The Institute

Is the world we see around us reality or is it a series of layered perceptions? Who really runs the show and what is it all about. In The Institute, the viewer is taken as a few chosen ones are taken on a riddled filled adventure full of twist and turns. They are lead on a wild goose chase and their perceptions changed as the secrets of a whole unseen underworld is presented in front of them. This fictional narrative blends in true settings to where the lines between fiction and reality blur. The journey takes you in and out all type of locations, a busy street, a serene park, and the final resting place for some bookish type. The end is at a bringing together of these adventurous souls. I saw this film as part of the Atlanta Film Festival

Like a lot of people, I watched this after the terrific tv series dispatches from elsewhere.

This is presumably a documentary about the real-life alternate reality game that inspired the series. And at first, it's pretty interesting, as it interviews participants and creators.

When I read user reviews, they would complain it wasn't a real documentary, and at first I thought they were being too demanding. I thought, maybe it's fudging things a bit, since it's made by people involved in teh ARG, but it still seemed reasonable.

But as it goes along, this blurring of the real and the illusion, while true, I suppose, to the spirit of the ARG, means that this fails as a documentary because you don't feel you've really learned much. But it also fails as fiction, because much of it is incredibly boring.

Ultimately, this is just a really self-indulgent film that fails on multiple levels. Which is a shame, because I think something interesting could have been made out of the experience. But then, I guess that's what dispatches from elsewhere was - the interesting thing they finally got out of the event.

Prepare to dive into an interactive new form of art. The creators describes it as an "urban playground movement" or "alternate reality game". It's essentially a mix of art, video, and elaborate clues that lead curious citizens of San Fransisco to explore their city all the while immersing themselves into a bizarre story.

It's all created by Jeff Hull who's main theme is on seeing things in a nonchalant way. By nonchalance, it's described as a cartoon where the unconscious character goes around a city and seemingly avoids dangerous situations through extraordinary luck; a way of exploring using your unconscious mind. The goal is to go elsewhere, to go somewhere between here and there. Basically a place you may or may not have gone before and enter a storybook world of imagination that exists hidden in the world around us.

It sounds crazy typing it out and reading it back to myself, so no doubt it must sound absurd to you the reader. Nevertheless, the movie gave me a sense of awe and joy as I followed each participant down the rabbit hole, all the while, surrounded by these all immersing elaborate clues that create this tension between reality and fiction. Watching how each participant was effected by these clues and how it changed them is what makes this a great film. This movie and the artist transformed the ordinary world into a place full of potential and mystery. And isn't that what makes art, isn't that what makes a movie a magical experience. And as such, I humbly recommend you watch this film and take a glimpse into the elsewhere.

An seemingly normal office building in San Francisco held a secret; a strange office for something called The Jejune Institute.

At first glance, The Jejune Institute appears to be a cult. But some of their claims seemed outlandish even by cult standards -- a machine that records your memories to a VHS tape? A method for talking to dolphins? Huh? Those looking for a strange adventure would visit The Jejune Institute, only to be presented with a trippy presentation, a scavenger hunt, etc.

Let me assure you that this film does document many real events. Yes, people really did visit a payphone and dance. Yes, there really was a protest at Union Square. Yes, the Jejune Institute was a real place in a real office building.

I can tell you all of this for certain because I participated in The Jejune Institute and the so-called "Games of Nonchalance" that are documented in this film. I suppose I can't review a film fairly as someone who is documented in it, even if only in the background. But the film is not the game.

Ultimately, with The Institute there's a moment during the film where you star to question whether what you're seeing is real, is part of the game, or is fictionalized for the purpose of the film. I'm sure that moment will be different for everyone.

Even as someone who played Games of Nonchalance in its entirety, I'm not sure I can decipher fact from fiction with 100% accuracy. Watching The Institute for the first time felt a lot like watching Exit Through The Gift Shop, where it's unclear how much of what the camera is feeding you is true and how much the director is winking and smiling.

There's no question in my mind that this was the right decision for telling the story of the Games of Nonchalance. An alternate reality game messes with your head; for a film to capture such a game, it must do the same.

The documentary that inspired DISPATCHES FROM ELSEWHERE, is a bit of a trip itself where the lines of reality and fantasy blurred for the participants of an alternative reality game. I give this documentary a 7 (thought provoking) out of 10. {Documentary}