Sunday, November 7, 2010

FLicKeR: The Dream Machine

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Sunday, November 7, 2010


The Dream Machine

We must storm the citadels of enlightenment. The means are at hand.
~W.S. Burroughs~
I've been thinking alot about Burroughs lately. W.S. Burroughs was my indroduction to the beat generation. I can remember picking up Naked Lunch which I read in it's entirety while working the night shift in a noisy factory. The setting was perfect, the repetitive machine sounds made the perfect atmosphere for what my mind was consuming. So it was interesting to me that just as I was thinking about him, I see the film FLicKeR sitting on the shelf at the local video store.
Now, I have to say, as a Canadian, it bugs me that I don't even hear about this stuff before it's finished. FLicKeR is a National Film Board Of Canada production and I search for stuff like this all the time. How am I missing it?! I digress, I've literally just finished watching it and it was brilliant, very insightful. It's actually much more of a doc about Brion Gysin, who's always been a bit of a mysterious character to me, and the dream machine, and cut-ups, which I was under the impression where a creation of Burroughs'. Great interviews with Marianne Faithful, Genesis P. Orridge, Iggy Pop and more, as well as archival footage of Gysin and Burroughs. Now my desire for a dream machine has been renewed. I have to have one. I'm on the hunt now. Gysin and Burroughs together were so much further ahead than...well everyone it seems. These guys were operating on a whole different level.
Couldn't find a trailer but here's a clip.
The DVD also includes Antony Balch's experimental films The Cut-Ups and Towers Open Fire.
I did a post about Towers Open Fire some time ago and now just found out that they are both on youtube in their entirety. so here they are. Enjoy.
Nothing Is True. Everything Is Permitted.
~Hassan I. Sabbah~
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