LEON | Indiegogo

This past December I highlighted a piece about Nicky Crane. For those of us in the US Nicky is a bit obscure, in the 80s Nicky was a far-right Neo-Nazi with a very dangerous secret. At the time of his death in 1993 from AIDS his "secret" was out.

In a July 27, 1992 Channel 4 documentary, Nicky Crane admitted to what had only been hinted at and ignored:

He told the interviewer how he'd known he was gay back in his early BM days. He described how his worship of Hitler had given way to unease about the far right's homophobia.

He had started to feel like a hypocrite because the Nazi movement was so anti-gay, he said. "So I just, like, couldn't stay in it." Crane said he was "ashamed" of his political past and insisted he had changed.

"The views I've got now is, I believe in individualism and I don't care if anyone's black, Jewish or anything," he added. "I either like or dislike a person as an individual, not what their colour is or anything."

The revelation attracted considerable press attention. The Sun ran a story with the headline "NAZI NICK IS A PANZI". Below it described the "Weird secret he kept from gay-bashers".

Crane reiterated that he had abandoned Nazi ideology. "It is all in the past," he told the paper. "I've made a dramatic change in my life."

So why I am returning to Nicky Crane's story?

It has come to my attention that there is a film in the works based largely on Crane's life and the culture or sub-culture he was involved in for most of his short life. It is an important story even for those of us living in the US as we have seen the re-emergence of Neo-Nazi like thought and in some cases calls-for-action masked behind cries of religious liberty.

LEON | Indiegogo

The Cultural Impact of ‘The Exorcist’ - The Film Stage

I am not much of a movie person and definitely not a horror flick type.  Hell I had nightmares for 6 weeks after Jaws, I can just imagine what my bipolar brain would have done with this back in the day.  But an interesting mini-doc for those so inclined.

To take us back over 40 years ago to examine the craze surrounding the film we have a 20-minute documentary from a Westwood, California broadcast. Featuring interviews with theater employees and audience members, they discuss the dozen or so spells of fainting and throwing up during every showing at the theater. Some of the best interviews are with cinemagoers who have left mid-screening and can’t compose themselves; if only more studio films were daring enough to have that raw power today.

The Cultural Impact of ‘The Exorcist’ - The Film Stage


 

NYPD Cop-Turned-Demonologist on Why He Believes Possessions Are on the Rise — and the Most Terrifying Thing He’s Seen During an Exorcism | Video | TheBlaze.com

First "The Conjuring," now "Deliver Us From Evil" based on the accounts of a former NYPD sergeant, Ralph Sarchie. Sarchie also happens to be a protege of Ed and Lorraine Warren and the author of a 2001 book “Beware the Night.”

Despite always believing in the existence of good, evil and God, ex-New York Police Department sergeant Ralph Sarchie didn’t consider himself a particularly religious guy — that is, until he began battling what he says are dangerous, supernatural forces.

Sarchie, a self-described demonologist who was once a cop for the 46th police precinct in New York City — and the inspiration for the new Hollywood film “Deliver Us From Evil” — told TheBlaze that he believes possessions and infestations are on the rise.

“It’s definitely on the rise. I hate to say it,” Sarchie said in an interview. “As society pushes God out, no one can deny that that’s happening. There’s a good portion of society that just cannot stomach Jesus Christ and when I see that, I have to wonder where that hatred comes from.”

Of the many exorcisms he has participated in and assisted with, Sarchie — who became an independent part-time paranormal investigator while working with the NYPD — said the most terrifying thing he has seen occurred when he placed a crucifix next to a supposedly possessed individual’s head.

“We had a couple of relics in the church that day and mine was on the right side of this person’s head near the ear area … I usually stand in front,” he said. “I could see the eyes — that one eye looking over at the crucifix, but not turning the head. The head was like a statue … the eyes were going back and forth and that was a frightening thing to see.”

Sarchie described the person as looking like a trapped animal who was scared but still very much a volatile predator attempting an escape.

“I’ve been a cop for a long time. I dealt with a lot of emotionally disturbed persons [and] I’ve arrested some pretty bad people and I have never, never in my life in the street seen anything like that,” he said. “A murderer’s look from a person is nothing like a person who is under possession…

My thoughts on the matter, I will borrow from Adam Lee.  Lee, in writing for Alternet concerning the black mass controversy at Harvard, sums up quite well why I am so adamant against self-professed demon guru's.  I have experienced the damage that can be caused first hand.

We may laugh at stories like this, but we shouldn’t forget that that this belief has real and serious consequences. Demonic possession and exorcism aren’t quaint superstitions of a bygone era; they’re alive and active in the world today, causing immense harm,,,. 

In the name of fighting off demons, mentally ill people have been falsely imprisoned and subjected to torturous exorcisms instead of getting the medical care they need, and children have been tortured, abused and even killed, sometimes by their own parents. In the name of fighting absolute evil, church authorities have granted themselves the right to seize absolute power, and in the process, trampled on the lives and liberty of others. The inquisitors, witch hunters and exorcists may claim they’re working for good, but the fact remains: Fear of demons does far more harm than worship of demons ever did.

NYPD Cop-Turned-Demonologist on Why He Believes Possessions Are on the Rise — and the Most Terrifying Thing He’s Seen During an Exorcism | Video | TheBlaze.com

Upcoming Christian Film to ‘Cause a Stir’ in Creation/Evolution Debate | Christian News Network

The subject matter of A Matter of Faith, Christiano told Christian News Network, is the evolution versus creation debate.

“Evolution is basically taught in our schools and universities across this great land of ours as a matter of fact,” Christiano said. “Yet nobody can prove evolution, because nobody was there at the beginning—just as no person can prove creation, since nobody was there at the beginning. Both of these then become a matter of faith, not fact.”

The film’s plot centers around a Christian girl who is influenced during her first year of college by an evolutionist Biology professor. When the student’s father notices his daughter drifting from the faith, he decides to do something about it and agrees to publicly challenge the professor in a debate.

Christiano told Christian News Network that A Matter of Faith will likely spark widespread discussion on the creation/evolution debate once the film is released in theaters September 26.

“I think this movie can be an excellent discussion starter,” he stated. “I think it’s a very strong movie to show to a non-believer.”


The crux of the evolution/creation debate, Christiano said, ultimately comes down to a simple question: “Who are you putting your faith in? Darwin? Or God?” Christiano hopes the message of the film will resonate with Christians across the country.

Upcoming Christian Film to ‘Cause a Stir’ in Creation/Evolution Debate | Christian News Network

Ms. Cleo Comes To Hot Docs: 'I'm As Gay As a Two Dollar Bill'|/Bent

Famed phone psychic Ms. Cleo is among the many subjects of Tony Shaff's new documentary "Hotline," which just had its world premiere at Hot Docs in Toronto this week. The film is a thoughtful and eye-opening look at the extensive world of phone hotlines -- from sex to suicide prevention to Ms. Cleo herself -- that expresses the importance of human-to-human interaction.

Cleo gives the film some considerably heartfelt energy as she talks about what being a phone psychic meant to her, and how hurt she was when many people pointed fingers at her when the company she worked for -- the Psychic Readers Network (a company she was often at odds with) -- was sued for deceptive advertising, billing and collection practices. Her name was cleared legally, but she never felt like people came around to believe that she was innocent (though if they see "Hotline," it would become hard to believe otherwise).

She was just as heartfelt -- and incredibly charming -- in person, when she sat down with me at Hot Docs to talk about her big screen debut.

"What I want people to take away from the film is that I'm hoping that we don't forget how to do this," she said, pointing back and forth between us. "That we get so comfortable with all this (points to my iPhone) that we forget. Because evolution is constant. I mean, certain banking institutions in America charge you to talk to a live person. You understand me? What is that? I have to pay $5 to talk to a teller!? Where are we going with all that. And if we don't stay connected now, I got to tell you -- I'm not idealistic about tomorrow. I worry about the children. And I worry about our ability to convey what we are feeling effectively. It's becoming a lost art."


Ms. Cleo Comes To Hot Docs: 'I'm As Gay As a Two Dollar Bill'|/Bent

See also:  
Miss Cleo on Her Allegedly Fake Patois and Getting Ripped Off By the Psychic Readers Network

Movie Review: Frankie & Alice | World of Psychology

It’s been 57 years since The Three Faces of Eve premiered in move theaters. One of the first cinematic portrayals of serious mental illness, the movie starred Joanne Woodward. She would end up winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance portraying three different personalities in one individual in the film.

Enter Halle Berry and her performance in Frankie and Alice. Although first released to very limited audience in 2010, it garnered Berry a Golden Globe nomination in 2011 for her lead role in the film. In it, she portrays Frankie, a go-go dancer in the 1970s who experiences blackouts she can’t explain.

Finally released more generally this past week, it’s an interesting and engaging addition to the film category of movies portraying multiple personalities.

This film is inspired by the true story of an African American go-go dancer named Frankie, who just happens to also have multiple personalities — what we now call dissociative identity disorder (DID). She has three personalities: Frankie, a strong, intelligent go-go dancer trying to make her way in the world. Genius, a seven-year-old little girl who has a genius IQ. And Alice, a Southern racist woman — who also just happens to be white too.

Movie Review: Frankie & Alice | World of Psychology

“The Last of the Unjust”: A new look at Eichmann, more evil than banal - Salon.com

Lanzmann found Murmelstein living in Rome in 1975, where he cuts the figure of a sprightly, dapper continental gentleman with an impeccable Italian wardrobe, a bountiful intellect and a sardonic wit. (Although this footage was shot nearly 40 years ago, he seems a strikingly contemporary figure.) He had stayed away from America and Israel, the focal points of postwar Jewish emigration, and for good reason. To many people in the Jewish world, his name became identified with the way some leaders of Europe’s Jewish community had capitulated to Nazi domination and collaborated with a campaign of mass extermination. Gershom Scholem, the German-born Jewish philosopher and historian, suggested at one point that Murmelstein should be hanged as a traitor.

[,,,]
Murmelstein was a powerful and well-connected figure in the Jewish world; he could easily have emigrated to England as late as 1939. Indeed, he almost did: He accompanied a fellow rabbi to London shortly before the war started, and then returned to Vienna on a nearly empty commercial flight. He could have refused to work with Eichmann and other Nazi commanders, and accepted the alternative: a bullet in the back of the head, or a one-way rail journey to “the East.” (Murmelstein says, by the way, that he didn’t learn the precise nature of what happened to deported Jews in Eastern Europe until 1945, although he knew that none of them ever came back.) Instead, he stayed behind, risking his own life every day in tense diplomatic encounters with murderers and psychopaths. He admits that he relished power and followed a strong drive for self-preservation — largely so that someone would be alive to tell the story. Many people died in Theresienstadt, but nowhere near as many as did in Lodz or Warsaw or Vilnius or the other Jewish ghettoes wiped out by the Germans before the war’s end. They dithered over the place and then they left, and when the Red Army finally arrived in the spring of 1945, Murmelstein and most of the town’s Jewish residents were still there.

“The Last of the Unjust”: A new look at Eichmann, more evil than banal - Salon.com

Noah Movie Test Screenings Reveal Christian Audiences were Frustrated with 'Darkness' of Russell Crowe's Portrayal : Movies : breathecast

Preliminary screenings of Darren Aronofsky's "Noah" has shown that Christians were not entirely happy with the "Black Swan" director's portrayal of the well known Genesis character.

After "Noah" superseded its initial $125 million budget and became the costliest movie that Aronofsky had ever made, Paramount Pictures forced the director to show different versions of the uncompleted film to test audiences last year after the Noah film exceeded its $125 million budget.

"I was upset - of course," said Aronofsky to The Hollywood Reporter. "No one's ever done that to me."

According to THR, some of Christian audience inquired about the film's devotion to the Biblical story and reacted disapprovingly to the intensity and gloominess of the lead character after he got drunk and thought about taking extreme measures to eliminate humanity from the planet.

Noah Movie Test Screenings Reveal Christian Audiences were Frustrated with 'Darkness' of Russell Crowe's Portrayal : Movies : breathecast