Sunday, February 05, 2006
Review Of "What The Bleep!?" Sequel
News about the "What the Bleep!? Down The Rabbit Hole" movie from Kansas press.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Follow Up To Original "What the Bleep!" Movie
The follow up to the original movie, called "What the Bleep!? Down The Rabbit Hole" is to open in movie theaters in the US next month (February).
Friday, June 03, 2005
New Age movie extends franchise with a conference
Fall in love with a movie and you might coax a friend to see it again with you. Or maybe buy the DVD.
Unless the movie is What the Bleep Do We Know!?, a New Age film that uses quantum physics to argue that we can create our own realities. That calls for a weekend conference, with the semi-documentary's nine scientists and mystics, and its star, Marlee Matlin, addressing the patrons.
The conference's five-city tour hits Miami this weekend. The first stop in Boulder, Colo., drew about 1,000. Among the topics: contemporary spirituality, self-realization and "religion in the quantum age."
For the movie to still be gaining momentum is itself a victory. It opened in February 2004 at a single theater in Yelm, Wash., playing for six weeks. Then came a short run in Portland, Ore., followed by a nationwide release mostly in art houses in October 2004.
Word-of-mouth endorsements spread after a marketing campaign aimed at yoga studios, health food stores and religious institutions such as the Unity Church and Religious Science International. It has grossed $11 million and has reached the top 5 on Amazon.com's DVD sales.
A South Florida high school teacher showed it this spring to his philosophy class, and Religious Science Fort Lauderdale held special viewings last fall. Madonna, Drew Barrymore and Michael Keaton speak of its virtues, and The Institute of Noetic Sciences created a 60-page study guide to cement the movie's messages.
Now, wishing to dive deeper into what its producers label "the rabbit hole" -- where Alice found Wonderland -- comes What the Bleep, the conference.
"We're waking up to something very powerful that proves why our No. 1 adult responsibility is to be the gatekeeper of our own mind," says Roz Reich of Hollywood, who will attend the conference. She has studied meditation and healing for 15 years.
Joe Dispenza, who speaks in the movie about how he molds his day merely by his thoughts, is among the lecturers.
"This is the beginning to unifying quantum physics, the mind, the body and the nature of reality," says Dispenza, a chiropractor who also studies neurology and brain function. "The most common thing I hear is `I always knew this, but I wasn't able to put it into words.'"
The crux of the movie: Matlin, a divorced photographer moping through life, sees how a person's mere thoughts can change their experiences. On her climactic photo assignment, she even sees animated neuropeptides (think of the Scrubbing Bubbles in the bathroom cleaner TV commercials) dancing to Obsession to portray their subjects' emotions.
The movie's talking heads offer their expertise between Matlin's scenes. Many of their offerings aren't that new, with indirect references to: Earl Nightingale, who in 1956's The Strangest Secret essentially said we become what we think; Anthony de Mello, who in 1990 wrote Awareness; and Neale Donald Walsch, author of Conversations with God who, like the movie, describes God as someone who neither punishes nor judges. Some theories of Carl Jung and 1920s German physicist Werner Heisenberg also surface, as well as a summarization of quantum physics similar to that in Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything.
It is the sum of those theories has touched people. Matlin views an exhibit that purports to show a person's thoughts can change the molecular structure of water. Loving thoughts purify it; anger pollutes it. Because the body is made of mostly water, it's not a stretch to believe that you can change your own makeup, the lecturer in the movie reasons.
Nova High School teacher Kai Ehnes showed the movie to his philosophy class.
"In philosophy, we don't teach, `Here are some dead guys, let's go through it,'" Ehnes says. "We're sort of at this brink in existence of man where something great is going to come through, and I think this movie points to it."
Meanwhile, some scientists dispute the quantum physics at the foundation of the movie, and argue that much of what is purported as fact is still unproven. And they point out that quantum physics deals with particles smaller than an atom, so transferring those theories into the world you and I live in is a bit of a stretch.
"It claims to be about quantum physics, but it makes gross distortions that would make any self-respecting scientist squirm," says physicist Simon Singh, author of Big Bang. "It has duped millions into mistaking pure claptrap for something of cosmic importance."
Sandra Vega, a post-doctoral assistant in geophysics at the University of Miami, buys into most of the movie, but understands why there are caveats in the quantum physics portion.
"People in this movie see an application of a science theory that explains a spiritual phenomenon. That's what people like.
In addition to the science questions, critics also say the movie doesn't clearly disclose a tie to the Ramtha School of Enlightenment, which promotes telepathy and channeling of spirits. The film's three directors are Ramtha students, and one expert who speaks is center operator JZ Knight, who says she channels the spirit of a 35,000-year-old warrior named Ramtha.
By Nick C. Sortal Staff Writer – SunSentinel.com
Nick C. Sortal can be reached at nsortal@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7906.
Unless the movie is What the Bleep Do We Know!?, a New Age film that uses quantum physics to argue that we can create our own realities. That calls for a weekend conference, with the semi-documentary's nine scientists and mystics, and its star, Marlee Matlin, addressing the patrons.
The conference's five-city tour hits Miami this weekend. The first stop in Boulder, Colo., drew about 1,000. Among the topics: contemporary spirituality, self-realization and "religion in the quantum age."
For the movie to still be gaining momentum is itself a victory. It opened in February 2004 at a single theater in Yelm, Wash., playing for six weeks. Then came a short run in Portland, Ore., followed by a nationwide release mostly in art houses in October 2004.
Word-of-mouth endorsements spread after a marketing campaign aimed at yoga studios, health food stores and religious institutions such as the Unity Church and Religious Science International. It has grossed $11 million and has reached the top 5 on Amazon.com's DVD sales.
A South Florida high school teacher showed it this spring to his philosophy class, and Religious Science Fort Lauderdale held special viewings last fall. Madonna, Drew Barrymore and Michael Keaton speak of its virtues, and The Institute of Noetic Sciences created a 60-page study guide to cement the movie's messages.
Now, wishing to dive deeper into what its producers label "the rabbit hole" -- where Alice found Wonderland -- comes What the Bleep, the conference.
"We're waking up to something very powerful that proves why our No. 1 adult responsibility is to be the gatekeeper of our own mind," says Roz Reich of Hollywood, who will attend the conference. She has studied meditation and healing for 15 years.
Joe Dispenza, who speaks in the movie about how he molds his day merely by his thoughts, is among the lecturers.
"This is the beginning to unifying quantum physics, the mind, the body and the nature of reality," says Dispenza, a chiropractor who also studies neurology and brain function. "The most common thing I hear is `I always knew this, but I wasn't able to put it into words.'"
The crux of the movie: Matlin, a divorced photographer moping through life, sees how a person's mere thoughts can change their experiences. On her climactic photo assignment, she even sees animated neuropeptides (think of the Scrubbing Bubbles in the bathroom cleaner TV commercials) dancing to Obsession to portray their subjects' emotions.
The movie's talking heads offer their expertise between Matlin's scenes. Many of their offerings aren't that new, with indirect references to: Earl Nightingale, who in 1956's The Strangest Secret essentially said we become what we think; Anthony de Mello, who in 1990 wrote Awareness; and Neale Donald Walsch, author of Conversations with God who, like the movie, describes God as someone who neither punishes nor judges. Some theories of Carl Jung and 1920s German physicist Werner Heisenberg also surface, as well as a summarization of quantum physics similar to that in Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything.
It is the sum of those theories has touched people. Matlin views an exhibit that purports to show a person's thoughts can change the molecular structure of water. Loving thoughts purify it; anger pollutes it. Because the body is made of mostly water, it's not a stretch to believe that you can change your own makeup, the lecturer in the movie reasons.
Nova High School teacher Kai Ehnes showed the movie to his philosophy class.
"In philosophy, we don't teach, `Here are some dead guys, let's go through it,'" Ehnes says. "We're sort of at this brink in existence of man where something great is going to come through, and I think this movie points to it."
Meanwhile, some scientists dispute the quantum physics at the foundation of the movie, and argue that much of what is purported as fact is still unproven. And they point out that quantum physics deals with particles smaller than an atom, so transferring those theories into the world you and I live in is a bit of a stretch.
"It claims to be about quantum physics, but it makes gross distortions that would make any self-respecting scientist squirm," says physicist Simon Singh, author of Big Bang. "It has duped millions into mistaking pure claptrap for something of cosmic importance."
Sandra Vega, a post-doctoral assistant in geophysics at the University of Miami, buys into most of the movie, but understands why there are caveats in the quantum physics portion.
"People in this movie see an application of a science theory that explains a spiritual phenomenon. That's what people like.
In addition to the science questions, critics also say the movie doesn't clearly disclose a tie to the Ramtha School of Enlightenment, which promotes telepathy and channeling of spirits. The film's three directors are Ramtha students, and one expert who speaks is center operator JZ Knight, who says she channels the spirit of a 35,000-year-old warrior named Ramtha.
By Nick C. Sortal Staff Writer – SunSentinel.com
Nick C. Sortal can be reached at nsortal@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7906.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
'What the Bleep,' Channeling a Profit
When the DVD of "What the Bleep Do We Know!?" hit the market last week, it did so after earning more than $10 million in theaters over the past year and a half and trailing only "The Incredibles" among preorders on Amazon.com.
Not bad for a movie you've probably never heard of. Or maybe you have: "The Bleep," as it's affectionately called among partisans, used the same kind of viral, grass-roots marketing that made such unlikely hits of "The Blair Witch Project," "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "The Passion of the Christ." Indeed, "The Bleep" may fairly be described as sort of a secular-humanist version of "The Passion," making the case as it does for a science-based, nonsectarian understanding of spirituality.
Of course, some viewers see "The Bleep" as more akin to the anti-Bush polemics of "Fahrenheit" -- New Age propaganda pure and simple. And then there are those few skeptics who see in "Bleep" a hoax of "Blair Witch" proportions, their radar set off by the film's heavy reliance on a woman who claims to channel the voice of a 35,000-year-old spirit from Atlantis.
One thing's for certain: "The Bleep" is a certified phenomenon, all the more unlikely for being a part-fiction, part-nonfiction film that combines live action, animation, fantasy and realism to propound the theory that we create our own realities through the miracles of quantum mechanics and metaphysics. Marlee Matlin stars as an unhappy wedding photographer who embarks on a cosmic quest for meaning, her character's picaresque tale weaving in and out of talking-head interviews with scientists, physicians and philosophers. Although "The Bleep" received mixed-to-poor reviews (The Post's Michael O'Sullivan wrote that "it feels like a PBS special hosted by a series of low-rent Deepak Chopras and an infomercial for self-help audiotapes"), the film doggedly hung on at theaters while better films -- with bigger budgets and marketing efforts -- faded away.
Much of the credit for that success can be taken by John Raatz, whose Los Angeles-based public relations company, the Visioneering Group, masterminded "The Bleep's" marketing. Raatz, whose Web site describes the company as "a public relations firm linking spirit, vision and values with communication to promote a positive future," set up more than 100 screenings of "The Bleep" for yoga teachers and practitioners, as well as spiritual groups. He put ads for the film in publications such as Yogi Times, Whole Life Times and the Light Connection. He also enlisted employees and scores of volunteers nationwide to distribute posters, fliers and postcards touting the movie. At its height, "The Bleep" was in 200 cities and grossing between $500,000 and $600,000 a week.
But even before Raatz came aboard, word of mouth about "The Bleep" had begun to percolate, mostly because of the efforts of one of the film's three producers.
William Arntz, an Internet millionaire who ponied up the film's $5 million budget, had studied at Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, where JZ Knight, a middle-aged woman who claims to channel Ramtha, the Atlantis spirit, teaches ("The Bleep's" other producers also studied at the school). Arntz persuaded a theater in Yelm, Wash., where the school is located, to show the film, knowing that the ideas floated in the movie would find a sympathetic audience.
Next, he persuaded the management at the Baghdad Theater in Portland, Ore., where "The Bleep" was filmed, to show it on a week-by-week basis; the movie played there for an unprecedented 19 weeks.
At that point, Samuel Goldwyn Co., seeing a New Age cult hit, picked up the film for distribution, Arntz hired the Visioneers, and a phenomenon was born.
But not without controversy. Several viewers have felt hoodwinked that the identities and affiliations of "The Bleep's" "experts" are revealed only at the end of the movie. Several scientists have piped up to say that the filmmakers mangle quantum mechanics into an unrecognizable mishmash, and at least one of the film's on-screen sources, Columbia University philosophy professor David Albert, has distanced himself from the film, accusing the filmmakers of distorting his views. Meanwhile, the DVD of "The Bleep" continues to do brisk business, not to mention the T-shirts, hats and "Dr. Emoto Water Crystal" merchandise for sale on the "Bleep" Web site. The Post's Style section never did run a review of the film because this critic found it too stylistically lame and intellectually dotty to pass serious muster. But what the bleep do I know?
By Ann Hornaday
Washington Post Staff WriterSunday, March 20, 2005; Page N03
Not bad for a movie you've probably never heard of. Or maybe you have: "The Bleep," as it's affectionately called among partisans, used the same kind of viral, grass-roots marketing that made such unlikely hits of "The Blair Witch Project," "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "The Passion of the Christ." Indeed, "The Bleep" may fairly be described as sort of a secular-humanist version of "The Passion," making the case as it does for a science-based, nonsectarian understanding of spirituality.
Of course, some viewers see "The Bleep" as more akin to the anti-Bush polemics of "Fahrenheit" -- New Age propaganda pure and simple. And then there are those few skeptics who see in "Bleep" a hoax of "Blair Witch" proportions, their radar set off by the film's heavy reliance on a woman who claims to channel the voice of a 35,000-year-old spirit from Atlantis.
One thing's for certain: "The Bleep" is a certified phenomenon, all the more unlikely for being a part-fiction, part-nonfiction film that combines live action, animation, fantasy and realism to propound the theory that we create our own realities through the miracles of quantum mechanics and metaphysics. Marlee Matlin stars as an unhappy wedding photographer who embarks on a cosmic quest for meaning, her character's picaresque tale weaving in and out of talking-head interviews with scientists, physicians and philosophers. Although "The Bleep" received mixed-to-poor reviews (The Post's Michael O'Sullivan wrote that "it feels like a PBS special hosted by a series of low-rent Deepak Chopras and an infomercial for self-help audiotapes"), the film doggedly hung on at theaters while better films -- with bigger budgets and marketing efforts -- faded away.
Much of the credit for that success can be taken by John Raatz, whose Los Angeles-based public relations company, the Visioneering Group, masterminded "The Bleep's" marketing. Raatz, whose Web site describes the company as "a public relations firm linking spirit, vision and values with communication to promote a positive future," set up more than 100 screenings of "The Bleep" for yoga teachers and practitioners, as well as spiritual groups. He put ads for the film in publications such as Yogi Times, Whole Life Times and the Light Connection. He also enlisted employees and scores of volunteers nationwide to distribute posters, fliers and postcards touting the movie. At its height, "The Bleep" was in 200 cities and grossing between $500,000 and $600,000 a week.
But even before Raatz came aboard, word of mouth about "The Bleep" had begun to percolate, mostly because of the efforts of one of the film's three producers.
William Arntz, an Internet millionaire who ponied up the film's $5 million budget, had studied at Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, where JZ Knight, a middle-aged woman who claims to channel Ramtha, the Atlantis spirit, teaches ("The Bleep's" other producers also studied at the school). Arntz persuaded a theater in Yelm, Wash., where the school is located, to show the film, knowing that the ideas floated in the movie would find a sympathetic audience.
Next, he persuaded the management at the Baghdad Theater in Portland, Ore., where "The Bleep" was filmed, to show it on a week-by-week basis; the movie played there for an unprecedented 19 weeks.
At that point, Samuel Goldwyn Co., seeing a New Age cult hit, picked up the film for distribution, Arntz hired the Visioneers, and a phenomenon was born.
But not without controversy. Several viewers have felt hoodwinked that the identities and affiliations of "The Bleep's" "experts" are revealed only at the end of the movie. Several scientists have piped up to say that the filmmakers mangle quantum mechanics into an unrecognizable mishmash, and at least one of the film's on-screen sources, Columbia University philosophy professor David Albert, has distanced himself from the film, accusing the filmmakers of distorting his views. Meanwhile, the DVD of "The Bleep" continues to do brisk business, not to mention the T-shirts, hats and "Dr. Emoto Water Crystal" merchandise for sale on the "Bleep" Web site. The Post's Style section never did run a review of the film because this critic found it too stylistically lame and intellectually dotty to pass serious muster. But what the bleep do I know?
By Ann Hornaday
Washington Post Staff WriterSunday, March 20, 2005; Page N03
