ReFocus: The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky

Michael Newell Witte

ISBN 10: 1399505955 / ISBN 13: 9781399505956

Published by Edinburgh University Press, GB, 2025

Known as the father of the "midnight cult movie" and co-founder of the avant-garde Panic movement in France, Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky defies all basic categorization. He is known as a provocateur, a performance artist, a visionary filmmaker, a controversial playwright, a philosopher, and a tarot reader, among other disparate classifications. These varied dimensions of artist and filmmaker converge seamlessly into his practice. He is recognized by audiences as a creator of controversial and mesmerizing films characterized by visual delirium, the injection of radical politics and mystical philosophy, and a post-surrealist aesthetics.?ReFocus: The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky pursues an interdisciplinary approach to analyze and contextualize Jodorowsky's films according to a variety of conceptual modalities: from occult and mystical orientations, to the political and decolonial aspects of his major films. This collection examines the formative metaphysical elaborations involved in Jodorowsky's earliest films, his pioneering of a truly unique independent film practice in Mexico, and his emergence and development as a visionary international filmmaker. Seller Inventory # LU-9781399505956

Synopsis:

Known as the father of the "midnight cult movie" and co-founder of the avant-garde Panic movement in France, Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky defies all basic categorization. He is known as a provocateur, a performance artist, a visionary filmmaker, a controversial playwright, a philosopher, and a tarot reader, among other disparate classifications. These varied dimensions of artist and filmmaker converge seamlessly into his practice. He is recognized by audiences as a creator of controversial and mesmerizing films characterized by visual delirium, the injection of radical politics and mystical philosophy, and a post-surrealist aesthetics.
ReFocus: The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky pursues an interdisciplinary approach to analyze and contextualize Jodorowsky’s films according to a variety of conceptual modalities: from occult and mystical orientations, to the political and decolonial aspects of his major films. This collection examines the formative metaphysical elaborations involved in Jodorowsky’s earliest films, his pioneering of a truly unique independent film practice in Mexico, and his emergence and development as a visionary international filmmaker.

About the Author: Michael Newell Witte is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of San Diego. His research explores neo-avant-garde art and theory, dissident and ethnographic surrealism, and global contemporary art and film. He is the editor of ReFocus: The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky (2023) and co-author of the exhibition catalogue Todo está perdido: Juan José Gurrola (2023).

Bibliographic Details

Title: ReFocus: The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, GB
Publication Date: 2025
Binding: Paperback
Condition: New