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DESCRIPTION:\n\nFilm evenings begin with potluck refreshments and social hour at  6:30 
 pm,\nfollowed by the film at  7:30 pm, followed by a discussion after the 
 film.\n\nThe Invisible Forest\nby Antero Alli\n– appearing in 
 person\n\nThis unique, funny, and imaginative feature film was conceived 
 and directed by local filmmaker Antero Alli and features the writings of 
 William Shakesepare and Antonin Artaud.\n\nA theatre troupe camps out in a 
 forest to perform the vision of their Director, Antero Alli.   It’s here 
 in the forest that the Director’s dream story is able to wind itself 
 through a rich tapestry of labyrinthine dreams within dreams which 
 eventually carry us through to the shattering and regenerative conclusion 
 of his cinematic opus.  During their forest experiment, Alex, performed by 
 the Director himself, is haunted by disturbing dreams where the French poet 
 and playwright Antonin Artaud appears and mocks his theatre ambitions.  
 Artaud’s magic theatre of ghosts, gods, and spirits have come alive in 
 the forest.  These strange repeating nightmares persist, tormenting Alex 
 with the ghost of Artaud.  In an attempt to regain control over his mind, 
 Alex stops sleeping for days to keep the nightmares away.  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 disturbance.  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.\n\nIn their fascinating dialogues, both Alex and the 
 psychotherapist challenge each other to expand their own world-views.  The 
 work they are doing is an attempt to realize Artaud’s vision of an 
 explosive, transformative form of theater.  Artaud is trying to get Alex to 
 liberate himself from the obsession with particular artistic “forms,” 
 and to instead embrace a way of being which surrenders directly to energy.  
 This film, which was created through improvisations instead of a script, 
 embodies this principle of art-making in its process.  As the film  
 progresses, it induces in the viewer some of the same alternate levels of 
 consciousness which form its subject matter.  Alex understands the cosmic 
 Void as being a source of potential energy which creates everything, and 
 the doctor finds this difficult to grapple with.  The doctor understands 
 some basic mechanisms about emotion which Alex has been ignoring at his 
 peril.  Subtly, their dialogue critiques the limits of both psychotherapy 
 and art as avenues of self-exploration.  In a wonderfully bizarre dream 
 cabaret scene, the female spirit of Artaud’s ghost performs a vaudeville 
 act in which she directly humiliates the doctor, who is a symbol for the 
 discipline of psychology, with its need to reduce the mysteries of 
 spiritual adventures to a set of easily understood personal problems.  
 Artaud, after all, embraced his own mental illness as a liberating force, 
 and waged a life-long losing battle against his psychiatrists.  And in this 
 film, Hermes, the Dream Ego, crouching in a tree and vibrant with crazed 
 revelation, delivers an Artaud monologue wherein he ecstatically embraces 
 the Void and embodies the will to madness with which the spirit of Artaud 
 is tempting Alex.\n\nThis remarkable film is full of treasures. It is able 
 to depict those elusive mental states which prove so hard to remember or 
 describe when we awaken from dreams.  It dares the viewer to let go of 
 concepts and accept the risky adventure of following the free, unimpeded 
 energies of the body and mind.\n\nWheelchair accessible around the corner 
 at  411  28th  Street\n\n$5 donations are accepted\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/30/18691852.php
SUMMARY:The Invisible Forest
LOCATION:Humanist Hall\n390  27th  Street\nuptown Oakland, between Telegraph and 
 Broadway\nhttp://www.HumanistHall.org
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/30/18691852.php
DTSTART:20111027T023000Z
DTEND:20111027T043000Z
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