[Frameworks] mental problems

[Gisèle Gordon]

One of the most brilliant films I have ever seen in capturing mental
breakdown/hallucination/drug-induced psychosis is DARK ONE by a relatively
unknown video artist, Darryl Miller who worked on it in isolation on a
very old computer for over a decade in his home in Cupar, Saskatchewan,
Canada (population 579).  I only found out about it because I was on a
Canada Council council jury that he had applied to for additional funding.
 I later tracked him down and begged him to let us show it at Hot Docs,
where I was a programmer at the time.

This is the note I wrote about it:
"A drug-addicted poet searches for spiritual redemption as he cooks up
morphine at the kitchen table with his Auschwitz survivor mother and pet
bird. This brilliant, hallucinatory immersion into the psyche of Dan
Biholar, a soul spiralling into oblivion, pushes the medium of the moving
image about as far as it can go. Biholar vacillates between moments of
acute self-awareness, disturbing darkness, tender sentiment, lyrical
inspiration and delusions of grandeur. Award-winning experimental
filmmaker and sound designer Darryl Miller was once in Biholar's shoes.
With unsettling accuracy, Miller sculpts a sensory overload of hypnotic
soundscape and half-melted psychedelic imagery that submerges us in
Biholar's altered states. There is no safe distance from which to observe
this visceral blurring between art, psychosis and reality - let's hope our
sanity returns when the lights come back on."
 
Darryl has put the film online now, below is the link to his channel.  I¹m
sure he would appreciate getting feedback about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ElzZCyQH-M


Gisèle Gordon

On 2017-03-22, 3:05 PM, "Tara" <brendamerenda at gmail.com> wrote:

>Antonioni, Red Desert
>
>> On Mar 22, 2017, at 2:36 PM, John Muse <jmuse at sonic.net> wrote:
>> 
>> Also Bergman¹s Persona
>> 
>>> On Mar 22, 2017, at 2:12 PM, Gae Savannah <411 at gaesavannah.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Cassavetes  Opening Night
>>> 
>>> Bergman  Though a Glass Darkly
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On Mar 22, 2017, at 1:23 PM, Gae Savannah <411 at gaesavannah.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Gorgeous breakdown at the end of  Last Year at Marienbad  (Alan
>>>>Resnais)
>>>> 
>>>> The Hole  (Tsai Ming Liang)  very crazy, intense breakdown.
>>>> 
>>>> Won Kar Wai  ‹which one to pick?‹most of them have twisted coping
>>>>methods for devastated emotional conditions.
>>>> 
>>>> Gus Van Sant    Last Days  (Cobain)
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> I am also digging on childhood trauma theme for an MFA student.
>>>> Would appreciate anything on that angleŠ
>>>> 
>>>> Gae Savannah
>>>> New York
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> On Mar 22, 2017, at 12:49 PM, Elizabeth McMahon
>>>>><elizmcmahon at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Polanski's "Repulsion." Alan Parker's "Birdy." Adrian Lynne's
>>>>>"Jacob's Ladder."
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Wednesday, March 22, 2017, Gene Youngblood <atopia at comcast.net>
>>>>>wrote:
>>>>> Friends, I¹m seeking recommendations of feature films with scenes
>>>>>that attempt to visualize inner states of mind such as breakdowns
>>>>>(Vertigo), nightmares (Spellbound), acid trips (Easy Rider) or any
>>>>>other kind of hallucination (Altered States). Ecstatic or horrific
>>>>>doesn¹t matter. Thanks.
>>>>> 
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>> j/PrM
>> 
>> *************************************************
>> 
>> john muse
>> visual media scholar
>> haverford college
>> he/him/his
>> http://www.finleymuse.com
>> http://www.haverford.edu/faculty/jmuse
>> http://haverford.academia.edu/JohnMuse
>> 
>> *************************************************
>> 
>> 
>> 
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