What if you could take all the positive elements of being in a cult - community, inspiration, reassurance, a sense of purpose - and make them available without harming or exploiting people? What if you could encourage ordinary people to let go of their inhibitions and unleash their creative potential through fantasy and play? This was idea behind the Latitude Society, a very Californian project put together by the group of artists and designers known as Nonchalance. If you haven't heard of it, that's because its members were required to maintain Absolute Discretion. Spencer McCall's documentary gives some of those who were part of the now defunct organisation the chance to speak out.
Or is it only that? Nothing here is quite what it seems. It doesn't need to be, and that's really the point. In philosophy, the value of an idea is not dependent on its origin - why,...
Or is it only that? Nothing here is quite what it seems. It doesn't need to be, and that's really the point. In philosophy, the value of an idea is not dependent on its origin - why,...
- 7/10/2020
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Jason Segel, Eve Lindley and André Benjamin joined the Variety Streaming Room for a Q&a after a screening of the first episode from their new TV series, “Dispatches From Elsewhere.” Moderated by Variety senior editor Michael Schneider, the stars discussed the making of the series, their connection to their characters and what they hope the audience takes away from the show.
“Dispatches From Elsewhere” was created by Segel and premiered March 1 on AMC. Based on Jeff Hull and Spencer McCall’s documentary “The Institute,” the show follows four normal people who discover an alternate reality puzzle and fall deeper into its realm while attempting to solve the mystery behind it.
Segel said he became fascinated with writing about the topic after watching “The Institute,” while preparing for his role as David Foster Wallace in 2015’s “The End of the Tour.” The documentary follows a 2008 alternate reality game set in...
“Dispatches From Elsewhere” was created by Segel and premiered March 1 on AMC. Based on Jeff Hull and Spencer McCall’s documentary “The Institute,” the show follows four normal people who discover an alternate reality puzzle and fall deeper into its realm while attempting to solve the mystery behind it.
Segel said he became fascinated with writing about the topic after watching “The Institute,” while preparing for his role as David Foster Wallace in 2015’s “The End of the Tour.” The documentary follows a 2008 alternate reality game set in...
- 6/16/2020
- by Ellise Shafer
- Variety Film + TV
If you've never heard of the Jejune Institute before, then prepare to get your mind blown. In 2008, an alternate reality treasure-hunt game recruited thousands of participants in San Francisco, prompted by fliers that instructed people to call a phone number or visit a website, which later led them to the same office building to begin the experiment. Before the game ended its three-year run in 2011, more than 7,000 people participated, and the elaborate and mysterious experiment inspired Spencer McCall's 2013 documentary, The Institute. Now the story of the Jejune Institute is being told again, this time in an AMC anthology series produced by and starring Jason Segel. It's called Dispatches From Elsewhere, and as bizarre as the premise sounds, it's totally based on reality - or, at least, virtual reality.
Related: A Third Spinoff of The Walking Dead Is Coming - Here's What We Know So Far What Is Dispatches From Elsewhere About?...
Related: A Third Spinoff of The Walking Dead Is Coming - Here's What We Know So Far What Is Dispatches From Elsewhere About?...
- 3/12/2020
- by Corinne Sullivan
- Popsugar.com
The Institute screens as part of Austin Film Society's monthly Avant Cinema series this Wednesday, October 30 (tickets) at 7:30 pm in the Afs Screening Room (1901 E. 51st St).
Around 15 years ago, a friend and I saw a flyer about some performance art experience that would take place in a building on E. 6th Street. We followed the directions, which took us up to the second floor of some 19th-century building. Tacked onto the locked door of the designated room was a hand-printed note that thanked us for participating in the performance by finding the building, walking up the stairs, and reading the note. At first we felt duped and wondered if "they" were watching us and laughing. But when we got back down to the street, we started laughing ourselves at the realization that we really had been part of a performance, not a hoax of some sort.
Watching The Institute (Spencer McCall,...
Around 15 years ago, a friend and I saw a flyer about some performance art experience that would take place in a building on E. 6th Street. We followed the directions, which took us up to the second floor of some 19th-century building. Tacked onto the locked door of the designated room was a hand-printed note that thanked us for participating in the performance by finding the building, walking up the stairs, and reading the note. At first we felt duped and wondered if "they" were watching us and laughing. But when we got back down to the street, we started laughing ourselves at the realization that we really had been part of a performance, not a hoax of some sort.
Watching The Institute (Spencer McCall,...
- 10/29/2013
- by Chale Nafus
- Slackerwood
Just what the hell was the Jejune Institute? After watching Spencer McCall’s fascinating and intentionally puzzling documentary The Institute, I’m still not quite sure. An interactive, multimedia, experiential game, based in a nondescript building in San Francisco’s central business district that thrives of]n the memory of a woman who disappeared into the Bay Area night a quarter century ago and never returned? Perhaps, I guess. A scripted experience surely, an alternate-reality game involving participants in events both spooky and merely bizarre, including scavenger hunts to fairly ominous locales, mock public protests and sundry hijinks that would feel right at home […]...
- 10/11/2013
- by Brandon Harris
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Just what the hell was the Jejune Institute? After watching Spencer McCall’s fascinating and intentionally puzzling documentary The Institute, I’m still not quite sure. An interactive, multimedia, experiential game, based in a nondescript building in San Francisco’s central business district that thrives of]n the memory of a woman who disappeared into the Bay Area night a quarter century ago and never returned? Perhaps, I guess. A scripted experience surely, an alternate-reality game involving participants in events both spooky and merely bizarre, including scavenger hunts to fairly ominous locales, mock public protests and sundry hijinks that would feel right at home […]...
- 10/11/2013
- by Brandon Harris
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
A thrilling, absorbing, absurdist real-world alternate-reality game played out on the streets of San Francisco and Oakland gets souvenir-doc treatment in Spencer McCall's The Institute—but complaints that there's too little here about how the Jejune Institute was hatched or what it all may have meant matter little in the face of the one great thing The Institute does offer: a record of the mad invention of the game's masterminds. A typical participant in the game (created by Jeff Hull) reports his experience: A flyer advertising force fields in San Francisco's financial district led him to call a phone number that directed him to an office suite, where a woman gave him a key to a room where a lounger was positioned before a TV upon which a cult-leader-like g...
- 10/9/2013
- Village Voice
The 5th annual Oakland Underground Film Festival, which runs this year on Sept. 25-29, features their usual mix of socially and politically relevant films, challenging genre fare and loads of short films.
The fest opens on the 25th with two provocative documentaries. First up is Tia Lessin and Carl Deal’s Citizen Koch, which shines a spotlight on the behind-the-scenes machinations of the billionaire Koch brothers who have greatly influenced modern politics. (Citizen Koch is also screening for free, which you can RSVP for on the Oakuff website.) Also on the 25th is a profile of Riot Grrrl icon Kathleen Hanna in The Punk Singer, directed by Sini Anderson.
Other films in the fest include the martial arts action romp Death Grip by Eric Jacobius; the anti-bullying drama The Dirties by Matt Johnson; the quirky family shenanigans of Toastmaster by Eric Boadella; and the Closing Night lyrical documentary about life on the U.
The fest opens on the 25th with two provocative documentaries. First up is Tia Lessin and Carl Deal’s Citizen Koch, which shines a spotlight on the behind-the-scenes machinations of the billionaire Koch brothers who have greatly influenced modern politics. (Citizen Koch is also screening for free, which you can RSVP for on the Oakuff website.) Also on the 25th is a profile of Riot Grrrl icon Kathleen Hanna in The Punk Singer, directed by Sini Anderson.
Other films in the fest include the martial arts action romp Death Grip by Eric Jacobius; the anti-bullying drama The Dirties by Matt Johnson; the quirky family shenanigans of Toastmaster by Eric Boadella; and the Closing Night lyrical documentary about life on the U.
- 9/24/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The 7th annual Sydney Underground Film Festival, which runs this year on September 5-8 at the Factory Theatre, opens with a real bang when they will screen cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s latest cinematic odyssey, The Dance of Reality. This is Jodorowsky’s first film in over twenty years and is an imaginative and playful quasi-autobiography.
The rest of the four-day celebration is packed with more film oddities and excursions into surreal and transgressive territory. One particular highlight that is not to be missed is Don Swaynos’ incredibly crowd-pleasing comedy Pictures of Superheroes, about a slacker cleaning woman’s descent into an absurd world she can’t escape. Read the Underground Film Journal’s review of Pictures of Superheroes here.
Other twisted fiction films screening include Drew Tobias’s sick and twisted See You Next Tuesday, Cody Calahan’s apocalyptic Antisocial and Lloyd Kaufman’s highly-anticipated sequel Return to Nuke ‘Em High: Vol.
The rest of the four-day celebration is packed with more film oddities and excursions into surreal and transgressive territory. One particular highlight that is not to be missed is Don Swaynos’ incredibly crowd-pleasing comedy Pictures of Superheroes, about a slacker cleaning woman’s descent into an absurd world she can’t escape. Read the Underground Film Journal’s review of Pictures of Superheroes here.
Other twisted fiction films screening include Drew Tobias’s sick and twisted See You Next Tuesday, Cody Calahan’s apocalyptic Antisocial and Lloyd Kaufman’s highly-anticipated sequel Return to Nuke ‘Em High: Vol.
- 8/15/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Chicago – “To those dark horses with the spirit to look up and see, a recondite family awaits.” While the Sundance Film Festival goes on all through Park City, a select group of truly independent films is unspooling up on Main Street under the banner of Slamdance. One of the more interesting Slamdance selections this year was the great “The Institute,” a quasi-documentary about an “Alternate Reality Game” that took place in San Francisco from 2008 to 2011.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Playing not unlike “Exit Through the Gift Shop” or “Resurrect Dead,” “The Institute” is a mindf**k. How much of it is real? How much is staged? What’s the purpose of the real-life role-playing game in the first place? I don’t know the answers to any of these questions but I thoroughly enjoyed “The Institute” nonetheless or, to be honest, more so because of the willingness on the part of the filmmakers...
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Playing not unlike “Exit Through the Gift Shop” or “Resurrect Dead,” “The Institute” is a mindf**k. How much of it is real? How much is staged? What’s the purpose of the real-life role-playing game in the first place? I don’t know the answers to any of these questions but I thoroughly enjoyed “The Institute” nonetheless or, to be honest, more so because of the willingness on the part of the filmmakers...
- 1/28/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.