THE INTEGRAL CINEMA PROJECT is a Research, Production, and Educational Initiative Exploring the Application of Integral Theory for Cinematic Arts 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 arts 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 educational workshops.
POTENTIAL BENEFITS
The potential benefits for a comprehensive application of Integral Theory to cinematic Arts theory and practice include:
- The creation of more powerful and effective cinematic realities that could potentially induce transformative states of consciousness and help catalyze 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.
PEOPLE
- Founder, Executive Director and Lead Researcher: Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.
- Director of Communications: Jonathan Steigman
- Research Associates: Heather Barrett, James Lusero, Michael Schwartz and Jonathan Steigman
- Contributing Researchers: Corey W. DeVos, Cindy Lou Golin, Carole Griggs, Adam Leonard, Eugene Pustoshkin, David Riordan, Jeff Salzman, Cindy Wigglesworth and Ken Wilber
- Advisors: Bruce Block, Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, James Fadiman, Jean Picker Firstenberg, Michael Schwartz and Ken Wilber
- Foundational Theorists: Sri Aurobindo, Germaine Dulac, Sergei Eisenstein, Hanzi Freinacht, Jean Gebser, Clare Graves, Robert Kegan, Edgar Morin, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Ken Wilber
TESTIMONIALS
- "Mark's 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
- “Mark belongs to a rare breed of cinematic artist – he is both a talented and skilled artist and a brilliant, innovative theorist. With his impressive body of work, he follows in the footsteps of Eisenstein, Truffaut, and Brakhage.” – Dorothy Fadiman, Oscar-Nominated, Emmy-Winning Independent Filmmaker
- "Mark is a pioneer in the application of transpersonal, transcendental, and integral approaches to the theory and practice of the cinematic arts and the exploration of the relationship between the moving image and human consciousness" – James Fadiman, Ph.D. (Consciousness Researcher, Author, Film Producer, Co-Founder and Faculty Member of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and Sofia University)
- “Mark has taken the fundamental elements of Integral Theory and applied them to cinema and the results are rich and compelling and have opened up a whole new doorway for studying and understanding cinematic art” – Ken Wilber, Founder of Integral Institute, and originator and preeminent scholar of Integral Theory
- "Mark's work is the first mature application of Integral Theory to any domain of art" – Sean Esbjorn-Hargens, Founding Director of the Integral Research Center
- "Mark's work represents one of the most advanced and profound meta-theory's of art and cinema to date" – Michael Schwartz, PhD, Professor of History and Art, Augusta State University
- "Mark's ground-breaking and cutting-edge theories and applications for using the various multimedia expressive dimensions to induce a synchronization of the senses have been an invaluable contribution to our research and helped us to implement a more effective multimedia mental health care intervention across all dimensions of human experience" – Benjamin Van Voorhees, MD, MPH (Chief, Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine and Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago)