Begotten (film)

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Begotten
1995 VHS cover art
Directed byE. Elias Merhige
Written byE. Elias Merhige
Produced byE. Elias Merhige
Starring
  • Brian Salzberg
  • Donna Dempsey
  • Stephen Charles Barry
CinematographyE. Elias Merhige
Edited byNoëlle Penraat
Music byEvan Albam
Production
companies
Theatreofmaterial[a]
William Markle Associates (sound)[2]
Distributed byWorld Artists Home Video
Release dates
[b]
Running time
72 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish (intertitles)
Budget$33,000 (estimated)

Begotten is a 1989 American experimental silent horror film[6] written, directed, and produced by E. Elias Merhige. It stars Brian Salsberg, Donna Dempsy, Stephen Charles Barry, and members of Merhige's theatre company, Theatreofmaterial. Its unconventional narrative depicts the suicide of a godlike figure and the resulting births of Mother Earth and the Son of Earth, who set out on a journey across a barren landscape. The film does not contain dialogue, with its visual style evoking early silent films.

The film's storyline draws upon creation myths in Christian mythology, Celtic mythology, and Slavic paganism, featuring narrative motifs and religious imagery that reoccur throughout Merhige's work. Other influences include the transgressive artist Antonin Artaud and the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The film's visual style was inspired by Georges Franju's Blood of the Beasts, Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, Stan Brakhage's The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Begotten was originally conceived as a work of experimental theatre featuring dance and live music. It became a film project after Merhige realized that his vision would be too expensive to produce live. The film was shot on location in New York City and New Jersey over five and a half months. After it was completed, Merhige spent two years trying to find a distributor willing to market it. The film debuted at the Montreal World Film Festival, and later screened at the San Francisco International Film Festival, with the film critics Tom Luddy and Peter Scarlet in attendance. Impressed by its cinematographer and visual imagery, the two brought it to the attention of the critic Susan Sontag, whose enthusiastic praise and private screening to critics and filmmakers in her own home were instrumental to its eventual release.

Although it was largely ignored by mainstream critics, and the few contemporary reviews were mixed to positive, it has since attained

avant-garde film-makers, visual artists and musicians. The film's scarcity on home video prompted fans to circulate their own bootleg copies, a phenomenon described as a "copy-cult" by the film studies scholar Ernest Mathijs.[7] Merhige produced two sequels to Begotten: 2006's Din of Celestial Birds and 2022's Polia & Blastema: A Cosmic Opera. Both are short films
.

Plot

Inside a small shack, a robed figure – described as "God Killing Himself" in the credits –

malformed
and convulsing entity. He is soon abandoned by his mother, who leaves him to his own devices.

After wandering across the barren landscape, the Son of Earth encounters a tribe of faceless nomads who seize him by his umbilical cord. Upon being captured, the Son of Earth begins to vomit what appears to be organs, which the nomads excitedly accept as gifts. Taking the Son of Earth with them on their trek through a rocky hillside, the nomads soon reveal their intentions, throwing him into a fire pit where he burns to death. Son of Earth is then resurrected by Mother Earth, who comforts him before they continue together across a desert plain. The nomads later appear and attack the Son of Earth as Mother Earth stands in a trance-like state. They soon turn their attention to her, knocking her to the ground, as they rape and murder her as her son watches helplessly nearby.

Once the nomads have left, large robed figures arrive and carry away Mother Earth's mutilated remains. They take her remains into a gorge where they cut her body into small pieces, crushing the bones and placing them into clay-filled jars. With the grisly complete, they return to abduct and murder her son, repeating the same process and burying the jars into the crust of the earth. Over time, the burial site becomes lush with flowers and crops as a montage of photographs depicting the robed god is shown. In the final scene, Mother Earth and her son appear, wandering through a forested path as the cycle begins again.

Cast

  • Brian Salzberg as God Killing Himself:
A mysterious, robed entity who disembowels himself with a straight razor. He is also the father of Mother Earth and Son of Earth.
  • Donna Dempsey as Mother Earth:
A female entity. She is the mother of Son of Earth, whom she conceived via artificial insemination.
  • Stephen Charles Barry as Son of Earth (Captioned as Flesh on Bone):
The deformed, convulsing son of Mother Earth and God Killing Himself. Barry later reprised his role in the film's sequel, Din of Celestial Birds, which was also written and directed by Merhige.[8]

Members of Merhige's theater company Theatreofmaterial – which included Adolpho Vargas, Arthur Streeter, Daniel Harkins, Erik Slavin, James Gandia, Michael Phillips, and Terry Andersen – are credited as the Nomads and Robed Figures.[2]

Production

Development and pre-production

The writing for Begotten was all Vision material, or whatever you want to call it, and I used those parts that scared me, or that I just couldn't understand—the parts that stuck with me for days and forced me to wonder where within me did this come from? A tableau of the unknown was important to me. Then it was a matter of arranging this material as a myth. That was important, too. It began as a personal myth and ended as a collective myth, a myth of everyone involved in making the film.[9]

Edmund Elias Merhige
on the development of the film's script

Begotten was written, produced, and directed by Merhige,[4][10] who had studied at State University of New York, developing an interest in the theater after attending several performances while in Manhattan. According to Merhige, he was intrigued by the theatre performers' enactment of a highly visualized form of storytelling through dramatic movement, provoking what he described as "an otherworldly response". He was particularly fascinated by the performances of the Japanese butoh dance troupe Sankai Juku,[11] who were known for blending grotesque imagery with a transgressive dance style.[12] Attending these performances, Merhige was fascinated by the degree of personal and professional interconnectivity among its core members—knowing everything about one another and engaging in a more personal and intimate level of interaction.[11] Merhige founded Theatreofmaterial, a small experimental theatre production company based in New York City, with the intention of creating a similar group dynamic.[11][13]

The development of Begotten, according to Merhige, commenced sometime in the mid-to-late 1980s;[14] although some sources have given the start date as 1984.[15] The initial concept was described by Merhige as a dance production at the Lincoln Center, performed with a live orchestral accompaniment.[14] The concept was personal to Merhige, representing his attempt to express the thoughts and ideas he had at the time.[16] After discovering that it would cost a quarter of a million dollars to produce,[14] Merhige instead decided to make a motion picture.[14] This change in format allowed Merhige the opportunity to document the company's work, as many of its performers were transitioning outside the company to pursue other interests.[9]

Merhige developed the script with members of Theatreofmaterial, who worked as both cast and crew during production. They decided that the film should be

fine arts, with paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, Edvard Munch, and Francisco Goya having a significant impact upon him in the film's early developmental stages.[18] The philosophical concepts of Antonin Artaud and Friedrich Nietzsche, which Merhige felt had not been fully explored on film, served as further points of influence. The script's first draft was completed in six months.[14]

Over four-and-a-half months, the group developed the script's abstract ideas into more concrete, enactable scenes, committing to extensive rehearsals during this period. Merhige has said that these rehearsals were focused on group cohesion rather than precise choreography, enabling the actors to get 'in tune' with their characters.[9] Merhige further strove to imbue the film with the tribal and ritual aspects associated with alchemy and hermeticism. To achieve this, he and the cast experimented with hypnosis and meditation.[19]

Filming

special effects,[14][20] in the latter using a 16 mm Arriflex camera on black-and-white reversal film.[13][14] Celia Bryant,[21] who had worked on the set of the films Greased Lightning (1977) and I, the Jury (1982), is credited as the film's costume designer.[22] The film was produced on a low-budget of around thirty-three thousand dollars;[23] the cast and crew were paid little to nothing, but they were given free room and board throughout filming.[24][25] Funding for the film came from Merhige's grandfather, who had set Merhige up with a trust fund for medical school.[c] Additional costs were paid by Merhige from the income he received while working multiple jobs as a special effects artist.[14][24]

The opening passage depicting God disemboweling himself and Mother Earth emerging from his remains was the first to be shot. After editing the resulting footage, it was shown to the cast and crew, according to Merhige, to motivate them to complete production.

Albuquerque, while additional sequences of plants sprouting from the earth were filmed from inside a large terrarium Merhige had constructed. Merhige characterized the atmosphere during production as a powerful, almost ceremonial experience that was "life-changing" for those involved.[14] As filming concluded, Merhige had difficulties moving on from the project, describing a sense of mourning and the loss of an emotional high.[16]

Post-production and visual effects

A long shot depicting the sillouette of six figures kneeling before a seventh figure
The film's distinctive decayed aesthetic was accomplished through intense processing through an optical printer. Each minute of the film required eight to ten hours of labor to process.

At the outset, Merhige intended for the visuals to have a decayed look, as if the film was an artifact that had been damaged and degraded by time and wear.

analog format, stating it resembled the very nature of creation.[16] Prior to Begotten, Merhige had worked as a special effects designer for various companies, including a brief job for a Disney television series that involved rotoscoping. These jobs had provided him with the technical knowledge—and savings—he needed to handle the film's post-production and visual effects on his own.[14][24][29] Visual ideas, such as audience perception and how imagery is processed, according to Merhige, was also important to him while crafting the film's visual style, as it challenged the viewer's interpretation of what is depicted on the screen.[30]
Merhige identified his goals when creating Begotten's visual style by saying:

I wanted Begotten to look, not as if it were from the twenties, not even as if it were from the nineteenth century, but as if it were from the time of Christ, as if it were a cinematic Dead Sea Scroll that had been buried in the sands, a remnant of a culture with customs and rites that no longer apply to this culture, yet are somewhere underneath it, under the surface of what we call "reality."[31][32]

Filmic influences for Begotten's visual style identified by Merhige include

ethnographic studies, and the paintings of Piero della Francesca.[13] Visual underminings from 1930s horror films, such as intertitles, was also commented on by David Annwn Jones, who wrote that it was utilized to express its own set of evolving visual ideas and techniques.[35]

Before and during Begotten's shooting, Merhige experimented with different types of film reel to achieve the look he wanted. In one experiment, he ran an unexposed negative against sandpaper to scratch its surface before shooting on the damaged reel.[14] Unsatisfied with the results, Merhige decided on an optical printer for further processing.[16] He was unable to find an optical printer priced within his budget, so he built one himself.[24][36][37] The printer was constructed in eight months[14][24][36] with spare parts from camera stores and special effects houses where he had worked.[14][24][36]

The production process was time-consuming, with each minute of footage generated by the optical printer taking between eight and ten hours to complete.[24][36] Once a test shot was sent to the laboratory for development, minuscule mistakes in calibration sometimes ruined the shot, meaning the process had to be restarted.[24] Merhige began asking laboratories if they were willing to adjust their usual development procedures to his custom specifications, but was repeatedly turned away. Eventually, he found a small studio willing to accommodate his requests: Kin-O-Lux Labs, owned by Fred Schreck.[d] Merhige quickly developed a friendship with Schreck, who allowed the director to use the laboratory to develop the footage while teaching him how to develop footage by hand.[1] At one point during the editing process, Merhige enlisted his father's input on certain scenes, stating that his father was "very open-minded" to the project.[38] Results of the "rephotography" process removed almost all of the gray midtones from the visible spectrum, leaving only extreme contrasts of black and white on the film reel.[16] Merhige used similar "rephotography" techniques for segments of his next film, Shadow of the Vampire (2001).[37][39]

Music and sound effects

Begotten does not contain any dialogue, apart from its opening intertitles;[40] Merhige envisioned "a time that predates spoken language" in which "communication is made on a sensory level".[41][42] The soundtrack and sound effects were composed and mixed by Evan Albam, who, prior to Begotten, had not composed professionally. Merhige and Albam spent a year working on the soundtrack, crafting the right balance of visual and audio cues.[14] The music is ambient and dirge-like, and the sound design is fleshed out by natural sounds such as bird calls, insect noises, and the sounds of a heartbeat.[18][43] In 2016, the former March Violets band member-turned composer Tom Ashton announced on his SubVon Studio website that he was working closely with Merhige on an "audio reimagining" of Begotten's soundtrack. As of 2023, there have been no new updates on its outcome.[44]

Analysis

Begotten has been analyzed by critics and scholars who have written on their interpretations of the film. According to the

Ryerson University professor Carolyn L. Kane, the grainy and decayed visual style of Begotten is an allegory to the viewer's uncertainty. As Kane argues, the film's ambiguity intentionally invites differing interpretations from the viewer of what she described as "the hermeneutic of the image".[45] However, Merhige has said that he intentionally incorporated certain mythic and existential themes into the film.[16][46]

Death and rebirth

Language Bearers, Photographers, Diary makers
You with your memory are dead, frozen
Lost in a present that never stops passing
Here lives the incantation of matter
A language forever.
Like a flame burning away the darkness
Life is flesh on bone convulsing above the ground.

— The opening intertitle for the film, suggesting the film's themes of life and death.

Some critics have suggested that Begotten contains underlying motifs of death and rebirth.[1][13][19][23] According to Elaine Dutka, these potential themes might have been inspired by a near-death experience Merhige suffered at the age of nineteen,[23] which, Dutka states, had left a lasting impression on Merhige.[17]

Throughout the film, the three main characters are subjected to acts of extreme violence. The author and independent filmmaker

four seasons.[47] This thematic description of the film and its characters was echoed by Merhige himself, who states that the characters and events depicted in the film were metaphors for life and the struggle of mankind with itself and nature.[6]

The film studies scholar William E.B. Verrone argues that viewers are encouraged to mourn the film's characters through the agony and torment inflicted upon them. according to Verrone, the viewer is symbolically "offered salvation" in Begotten's visualization of the blossoming flowers on the characters' graves.

Aleksandr Sokurov.[49]

Religion, mythology, and the occult

the deity of the same name and Mary, mother of Jesus
.

Begotten has been highlighted by authors and critics for its incorporation of religious and mythological imagery and themes, with some commenting on possible connections to

passion play about Earth's birth and torture".[53] The media scholars Penny Papageorgopoulou and Dimitris Charitos argued that Begotten's interweaved mythologies were used to establish the relation between humanity, earth, and religion. Through this mixture of myth and religion, they said, Begotten represented mankind's mistreatment of the Earth. While human in representation, Papageorgopoulou and Charitos state that the film's characters were given a set of "inhuman" characteristics in reference to the Genesis creation narrative and Egyptian mythology.[54]

The film's opening sequence has been the focus of some publications, who have written on its symbolic qualities. Marc Savlov described the plot as an allegory of the death and rebirth of god,

Gnostic and pagan myths".[60]

Its narrative correlation to early creationism was further written upon by Ted Knighton, who described Begotten as the representation of the very act of creation itself. Stating that many of its thematic elements, such as the sound and visual aspects, were an invitation for viewers to participate in 'putting the pieces together' for the film's narrative.

origins of life and religion at the time of its release,[6] and told in the transgressive style of Viennese Actionism.[11]

Release

Distribution

Once editing for Begotten was completed, Merhige spent two years trying to find a distributor willing to release it.[14] Merhige screened the film to possible distributors but most refused as it did not fit into a specific genre, making it difficult to market.[30] He said that at first "everyone laughed at me, saying 'We don't know what this is...'"[59] Merhige took it to several museums; only two showed interest, but he turn both down as he felt that they were not the right choice. As a result, he became very protective of the film, and after only screened it to people he felt he could trust.[30]

Through these private screenings, film critics

Berlin Film Festival where she informally screened it to interested cinéastes, proclaiming it to be an artistic masterpiece.[63] During one of her screenings, it was supposedly viewed by director Werner Herzog, whom Merhige later claimed was "very supportive of the film".[14]

Theatrical screenings

The exterior of a cinema
The US premiere of Begotten occurred at the 1990 San Francisco International Film Festival, where it was screened at the Japantown Kabuki 8 multiplex (pictured in 2005).[64]

Unable to find a distributor, Begotten did not attain either wide or limited theatrical release. However, it became a popular underground film, as a film released outside of conventional commercial channels, especially one with subversive or transgressive content.[65][66] Lacking a standard theatrical release, Merhige booked one-off screenings at various film festivals and art museums.[67]

The earliest public screening took place at the Goethe-Institut in Montreal on October 24, 1989, as part of the Montreal World Film Festival.[68][69] It had three screenings from May 5–7 at the 1990 San Francisco International Film Festival,[64] marking its premiere in the United States.[13] It also premiered later that year in New York at the Museum of Modern Art,[70][71][72] on October 22 with Merhige introducing the film, followed by a post-screening discussion with the audience.[73] On March 22, 1991, it was screened in New Mexico's Center for Contemporary Arts, with Merhige in attendance.[74] New York City's Film Forum also screened the film on June 5, 1991.[43][71][72] It was exhibited at the Stadtkino Theater in Vienna in 1992, as a part of a retrospective of American independent cinema titled "Unknown Territories".[75] Its final screening that decade was at the Berlin Film Festival in the early to mid – 1990s.[14]

From the mid-2010s and onwards, it has consistently appeared at multiple film festivals, in retrospectives and celebratory screenings. The first of these screenings began on October 20, 2014, where it was shown at

double-feature alongside the director's other film Shadow of the Vampire, and was followed by a Q&A with Merhige.[80] The film was later screened at the Short Film Festival in London on January 8, 2017, where it was shown again in its original 16mm format, accompanied by a live music score from the film.[81] It was screened on October 17, 2019, at the Rice Media Center, as part of a celebration of "Low-Fi" Analog film series.[82] It had its more recent screening on March 29, 2022, at Cinemateca Portuguesa in Lisbon.[83]

Home media and bootlegging

Topside of a VHS tape
Begotten was released on VHS in 1995. The film is currently out of print, though widely bootlegged.

Begotten received a very limited home media distribution after its theatrical release,[60] with copies of the film currently out of print and difficult to acquire in secondhand markets.[41] Initially, Merhige did not intend for the film to be released on home video at all, stating in an interview with Scott MacDonald that he had previously hated the concept of home video as a medium. Merhige eventually changed his mind and felt that the original soundtrack mix, with which he had not been completely satisfied, could be enhanced through the medium.[33]

The film was briefly released on VHS[14][84] by World Artists Home Video on March 10, 1995.[85][86][87][88] It was later given a very limited DVD release by World Artists on February 20, 2001,[89] and included a souvenir booklet, the original theatrical trailer, rare and never-before-seen movie stills, and production photos.[90][91] World Artists' DVD release of the film was listed by Film Comment's Gavin Smith as the ninth of his "Top 10 DVD Picks".[92]

Due to the film's severely limited availability on home media, its fans began to spread it through

piracy.[93] The circulation of unlicensed copies would help the film to gain more exposure, overtaking the legal means of distribution in volume.[94][95] The film is typically encountered via ambiguously legal methods, a situation which—according to Mathijs and Sexton—fostered a "copy-cult" that enhanced its cult status.[7] The film was reportedly banned in Singapore due to its graphic and disturbing content.[55]

On July 29, 2016, Merhige announced that the film was to be released on

optical restoration and upscaling from its original 16mm format.[97]

Reception

A woman sitting
Susan Sontag (pictured in 1979) was one of the main advocates for Begotten and helped ensure the film's release.

Begotten has received little to no attention from film critics, with most mainstream reviewers ignoring the film entirely.[41] Merhige was initially afraid that audiences might misunderstand certain parts, or the entire film altogether, "When I finished the film, I felt sure it would be misunderstood and consigned to the underground again. I see it as a very serious, very beautiful work of art, but when it was first finished, I was always thinking, 'What if everybody just laughs? What if they don't see anything in it?' There is always that possibility."[30] Reactions to the film upon its release were extremely polarized, but Merhige has stated that he remains grateful for starting his career with the film.[98]

Limited reviews of the film were mixed to positive, with some critics praising the film's unique visual style and resonating themes, while commenting on its graphic violence.

Austin Chronicle called the film "Experimental, haunting, dreamlike, and intentionally confounding", further writing on the film's grainy visuals, and horrific imagery as having an influence on the VHS sequences in The Ring series, and the works of Guy Maddin.[55] In their annual publication of The Video Movie Guide, the authors Mick Martin and Marsha Porter rated Begotten their highest score of four stars, praising its uniqueness, while commenting that viewers would either 'love or hate it'.[101]

Adrian Halen from Horror News.net opined its use of symbolism from Christianity and Egyptian mythology, in addition to the ambiguity of what was displayed on the screen, created a unique viewing experience that was admittedly not always easy to digest.

How It Is in regards to its symbolism and narrative structure. Sterritt also commented that the film's claustrophobic atmosphere, and dark narrative were hard to stomach but equally entrancing overall.[103]

Although some critics were favorable towards its visuals and narrative themes, others have criticized these same elements, in addition to its brutal violence and running time.[104] Awarding it two and a half out of a possible four stars, John Kenneth Muir felt its narrative was better suited as a short subject rather than a feature film, despite its admittedly powerful imagery and originality.[104] Echoing this sentiment, the Polish journalist Bartłomiej Paszylk thought the first half was compelling and genuinely frightening, but further commented that its narrative could have been accomplished at a much shorter length.[105] Its graphic violence and visuals were criticized by Janet Maslin of The New York Times, who described it as "too grotesque" to engage its audience, regardless of its unique narrative.[4]

Legacy

Since the start of the 21st century, Begotten has gained more exposure through its availability online through various streaming platforms such as YouTube helping it receive a wider audience.[27] It has gradually developed a cult following[23][106] and is considered by some to be the director's masterpiece.[41][98][107] As one critic wrote, Begotten "earned its reputation as an endlessly provocative and mystifying experience always centuries ahead of the rest of American cinema".[108] In his 2014 book Disorders of Magnitude: A Survey of Dark Fantasy, the author Jason V. Brock wrote that Begotten was his seventh favorite work of radio, film, or television production.[109] It was listed in the 2011 book 100 Cult Films by Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik[41] over Mendik's objections, as he felt that its following was too small to merit inclusion. However, it ultimately made it in because, to Mathijs, the film's following represented "the real sectarian cult; it's a very small committed group of people. It's like a secret handshake that goes worldwide. If you've seen Begotten, you're in that cult."[110] Over the years, several sources have erroneously reported Time as ranking Begotten in its top-ten list of either 1990 or 1991, but the film was not included in either year.[e]

Though initially mixed in his response to the film, Muir has since called Begotten "one of the most disturbing films ever made".

Complex Magazine in 2021.[119] Publications such as Collider and MovieWeb have placed it in their top avant-garde/experimental films,[120][121] with the later describing it as an 'unforgettable experiment in horror'.[121]

The film helped provide a foundation for Merhige to continue his filmmaking career.[14] A decade after Begotten's release, Merhige directed the critically acclaimed Shadow of the Vampire,[122][123] followed by the less well-received Suspect Zero.[124][125] Nicolas Cage, a co-producer of Shadow of the Vampire, advocated hiring Merhige to direct the project based on his positive impression of Begotten.[14][39][126][127]

Merhige was later hired by the singer

art designer P. R. Brown watch the film for inspiration while developing cover art for the album.[130] When preparing to adapt the album into a music video, Manson personally contacted Merhige to ask him if he was willing to direct the music video for his song "Cryptorchid".[105] Manson has stated that Begotten was played on a loop during the entire recording for his album Antichrist Superstar.[59][131] The music video for "Cryptorchid" premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1997 where it won a Golden Gate Certificate of Merit Award.[1][132][133] It was subsequently barred from release by Interscope Records, whom Manson claimed were "appalled by it" due to its fascist iconography, namely the Nuremberg rallies and images of a Ku Klux Klan lynching. "Antichrist Superstar" was also beset with troubles and remained unreleased until it was leaked on YouTube in 2010.[129][133] Merhige has since become a prominent member of the theatre, directing numerous stage plays which include A Dream Play, an adaption of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Waiting for Godot.[8]

Influence

Since its release, Begotten has become a minor influence on several

Mubi.com compared the 2015 experimental film Ville Marie as being very similar to Merhige's film in terms of cinematic style, and use of reverse-exposure.[136]

A number of scenes in Can Evrenol's 2015

surrealist horror film Baskin were compared to Begotten.[137] James Quinn's 2017 experimental horror film Flesh of the Void was described by several critics as being similar to Merhige's film in style and narrative.[138] However, Quinn himself stated, in an interview with Nightmare on Film Street, that he felt his film did not fall into the same category.[139] Certain scenes from Blake Williams' 2018 avant-garde science fiction film Prototype were compared to Begotten by Glenn Kenny of The New York Times.[140] Jimmy Joe Roche's 2018 experimental short film, Skin of Man, was also said to have been influenced by Begotten.[141]

The film's influence has also extended into the music world. As the scholar Andrew M. Whelan wrote, cult and underground films such as Begotten often share the same thematic style as

Midsommar.[147]

Sequels

Begotten is the first in a trilogy of films described by Merhige and media outlets as The Begotten Cycle, a series of short film sequels delving into different aspects of creation mythology and mysticism.[148][149][150]

Din of Celestial Birds

The first sequel is the 14-minute short film Din of Celestial Birds.

Blood of a Poet (1930), Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927), and the works of Auguste and Louis Lumière.[8]

Merhige intended for the short to depict "creation in its simplest and purest form".[8] Focusing on the theory of evolution instead of religion and mythology,[151] it opens with an intertitle that reads: "Hello and welcome ... do not be afraid ... be comforted ... remember ... our origin...", followed by images depicting the Big Bang. Then, after a hyper-accelerated trip through the evolution of life and the Earth, it culminates in the birth of an embryonic pseudo-humanoid named the Son of Light (Stephen Charles Barry) who reaches towards the sky as the scene fades to a shot of the Earth.[152]

Din of Celestial Birds premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on September 6, 2006, as one of their showcased short films.[153] It was later screened on Turner Classic Movies on September 15th.[8] The film was also screened at the European Media Art Festival in 2009 as a part of that year's theme, "The Future Lasts Longer Than The Past".[154] It was later screened alongside its predecessor at the SpectreFest Film Festival in 2015.[78]

Polia & Blastema: A Cosmic Opera

Merhige's trilogy later concluded with the 40-minute short film Polia & Blastema: A Cosmic Opera, alternately titled Polia & Blastema: A Metaphysical Fable, marking the director's first

supernatural horror and dissolution known as "[a] world-without-us".[157] Production for the film began in mid-2016, after a successful Kickstarter campaign.[158]

Described as "a gnostic creation myth" in promotional material for its premiere screening, the film incorporates several different genres, including fantasy and science fiction in the series' typically grainy, black-and-white visual style.[156] The story follows two otherworldly beings (Nina McNeely, and Jasmine Albuquerque) who believe themselves to be a single entity separated by unknown circumstances, as they journey through a desolate and hellish landscape. Through their quest across space and time, they discover more about themselves and are finally reunited. Embracing, the two beings 'become one' as they devour each other in ritualistic ecstasy, merging in an act that transforms them into a new deity.[52][159]

It premiered at the Opera Philadelphia's Opera on Film Festival on September 30, 2022.[159][160][161] It was later screened at Offscreen Film Festival, as a part of their The Screen of the Sky series, in the Brussels Planetarium, alongside Begotten and Din of Celestial Birds, on March 26, 2023.[162] The entire "Begotten Cycle" was screened at the 2023 L'Etrange Festival in Paris, beginning on September 9 and concluding on September 17.[149][163] On November 4th, Polia & Blastema made its official premiere in the United Kingdom at the Leeds International Film Festival, where it was screened alongside the entire trilogy followed by a Q & A with Merhige.[164] At the end on the year, on December 16, 2023, it was screened at the 17th Annual Film Mutations Film Festival in Croatia, with the previous entries in the series.[97][165]

References

Notes

  1. ^ Alternately worded as Theatre of Material.[1]
  2. ^ Several media outlets have alternately reported the 1990 and 1991 film festival screenings as its first release.[3][4][5]
  3. ^ A total of approximately $20,000.[24][26]
  4. ^ No relation to famed German actor Max Schreck, the subject of Merhige's later film Shadow of the Vampire.[1]
  5. ^ Fangoria, Filmmaker, and author Bartłomiej Paszylk claimed that Time listed Begotten among the best films of 1990.[1][16][111] Los Angeles Times and the film's DVD packaging claimed it had been listed in 1991.[23][90]

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Stephens 2000.
  2. ^ a b E. Elias Merhige (Director) (1989). Begotten (Motion picture). United States: Theatreofmaterial.
  3. San Francisco Film Festival. Archived
    from the original on April 27, 2020. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  4. ^ a b c d e Maslin 1991.
  5. ^ Sterritt 2000, p. 35.
  6. ^ a b c d e MacDonald 1998, p. 290.
  7. ^ a b Mathijs & Sexton 2011, pp. 35, 140.
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Bibliography

Books

Periodicals

External links

Begotten

Sequels

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