About this episode

The episode explores the intersection of poetry and entheogens through the lens of film theory and the Auteur Theory, particularly focusing on Stanley Kubrick's filmmaking style.

Before I was a Witch, I was a cinephile. When I was younger, I subscribed to the "Auteur Theory" of film appreciation, which posits that the best movies are essentially a masterful reflection of a god's eye view, and that in the case of cinema, the director is god. The Auteur Theory of the director doesn't describe a dreamer or a collaborator, but a visionary master of their medium, who, prior to shooting, has already meticulously perfected their next film in their head. To the Auteur, the sets, actors, and film stock are all uncarved blocks for them to impress their vision upon. Interestingly, though, I don't think many of the great directors of the last century actually experienced filmmaking this way. I think the Auteur Theory is a story created by film critics living in an era dominated by the ontology of scientific materialism, trying to find a way to classify this new art form in ways that conform to these limited beliefs. If there is a poster child for the masterful Auteur, it has to be Stanley Kubrick. There's an entire feature-length documentary formed out of a collection of wild theories about the "hidden meanings" encoded in Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining, all of…

People in this episode

Host: Chad Andro

Guest: Chaise Levy

Topics covered

• Poetry
• Entheogens
• Film Theory
• Auteur Theory
• Stanley Kubrick
• Creativity

Keywords

• Poetry
• Entheogen
• Auteur Theory
• Stanley Kubrick
• Film Appreciation
• Creativity
• Cinephile

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