Time for another update from Psyche’s Cinema – March 2024!
Giving up Perfectionism
Rick and I watched a new film (Dream Scenario) last night. I was intrigued as (for me) the film explored the intersection of the collective unconscious, passivity, and projection. It also included scenes of horrible nightmares. Going to bed, my mind chewed on them. I woke up the next morning remembering my own nightmare. Not violent like those in the film but featuring my own fears.
In my dream I’ve lost my computer and my notes for a workshop that is meant to start in a few minutes. I dart back and forth between two rooms, filled with disorganized and messy surfaces. I cannot find my computer and notes and I’m running out of time.
In my dream I’m unwilling to stop looking for the reassurance that my computer and notes will bring me. I struggle with the idea of speaking from the heart, without my notes. Is the dream asking me to look at my perfectionism? It is a theme central to our newest film (Dumpling) and it is a perennial struggle for me.
As Rick and I work to offer our films to more groups (both online and live), it would be great if I could release some of my nervousness and trust that I can speak from my heart and embrace my imperfections.
In our yearning to be perfect, we have mistaken perfection for wholeness. We think we cannot love ourselves until we and others meet some external standard. Depression, anxiety—in fact, most neuroses and compulsions—are ultimately a defense against loving ourselves without condition.
― Marion Woodman, Dancing in the Flames: The Dark Goddess in the Transformation of Consciousness
Live Screenings – What we’re learning
I started exploring stop motion in 2018. I was able to attend a live festival event in 2019 but then the world shut down. Film festivals moved to online venues and I began to experience my films alone on a computer screen. When festivals did resume live events, I often could not attend due to distance.
When I could attend, I’ve had some numinous experiences watching our work on the big screen. But sometimes festival audiences were too small for me to gauge how the film was working. Sometimes I was preoccupied with sound problems during a screening.
Happily, in the past few months I’ve had 3 Goldilocks moments. The festivals have had full houses, the technical elements have worked well, and I was able to witness our films working (laughter) as we watched together in a dark room.
At each event I’ve met many audience members who were new to the festival scene. They were thrilled to discover the fun of short, independent films. Indie film festivals are a powerful form of resistance against our increasingly homogenized, AI world. Please check out a film festival near you. Or attend one of our screenings as they’re announced. Whether an indie festival lasts an evening or a week, they are always exciting and worth attending!
I learn so much from live screenings. I understand why Hollywood often conducts them before releasing a new film. I learn if a joke is working, or where a section seems to move too fast or slow. I almost always go back to the editing room to tweak a film after I see it live with an audience. Given the fun and learning associated with screenings, we are hoping to host a public screening party when our current short – “Berserk” is ready for a premiere.
Current project – Berserk
I continue to explore the juicy themes in the fairy tale “Snow White and Rose Red.” What is my relationship with my own inner aggression/bear? Who is the angry little man in me? Taking my time with the first scene, I’m finding more and more to discover. Last week I had fun laying more sound effects to help tell the story.
Workshops – Coming up – Join us!
We have a new website page that offers a calendar of our upcoming workshops and screenings!
Three different films will be explored online with the Sisters of Saint Joseph. And three will be featured LIVE, in Oak Park Illinois in April and May. Email Lauralb at psychescinema.com if you’d like to be put on a wait list for these.
Join us to explore The Two Travelers with SoulatPlay, April 27, 2024
Workshops and more – What we’re learning
Turns out that studying theatre is a great preparation for working with dreams and fairy tales. Jung’s collaborator and fairy tale expert, Marie Louise Von Franz, outlines fairy tales by listing the dramatis personae, scenes, and peripeteias. I love her structured approach!
This is from her book An introduction to the interpretation of fairy tales.
Being a guest on podcasts helps to spread the word about our projects. They also teach me so much. Answering juicy questions helps me articulate our visions, challenges, and insights. Yesterday I talked with Rick Palmer of Some Other Sphere Podcast. (I’ll post the link when it drops.) Rick asked many questions about how the work of Carl Jung inspires my filmmaking. The perfect question. And also hard! Because I don’t get questions in advance when I appear on a podcast, I don’t nervous. That’s fun! I can speak from the heart and work to explain what is hidden in myself. Yesterday’s session was audio only. With only our voices to guide us, our conversation was an immersive plunge into deep waters.
Just as every film screening is an opportunity for deep learning. Every workshop also teaches me so much. Here’s a summary of what I’ve been learning about these films and how they might also serve others. Each of these bullet points represents a deep dive we can take. Fairy tales offer endless opportunities for exploration.
Our films are filled with “Easter eggs” (inside jokes, and symbols) and are fun to watch in groups. If you have a book club or other group interested in the language of the unconscious, dreams, and fantasy tales, consider watching one of our films together. These films can spark great discussions.
What we’re reading
As a pupil of Marie-Louise Von Franz… especially meaningful to me is the awareness of the fairy tale as an intra- psychic event, a story of what happens or can happen within the individual personality, told in a metaphor of action exactly as in a dream.
David L Hart, The Psychology of a Fairy Tale
Do you have an idea you’d like to manifest with us? A workshop or film? Get in touch! And thank you for your comments on the website.
Sadly, we are no longer offering book links as a support for Psyche’s Cinema as Amazon doesn’t think we’re big enough to offer links to their books. 🙁