Showing posts with label psychedelia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label psychedelia. Show all posts

Monday, 6 August 2018

Life on fast lane

My Generation (Documentary; 2017)


This documentary is mainly about the rise and demise of the British Invasion generation. It was the time after World War 2. Euphoria was everywhere. Clement Attlee and his Labour Party gave a shot in the arm for the working class people. NHS made medical services accessible to the average Joe. Education became free. The divide between the aristocrat and the common man soon became blurred. The class demarcation became a thing of the past. Everyone has the opportunity to prosper. Clothing became democratised. The normal sombre tone of the garments became strikingly loud and short. Dressing-up was no longer to cover the bare essentials and to keep warm but became a statement of anti-establishment.

As it became to generations to come, the generation before thought that the society was heading to a path of decadence and Armageddon was nay.

Music became an annoyance to the elders. Rock and roll music could not be contained by the powers that be. The youngsters, creative as they were, even got around the legal wrangle by transmitting them from a boat as Radio Caroline.

The popular music and their new-age gurus dictated what fashion is and what is haute couture. The introduction of contraceptive pills to the general public further empowered the younger generation and especially the girls, to come out of the cocoon of being treated as second-class citizens. The young ones dictated what they wanted and were not going to take the orders of the oldies lying down.

With music appreciation also came recreational drugs. This, in essence, can be said to be the cause of the downfall of the 60s generation. Addiction, overdose and death brought this flamboyant age to its self-destruction.


Saturday, 20 February 2016

A life full of void?

Enter the Void (2006)


Void? Empty space? Our inner soul, void? That is how our universe is supposed to be. Mostly void, to be filled with pockets of existence. The existence or mere presence?

The Mayans used coca leaves with respect and reaped maximum benefit from it. The Tarahumara Indians and tribes from the Amazon used DMT sparingly to give them superhuman powers to complete mammoth tasks. Specific components of marijuana are actually irreplaceable in treating some intractable childhood seizures. Even the great Muslim physician and philosopher Avicenna found his inspiration late into the night in the company of his wine after his daily worldly and divine duties. Some workers even suggested low dose psychedelics allay anxiety, to heighten sensation and to explore the hidden crevices of our creative potential (think Beatles).

Unfortunately, these potentially life-saving drugs had not been given their appropriate place in society. Quite often than not, they have been abused a mode of escapism to compensate for Man’s malaise to solve their void in their soul.

This 2006 film is a psychedelic journey of the soul of a man who had just been shot. As per described in some Buddhists scriptures, the soul would wander around before entering another body, it is the filmmaker’s perception of ‘life’ after the protagonist, Oscar’s death before the soul finds another physical body.

The technique of filmmaking is somehow unique here. It looks as if Oscar’s eyes are the camera. We see from Oscar’s perspective, even when he is floating around as a spirit, piercing wall and hovering buildings. We share many of his psychedelic experiences after he consumes stimulants. The stroboscopic lighting that appears so often may not excite those prone to migraines and may trigger epileptic seizures; I am sure.

Oscar is small-time drug pusher in Tokyo who dies from his mortal gunshot wounds after a police bust-up. As in all narration of ’near-death’ experiences, we would not know death experiences for obvious reasons, we learn about his whole world life. There is an attempt to explain his life and things that happened wherein from a Freudian angle. Oscar and his sister Linda lose their parents quite early in life and grow in separate foster homes. As Oscar grows older, he migrates to Japan, earns some money and brings Linda there. They get messed up in a seedy world of sex, drugs and decadence. With the help of flashing neon lights that seem typical of Tokyo, graphic images and sometimes deafening silence between shots, we are presented with the whole picture. You would either love it or loathe it.

“Be afraid. Be very afraid.”*