Three-Day Event To Showcase Indie Film and Music From The World of Psychedelia
Matthew Modine’s ‘I Am What You Imagine’ Set For East Coast Premiere
The Psychedelic Film and Music Festival has announced the program for its sixth annual event, with a lineup of science fiction and fantasy films, documentaries, music videos, and a screenplay competition. Screenings will be held from October 20-22 at the Producers Club Theaters in Midtown Manhattan, with passes available at https://www.psychedelicfilmandmusicfestival.com.
The mission of the festival is to raise awareness about the psychedelic experience through media and meditative practices, with an emphasis on exploring creativity and self-expression. “The festival offers an array of films, talks, and documentaries where kindred souls and good ideas collide,” said event director Daniel Abella. “Our goal is to educate and entertain attendees about how psychedelic practices are approached, which will allow for new pathways towards everyday life.” By offering a wide range of entertainment and imagery, the festival hopes to enlighten audiences’ perspective of their own identities.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2023
Producers Club Theaters (358 W 44th St, New York, NY 10036)
5:30PM – 7PM EST
PHANTASMAGORIA (2023)
Director: Alexis Herrera, Colombia, 24 min
A lonely illusionist spends gray afternoons imagining Galatea, his missing assistant and muse, and even feels her hypnotic, pale gaze stalking him, as if patiently waiting for him to finish configuring his great act, an illusion that can make her appear again. For the illusionist this has become an obsession that has taken away his sleep.
Nirvana (2023)
Director: Nikolas Keskilammi
Finland, 48 min
A trio sets out for a drug-filled quest during New Year’s Eve when one of them spirals into a terrifying drug trip and overdoses after which it is up to his two friends to save his life and bring him back from madness.
Block 2: Welcome to the Psychodrome
7PM – 9PM EST
Jenny’s Absinthe (2023)
Director: Gregor Gašperin, Slovenia, 12 min
A catfishing troll finds himself on the wrong side of the hook.
Lux Chroma (2022)
Director: Kwokyong Ng, Malaysia, 11 min
Hallowstide (2018)
Director: Steve Socki, United States, 4 min
Dreamy, haunting forms transform, then ascend into a new spiritual world.
RUINENLUST (2023)
Director: Peixian Wu, United States, 7 min
The Other Mind: AI and Psychedelics (2023)
Director: Gregory David Bart, United States, 15 min
A radical and illuminating approach to AI: what if real answers to shaping an AI future can be found in psychedelics and our shamanic heritage?
Red Yellow Blue (2023)
Director: Julia E. Cooke, United States,18 min
A girl gets haunted by her own demons as we follow her through her colorful, surreal, bizarre descent into insanity
Mothership (2023)
Director: Joe Burrascano, United States, 4 min
An intergalactic god wakes up on a barren planet with no memory of who he is or where he comes from.
Wizinski’s AC Service (2023)
Director: Michael Andrew Swastek, United States, 9 min
An eccentric man’s prank leads to eternal torture.
Inisiya (2023)
Director: İpek Elif Aytar, Turkey, 3 min
In a psychedelic universe, a jade stone from space crashes into a planet where the long-legged blue goat lives. The crash creates enormous cracks in the ground, and the goat and the stone fall into the void of darkness through the cracks.
Black No. 1 (2022)
Director: Logan Fry United States, 2 min
“Black No. 1” is one film in a series of conceptual, minimalist films. These films seek to do for film what Agnes Martin and Ad Reinhardt did for painting, in such works as “White Stone” (1964), “Ultimate Painting” (1963), and what John Cage did for music in 4 ’33”.
LAWLA (2022)
Director: Guillaume Simonin, Belgium, 5 min
“Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.” — Jean Cocteau.
Block 3: Feature Presentation
9PM – 11PM EST
Jimmy Alfredo (2021)
Director: Tyler AM, United States, 77 min
A cynical introvert joins a handsome vagabond on an LSD-fueled odyssey to, allegedly, meet the devil.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2023
Producers Club Theaters (358 W 44th St, New York, NY 10036)
Block 1: Documentary Presentation
10:30AM – 12PM EST
The Bytes Dreams Are Made Of (2022)
Director: Alessandro Amaducci, Italy, 67 min
The dream world of the digital machine manifests itself on the computer screen as a stream of images and sounds that spreads over the network. The streaming of digital consciousness.
Block 2: Free Workshop
12PM – 1:30PM EST
The Phoenix Process
This psychedelic experience uses music and meditation to invoke a rebirth experience.
Block 3: Psychedelic Feature
1:30PM – 3PM EST
The Child of Plomo (2021)
Director: Daniel Dávila, Chile, 67 min
Waking from a mysterious dream, Mateo drags Scarlett, his babysitter, away from the Andean ski resort where he’s spending the holidays with his parents in search of an unknown place. His quest becomes Scarlett’s as the call of the mountains intensifies. Pristinely poetic, the film illustrates a major Inca ritual, bridging past and present.
Block 4: Our Vanishing World
3PM- 5PM EST
Onanya (2022)
Director: Paris Tume, United Kingdom, 63 min
In the verdant, lush jungles of the Amazon, a tribe of indigenous people has lived in harmony with their surroundings for millennia. The Shipibo tribe has learned the secrets of the earth, honing their knowledge to transform the native flora into powerful medicines that can cure any sickness. But their peaceful existence is threatened.
Biognosis (2022)
Director: Greg Hemmings, Canada, 32 min
The McKenna Academy’s BioGnosis project aims to renovate and digitize an immensely important collection of 150,000 biological specimens currently housed at the Herbarium of the Amazon in Iquitos, Peru. The herbarium includes vital knowledge on how the indigenous people use the plants for healing.
Block 5: Psychedelic Sci-Fi and Supernatural Shorts
5PM- 7PM EST
Cremantique (2022)
Director: Remy Powell Lamont, United Kingdom, 4 min
“Cremantique” is a supernatural short film exploring isolation, sleep paralysis, and that haunting carnival of late-night anxious thoughts, ringing like an operatic chorus line of evil puppets in your head.
Dementia 29 (2022)
Director: Ben Manhanke, United States, 24 min
A young woman uses her psychic powers to make a living.
Acid King – Beyond Vision (2023)
Director: Dalan McNabola, United States, 8 min
Inspired by “2001: A Space Odyssey,” Carl Sagan, and LSD, the video asks what would happen if instead of the Voyager Golden Record, the new Acid King record was sent off into space?
Hearing Voices (2022)
Director: Debra Knox, United States, 22 min
A schizophrenic woman battles the destructive voices that seek to dominate her amidst seeking love and acceptance in a crumbling inner world.
Shadow on the Terrace (2023)
Director: Bo-wei Ling, Taiwan, 19 min
Qi has a fear of marriage. When he and his girlfriend Qian move into an old house with a large terrace. Qian suddenly has gone, and there seems to be something wrong here.
Tears of the Witch (2022)
Director: Poul Erik Madsen Denmark, 22 min
A story takes place in three different time periods. Slowly we discover the horrifying truth that emerges, as everyone unknowingly steps into the witch’s trap.
Flesheater (2023)
Director: Sean Bayles, United States, 4 min
When a science experiment goes horrifically wrong, Pat & Mac are called in to fix it with the power of rock music.
Enter the Room (2022)
Director: Harry Waldman United States, 15 min
A young adult (Brian) is visited by his brother, Jeremy, who needs a place to stay as he settles into his new city. The two polar opposite personalities begin to clash as Jeremy’s presence poses a threat to Brian’s way of life. Bad blood, stemming from a traumatic past event reveals the shocking truth of the brothers’ current situations
Way of the Season (2023)
Director: Steven Palassis, United States, 4 min
A rumination on the day’s convoluted, technology- driven media and how it’s influencing us to become as “personable” as the technology itself.
Block 6: Psychedelic Dimensions
7PM- 9:30PM EST
Matthew Modine’s I Am What You Imagine (2023) — EAST COAST PREMIERE
Director: Matthew Modine, United States, 7 min
This short film is a sensual exploration of the unexplainable. Featuring the voice talents of Ruby Modine and long-time Kubrick collaborator Leon Vitali in his final performance, the short uses sound, music, and expressionistic imagery to take viewers on a journey of the heart and mind.
Follow Up (2022)
Directed: Al Cerulo, Jude Traxler, United Stateas, 9 min
“Followup” begins a series of avant-garde works by Echo Artifact for our 4th studio album. Beginning with original, abstract film footage, we created elaborate videos without sound; and visual narrative without specificity.
Wildfires (2023)
Director: Peter Hriso, United States, 2 min
Slow Dive Documentary (2023)
Director: Matt Levin, United States, 28 min
Matt Levin interviews members of the famous Shoegaze Band Slow Dive.
Polychron Plus feat. Anna Domino’a Pocketknife (2022)Director: Domenico Morreale, Italy, 4 min
“Pocketknife” is the music video for Polychron Plus’ song featuring Anna Domino, taken from the album Polychron+ “She’s always been there.”
Neshamah (2016)Director: Joao Pedro Oliveira, Portugal, 12 min
Neshamah is a Hebrew word that means “breath.” This piece was inspired by the following biblical text: “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (Genesis 2:7).
Bento Banana (2023)Director: Ari Grabb, United Statea, 10 min
An animated web series about a talking artificially intelligent banana and his eggplant sidekick existing within a procedurally generated anime that appears to be mysteriously glitching.
Shamans (2018)Director: Santiago Echeverry, United States, 4 min
Shamans is the portrait of 4 artists living and working in London, UK.
La Isla (2020)
Director: Totemworlds (Katan R Lamarque) Mexico, 4 min
An art film that invites you to explore a mystical place: a sacred dimension beyond time and space that celebrates Gods, goddesses and religious beliefs around the globe and throughout time.
Exit Into The Masquerasium (2022)Director: Larry Sanborn, United States, 4 min
My focus is to create 360/VR healing visuals/meditations that allow the mind/body to heal itself by changing the frequency of brain waves, which affect every cell in your body, shifting the vibration from dis-eased to being at ease.
You, Us & I (2022)Director: Diego Rico, United States, 12 min
In an uncertain world, a mother tries to convince her daughter to come outside and return to normalcy.
KOO LA LAY LA (2022)Director: Eric George Ekstrand, United States, 3 min
Psychedelic Song by Eric Ekstrand.
Block 7: Feature Presentation
9:30PM – 11PM EST
Lori and the Six Six Sixties (2023)Director: Grant McPhee, United Kingdom, 70 min
“The Other Side of the Forest” is a fantasy pop-art fairytale starring Lori Stott (BBC’s The Demon Headmaster) and Ashley Sutherland. It is the tale of a shy young woman seeking fame in the dark work of the 1960s folk-music underground. Lori’s journey to stardom takes her on a journey far beyond the familiar music world she is trying to break into and instead breaks out to a forgotten past of rural landscapes, magic, myth, dead Gods, and mysterious fallen angels.”
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2023
Producers Club Theaters (358 W 44th St, New York, NY 10036)
* ENCORE PRESENTATIONS OF FRIDAY AND SATURDAY *
Screenplay Competition:
Official Selections
The Messiah MachineWriter: Thomas Mercer, United States
Two former lovers, Thea Marias (an accomplished neuroscientist) and Juan Baptista (an anthropologist and shaman’s apprentice) navigate a world of political and religious intrigue, where the fate of an A.I. super-computer holds the promise of unlocking extraordinary powers and profound spiritual enlightenment.
Superior Being: Smokeless Fire Writer: Jaroslaw Gogolin, United Kingdom This is the third part of the Superior Being series. “Of such great powers or beings, there may conceivably be a survival…a survival of a hugely remote period when…consciousness was manifested, perhaps, in shapes in forms.”
BOZ: Bikers of Oz Writers: Drew Henriksen, Ken Hewski, United States
A twister rips a biker bar from its foundation, and two rival biker gangs crash land in the mythical land of L. Frank Baum’s tales. Thinking they know the story, the two foes quickly unite but encounter forces that they don’t know as well as they thought.
Festival Passes:
Festival passes are available at https://www.psychedelicfilmandmusicfestival.com.
About The Psychedelic Film and Music Festival:
The Psychedelic Film and Music Festival explores the altered states of consciousness and psychedelia created by film, music, art and other forms of media. Founded in 2018, the event has showcased independent feature films, shorts, music videos and documentaries, and panels with distinguished guests, and pushes the boundaries of psychedelic and noetic realities to give audiences a unique and visceral experience.
Connect with Us:
Website: https://www.psychedelicfilmandmusicfestival.com
