International Surrealist Exhibition in London in 1936, it was James who prised it off with a billiard cue. The back of his head features twice – once in the mirror – in René Magritte’s Not to Be Reproduced (one of Magritte’s most reproduced works). In 1937 he bought in advance everything Dalí painted that year, a gesture that, unlike most of his patronage, increased his net worth considerably.

James wrote poetry, some of which he had privately printed, but for the first half of his life he mostly produced, published and facilitated the work of others. It was not until the 1960s, in Mexico, that he began work on his enduring creation: a surrealist sculpture park in the jungle-covered hills of Xilitla above the Gulf coast. Over the next two decades, he expanded it to fill a twenty-acre valley around a cascade of waterfalls and pools. Las Pozas (‘the pools’) turned out to be the perfect project for someone with a fertile imagination and almost unlimited resources who was far more interested in starting things than finishing them. One structure after another rose among the ferns, magnolias, bromeliads and mango and banana trees: tier on tier of platforms from which sprouted nonsensical concrete shapes and flourishes, wrought-iron gates leading to secret gardens, staircases and bridges leading nowhere. When the limits of gravity were reached, a structure would be abandoned and another begun.

See the entire article on The London Review of Books.

Wild Style (1982)

Wild Style is an American hip hop film directed and produced by Charlie Ahearn. Released theatrically in September 1982 by First Run Features and later re-released for home video by Rhino Home Video, it is regarded as the first hip hop motion picture.

AlphaGo - The Movie | Full Documentary

With more board configurations than there are atoms in the universe, the ancient Chinese game of Go has long been considered a grand challenge for artificial intelligence. On March 9, 2016, the worlds of Go and artificial intelligence collided in South Korea for an extraordinary best-of-five-game competition, coined The DeepMind Challenge Match. Hundreds of millions of people around the world watched as a legendary Go master took on an unproven AI challenger for the first time in history.

Directed by Greg Kohs with an original score by Academy Award nominee, Hauschka, AlphaGo chronicles a journey from the halls of Oxford, through the backstreets of Bordeaux, past the coding terminals of DeepMind in London, and ultimately, to the seven-day tournament in Seoul. As the drama unfolds, more questions emerge: What can artificial intelligence reveal about a 3000-year-old game? What can it teach us about humanity?

Don Cherry Swedish TV Documentary 1978

"It Is Not My Music"

Swedish TV documentary from 1978
Produced and directed by Urban Lasson

This film from 1978 is about Don and Moki Cherry and others who lived with them in the school house in Tågarp, Skåne, Sweden, in the 1970s and onwards. It includes sequences from SoHo, New York, and Moki Cherry’s textiles on the walls in Hästveda and Long Island City.

with Rashied Ali, James Blood Ulmer, Nana Vasconcelos, Denis Charles, Huss Charles, etc

A Conversation with Bertrand Russell (1952)

Romney Wheeler interviews British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic Bertrand Russell (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) at Russell's home in Surrey, England.

Russel speaks about his work and thought, his life, including revelations about his grandfather, who was John Russell, 1st Earl Russell. He had been British Prime Minister 1846–1852, and 1865–1866 during the early Victorian era. Russell had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba. Bertrand was raised by his grandparents Bertrand was 4 years old when his parents died, his mother of diphtheria and his father of bronchitis in 1876. In his will, Bertrand's father John Russell, Viscount Amberley named Douglas Spalding and T. J. Cobden-Sanderson as Frank and Bertrand's guardians, not wishing his children to be raised as Christians, but Lord and Lady Russell successfully contested the stipulation and assumed full guardianship. The deeply pious Lady Russell, notwithstanding her undoubted disapproval of its content, made sure that her son's book "An Analysis of Religious Belief" was published a month after his death. Both Amberley's sons eventually succeeded to the earldom.

John Stuart Mill was Russell's secular godfather. But Mill died when Bertrand was 2 years old. His grandfather died in 1878, and was remembered by Russell as a kindly old man in a wheelchair. His grandmother, the Countess Russell (née Lady Frances Elliot), was the dominant family figure for the rest of Russell's childhood and youth.

Russell's adolescence was very lonely, and he often contemplated suicide. He remarked in his autobiography that his keenest interests were in "nature and books and (later) mathematics saved me from complete despondency;" only his wish to know more mathematics kept him from suicide. He was educated at home by a series of tutors. When Russell was eleven years old, his brother Frank introduced him to the work of Euclid, which he described in his autobiography as "one of the great events of my life, as dazzling as first love."

During these formative years he also discovered the works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Russell wrote: "I spent all my spare time reading him, and learning him by heart, knowing no one to whom I could speak of what I thought or felt, I used to reflect how wonderful it would have been to know Shelley, and to wonder whether I should meet any live human being with whom I should feel so much sympathy." Russell claimed that beginning at age 15, he spent considerable time thinking about the validity of Christian religious dogma, which he found very unconvincing. At this age, he came to the conclusion that there is no free will and, two years later, that there is no life after death. Finally, at the age of 18, after reading Mill's Autobiography, he abandoned the "First Cause" argument and became an atheist.

Gandhi (1982)

Gandhi is a 1982 epic historical drama film based on the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the leader of India's non-violent, non-cooperative independence movement against the United Kingdom's rule of the country during the 20th century. The film, a British-Indian co-production, was written by John Briley and produced and directed by Richard Attenborough. It stars Ben Kingsley in the title role.

The film covers Gandhi's life from a defining moment in 1893, as he is thrown off a South African train for being in a whites-only compartment, and concludes with his assassination and funeral in 1948. Although a practising Hindu, Gandhi's embracing of other faiths, particularly Christianity and Islam, is also depicted.

Divine Waters (1981)

This hard to find documentary by Vito Zagarrio focuses on the careers of influential partners in filth, John Waters and Divine. Includes lengthy interviews with John's parents and sister, Edith Massey treats us to two songs ('Punks, Get off the Grass' and 'Fever'), as well as a live performance of Divine performing his own song, 'Born to be Cheap'. A must see for any John Waters fan.

La belle Verte / The Green Beautiful (1996)

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La belle Verte (French pronunciation: ​[la bɛl ˈvɛʁt]; The Green Beautiful) is a 1996 French film written and directed by Coline Serreau and starring Serreau, Vincent Lindon, Marion Cotillard and Yolande Moreau. Serreau also composed the original music score. It was filmed on location in Australia and France.

An enlightened non-materialistic and telepathic culture on a distant planet (called The Green Beautiful), sends back one of its members to Earth. She arrives in Paris and experiences first hand the destruction, materialist obsessions and fear which define humans. They use money and eat meat. They wear shoes and drive cars...disgusting.

The Message Of The Tibetans (1966)

This is an extraordinary documentary film from the year 1966, portraying the lives of various people in many Tibetan communities in exile. The documentary touches upon every single aspect of traditional Tibetan life and culture, including Music, Medicine, Food, Art, Architecture, Religion, Yoga, Meditation and more. The film is by acclaimed French director Arnaud Desjardins. Here it is dubbed into English for the narration, with original sound for the voices of the subjects and music.

The full soundtrack to the film can be download here. 

The Transcendental Object At The End Of Time (Terence McKenna Movie)

Terence Kemp McKenna was an author, lecturer, philosopher and shamanic explorer of the realm of psychedelic states. He spoke and wrote about a variety of subjects, including metaphysics, alchemy, language, culture, technology, and the theoretical origins of human consciousness. He has been described by some as being "so far out, nobody knows what he's talking about", and by others as "the most innovative thinker of our times".

To shake us out of our perceptual torpor, McKenna played the holy fool, the crazy wisdom sage. He pushed our faces in the most exotic, lurid inventions of modern science and technology. What elevated him above most other prophets was that he delivered his prophesies with a wink, an implicit acknowledgement that ultimately reality is stranger than we CAN suppose.

McKenna’s métier was the spoken word — stand-up philosophy that meme-splices Alfred North Whitehead, Marshall McLuhan, James Joyce, William Blake and many others, delivered in a reedy, insinuating voice. Available throughout the Internet with titles like “Having Archaic and Eating it Too” and “Shedding the Monkey,” his lectures are tours de force of verbal virtuosity and pack-rat polymathy, leaping trippingly (in both senses of the word) from quantum mechanics to medieval alchemy, from the chaos theory of Ilya Prigogine to the neo-Platonism of Philo Judaeus.

This movie was created to present and collect (some of) his most profound thoughts, and to possibly show glimpses of the alchemical angel that Terence pursued throughout his life. It does not serve as a biography, (at least) three very important themes were left out for the simple reason that they take hours to unfold themselves: the experiment at La Chorrera, the relationship between the McKenna brothers, and the Trialogues with Rupert Sheldrake and Ralph Abraham. And so, three books are essential to anyone who'd like to dive deeper into the life and mind of Terence McKenna:

True Hallucinations by Terence McKenna
The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss by Dennis McKenna
Chaos, Creativity, and Cosmic Consciousness by Rupert Sheldrake, Terence McKenna, and Ralph Abraham

Created by Peter Bergmann, this is a movie/documentary/project/amalgamation made from everything Terence McKenna left us with, mixed with the music of We Plants Are Happy Plants.

From Terence McKenna's Eulogy to Leo Zeff:
Sometimes when Leo would sit with people, they would come out of their reveries and want to talk with him about what they were learning and seeing. And Leo would listen for a few minutes. But he then would always say: "That's fine, that's good, now return to the music." And I think that.. I like to think that Leo has now returned to the music. And some day so shall we. And to whatever degree we follow his example life here, the passage to whatever lies beyond will be made much easier.
Leo showed the way, because Leo knew the way. And I salute him for that, I say for all of us who were his tribe: Goodbye to the secret chief, goodbye to the man who saw most deeply. It's now for us to do as he would have had us do.


The Transcendental Object At The End Of Time

Part 1: Introduction 2:32
Part 2: Human Evolution 10:10
Part 3: Alchemy 15:02
Part 4: Plants 28:26
Part 5: Psychedelics 30:33
Part 6: Culture 34:25
Part 7: Psilocybin 39:48
Part 8: Leaving History 45:16
Part 9: How do you communicate with the mushroom? 51:23
Part 10: What is the voice? 54:18
Part 11: Conversation with Ram Dass 57:51
Part 12: DMT 1:09:46
Part 13: The DMT Experience 1:12:42
Part 14: Rupert Sheldrake and Ralph Abraham 1:26:46
Part 15: Rap, Rant, Rave 1:38:38
Part 16: The Big Bang 1:52:35
Part 17: Humanity 1:57:07
Part 18: "Why is it important for you to do this?" 2:02:38
Part 19: The Good, The True, and The Beautiful 2:12:30
Part 20: Kathleen Harrison 2:15:10
Part 21: Bad Trip 2:17:34
Part 22: High Water Weirdness Event 2:20:57
Part 23: The Promise Of Art 2:26:00
Part 24: Cannabis 2:35:45
Part 25: From Monkeydom To Starshiphood 2:41:41
Part 26: The Transcendental Object At The End Of Time 2:47:10
Part 27: Last Thoughts 2:51:12
Epilogue 3:10:20

Ever-expanding list of contributors, whose work is featured:
(please mention it in the comments if you run into your art/footage)

Videos and audio recordings

SOUND PHOTOSYNTHESIS
Mike Kawitzky
Lorenzo Hagerty/Matrix Masters

VISUALS:
TAS
DMTRMX
Ben Ridgway
Simon Haiduk
Wanderweird
The Art Of Salvia Droid

Ken Adams, Bruce Damer, Sacred Mysteries, Rupert Sheldrake, Ralph Abraham, London Real

Three Tapes by Angus MacLise

Tape One Tape Two Tape Three Pleasure Editions’ first music release, and what a rare honor it is: a 3-cassette compilation of unheard music from MacLise’s vast and wide-ranging reel-to-reel back catalogue containing everything from tape experiments to folk jams, spoken word to synth noise insanity—all animated by the remarkable spirits of MacLise and his cohorts.

Some of the inner thoughts of Angus MacLise come to light in a group of 16 letters recently sold online, sent to Piero Heliczer between 1958 - 1960:

In one long, discursive letter MacLise expands further on his negative feelings towards America: "About the U.S. - it seems as if a dehumanized garden has been made of it - my wonderful huge U.S…. And so, I see, the States has not, by a long sight, been tailor made for me… we were never really suited to the land, it was never our legacy - only a vast spoil awaiting exploitation; our spirits and presences never arose with this soil, and our old lands remain, in essence, virgin - while the U.S. and all the W. Hemisphere has been raped until bloody and mauled into sullen subjection… Well, piero I've worked myself up into a conclusion about the U.S. and I'm satisfied with it, at least for the present."

The same letter, written in a Frankfurt hospital during his spell in the army, describes in some detail what MacLise refers to in another as "a kind of 'crack-up' or minor nervous breakdown". He begins: "I suppose I should unravel for you the twisted silence I consciously kept since I've been in the army… The first big flare-up was in Alabama after I had written the first of my only two compositions since I've been in the black hole of military puppets - At that time I went Awol and remained in Memphis, with a brain fever, in an obscure hotel… when I had recovered I returned and not long afterwards came overseas - and in november I began writing a musical score - then, suddenly, I cracked when they continually interrupted the work in progress… I was now charged with outright and flagrant aggression and balking, so I was sent to the nut ward - and I hope to be kicked out; I only trust they'll do this when I hit the U.S. - here's one of the narrations from the musical score" (lengthy exposition follows).

Elsewhere he relates how "the actual facts of my 'tragic incident' were incurred on my guard post in les bois (d'ennui) when I fired the ammunition off in my weapon, indiscriminately and impartially in the spirit of their best democratics. When I arrive in States I plan to go to 'Frisco to get an opera of mine produced - it isn't actually an opera but an encyclical with a double entendre like: pas savant. Percussion accompaniment, narration dance sequences, improvisation by a chamber group."

The letters are peppered with references to friends and relatives: "om is with child in ny and speaks to me of lonely wilderness + awaits her husband… I think she visits now with aldous uncle in long island… + also I have seen yr brother who now works at 2 or 3 jobs - 1 as waiter at a village ice cream parlor + I think he plans to study insects in the caribbean";

encounters missed: "Am on Rue des Ecoles having journeyed Mme Loyer has said that you had fled and penetrated the Forêt" (Madame Loyer, Heliczer's landlady at the Contrescarpe'); and the strength of his friendship with Heliczer, strained by separation: "I miss your presence, but our stride is different - although we are both friars. I fear now from things which Olivia has said - the thing is that GREAT things are expected - but they happen just by being there and not in things like expatriate manifestos I cannot be depended on for anything except words of love and poems Perhaps we are not good companions for long stretches…".

The Making Of An Underground Film - CBS News 1965

The Making Of An Underground Film - CBS News 1965 with Piero Heliczer, Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick, Stan Brakhage, Velvet Underground.

The year 1965 was perhaps the most important year for much of the 60’s underground’s imaginative and innovative activities. For Piero, there is little doubt it was the high point in his creativity and eminence. The remarkable Walter Cronkite of the CBS News, always on the alert for an interesting story, decided to do a feature on “underground” film. His first investigations coincided with a day Piero was shooting a 12-minute short called Dirt, part of the later unfinished 3 hour epic, with music performed by Velvet Underground. The CBS News crew did a 6-minute report of Piero’s film Venus in Furs, and included Velvet Underground, asking only that wear their shirts, as they had been topless at the first meeting.

“The Making of an Underground Film,” was a profile of Piero Heliczer and Velvet Underground, and turned out to be the one and only television coverage for both the band and the filmmaker. It’s interesting that Walter Cronkite and the CBS News also showed 30 seconds of a Brakhage movie, with poetry by Creeley/McClure a sort of stutter-stammer rapid-fire montage made up with hazy images. All very difficult to understand or make head or tail out of it. Writing about it now, I wonder what Cronkite thought about it. Maybe he dug it as people claimed but it was unlikely that the CBS or people watching the program took the underground seriously. Was it all just a joke to them? Was CBS News making fun of the underground scene or just having fun?

Heliczer usually shot his films silent and added sound on tape; in fact, his “screen adaptation” of William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch in 1968 is “a film for tape recorder, no projector needed.” But, in some instances, Heliczer used live musicians to provide a soundtrack to his films, and ph_flyer_first rushes one ad hoc group playing behind the screen at a Heliczer installation entitled The Launching of the Dream Weapon in early 1965 changed its name later that year to the Velvet Underground. In November, Heliczer had the Velvet Underground perform on the set of his film Venus in Furs and this shooting was filmed by a CBS News crew for an episode of Walter Cronkite Presents entitled “The Making of an Underground Film,” which was, in part, a profile of Piero Heliczer and turned out to be the only network television exposure for both the band and the filmmaker.

Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol, Piero Heliczer, New York 1965

Einsturzende Neubauten - Halber Mensch (1986, full film remastered)

The ruins have been prepared for us by master artists. Civilisation has granted us enough pause to consider its making. The rhythm of your heart, breath and organs are the beginnings of music. Where there was once nature, there is now the silence of cement, or the scream of steel and the bone shaking clang of iron, electricity and skin.

Halber Mensch (or 1/2 Mensch; English: Half Man) is the third studio album by German industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten. It was released on 2 September 1985, through record label Some Bizzare Records.

Halber Mensch (also known as 1/2 Mensch) is a 1986 film by Japanese director Sogo Ishii with German band Einstürzende Neubauten. It was originally released on VHS, and re-released on DVD in 2005. The film's title comes from the album of the same name.

The one-hour film documents Einstürzende Neubauten's visit to Japan in 1985. It includes concert footage along with scenes of the band performing in an industrial building. Several songs from the "Halber Mensch" album are presented as music videos, some with accompanying Butoh dancers.

Don Emilio & His Little Doctors (1982), by Luis Eduardo Luna

This film, by Luis Eduardo Luna, is one of the very first films -if not the first- documenting ayahuasca among mestizo population of the Peruvian Amazon. It was part of Luna's field work carried out in the Iquitos area during July and August 1981, concentrated on the practices of Don Emilio Andrade Gomez, a "vegetalista" living 12 km from the city. The film Don Emilio and his Little Doctors (1982) was made during that time. It is a complement to Luna's doctoral dissertation "Vegetalismo. Shamanism Among theMestizo Population of the Peruvian Amazon" (Full PDF), published in Stockholm in 1986.

Don Emilio was born in Iquitos in 1918. When he was 14 years old, and while working in the Amazon river, near the mouth of the Napo river, he took ayahuasca for the first time. He did it in order to curarse, a term that implies the cleansing and strengthening of the body. When he took ayahuasca for the fifth time, while keeping to the prescribed diet imposed by his teacher, an old man with a flute and a drum appeared in his visions to teach him icaros, magic melodies.

The Man with the Golden Arn (1955)

The Man with the Golden Arm is a 1955 American drama film with elements of film noir, based on the novel of the same name by Nelson Algren. It recounts the story of a drug addict who gets clean while in prison, but struggles to stay that way in the outside world. Although the addictive drug is never identified in the film, according to the American Film Institute "most contemporary and modern sources assume that it is heroin", in contrast to Algren's book which named the drug as morphine.

The film stars Frank Sinatra, Eleanor Parker, Kim Novak, Arnold Stang and Darren McGavin. It was adapted for the screen by Walter Newman, Lewis Meltzer and Ben Hecht (uncredited), and directed by Otto Preminger.[4] The film's initial release was controversial for its treatment of the then-taboo subject of drug addiction.[3][5] It was nominated for three Academy Awards: Sinatra for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Joseph C. Wright and Darrell Silvera for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White and Elmer Bernstein for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. Sinatra was also nominated for best actor awards by the BAFTAs and The New York Film Critics.[6] The film is in the public domain.

Alice in Wonderland (1988) with an Original Soundtrack

Alice is a 1988 dark fantasy film written and directed by Jan Švankmajer. Its original Czech title is Něco z Alenky, which means "Something from Alice". It is a loose adaptation of Lewis Carroll's first Alice book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), about a girl who follows a white rabbit into a bizarre fantasy land. Alice is played by Kristýna Kohoutová. The film combines live action with stop motion animation, and is distinguished by its dark and uncompromising production design.

For Švankmajer, a prolific director of short films for more than two decades, Alice became his first venture into feature-length filmmaking. The director had been disappointed by other adaptations of Carroll's book, which interpret it as a fairy tale. His aim was instead to make the story play out like an amoral dream. The film won the feature film award at the 1989 Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

Švankmajer's beautiful stop motion movie had no music, so Aidan Halm, a young composer created one for it.

The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye (2011)

THE BALLAD OF GENESIS AND LADY JAYE from Epicentre Films on Vimeo.
Genesis P-Orridge died on March 14 in New York. Genesis led a life of spectacle, philosophy and professionally challenging the norms of middle class bourgeois culture. The work of Genesis represents an important bridge between the counter culture of the 1960s and the ubiquitous mediation of culture in the present day cyber society. The work of Genesis is almost a road map of the shift from counter culture to resistance, whereby the idea of 'alternative' was swept up by mass consumption and distribution models and made into a form of identity. This formation of identity according to the market is something that Genesis fell into, and seemed to be relying upon in the challenge to conservative definition of gender. The resistance to conservative gender norms shifted Genesis back towards the idea of marginal, counter or revolutionary.

In this film Genesis and his lover, Lady Jaye, express their deep bond by melding their identities through plastic surgery.

WE CALL IT TECHNO! A documentary about Germany’s early Techno scene and culture

Inspired by new sounds, new technologies and the political events of the time, the early 90s sees the emergence of a scene that euphorically celebrates the dawning of a new era.
In Berlin, Frankfurt and many other German cities, activists tinker on a new music and club culture oriented around the coordinates Techno and House.

At Berlin's Love Parade in 1991, different local scenes congregate for the first time. The trend turns into a movement. A German Summer of Love, which changes whole lives overnight and kick-starts careers.

The basic principle of Techno stands for experimenting, crossing borders and DIY. Fans become DJs or party promoters. Labels are founded and record stores open up. The scene grows. An independent microcosm is created. Networks are formed away from established structures. For a moment everything seems possible…

WE CALL IT TECHNO! tells the story of a tempestuous phase in music history, the first time that pop culture was created significantly in Germany.

With exclusive interviews and comprehensive, mostly unreleased film and photo archive material from the years 1988-1994!

Incl. Statements from Ata, Cosmic Baby, Mijk van Dijk, Elsa for Toys, Hell, Mike Ink., Jürgen Laarmann, Mark Reeder, Tanith, Triple R, Upstart, Sven Väth, Wolle XDP and many more

“This music had such power that we left everything behind... We felt like a new age was starting and we were the first to notice.” (Upstart, Munich)

“It was like a dance on a vulcano. Like: technology brings us progress, but it’ll also destroy us. On the other hand: who gives a sh!t, first I’ll just dance.” (Wolle XDP, Berlin)

“We did a lot of space studies at the time. It all tended towards psycho-active stimulation with the aim of going up and it all never coming to an end. Actually, we tried the weirdest stuff. (Elsa For Toys, Berlin)

“1989, after the fall of the Wall, when the Techno movement in Berlin grew from one day to the next, we all felt like we could change the world.” (Cosmic Baby, Berlin)

“The Moment of unity was short, it lasted maybe one summer.” (Ralf Niemczyk, Cologne)

“It’s nice to see that many people in this context made it, that Techno and House isn’t just stupifying music connected to drugs.” (Frank Blümel, Berlin)

Can - The Documentary

The full documentary for the band Can ,( 1h 27' 07'')
Compiled by Rudi Dolezl and Hannes Rossacher Produced by DoRo Production , Vienna , Austria
Included ''Paperhouse'' ,''I want more'' , ''Dizzy Dizzy '' , ''Below this level '' and more ..

Bombing War

On the 13 February 1945 at 10:00pm 800 bombers of the British RAF bomb the German city of Dresden. A firestorm ensued. Oxygen was sucked out of the air. The slaughter was indiscriminate. Men, women, children, babies burned by phosphor. 35,000 people were killed, at a time when the war was already lost by Germany. The war would end three months after the destruction of the city. This documentary traces the invention of aerial bombing as a weapon of war. From the bombing of Guernica on 26 April 1937 by the dreaded Condor Squadron, on loan from Nazi German to Franco to win the Spanish Civil War. From that point on one atrocity followed another. The culmination in World War Two was the bombing of Hamburg and Dresden by the British and United States air forces in World War Two and then the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the USA. This film ends with VE Day.

The destruction is brutal beyond imagination and stomach churning to watch. On this day at this hour we should remember those millions who have died from the technologies of war, through no fault of their own and at the mercy of cruel and indiscriminate leaders. Those who flew the missions to deliver the bombs were often shocked to see the results of their work, as is expressed by the military survivors who took part in the raids in this film. Aerial bombing has rarely been found to be strategic from a military standpoint. A new survey on the use of aerial bombing during the Vietnam War has seemingly confirmed what many suspected: the massive and systematic bombing of South Vietnam detracted from, rather than furthered, U.S. war aims. The argument that the nuclear attacks on Japan shortened the war is not clearly established, and the attacks were rather a demonstration of destructive power by the USA was a statement to the USSR, which was about to launch attacks through Manchuria into the Korean peninsula when the war was about to end in the Pacific anyway. 

Mystery Mind Maps - The Art of Pichai Rattanapornchai

The center of Bangkok is covered by thousands of mysterious graffiti. Our man will stay 5 days in the capital of Thailand and try to find the creator of those baffling pieces.

Pichai Rattanapornchai is a 58 year old homeless man who has lived his entire life in Bangkok. For an unknown number of years he has created intricate map-like drawings in public spaces of the city. 

The Men of Fifth World

At first glance this documentary seems to be a non-Indigenous production, that recycles some of the myths held about the Indigenous people of Australia. However, it does touch on some good points and the cinema-photography is excellent.

The Men of the Fifth World is a documentary that shows us some of the history, culture and traditions of the Australian Aborigines. The old Garimala Yakar, tells firsthand how their world is accompanied by the sound of the didgeridoo, the beat of their tradition, which keeps them together and attached to the land. These tribes have had to defend their country from the impositions of the white man when he came to Australia for the first time. The aboriginal culture has faded over time but they never cease to tell their story to the youngest and keep the hope that someday find their truth.

In the Kakadu National Park lies Ubirrok, where the Rainbow Serpent stopped after creating the world and was painted on a rock so that people could see her. Over time our forefathers left on the rocks a complete collection of images which depict their way of life and their beliefs. On these ancient rocks they also drew figures of the men of that time, warriors and hunters, who used the same spears and harpoons as we do now.

We share our land with all types of animals, some of them as dangerous the kangaroo is the most characteristic animal of my country.

When we get together to dance around the fire, we sing the dreams of the animals, the stories of how they were created. Those that dance and sing paint their faces and bodies with kaolin, to look like the spirits which, according to our beliefs, are of a grey colour. The dance of the women is slower and more measured. They are normally in a state of trance, possessed by the spirits of the forest which protect them.

The didgeridoo It’s our sacred instrument. The men who know how to play it are very important in our culture. With the didgeridoo they communicate our wishes to the spirits. And they call on them to come to our aid when tragedy befalls us. This sacred instrument brings us closer to the world of our ancestors. It is difficult to play, because you have to blow constantly, using the technique of circular breathing.

The didgeridoos are made by the ants. Our land, here in northern Australia, is the kingdom of the ants.

Our people were nomads, always moving from one place to another, carrying their few belongings with them. That is why we know the forest so well. In the forest, we know how to get everything we need. The men have always hunted and fished, while our women are expert gatherers. They know where to find edible fruits and roots, and how to get honey. The women have always worked in the forest, carrying out these tasks. No one knows nature like they do. Their work is very dangerous. They often come across the king brown, one of the most poisonous snakes in the world, its bite is always fatal.

Hunting and war have always been men’s work, and they have always made their own weapons. Without a doubt, the boomerang is the best known of these. They are pieces of wood carved with a slight curve, which makes them more accurate when they are thrown. In fact, the spear is our best weapon. We used them in our fight against the white men who invaded our country and drove us off the land that belonged to us. Our spears claim other victims. When the tide goes out, we fish for the dangerous sting rays. These are manta rays that hide in the sand, ready to plunge their enormous stings into anyone who dares disturb them.

Our coasts are full of animals, which traditionally provided us with food. When we have speared an animal, we throw a buoy into the water, with a long rope tied to harpoon. Whenever they catch a giant turtle, the fishermen arrange a feast, right there on the beach, to which all their relatives are invited.

“My people have always felt the need to express themselves through painting, now and since the beginning of time. Our art, now called aboriginal art by the white man’s tourist industry, is born from the dreams of each artist and the intense colours we see in our land.

Near the city of Darwin, my people call to the spirit of the king of the crocodiles with piercing cries.
It is a dance of invocation. It is performed whenever someone has to travel to an area where the powerful sea crocodiles live. They ask for its permission and protection, but the great spirit is always asleep, and so they have to cry out to wake him, so that he knows that people have gathered together to dance in his honour.

Talking Heads - Stop making sense (Concert) (HD)

When I was 16 Stop Making Sense came out. I had been a Talking Heads fan since I was 14 and had first heard Swamp (Thanks to Risky Business and the VHS rental store my friend's parents ran). I went to see Stop Making Sense at the local cinema in Toowoomba, a rural capital in Australia. I was the only person in the entire Strand theatre. I sat alone in a huge old theatre and was blown away.