My documentary/essay film on David Lindsay, A Vast Shadow House, will receive its world premiere at the Maine International Film Festival on 12th July. The film will screen again the following day. Tickets and more info can be found here.
Admired by the likes of Philip Pullman, Nina Allan, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, Lindsay’s novels explore the theme of a real world, hiding behind the mundane everyday. Influenced by the German Romantics and the fantasies of George Macdonald, Lindsay’s books depict a world of illusion that must be transcended and ultimately escaped from. This essentially gnostic philosophy predates the work of Philip K. Dick, who explored similar themes, by some 30 or 40 years. Lindsay’s later work became more matriarchal, feminist and pagan in its themes, although the vision of the false and true worlds remained.
A Vast Shadow House explores Lindsay’s life and works, the philosophy in his works, the difficulties he had in finding an audience, and his posthumous success. It features interviews with some of Lindsay’s original supporters and champions, including critic and poet J. B. Pick, biographer Bernard Sellin, and critics Harold Bloom and Gary K. Wolfe. Also appearing are Alan Moore (comics writer, novelist, wizard), Brian Stableford (sci-fi author, translator), and Gary Lachman (writer, and, in a previous life, founder member of Blondie – although we didn’t get around to discussing Gary’s musical career in the interview. That will have to wait for my next film…). My filmmaking colleague Louise Milne acts as our guide and interviewer.
