VERTICAL POOL PRODUCTIONS
presents
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
No screenings scheduled; check back later.
Watch THE TRAILER and the 4 min. exerpt from the film
Click this to purchase the DVD.
(updated MAY 11, 2009)
A HYPNOGOGIC DRAMA
A theatre troupe camps out in a forest to perform their director's vision of Antonin Artaud's magic theatre of ghosts, gods and spirits. During their forest experiment Alex (Antero Alli), the director, is haunted by disturbing dreams where Artaud appears and mocks his ambitions. When these strange nightmares persist, Alex stops sleeping in an attempt to regain control over his mind. Sleep-deprived and with his sanity pushed to its limits, he seeks help from a Psychotherapist who suggests hypnosis as a means to uncover the source of his problems. What follows is a phantasmagorical journey through the internal landscape of Alex's subconscious memories and dreams, a sojourn that leads us to a place beyond belief, beyond words, and beyond the mind itself.
"Cinema is a drug. If some movies lull us to sleep like tranquilizers
while others jack us up like triple espressos,The Invisible Forest could be
a 100% organic, user-friendly hallucinogen." - Antero Alli, director
REVIEWS, CAST & CREW, STILLS, MEDIA, 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, MEDIA
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.
ANTONIN ARTAUD (1896 - 1948)
"I employ the word "cruelty" in the sense of an appetite for life, a cosmic rigor, an implacable necessity, in the gnostic sense of a living whirlwind that devours the darkness; it is the consequence of an act. Everything that acts is a cruelty. It is upon this idea of extreme action, pushed beyond all limits, that theatre must be rebuilt." -- Antonin Artaud
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
behind the scenes; updated 6/24/08
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"