Gambling, Gods and LSD
| Gambling, Gods and LSD | |
|---|---|
2002 film poster
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| Directed by | Peter Mettler |
| Produced by | Peter Mettler, Atom Egoyan, Ingrid Veninger, Andreas Züst, Alexandra Gill, Cornelia Seitler |
| Written by | Peter Mettler |
| Starring | John Paul Young, Albert Hofmann |
| Music by | Peter Bräker, Fred Frith, Henryk Górecki, Jim O'Rourke |
| Cinematography | Peter Mettler |
| Edited by | Peter Mettler, Roland Schlimme |
| Distributed by |
Odeon Films (Canada) Columbus Film AG (Switzerland) |
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Release date
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April 2002 |
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Running time
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180 min. |
| Country | Canada/Switzerland |
| Language | English/Swiss-German (English subtitles) |
| Gambling, Gods and LSD | |
|---|---|
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| Soundtrack album by Various artists | |
| Released | 2003 |
| Genre | |
| Length | 61:08 |
| Label | Maximage (Switzerland) |
| Producer | Peter Mettler |
Gambling, Gods and LSD is a 2002 Canadian/Swiss experimental documentary film by Canadian film director Peter Mettler. It was shot between 1997 and 1999 in Canada, the United States, Switzerland and India, and is a "fragmented narrative" that shows what people do to discover themselves and find happiness.
The film was screened at film festivals in a number of countries across the world, including Canada, Switzerland, the United States, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, Australia and South Africa. It won several awards, including the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television's 2003 Genie Award for "Best Documentary".
Gambling, Gods and LSD is a "travel diary" that loosely documents director Peter Mettler's "introspective journey" through four countries: Canada, the United States, Switzerland and India. The film consists of four segments, each showing what people do to discover themselves and find happiness.
The first segment takes place in Mettler's hometown of Toronto where he interviews John Paul Young about finding God. Mettler also visits the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship Church who chant, dance and roll on the floor of an airport hangar where they believe Jesus once visited. In the next segment petroglyphs and snakes are observed in Monument Valley in Southwestern United States, and time is spent in Las Vegas, where gamblers are scrutinized at their slot machines and poker tables. Here Mettler also interviews a sex toy salesman who promises clients a "non-chemical induced illusion of their fantasy" with his orgasmatron (sex chair) and other devices.
In the third segment, Mettler interviews the Swiss scientist who discovered LSD, Albert Hofmann, who bemoans the fact that Timothy Leary's "flamboyant ... overly simplifi[cation]" of the drug made doing serious research on it "impossible". Hofmann also explains his theory of "horizontal genetics" which suggests that human individuality does not exist. In Zurich Mettler interviews a couple addicted to heroin, visits "poodle racers" and a techno rave. The last segment is filmed in Bombay (now Mumbai), and in Hampi, former capital of the ancient Vijayanagara Empire in Southern India. The scenes here include following a pilgrimage ceremony that culminates in darśana ("looking at a deity"), and a visit to the Bombay Laughing Club where members find solace in laughing and making faces at one another.
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Wikipedia