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INTEGRAL CINEMA PROJECT

Advancing the Art, Craft, and Business of the Cinema

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ABOUT

THE INTEGRAL CINEMA PROJECT is an Independent  Research, Production, and Educational Initiative Exploring the Application of Integral Theory for Cinematic Media Theory and Practice.

MISSION AND PURPOSE

The mission and purpose of the Integral Cinema Project is to develop and test a comprehensive model for Integral cinematic media theory, development, production, and distribution through the creation of a series of short cinematic experiments, and a full-length integrally-informed transmedia project with content delivered across feature, TV, web, mobile, and interactive platforms. This research endeavor will be documented in a digital video documentary, and the results disseminated through various publications, media, and various educational services.

BACKGROUND

The term “integral cinema” was first used by French avant-garde filmmaker Germaine Dulac in the 1920s. Her groundbreaking cinematic explorations reveal the raw beginnings of a comprehensive or “integral” approach to cinema that attempts to use the inherent language of the cinema to capture and express the interior and exterior life of both the individual and the collective. This four-dimensional perspectival field hauntingly reflects some of the constructs of what Swiss philosopher, poet, and cultural anthropologist Jean Gebser would eventually call the integral worldview. Gebser observed this advanced worldview emerging in various artists, writers, and scientists at the cutting edge of humanity during the early 20th Century; these cutting-edge luminaries included Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, and Rainer Maria Rilke.

Many years later, American philosopher and psychological researcher Ken Wilber mapped out this emerging worldview into an Integral Theory and Practice that is now assisting many individuals and groups in experiencing and applying this more comprehensive way of perceiving self, culture, and world. This Integral Approach is currently successfully being applied to various fields of endeavor including: Psychology, sociology, art, business, medicine, law, criminology, politics, economics, ecology, spirituality, and personal transformation. These explorations have shown that because an Integral Framework explicitly harnesses and includes more truth, and more potentials than most other previous approaches, it makes endeavors in any area radically more effective and fulfilling.

Some of the successful applications of Integral Theory to various domains of human endeavor are also involved with the creation of cinematic media including: Artistic and creative expression, storytelling, drama, writing, acting, music, communication, productivity, business leadership and management, finance, law, and marketing. Based on the accomplishments of these related applications, the potentials for a comprehensive application of Integral Theory to cinematic media theory and practice include: 

• The creation of more powerful and effective cinematic realities that could potentially induce transformative states of consciousness and stimulate  shifts in stages of human development and the evolution of consciousness;

• The fostering of a greater understanding of the cinematic medium itself;

• The capacity to establish more creatively fulfilling, healthy, efficient, and cost-effective production workflows;

• An increased ability to target and reach desired audiences;

• And an enhanced aptitude for comprehending and navigating the rapidly evolving and convergent cinematic media environment.

While several cinematic artists (including Darren Aronofsky, Steven Brill, Michael Crichton, George Lucas, Bryan Konietzko, Julia Ormond, Sharon Stone, and the Wachowski brothers) have explored Integral Theory and attempted to apply it to their lives and work in varying degrees, to date a comprehensive application of Integral Theory to cinematic media has yet to be developed . . . until the Integral Cinema Project.

TESTIMONIALS

(The Integral Cinema Project is) the first mature application of Integral Theory to any domain of art.

– Sean Esbjorn-Hargens,

   Founding Director of the Integral Research Center

(This) passionate quest to explore the further reaches of film theory and practice is inspiring and holds great promise.

– Jean Picker Firstenberg,

   President Emeritus, The American Film Institute
 

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