Short Experimental Western Film: The Magical Dead Sunstroke Valley

Sunstroke-Valley-Final-2

A film combining the mythology of the Hollywood/Spaghetti western, Tarot, magic, occult, Jungian psychology, and mysticism with flamboyant, multi-layered, supersaturated imagery.

Multiple narratives conflict and adhere. Meanings emerge and contradict. Music and dialog tell another layered story, sometimes agreeing with the images, sometimes trying to subvert them.

A film should be a container for the psychic unconscious energy of its creator. That is what this is.

There is also a commercial.

Carl Jung’s Anima Projection


Here’s a short film made by YouTube user VioletPsychofluid. It features narration taken from an audiobook version of Carl Jung’s book, ‘Man and His Symbols,’ overlaid with various feature film and documentary clips that seem to illustrate the points made by Jung on the ‘anima,’ which is the feminine aspect of the male personality or psyche. I particularly like the inclusion of clips from Jean Cocteau’s film, ‘Orpheus,’ which is one of the greatest depictions of the underworld ever put on film. This is really magnificent work done by someone willing to upload into the wilds of YouTube, potentially unnoticed. The filmmaker is deeply connected to the subtleties of Jung’s thought and seeks out images that illustrate and compliment the very difficult to grasp ideas and theories about the anima. When I read Jung I experience great excitement about his ideas. But when I put the books down I have difficulty keeping it all straight and remembering what an anima or a projection represents. For me, it’s almost as if Jung’s work itself exists in a hazy dreamworld that only intermittently connects with logic, rationality or memory.

Carl G. Jung or Lapis Philosphorum

This film was shot in 1950 by Jerome Hill. It was then edited by underground film pioneer Jonas Mekas in 1991. It shows Carl Jung talking and stone carving at his home by a lake. He’s working at things he liked to do and he’s describing something rather elusive. I think Jung’s great contribution was in not fearing the deep subconscious, but rather enjoying it and opening the door to let it in.

Here’s my own take on how you open the door just like Jung did… sort of.