Audience hypnosis at a film festival

Theater News Base: The Gothenburg Film Festival in Sweden, which has already had some weird experiences such as showing a film to an audience by trapping them in a coffin or a solo show for one person at a lighthouse for 7 days, has announced a new era. He intends to mass-hypnotize viewers for special screening films.

In the special screening of the three films “Memory” made by “Apichatpong Virastakol”, “Land of Dreams” by Shirin Neshat and the psychological drama “Do Not Talk to the Devil” directed by “Christine Tofdrop”, a hypnotist will hypnotize the audience and the situation The mind will change them based on the atmosphere and the theme of the film, but the audience will leave the hypnosis after the end of the film.

The purpose of the experience is to raise questions about obedience, defiance and control, questions that are more relevant to last year’s rules and restrictions imposed during the coronavirus epidemic, according to Jonas Holmberg, artistic director of the Gothenburg Festival. “Watching a movie in a cinema can be extremely hypnotic,” Holmberg said, noting the similarities between hypnosis and the experience of drowning in a movie in a dark cinema. At home and with a tablet, it is much more difficult to maintain the focus needed to actually capture a movie. “Cinema hypnosis is a tribute as well as an extension of the movie viewing experience in the cinema.”

The Gutenberg Film Festival is known for creating bizarre social experiences. Last year, one of the festival’s audiences was invited to watch the festival’s films on a remote lighthouse for seven days. In 2019, the audience watched the film in coffins designed for this purpose.

This year’s film event will be held in person from January 28 to February 6 (February 8 to 17), when the Sundance Film Festival in January was canceled due to the Corona epidemic, and the two film festivals Slammodens and Rotterdam in January. They are also held in absentia.