Late last month in Mexico City, Alejandro Jodorowsky organized the “March of the Skulls” to disperse negative energy caused by the death toll of the nation’s drug war. Nearly 40,000 Mexicans have died drug war related deaths in the past five years. The advance billing for the November 27th event described it as “the first act of collective psycho-magic in Mexico” and it attracted nearly 3000 people who donned skeleton masks, face-paint, tops hats. Some marchers carried black versions of the Mexican flag and shouted “Long live the dead!”

From the Los Angeles Times:

The “maestro” arrived at the palace steps about 1:30 p.m., causing brief havoc among the gathered calaveras as people jostled to get near him. The white-haired Jodorowsky, fit and agile at 82, wore a black sports coat, a bright purple scarf and a detailed skull mask.

Along with his family, Jodorowsky led the calaveras up the Eje Central avenue to Plaza Garibaldi in a mostly silent demonstration. In the late 1980s, he filmed some key scenes of “Santa Sangre” at this plaza, homebase for the city’s for-hire mariachi bands. On Sunday, it was easy to imagine another “Santa Sangre” scene being filmed during the march, but this time from a dark and unfamiliar future.

Someone decided the group should sing a song. It became “La Llorona,” the Weeping Woman. 

Jodorowsky was displeased with the group’s initial interpretation, so he asked for another go at it. A mariachi band joined in as accompaniment.

“There are 50,000 dead beings,” Jodorowsky said through a bullhorn, before the sea of skulls. “They are sheep. They are not black sheep. We must have mercy for these souls that have disappeared. Let’s sing this song with lament, as if we were the mother of one of these persons. Understand?”

Then he asked that all those present cross and link their arms with those of the strangers around them. The group did. They chanted “Peace, peace, peace!” until Jodorowsky asked that everyone let out a big laugh. Laughter and applause followed.

You have to love that the wiley shaman did the old “c’mon you guys can do better” routine and made them sing it again!
 

 
After the jump, a news report about Alejandro Jodorowsky’s November 27, 2011 Psychomagic event in Mexico.

 
The great Chilean-born director, artist, writer, shaman and “criminal madman, ” Alejandro Jodorowsky interviewed via Skype from a hotel room in NYC on October 30th.

Topics include Occupy Wall Street, why revolutions fail but mutation succeeds, the magical side of reality, the search for gurus and wisdom and why Twitter is the haiku of this century!  Jodorowsky’s films El Topo and The Holy Mountain are available on Blu-ray from ABKCO.
 

 

 
ABKCO Films presents legendary director Alejandro Jodorowsky in a rare New York appearance with a Halloween screening of The Holy Mountain at MoMA:

Jodorowsky will introduce his visionary 1973 cult film The Holy Mountain, which famously played for sixteen straight months at New York’s Waverly Theater, at “An Evening with Alejandro Jodorowsky” on Monday, October 31, at 7 PM. The program serves as a coda to the exhibition of Jodorowsky’s work that was organized at MoMA PS1 earlier this year by Klaus Biesenbach.

Jodorowsky will take part in an onstage conversation with Klaus Biesenbach and Joshua Siegel.

The Holy Mountain is a surreal and picaresque satire depicting the journey of a Christ-like figure, the Thief, to a symbolic mountain that is said to unite Heaven and Earth. Playing the character of the Alchemist both on and off screen, Jodorowsky immersed his actors in months of preparatory spiritual and occult exercises, and was also responsible for the costume, set designs and for co-writing the musical score.

Tickets are $12 adults; $10 seniors, $8 full–time students. Admission is free for Museum members. Tickets and info. The Holy Mountain is out on Blu-ray DVD.
 

 

 
Directed by Transformers star Shia LaBouef, Marilyn Manson’s self-produced video for his new song “No Reason” pays homage to Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain. Manson and Jodorowsky are friends (Alejandro wanted to cast Marilyn in an El Topo sequel) and I guess this is Manson’s way of honoring his master.

Other influences I detect floating through the video are from George Bataille’s “The Story Of The Eye,” Takashi Miike’s Ichi, The Killer, Joel-Peter Witkin and new wave porn flicks like Night Dreams and Cafe Flesh.

I don’t think Manson is challenging himself with this. Been there, done that. But, anything that calls attention to Jodorowsky is in my opinion a good thing.
 

 
Believed lost for fifty years, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s first film, La Cravate (aka Severed Heads) was found in an attic in Germany in 2006, and released on DVD in 2007. Adapted from Thomas Mann’s short story, “The Transposed Heads - A Legend of India in Paris”, La Cravate was made between 1953 and 1957 and starred Denise Brossot, Rolande Polya, Raymond Devos, Saul Gilbert and Jodorowsky.

The film tells of a young man’s desire to win the love of a woman. To do this, he visits a store which allows customers to switch their heads, and thus their personalities. The young man trades in his head for a variety of different models, and while his body continues to woo the woman of his dreams, the store’s proprietor, a young woman, takes a fancy to the man’s original head and takes it home. The moral is never to lose your head over unrequited love, but find someone who loves you as you are. It’s bizarre, amusing and charming, and an impressive first film.
 

 
 
Previously on DM
Exclusive Clip of Alejandro Jodorowsky for Dangerous MInds Readers
Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Shamanic Funnies
 
 

Left to right: Donald Cammell, Dennis Hopper, Alejandro Jodorowsky & Kenneth Anger.
 
Cinematic shaman Alejandro Jodorowsky discusses his work. Taken from the over five hours worth of extras that will come with the much-anticipated re-release of Santa Sangre on DVD and Blu-ray by Severin Films on January 25th. Pre-order a copy of Santa Sangre.
 

 
I’ve been sitting on a pretty decent but not perfect bootleg DVD of Alejandro’s nightmarish 1989 film, Santa Sangre for the last six years, but I could never bring myself to watch it because I knew (I thought) that a proper DVD release was just around the corner. Well, it took long enough, but it looks like it was worth the wait, as Severin Films is about to release the film on Blu-ray and regular DVD on January 25th with over five hours of extras, including deleted scenes, Jodorowsky’s audio commentary, multiple documentaries and interviews with key members of the cast and crew.

What’s more, there is going to be a small number of theatrical screenings around the country in anticipation of the Santa Sangre’s digital debut:

To commemorate the long awaited re-release of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s masterpiece SANTA SANGRE on DVD and Blu-Ray, Severin Films and The American Cinematheque will be presenting a 35mm screening of the film, preceded by a reception, at the Egyptian Theater, Hollywood Blvd. There will be a special Q & A after the film with soundtrack composer Simon Boswell, whose other credits include work for Danny Boyle, Clive Barker and Dario Argento.

More screenings will take place on 1/19 at the Alamo Downtown, Austin, TX, 1/24 at the reRun, Brooklyn, NY and 1/24 at the Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, MA followed by a Q & A with Star Sabrina Dennison.

Blanca Guerra, Guy Stockwell and the filmmaker¹s sons Axel and Adan Jodorowsky star in this surreal epic about a young circus performer, the crime of passion that shatters his soul, and the macabre journey back to the world of his armless mother and deaf-mute lover. “This is a movie like none I have seen before,” wrote Roger Ebert in his original four-star review, “a wild kaleidoscope of images and outrages, a collision between Freud and Fellini. It contains blood and glory, saints and circuses, and unspeakable secrets of the night. And it is all wrapped up in a flamboyant parade of bold, odd, striking imagery, with Alejandro Jodorowsky as the ringmaster. SANTA SANGRE is a movie in which the inner chambers of the soul are laid bare.”

I have to admit that now that I know this is coming out on Blu-ray, I’m salivating to see it. I haven’t seen Santa Sangre since I first saw it in a theater when it was released. Jodorowsy’s films are just too amazing visually to watch on bootleg DVDs. On Blu-ray, however, this will be a (sur)real treat!
 

 
Like many of you out there, we here at Dangerous Minds are waiting patiently (or not so patiently as the case might be) for the DVD and Blu-ray release of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s fantastic (in every way) film Santa Sangre from the fine folks at Severin Films (you can also blame them for Birdemic), due to drop this month. In an effort to sate your Jodorowsky fever, here’s a link to a blog with several dozen examples of Jodorowsky’s Sunday comic, Fabulas panicas, written, drawn and colored by the great filmmaker, writer, composer and shaman in the years between 1967 and 1973 for the rightwing Mexican newspaper, El Heraldo de México.

Like most of Jodorowsky’s work, these comics aim to teach a life lesson or produce a psychological epiphany in the reader. Can you imagine how much the original panels would be worth, and will be worth in the future? Hopefully while Alejandro Jodorowsky is still living, a museum level survey of his graphic work will occur. It’s a honor he richly deserves.

347 of the Fabulas panicas strips appear in a book published by Grijalbo.
 

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Via The End of Being

Now just hold your breath and watch…
 
Didn’t think the films of mondo-psychedelico cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky could get any freakier? Think again.

Straight outta Mexico City come Arturo Gil of video firm XNOgrafikz and bass maniac DJ Saeg, putting the audio and visual cut-up method to full digital effect on Jodorowsky’s two most popular classics, El Topo and Holy Mountain. But instead of merely generating some arbitrary rave-video-projection material, Gil and Saeg took pains to use rhythmic repetition to crack the AJ code as much as possible, creating an even more anti-linear narrative in emotive tribute to the Jewish Chilean-French celluloid shaman.
 

 
Check out the Holy Mountain remix after the jump…

 
British TV personality Jonathan Ross interviews Alejandro Jodorowsky on the BBC in 1991. Jodowsky had released Sante Sangre a year earlier and had just completed The Rainbow Thief when this show was filmed.

“Most directors make films with their eyes; I make films with my testicles.”

“I ask of film what most North Americans ask of psychedelic drugs.”
 

 
After some time spent with DC’s Vertigo imprint and then Devil’s Due, Fabrice Giger’s fabled Humanoids Publishing house (who’ve put out work by the likes of such prestigious creators as Moebius, Yves Chaland, Igor Baranko, Bilal, Pierre Christin,  Philippe Druillet, Milo Manara and others) is back in action with what looks to be a high gloss publication of Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius’s 1970s series, The Incal.

The Incal came as a result of the proposed Jodorowsky-directed film version of Frank Herbert’s Dune (which was to have starred Orson Welles, Mick Jagger and Salvador Dali, with music by Pink Floyd) biting the dust. Rather than lose all of their great ideas, the disappointed duo turned out The Incal comics series instead.

Long out of print in this country, the November republication of The Incal series in English comes at the same time as the book’s publication in French. Past Jodorowsky/Humanoids collaborations, such as the incredible Techno Priests series, have been beautiful objects to behold, so I’ve got high hopes for The Incal, which will come in its own custom slip case.
 

 
Humanoids Publishing blog

Via Arthur

 
I’m sure many Dangerous Minds readers in the New York area will be excited to hear about this unique opportunity to take a “master class” with the great cinematic magician, Alejandro Jodorowsky:

With his infamous cult films Holy Mountain, El Topo and Fando y Lis (which caused a riot upon its premier) Chilean-born Alejandro Jodorowsky altered the visual language and philosophy of cinema.

Breaking from conventional approaches to filmmaking, Jodorowsky worked with hermetic alchemy, symbolism and complex rituals to create a profound and transformative experience designed to heal one’s mental wounds.

Beginning on the autumn equinox, the Museum of Arts and Design is proud to present Blood into Gold: The Cinematic Alchemy of Alejandro Jodorowsky, showcasing the complete body of film work as a core component to a series exploring the broad influence of this groundbreaking auteur.

Master Class with Director Alejandro Jodorowsky, Saturday, September 25 at 3:00 pm, tickets | more info.

El Topo, The Holy Mountain, Fando Y Lis, Santa Sangre, La Cravate, La Constellation Jodorowsky and Rainbow Thief will be screened the last week of September and first week of October.
 

 
Thank you Kim Cascone!

 
The superb opening credits to director and author Fernando Arrabal’s 1971 masterpiece, Viva la Muerte (Long live death). The awesome song is called Ekkoleg, written and produced by Grethe Agatz .

Arrabal was a part of the Panic Movement in the 1960s. which also include El Topo and Holy Mountain director, Alejandro Jodorowsky. The animation was done by Roland Topor, another member of the Panic Movement.
 

 
Thank you Chris Campion of Berlin, Germany! Via Easydreamer blog.

An exhibit opening soon at London’s Drawing Room art gallery displays the materials produced for Alejandro Jodorowsky’s sadly never-produced version of Frank Herbert’s Dune novels:

This exhibition includes production drawings made by Moebius, H.R Giger and Chris Foss alongside commissioned work made in response by three international contemporary artists Steven Claydon, Matthew Day Jackson and Vidya Gastaldon.

Following the release of his mystical Western ?