VERTICAL POOL PRODUCTIONS
presents
(2008; 111 min. USA)
an ANTERO ALLI film
~ Watch THE TRAILER ~
UPCOMING SCREENING
Friday February 5th, 8pm. $6-10.
Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar, Berkeley
Filmmaker in person.
"Cinema is a drug. If some movies lull us to sleep like tranquilizers
while others jack us up like triple espressos,The Invisible Forest is
a 100% organic, user-friendly hallucinogen." -- Antero Alli, director
A HYPNOGOGIC DRAMA
A theatre troupe camps out in a forest to enact their vision of French Surrealist Antonin Artaud's magic theatre of ghosts, gods, and spirits. During their forest experiment Alex, their director (Antero Alli), is haunted by a reoccurring nightmare where Artaud appears and mocks his ambitions. With his sanity pushed to its outer limits, Alex visits a psychologist and undergoes hypnosis to find the source of his disturbance. What follows is a phantasmagorical journey through the internal landscape of dreams and memories to a place beyond belief, beyond words, and beyond the mind itself. Conceived and directed by Antero Alli and featuring the writings of William Shakesepare and Antonin Artaud. Music by Sylvi Alli, Diatonis, Sean Blosl, Andrew Vernon, David Rosenbloom & others.
CAST & CREW, STILLS, REVIEWS, ARTAUD
JAMES L. WAGNER as "Hermes, the Dream Ego"
"Forests embody threshold spaces where we encounter the spirits of nature as well as ghosts of the psychic, para-spiritual world. It is here in the forest that Alli’s dreamstory begins and winds itself through a rich tapestry of labyrinthine dreams within dreams that eventually carry us through to the shattering and regenerative conclusion of Alli’s cinematic opus." - from the REVIEW by Cedrus Monte, Jungian Analyst, Zurich Switzerland.
CAST, CREW & SCREENING HISTORY, STILLS, MORE REVIEWS
ANTERO ALLI as "Alex"
"The onscreen presence of Alli makes this film particularly special...his ALEX is enigmatic, sardonic, arrogant, insightful, joyful—an unpretentious but still portentous portrait of the sort of irascible, multidimensional artist who is not content to make myths but to provoke the nameless forces behind myth, and to bid them intrude." -- from the REVIEW by Erik Davis, author, "TechGnosis"
FILMMAKER INTERVIEW
by Juanita Benedicto. April 29, '08.
"No matter how loudly we clamor for magic
in our lives, we are really afraid of pursuing an existence entirely
under its influence and sign." -- Antonin Artaud (1896 - 1948)
Director's Blog, Filmography, DVD, Contacts, Music
What may be Alli's most delirious picture to watch is also his most difficult story to follow, and at times the narrative seemed to spiral out of control. On the other hand, the spiral takes us places an ordinary, scripted story might avoid, even when the visual effects cease. In particular, the improvised dialogues between Alli and Garret Dailey, as his psychiatrist "Philip K. Brodrique," are naturalistic, funny, frightening ...the best acting I've seen in Alli's oeuvre." -- from the REVIEW by Jesse Walker
DIRECTOR'S BLOG FOR THIS FILM
Updated -- 1/25/2010.
VISION STATEMENT
"why i make films"
FILMOGRAPHY
completed works; w/trailers
ANTERO @ I.M.Db
Internet Movie Database
PRODUCER BIOS
Sylvi Alli and Antero Alli
>> BUY THE DVD<<
from the filmmaker
VERTICAL POOL PRODUCTIONS
PO BOX 7518 Berkeley CA USA 94707
vox: (510) 464-4640
e-mail the director
MP3 "ARRIVAL"
from the CD, A Hundred Birds by Sylvi Alli
as featured in the film, "The Invisible Forest"