Underground Visionary Cinema of Antero Alli

DVD Available here

"THE ALCHEMY OF SULPHUR" (2021)

"THE ALCHEMY OF SULPHUR" (2021; 107 min. B&W and color) On Reinventing the Romantic.
Hope is writing a short story for ArtLit magazine. When her boyfriend relationship unravels,
she attempts to escape heartbreak by writing herself into the story as a fictional character who
falls in love with Phineas, the story's central character. As her story develops, her romantic
literary projections begin to unexpectedly trigger a series of real world repercussions catalyzing
a spiritual awakening. THE ALCHEMY OF SULPHUR explores the creative writing process as an
insurrection of the Poetic Imagination. Soundtrack by Sylvi Alli & others. Cinematography, editing,
screenplay, and direction by Antero. Click images for production details.

Overall, the pace is measured and contemplative, but expertly crafted
so that, once you get pulled into its slower pace, every moment counts,
and the pauses and silences are full of expressive nuance. In The Alchemy
of Sulphur, we have the master’s voice at the top of his game, allowing
the language, story, images and sounds to distill out of the ether and
arrive in our consciousness in crystalline, perfect form, a true act
of cinematic alchemy. - David Finkelstein Lake Ivan Film Journal

"THE VANISHING FIELD" (2020)

"THE VANISHING FIELD" (2020; 72 min. B&W and color) A Monastic Drama. Disenchanted
with the corruption of society, Jakob X joins a monastery in the hopes of escaping the world.
One day he starts using meditation to "hack the bardo" with this idea of reincarnating into a
better life. However, the astral world he discovers soon shakes the very ground of his being
and pushes him into a dangerous abyss from which there may be no return. Filmed mostly
at the Great Vow Zen monastery in Oregon, THE VANISHING FIELD was chiefly improvised
on site with the monks playing themselves. Soundtrack by Sylvi Alli & others. Story by Antero.
Cinematography, editing, and direction by Antero. Click either image for production details.

"Alli has the sense and the courage to engage directly with the reality
of life in a monastery. It is his exceptional accomplishment to make
this adventure riveting and suspenseful without relying on a convoluted
plot. “The Vanishing Field” is a poetic investigation of very real
experience, not a science fiction fantasy. It is also a gem of a
motion picture and an astonishingly original masterpiece."
- Charles Kruger for Flickstorm, San Francisco

DVD not available

"OUT OF THE WOODS" (2015; recut in 2021)

"OUT OF THE WOODS" (2015/final cut in 2021; 87 min.) A Drama of Magical Realism.
A former professional Mentalist is interviewed by a documentary filmmaker about how he
came upon his mind-reading talents after a fatal fall in the forest and how he mysteriously
came back to life but with amnesia. Wandering the dark woods, he hears disembodied voices
until discovering they are actually the thoughts of those he encounters along the way. OUT OF
THE WOODS follows one man’s journey down the rabbit hole of haunted dreams, weird luck,
and worldly ambitions to discover his true nature and...his one true love. Soundtrack by Sylvi
Alli & others. Edited with Chris Odell. Cinematography, screenplay, and direction by Antero.
Click images for production details.

Out of the Woods carries the virtues of Alli’s canon: handsome
cinematography, a screenplay that is not afraid to take the viewer into
difficult intellectual terrain (how often do you see an anthropomorphic
tree spirit in a contemporary film?) and devious flashes of dry humor,
particularly when Charlie is positioned into using his mentalist powers
for audiences. And Sylvi Alli, the filmmaker’s real-life and reel-life
collaborator, is here as the elusive forest entity and as one of the
creative forces on the haunting soundtrack. - Phil Hall, NYC

THE TRAILER

DVD available here

"THE BOOK OF JANE" (2013)

"THE BOOK OF JANE" (2013; 117 min. color) An Urban Feminist Fable. Alice, a Professor
of Comparative Religion, is writing a book on pre-Hellenic goddess mythologies. One day she
meets Jane, an enigmatic homeless older woman who roams the university campus, sleeps
under a bridge, and rattles Alice with her disturbing insights. THE BOOK OF JANE is a fable of
three fiercely feminist women attempting to embody the values of an ancient culture but at a
cost none of them expected. Soundtrack by Sylvi Alli & others. Edited with Chris Odell.
Cinematography, screenplay, and direction by Antero. Click images for production details.

"The central performances by Luna Olcott and Marianne Shine
are astonishing. The women brilliantly absorb the idiosyncratic
failings and triumphs of their respective characters, resulting in
a pair of in-depth creations resonating with a myriad of emotions.
The concepts raised in “The Book of Jane” are profound and often
complex, this film is also one of Alli’s crowning achievements."
- Phil Hall for filmthreat.com (5 stars)

EXCERPT #1
EXCERPT #2

DVD available here

"FLAMINGOS" (2012)

"FLAMINGOS" (2012 color; 90 min). An Outlaw Romance Noir. Twin sisters Beatrice and
Zoe are in love with Ray, a bank robbing junkie obsessed with apocalyptic visions. Though
Beatrice and Ray are married, after a bank heist Ray absconds with free spirited Zoe to the
Flamingo motel where they plot their future together. Meanwhile, two mysterious entities
observe their hijinx from behind the veils of appearance. FLAMINGOS is a heady cocktail
chaser of amour fou, metaphysical mayhem and karmic retribution. Soundtrack by Sylvi Alli
& others. Edited with Chris Odell. Cinematography, screenplay, and direction by Antero.
Click images for production details.

FLAMINGOS is thoroughly remarkable in the way it packs dense,
engaging layers of honest emotional and spiritual musings in an
extremely constricting framework. Sometimes the most intense
spiritual journeys happen when one has nowhere to go."
Mike Everleth, Underground Film Journal, Los Angeles

3 MIN. EXCERPT

DVD avaiable here

"TO DREAM OF FALLING UPWARDS" (2011/recut in 2021)

"TO DREAM OF FALLING UPWARDS" (2011/final cut 2021; 2 hours; color) A Zany Occult Thriller.
The elder Magus of the Thelemic Temple of Horus is on his deathbed when his biological son
fraudulently inherits The Temple. Jack Mason - a promising young sex magickian and rightful heir
to the Temple - plots revenge against the son. He soon enters a dizzying maze of underworld
encounters with professional psychopaths, desert brujas, and a twist of fate he never saw coming.
Or did he? Meanwhile, Jack assigns his two hot-headed apprentices the ego-corrosive ritual of going
into business as clowns. TO DREAM OF FALLING UPWARDS is a harrowing, hilarious collision between
the contrary occult worlds of urban and rural sorcery. Based on a true story. Soundtrack by Sylvi Alli
& others. Edited with Chris Odell. Cinematography, screenplay, and direction by Antero.
Click above images for production details.

"The complex, expertly constructed story involves a struggle
for succession, a murder, and a demonic possession. The twists
of the story kept me glued to the screen through several viewings.
Absolutely riveting, the cinematography is gorgeous, the film's great
depth and power will keep you thinking for a very long time."
- David Finkelstein for filmthreat.com (4 stars out of 5), NYC, NY

THE OPENING SCENE (3 min.)

Nudity, sexual situations, drug use.

DVD available here

"THE INVISIBLE FOREST" (2008)

"THE INVISIBLE FOREST" (2008; 111 min.; color) A Paratheatrical Docufiction. Alex, an
experimental theatre director (Antero Alli), brings his troupe into a forest to explore his vision
of French Surrealist Antonin Artaud's magic theatre of ghosts, gods, and demons. In the woods,
Alex is haunted by disturbing dreams of Artaud as a caustic feral fashionista. With his sanity
pushed to its limits, Alex visits a psychotherapist who suggests hypnotic regression to remedy his
vexing problem. THE INVISIBLE FOREST follows Alex's journey through his Subconscious mind in
this chiefly improvised film inspired by Alli's deep history directing paratheatrical events. Edited
with Chris Odell and directed by Antero. Additional text by William Shakespeare and Antonin Artaud.
Soundtrack by Sylvi Alli & others. Click images for production details.

"The film incites and dares the viewer to let go of concepts and accept
the risky adventure of following the free, unimpeded energies of the
body and mind. Since, in real life, Alli is engaged in paratheatrical
research, the film’s fictional story is constructed out of documentary
elements." - David Finkelstein, filmthreat.com (4 stars), NYC NY

"THE MIND IS A LIAR AND A WHORE" (2007)

"THE MIND IS A LIAR AND A WHORE" (2007; 91 min. color) An Anxious X-mas Comedy.
A quirky Berkeley household - a heartbroken Astrologer, a closet Satanist, an Inuit opera singer,
a Gulf War vet, and a WebCast diva - are forced to remain indoors during an alleged bioterrorist
attack. Havoc and hilarity prevail as they all grasp for conclusions about what they think is happening
during their escalating uncertainty. THE MIND IS A LIAR AND A WHORE is a prescient tale mirroring
the anxiety of the current era of fear-based politics and government-imposed social restrictions.
Soundtrack by Sylvi Alli & others. Edited with Chris Odell. Written & directed by Antero.
Click images for production details.

"Smart dialogue, compassionate and perceptive character writing,
a heightened sense of both the comic and dramatic potential of the
situation, and powerful performances all come together in a film where
comedy and drama serve as a means to explore the roots of what it means
to be human, and live in a dangerous and highly unpredictable world."
David Finkelstein, filmthreat.com (4 stars) NYC

---> viewing link

4 MIN. EXCERPT
3 MIN. EXCERPT

"THE GREATER CIRCULATION" (2005)

"THE GREATER CIRCULATION" (2005; 93 min. color and B&W) A Poetic Docufiction.
Over three fever-dream nights in the Hotel Biron, Paris 1908, poet Rainer Maria Rilke encounters
the ghost of his friend, artist Paula Modersohn-Becker, who died shortly after birthing her first child.
In response to his loss, Rilke transforms his grief into an epic prose work, "Requiem for a Friend",
about a woman at the crossroads between Art and Motherhood. Meanwhile a hundred years later,
three women and their director prepare to stage Rilke's "Requiem" as a performance ritual with
reverberations echoing between tje two centuries. Soundtrack by Sylvi Alli & others. Edited with
Chris Odell. "Requiem for a Friend" in its entirety by Rainer Maria Rilke (Stephen Mitchell, trans.).
Screenplay & direction by Antero. Click images for production details.

"…a deep, provocative and often disturbing drama which poses
questions of love, art, mortality and grief with the grace and
majesty of Rilke’s work, “The Greater Circulation” is among
Alli's finest works. Anyone seeking lessons on how to create a
wholly original work of motion picture genius can start here."
- Phil Hall, filmthreat.com (5 stars out of 5) NYC New York

"UNDER A SHIPWRECKED MOON" (2003)

"UNDER A SHIPWRECKED MOON" (2003; 96 min. color) An Ancestral Romance.
The power of a long-buried family secret becomes unleashed when the extreme rituals
of a young punk rocker catapults his consciousness into the spirit realm in search of his
Finnish father, a ship captain who drowned in the Bering Sea. His father's mother was
a Sami sorceress whose shamanic powers were passed on to her grandson, powers
he uses as he navigates the dreams of his Finnish grandfather who lies comatose in
the hospital. Under a Shipwrecked Moon is a surrealistic fable of true love, ravens and
hedgehogs, and the mystical depths of ancestral bonds. Soundtrack by Sylvi Alli & others.
Edited with Chris Odell. Cinematography, screenplay, and direction by Antero.
Click images for production details.

Under a Shipwrecked Moon presents the classic mythic tale
of a hero on a vision quest, but places it in a naturalistic setting
where the fabulous and the visionary are seen as a part of daily
life providing a metaphorical guide to the forces underpinnings
life’s dramas. In doing so, Alli enables the viewer to build a bridge
between the quotidian and the visionary, the living and the dead.
- David Finkelstein, filmthreat.com (4 stars) NYC New York

THE TEASER

"HYSTERIA" (2002)

"HYSTERIA" (2002; 83 min. color and B&W) A Magical Realist Drama. During the Serb-Croatian
war (1991-95), Ikar - a young Catholic soldier - unwittingly drinks hallucinogenic datura tea triggering
a full blown vision (or hallucination?) of the Holy Virgin Mary who grants him a mission. To fulfill his
religious destiny, he migrates westward to Oakland California and starts pugilist training in preparation
for his incendiary apotheosis. HYSTERIA was made in early 2002 in response to the rampant racial
profiling of Middle Eastern people after the 9/11 attacks in NYC. Written and produced by Antero Alli
and Jakob Bokulich (who also plays Ikar). Soundtrack by Sylvi Alli & others. Edited with Chris Odell.
Cinematography and direction by Antero. Click images for production details.

HYSTERIA is a profound and frequently disturbing work
of intelligence that forces viewers to weigh in on emotional
issues that haunted America as a result of the tragic events
of 9/11: the damage created by religious dogma, the terror
in dealing with inner fears, and the inability to justify a societal
mind frame built on a foundation of selfish behavior.
- Phil Hall, filmthreat.com (5 stars out of 5) NYC New York

TRAILER #1
TRAILER #2

"ROADKILL" (2001)

"ROADKILL" (2001; 26 min, B&W) MAX & CLIO (Paul D'Addario and Carla Negri) are madly in love, mad about each other and mad at each other. They inspire each other's obsessions. She is an artist and must draw him; he wants her and must have her. Theirs is a love of... exquisite annoyance. PAULA & OTTO (Susan Schramm and Dana Bergeman) are peas in a pod, compatible in love and their work as successful nature photographers. Their pictures hang in an art gallery until the Art dealer (Jean Mazzei) drops them. ROADKILL is an a deep look-see into two types of intimacy between two couples; parallel lives sometimes meet. ROADKILL was improvised on site based on story and character ideas by Antero. Soundtrack by Sylvi Alli & others. Edited with Andrew Damon. Cinematography & directed by Antero. Click images for production details.

"...uncomfortable and cathartic, not unlike the feeling of gazing up a car crash:
a difficult sight to behold, but also too intriguing not to look at and there is also
the hidden sensation of knowing the heavy damage belongs to someone else;
an excellent short film." (4 stars out of five) - PHIL HALL, filmthreat.com
Click this for the entire review

DVD not available

"TRAGOS" (2000)

"TRAGOS" (2000/01; 105 min. B&W w/color) A Cyber-Noir Witch Hunt. An urban tribe of
technopagans perform their ecstatic rites in "Tragos", a virtual reality program. One night their
leader, Bella Luxor, overamps the program and goes blind, while her sister Vivika is assimilated
into the program. Robert Logos, a fundamentalist Christian attorney views the tribe as a Satanic
suicide cult and hires an unemployed actor to pose as a detective to secure their demise. TRAGOS
explores the modern tragedy of soul loss in a virtualized, hyper-digital society of spectacle.
Soundtrack by Sylvi Alli & others. Edited with Chris Odell. Written & directed by Antero.
Click images for production details.

TRAGOS is an intellectual adrenaline rush of hypnotic strength
and emotional depth. Alli envisions a future where the desire to
escape from government and media thought-control drives people
underground. Though perhaps the future is a lot closer than we think,
since the parallels between Tragos' futuristic tale and the assault on
many basic contemporary liberties seems too close for comfort.
- Phil Hall for filmthreat.com (4 stars out of 5) NYC New York

EXCERPT #1
EXCERPT #2

DVD available ("Loaded Visions")

"LILY IN LIMBO" (1996)

"LILY IN LIMBO" (1996/2001; 26 min. color & B/W) A Poetry Film. Soon after we became mates
(1995), Sylvi underwent a profound spiritual crisis dissolving her sense of identity. I asked her if she
wanted to make a film together that might mirror her experience and maybe alleviate or transform
her existential angst. After some coaxing, she reluctantly agreed to play the central (and only) role
in the film, her first ever appearance as a film actress. There was no script or screenplay. We didn't
feel we needed one since she was already living the story, the vision, of a soul trapped between worlds,
neither awake nor sleeping, wanting neither escape or saving. We were drawn to the refined symbolist
poetry of Hilda Doolittle (aka HD), as a floating narrative throughout Lily's internal landscape (voiced by
Sylvi and myself). This was our first true collaboration in a major project and remains one of my very
favorite films I've been privvy to be part of. - Antero Alli

"A (small) epic poem about a woman’s spiritual quest Liliy In Limbo is set to
excerpts from H.D.’s visionary poem “Trilogy.” A woman wavers between her
waking life and a complex dream she is trying to recall. The dream footage,
shot mostly on grainy, pulsating film, contrasts nicely with the crisp black and
white video imagery of her waking life. The film ends with a stunning, poetic
sequence which depicts something I would have thought impossible to capture
on film: the sensation when one lets go of preconceptions, and one is flooded
with a feeling of spiritual enlightenment. -- David Finkelstein, filmthreat.com

----> viewing link

"THE DRIVETIME" (1995)

"THE DRIVETIME" (1995; 86 min. color and B/W) A Cyber-Fi Experiment. In the hopes of
obtaining politically sensitive video footage of police riots, a federal archivist from the year 2023
uses a primitive Time Travel device to return to Seattle circa 1999 via the dreams of a video activist.
THE DRIVETIME was created during the birth of the internet within the seething underground Seattle
subculture, circa 1995, four years before the 1999 WTO riots ignited mayhem in the streets there.
Edited with John Comerford. Written and produced with Rob Brezsny. Cinematography and
direction by Antero. Click images for production details.

"One of the most chilling yet innovative cinematic essays on
the flaws of today's technology-obsessed society. This work
should be seen by anyone who mistakenly believes that all's
calm and well in our little digital sphere. Alli's iconoclastic view
of a future world projects a dazzling stream-of-consciousness
skein of technical wizardry and provocative wordplay."
- WIRED Magazine

EXCERPT #1
EXCERPT #2

"THE ORACLE" (1993; final cut 2021)

"THE ORACLE" (1993; recut in 2021; 58:30 min; color) A Poetic Bardo Drama. On the final
day of his life, a cynical patriarch lapses into an intermittent coma where his sleep is interrupted
by spontaneous mutterings. Much to the bewilderment of his anxious daughter tending his bedside,
his mutterances are pure poetry (from "The Book of Questions" by Pablo Neruda). His grandaughter,
Ariadne reappears in the internal landscape of his dreams as a guide to the great beyond. Meanwhile,
his estranged son Brandon visits him and finds himself participating in an unexpected ritual of ancestral
healing. THE ORACLE is the filmmaker's debut feature made soon after the sudden daeth of his young
daughter, Zoe (see "Director's Notes" below). Cinematography, editing, screenplay, and direction by
Antero. Click images for production details.

The Oracle is a visionary exploration of an elderly bedridden man's
interior journey toward death and beyond. It's also a sometimes
humorous, sometimes heartrending portrayal of his family's changing
perceptions of the processes of death. The film resonates meaningfully
long after you've left the theater. - Paul Goetz, Washington Free Press