Visionary, Mythopoeia and Diary Films

In this chapter, personal, expressive films informed by aspects of the countercultural movement, psychoanalysis, mysticism, the occult, popular culture, literature and diaristic approaches to filmmaking are discussed. Although relationships with the visual arts are also evident, the personal, symbolic or metaphoric use of image tends to be central to many of the films under discussion here. For some filmmakers, such as Margaret Tait, it was merely the joy of ‘stalking’ and capturing images, offering unique records of individual lives, that drew her to film. For others, connecting these to greater personal mythologies or psychological narratives was also central to developments. Many of the filmmakers discussed here trained in art schools, with others informed by their work as avant-garde writers (B. S. Johnson), poets (Tait) or playwrights One Arden). Some had affiliations with the LFMC, although others were oblivious to its existence; and while cinematographic recording and structuring devices also informed aspects of filmmaking, these would generally not form the overriding focus of these films. At the outset of this chapter a number of key issues relating to the counterculture, psychoanalysis and personal approaches to filmmaking are discussed, as they provide contexts informing filmmaking. Thereafter, films are considered in greater detail, referring (where applicable) to P. Adams Stacy’s taxonomical definitions of ‘psycho-dramatic trance’, ‘lyrical’, ‘mythopoeia’ and ‘diary’.1