"Aldous Huxley : The Gravity of Light" - Dir.: Oliver Hockenhull
"Vancouver filmmaker Oliver Hockenhull's previous two features - Determinations (1988), and Entre La Langue Et L'Ocean (1991) - were daring, dazzling, erudite, aesthetically extravagant, politically radical works of impressive thematic and stylistic accomplishment, and marked Hockenhull as one of the most uniquely ambitious filmmakers in British Columbia. Hockenhull confirms that estimation with his latest feature, an unusual documentary that is as multi-layered, mind altering, and non-traditional as its subject matter: the great English novelist, essayist, iconoclast, social prophet, and proponent of psychedelic drugs, Aldous Huxley...The fascinating, exasperating, mescaline-rush result: a Brave New Look at the author of Brave New World -- and a much needed meditative look back, as we near the end of the millennium, at one of the century's most modern thinkers."
"Endlessly fascinating. It is, in fact, a brave new work. A brave next wave.
Visually entrancing and sparklingly innovative, Aldous Huxley: The Gravity of Light, is a post-Godardian meeting of mind, fact and light. Huxley, the visionary, would've tripped out."
"Hockenhull's simultaneously thoughtful and carefully conceived approach to the subject has made for a kind of documentary I would not hesitate to compare with the works of Trinh T. Minh-ha in form and self-reflexivity and Derek Jarman in style and composition. He has clearly defined a number of forms with which he expresses Huxley's philosophy and thought, and successfully plays with - and off of - film forms, stylistics and audience expectations. Complex counterpoint and junctures in the formal aspects of the film are fused with a combination of self-reflexive dramatic elements and intelligent, innovative use of archival footage, as well as inspired moments of computer-rendered 3D animation. Hockenhull's approach to this "hybrid" form of cinema manages to aggressively question our presumptions and preconceptions around the current Zeitgeist while simultaneously exploring the knowledge and impact of one of the twentieth century's greatest minds."
"...the two most compelling indie features from our region are Canadian imports- the Vancouver, B.C. produced Aldous Huxley: the Gravity of Light (7 pm Wednesday, Nov. 6) and Cat Swallows Parakeet and Speaks! (7pm Friday November 8) ...
Taking a similar track to the one filmmaker Errol Morris used in delineating physicist Stephen Hawking's life and theories with A Brief History of Time, Oliver Hockenhull juxtaposes the life of author and social critic Aldous Huxley (Brave New World) with computer animation, archival footage and visual poetry to create essays on a prophetic visionary and the toll of unrelenting progress."
"As the next millennium approaches, Aldous Huxley's social prophecies and cultural criticisms take on a renewed resonance...a fascinating reading of Huxley's oeuvre...Hockenhull traces the parallel paths of Huxley's own life (including his experimentation with LSD and mescaline) and the movement of history in a truly iconoclastic film essay."
"Like Chomsky, Aldous Huxley is an ideal film subject-articulate, challenging, charismatic-and Hockenhull has unearthed two riveting interviews with him from the CBC and the BBC to anchor the film. Using techniques ranging from computer animation to drama, the film expands on Huxley's wide-ranging and provocative ideas. The illustrations and allusions are sometimes subtle, sometimes humorous, sometimes ominous. In the process, the film playfully works to evolve the definition of documentary, gripping the intellect of the audience and giving it a good shaking."
"Daring and deeply personal look at the British essayist/novelist/prophet...inspired."
"The filmmaker leavens tough observations with wry comedy and offbeat dissociative effects: at various points, he has modern actors play scenes from old Huxley novels, and African Canadian David Nandi Odhiambo sometimes stands in for Huxley and sometimes for Hockenhull...The interviews taken from CBC and BBC clips (thanks to the permission of the writer's widow, Laura Huxley, still active at 82) remained some of the few constants as the director fashioned different versions of the film. Ultimately, he also included footage of a humorous talk given by Huxley specialist Jean Houston.
The work received a highly negative review written by a Mr. A. Lackey of Edmonton, Alberta. Writing in the October '97 issue of an Edmonton Magazine titled On Screen Mr. Lackey describes the film as "the Glen or Glenda? of all egghead films" not knowing I guess, that to be honoured as the clown/crown of transgendered intellectual perversity is praise indeed. I would not feel that my supper was paid for, that I had performed my role of an artist with integrity, if the work did not annoy and provoke at least a few.- O.H.