Skip to content
1981
Volume 13, Issue 1-2
  • ISSN: 2045-6298
  • E-ISSN: 2045-6301

Abstract

This article places David Larcher’s avant-garde travelogue (1975) in the wider context of alternative budget travel on an epic overland route commonly known as ‘the hippie trail’. I argue that the film’s digressionary tactics reflect some of the perspectives implicit in this kind of travel, which valorized ecstatic experience, financial precarity, spiritual questing and nomadism. While the film’s pluralist point of view attests to Larcher’s profound engagement with diverse spiritual practices and belief systems – this thread runs through much of his cinema and was embedded in his peripatetic, bohemian lifestyle – it also reveals a countercultural orientalism through its alignment with and romanticization of the Other. The film’s colonial gaze is implicit (and at times explicit) in how it engages in psychedelic self-othering, portraying the Other as magical, timeless and ‘authentic’, while also transforming sites of religious significance into shimmering special effects.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/miraj_00128_1
2024-12-31
2025-02-07
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Cubitt, Sean (1999), ‘David Larcher’, in D. Curtis (ed.), A Directory of British Film and Video Artists, London: Arts Council of England, p. 106.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Curtis, David (2007), A History of Artists’ Film and Video in Britain, London: British Film Institute.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Echard, William (2017), Psychedelic Popular Music: A History through Musical Topic Theory, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Fryer, Peter (1967), ‘A map of the underground: The flower power structure & London scene’, Encounter, 24, October, pp. 620.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Gaal-Holmes, Patti (2015), A History of 1970s Experimental Film: Britain’s Decade of Diversity, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Gemie, Sharif and Ireland, Brian (2017), The Hippie Trail: A History, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Gosse, Johanna (2021–22), ‘Altered states: Psychedelic experimental cinema as border crossing in Bruce Conner’s Looking for Mushrooms’, JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, 61:5, pp. 183209.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Hall, Stuart (1969), ‘The hippies: An American “moment”’, in J. Nagel (ed.), Student Power, London: Merlin Press, pp. 170202.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Hendrikson, Hendrik (ed.) (1977), ‘Monkey’s Birthday’, Perspectives on British Avant-Garde Film, London: Hayward Gallery/Arts Council of Great Britain.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. James, David E. (1989), Allegories of Cinema: American Film in the Sixties, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Kahn, O. (1967), ‘New York portfolio’, Image, 6:1, Spring, pp. 4155.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Larcher, David (dir.) (1975), Monkey’s Birthday, British Artists’ Film and Video Study Collection, https://collections.arts.ac.uk/objects/19876/monkeys-birthday;jsessionid=3B5650B9A6055C849B28B4C0694B67F7?ctx=a2b733b3-fcba-4a09-a811-c6d16d3d241c&idx=27. Accessed 19 November 2024.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Larcher, David (2010), interview with S. P., London, 25 May, David Larcher folder, British Artists’ Film and Video Study Collection, https://collections.arts.ac.uk/categories/department/British%20Artists%27%20Film%20and%20Video%20Study%20Collection/images;jsessionid=3B5650B9A6055C849B28B4C0694B67F7?filter=people%3ADavid%20Larcher&page=4. Accessed 19 November 2024.
  14. Larcher, David (2018), e-mail to S. Satchell-Baeza, 21 March.
  15. Leary, Timothy (ed.) ([1968] 1971),‘Magical mystery trip’ in T. Leary, The Politics of Ecstasy, London: Paladin, pp. 10317.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Moore, Anthony (2024), telephone interview with S. Satchell-Baeza, 26 July.
  17. Neville, Richard (1970), Play Power, London: Jonathan Cape.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Rayns, Tony (1975), ‘Monkey’s Birthday’, Time Out, 273, 6 June, p. 37.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Rees, Alan L. (1998), A History of Experimental Film and Video, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Rooks, Conrad (1966), Chappaqua, France and USA: Minotaur.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Saldanha, Arun (2007), Psychedelic White: Goa Trance and the Viscosity of Race, Minneapolis, MN and London: University of Minnesota Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Slapp Happy (1972), Sort Of, LP, Germany: Polydor Records.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Stansill, Peter and Mairowitz, David Z. (eds) (1971), BAMN: Outlaw Manifestos and Ephemera 1965–1970, London: Penguin.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Stern, Anthony (1974), ‘BFI treatment wheel’, film treatment, Anthony Stern personal archive.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Sterne, Laurence ([1767] 1983), The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Thoms, Albie (1970), ‘Acid flix’, Oz, 26, February, p. 32.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Webber, Mark (ed.) (2016), Shoot Shoot Shoot: The First Decade of the London Film-Makers’ Co-Operative, 1966–76, London: LUX.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Whitehead, Peter (1965), Wholly Communion, London: Lorrimer Films Ltd.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Williams, Heatcote (1975), ‘Monkey’s Birthday’, unpaginated leaflet.
  30. Youngblood, Gene (1970), Expanded Cinema, London: Studio Vista.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Curtis, David (ed.) (1999), A Directory of British Film and Video Artists, London: Arts Council of England.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Williams, Heathcote (1976), ‘Monkey’s Birthday’, Time Out, 304, 9 January, p. 39.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Rees, Alan L. ([1999] 2011), A History of Experimental Film and Video, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/miraj_00128_1
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/miraj_00128_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test