EPISODE 11 : The Ouija Board, from the seance to the toy store

And we’re back with the fascinating Mitch Horowitz (See Occult NYC Parts 1 and 2) and the incredible history of The Ouija Board. Learn about its early roots as a sort of ‘telegraph’ to the other side – to its evolution into the board game to outsell Monopoly. Get a haunting glimpse into some of the celbrities who used the board and learn about its ominous warning to poet Syliva Plath. Its more than just a toy and a Morrissey song (On le met en relation avec le Museum of Talking Boards: An Online Museum of Ouija Boards).

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‘The Midnight Archive is a new web series which aims to document the exotic, the strange, the eccentric and the truly unique. Often dark and always on the fringe, the series puts an honest look into some of the most fascinating people, places and artifacts that many people are wildly unfamiliar with. From a woman who mummifies pets to the largest collection of automata, the idea is for the subject matter to tell its own story and give the viewer just a taste of something ‘unusual’. No dramatic stings, no editorial drama – just the facts.

The series’ creator was inspired by an institution in his hometown called The Brooklyn Observatory. In 2010 he was asked to lecture there on his collection of mid-19th century 3D Demonic Stereo-Tissues and was amazed at both the variety and the number of people that came to the event. Talking to Joanna Ebenstein – one of the proprietors of the space and creator of the Morbid Anatomy Library, it seemed that there was a growing interest in the esoteric. So after much back and forth – they decide to undertake filming short pieces using the Observatory as their home-base …

themidnightarchive.com

The Stone Tape
Written by Nigel Kneale & directed by Peter Sasdy, UK, Original airing on BBC Two 25 December 1972, 90 min

‘A research team from an electronics company move into an old Victorian house to start work on finding a new recording medium. When team member Jill Greeley witnesses a ghost, team director Peter Brock decides not only to analyse the apparition, which he believes is a psychic impression trapped in a stone wall (dubbed a “stone tape”), but to exorcise it too – with terrifying results’ – IMDb

J’irai comme un cheval fou
Fernando Arrabal , France, 1973, 100 min

‘Poursuivi par la police pour le meurtre de sa mère, Aden se réfugie dans le désert où il rencontre Marvel, un homme étrange, aux mœurs érémitiques, qui communique mystérieusement avec la Terre et ses créatures. Aden l’invite à découvrir « la civilisation ». La grande cité où ils arrivent vit de leurres, de futilités et de perversions, c’est un lieu sans âme où l’Homme est seul, le contraire du désert de Marvel’ – WIKI

… ‘tout le monde a peur, depuis toujours.’

Croire
Lina B. Moreco, Canada, 1998, 52 min

Utilisant la métaphore du pèlerinage initiatique de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle, en Espagne, ce long métrage documentaire nous fait rencontrer des individus aux parcours variés et alimente la réflexion sur la quête de spiritualité, les raisons de croire ou de ne pas croire et les choix qui se posent à la conscience.

L’éclipse du sacré
Nicola Zavaglia, Canada, 1998, 52 min

Devant la chute spectaculaire du nombre des fidèles et des nouvelles vocations partout en Occident, la religion catholique fait aujourd’hui face à une crise sans précédent. S’appuyant sur des images d’une beauté saisissante tournées à Rome, en Calabre et au Québec, ce documentaire dresse le portrait objectif d’une religion en questionnement. Deux mille ans après Jésus-Christ, le culte catholique peut-il espérer redevenir florissant?

The Arthur Lipsett Project: A Dot on the Histomap
Eric Gaucher, Canada, 2007, 52 min 17 s

This full-length documentary introduces us to Arthur Lipsett, a man who defined experimental filmmaking at the NFB in the 1960s. His second film, Very Nice, Very Nice, was nominated for an Academy Award. George Lucas claimed him as an important influence. A decade later, Lipsett’s last attempt at filmmaking ended in failure. He chained his Steenbeck and film racks to prevent theft and vanished into paranoia.

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Images tirées du film N-Zone (1970) d’ARTHUR LIPSETT (ici)
Remembering Arthur (2006) by MARTIN LAVUT (ici)
A Trip Down Memory Lane (1965) by ARTHUR LIPSETT (ici)
21-87 (1964) by ARTHUR LIPSETT (ici)
Free Fall (1964) d’ARTHUR LIPSETT (ici)

Parlant de tradition catholique (la version télé du film Ne touchez-pas à mon église! est en ligne sur Tou.tv), La Cité de Notre-Dame évoque la période éclatante, prospère … Son déploiement souverain. Et des images en couleurs de 1942 moi j’en ai pas vu souvent. On devrait aussi le mettre en relation avec La mémoire des anges (2008) de Luc Bourdon (on en parlait ici).

La Cité de Notre-Dame
Vincent Paquette, Canada, 1942, 28 min

Documentaire sur Montréal, vieille cité française et métropole moderne. Grâce à ses églises séculaires, à ses maisons anciennes, à ses vieux marchés, Montréal garde quelques traits de son visage d’autrefois. Mais ses galeries d’art, ses universités, son aéroport, ses gares de triage, où passent des millions de tonnes de marchandises, son port que touchent les cargos du monde entier lui donnent maintenant l’allure d’une grande ville moderne.

Nazis: The Occult Conspiracy
Tracy Atkinson & Joan Baran, 1998

‘Nazis: The Occult Conspiracy, directed by Tracy Atkinson and Joan Baran, narrated by Malcolm McDowell, is an English language 1998 Discovery Channel documentary regarding Nazi occultism’.

Intéressant pour la cérémonie du rite de passage, un peu moins pour les intentions du réalisateur (quoi que ça ajoute au mystère). Aucun lien avec le Mercredi des Cendres non plus.

Forces occultes
Jean Mamy, France, 1943, 43 min

‘Les mystères de la Franc-maçonnerie dévoilés pour la première fois à l’écran’

‘Ce film a été créé par d’anciens francs-maçons (…) qui avaient quitté leur ordre pour rejoindre l’extrême droite française …

Il s’agit du dernier film du réalisateur, un moyen métrage de propagande antimaçonnique qui, dans l’esprit du Régime de Vichy, consiste en une dénonciation virulente de la franc-maçonnerie, du parlementarisme et des juifs.

Le film raconte la vie d’un jeune député qui se joint au Grand Orient, influent ordre franc-maçon, afin de relancer sa carrière. Il se confronte alors avec la corruption et les scandales politiques du moment et constate ensuite que les francs-maçons conspirent avec les Juifs et les Anglo-americains pour encourager la France dans une guerre contre l’Allemagne.’ – WIKI

Navotas Cemetery, Manila, The Philippines

Above and Below
Stefan Werc, 2012, 2 min 47 sec

Manila is one of the most overpopulated places on Earth.

There are over 2000 families living above the dead in the Navotas Cemetery. Babies are born and the dead are buried in the same place.

Life goes on.

Nostalghia
Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union & Italy, 1983, 125 min

‘The Russian poet Gortchakov, accompanied by guide and translator Eugenia, is traveling through Italy researching the life of an 18th century Russian composer. In a ancient spa town, he meets the lunatic Domenico, who years earlier had imprisoned his own family in a barn to save them from the evils of the world. As Eugenia seeks to tempt Gortchakov into infidelity, he, seeing some deep truth in Domenico’s act, becomes drawn to the lunatic. In a series of dreams, the poet’s nostalgia for his homeland and his longing for his wife, his ambivalent feelings for Eugenia and her Italy, and his sense of kinship with Domenico become intertwined’ …

La mémoire des anges
Luc Bourdon, Canada, 2008, 80 min 23 s

À la façon des disc-jockeys qui revitalisent la musique actuelle en reformatant et en recyclant les sons, Luc Bourdon a procédé à un assemblage d’archives et d’extraits tirés de 120 films produits par l’ONF pour nous présenter la ville de Montréal des années 1950 et 1960.

À la fois documentaire, poème et essai, La mémoire des anges est une expérience unique permettant de revisiter l’histoire de Montréal, avec ses grandes figures, ses lieux emblématiques et ses citoyens ordinaires.

Visitor of a Museum (Posetitel Muzeya)
Konstantin Lopushansky, Switzerland & West Germany & Soviet Union, 1989, 136 Min

‘In a post-apocalyptic world, in which a large part of the population consists of demented and deformed mutants being kept in reservations, a man embarks upon visiting the ruins of a museum buried under the sea which can only be accessed during low tide.’ – IMDb

Cinéma des fêtes

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R.I.P., Rest in Pieces: A Portrait of Joe Coleman
Robert-Adrian Pejo, Austria, 1997, 89 min

… ‘Consider this documentary nothing less than a love letter to the oddball, and to one in particular – artist Joe Coleman. The documentary focuses mainly on the many artistic endeavors of Mr. Coleman. Known in his early years as a provocative performance artist, Coleman was not a stranger to controversy. Drawn to the world of sideshows, Coleman took the idea of becoming a ‘geek’ to new levels – biting the heads off of live mice, wiring his body for explosives, and basically pushing people into a place where they had no choice but to confront his art. Since those early days Coleman has found other artistic pursuits to take up his time, and a better forum to let people see his demons. In moving from a performance artist to a painter, Coleman has found the perfect outlet for his view of the world. Creating paintings that are like the works of a madman, Coleman has taken his darker thoughts and view of the world and has created a nightmarish world of serial killers and the world that needs them.

Each painting is done with obsessive attention to detail, the viewer having to get almost inside the painting just to catch all of the messages and imagery hidden within. Coleman’s paintings are certainly not for everyone, as they deal with, as I stated before, the darker nature of humanity. Many feature killers or killed, his paintings as much tribute as damnation. His view that humans have created serial killers to thin the human herd playing a very strong role in much of his art’ …

Comment ça marche / Explique-moi la vie deuxième partie :

The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom
Adam Curtis, UK, 2007, 180 min

‘The series consists of three one-hour programmes which explore the concept and definition of freedom, specifically, ‘how a simplistic model of human beings as self-seeking, almost robotic, creatures led to today’s idea of freedom.” – WIKI

1. “F** k You Buddy”
2. “The Lonely Robot”
3. “We Will Force You To Be Free”