So the first waft of intrigue in auteur Antero Alli’s new experimental video, The Celebrants, occurs immediately with an untouched romp through seeming mundaneness. What’s with all this natural lighting and round-the-house footage? What’s Antero up to? We seem to have walked in on a magician’s morning, with Alli in this badass flowing dragon robe, writing in a book while Sylvi Alli plays the piano. Douglas Allen listens to her playing while wrapped in a blanket on a couch.
The decor is pure old-school Bay Area star child. Antero and Sylvi retire upstairs while Douglas does some stretches and movement exercises. No one has spoken a word, and when they run into one another, communicate with hand gestures or abstract noises. Sylvi makes some tea for everybody, the good stuff. At this point, it feels like anything could happen because behavior this normal in an experimental video is really strange. What’s Antero up to?
Antero gathers everyone around the table and starts discussing the concept behind the experiment being filmed in The Celebrants. Antero first announces he is not going for a pre-determined look for the video, nor is he trying to produce a pre-imagined product. Instead, he is interested in how a person gets into that state of mind where things get created out of nowhere. This is where I was swallowed by the giant clam of the project, as that is a subject that fascinates me. Douglas confesses he can access that self-hypnotic state of creativity with ease at the drop of a hat. I am envious, as it takes me three bongers and one and a half Allman Brothers Band albums before I really start to cook. It seems Antero wants to get all three of them to start improvising a discipline together to see what happens when everyone’s energy is built up intertwined, like electric boogie serpents. He will film the results as he wants to capture the spontaneity of creation, not necessarily what is created. Everyone drinks their tea and gets down to it.
“…he is interested in how a person gets into that state of mind where things get created out of nowhere.”
We switch from orangish kitchen table lighting to a splendid, slightly polarized black and white. Now things are starting to look like an Antero Alli flick. Sylvi does some abstract vocalizing, similar to Diamanda Galas. Douglas does some modern dance-style contortions with some outlandish expressions and gestures. All the while, Antero saws away on a tripping drone guitar. Antero uses good old-fashioned super-imposition to overlay images to simulate the energies churning together. With the bodywork Douglas unfurls as the anchor, the images attain a sinister expressionistic sheen when powered by the fountain of sound produced by Antero and Sylvi.
Once again, as the stated intent was to capture creating something instead of trying to create a specific artistic work, the experiment is a success. What is a real pleasure about this is how deliberate the three stages of the video are in guiding the viewer. By showing artists not in the throws of arting in the first stage, we definitely can tell the difference when the art is on full blast in the third stage. Plus also Arturo goes ahead and lays it all out plain in the second stage, inviting everyone in on what is about to happen.
This is an underground film made for the people, which is probably why Antero Alli makes The Celebrants available to watch online for free. I wasn’t sure where The Celebrants was going, but I sure did know when I got there and why. Antero Alli is one of the last great practitioners of American experimental cinema magic, and this is another great spell.
For more information about The Celebrants, visit the Vertical Pool website.
