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| Synopsis "This world is melting... Our liquid planet, so big - Sometimes we roll in its valleys, other times we rise in his mountains; we rest our backsides along its prairies, diving downward into her canyons. Her heart is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen. Our heads are above it, bodies below. We hold breath and join her, cradled in all knowing omnipotent force. We are the kid sounds of summer." Director, performer Johnny Rook has transformed his alias self Bryant L. Clifford's book of poetry 'The Monarch Of Evening Time' into a full length independent feature film. The story begins with the archetype poet in search of 'home'. The story is told through the looking glass of spoken word, music and dreamscape. It is a non linear approach to storytelling, that of a poet dreaming. Rook chose to play the poet in duality form, playing his poet alias Clifford on stage performing spoken word, and in dreamscape as the multiple archetypes and idols whom inhabit the poets' sleeping mind. In creating the screenplay based on Clifford's poetry Rook wanted to explore duality for both the material and for marketing. He is after-all a self proclaimed 'Archetype - Gemini'. Most of 'The Monarch Of Evening Time' was shot on a stage at the East Village Lounge through out 2007 before a live audience. Exterior dreamscape vignettes created from the author's journal have been woven within the spoken word narrative as a visual subtext, shot in the majestic setting of Big Sur, CA, where Clifford wrote most of this work. Tim Barett's gorgeous photography is the perfect compliment to Clifford's poetry, as is the original score - created by Monterey local Jimmy Moonboots. Additional music score provided by Gerald Constantine Chaviaras. Principle photography wrapped in January of 2009. A release date for the film has not yet been established. |