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The Secret Life of Mushrooms now available for instant download!

kat@katwerk.com (Kathleen Fitzgerald) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 14:40:00 +0000

Amazon On Demand is now offering instant downloads of The Secret Life of Mushrooms at http://amzn.to/HNyWv2.

Please check it out and give us a review on their site!

The Secret Life of Mushrooms on DVD!!!

kat@katwerk.com (Kathleen Fitzgerald) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:36:00 +0000

In January of 2010, Dan Glass, Alex de Campi and I went to Huautla de Jimenez to interview people about Mazatec healing rituals involving psychedelic mushrooms. We only had one contact in town, and four days to shoot. None of us were fluent in Spanish.

It was challenging to come in to that situation as an outsider, and attempt to gain enough trust for people to share their feelings about an extremely personal spiritual matter, when mushrooms are what brought swarms of other outsiders to the area for the last fifty years. We were lucky enough to encounter an extraordinary number of people who were kind enough to help us out, inviting us into their homes, introducing us to other people in town, acting as translators, and ultimately becoming our friends.

It’s been a long and difficult road to make a fair and balanced film about how the history of half a century of drug tourism in a town has changed it. And with a three person shooting team, and a two person post team, and a one person distribution team, to say we did it with a skeleton crew is kind of an understatement. But I’m pretty happy with the result, and what is more important to me, my friends in Huautla seem to be happy with it, too.

So thank you to everybody that helped make this happen. Please spread the word to anybody that might be interested in the film.

The Secret Life of Mushrooms is now available on DVD at Createspace:

https://www.createspace.com/331621

Direct downloads will be available at the same url in the next week or two.

More information about the film is available at www.secretlifeof.com

Review for The Secret Life of Mushrooms on Erowid.org

kat@katwerk.com (Kathleen Fitzgerald) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:07:00 +0000

Our first review, from the good folks at erowid.org

Dan Glass, as the voice and face of the documentary, is a sympathetic character, obviously interested in the topic and funny without seeming condescending. Overall, the editing is tight, the color is great, and the sound is good enough that the interviewees are all easy to understand, though the sound is somewhat below the standards of the high-end documentaries. The film is blessed with good footage of the town, the hills, and the plants of the area, showing off some of the damp wetness that lands on the hillside from the clouds that blow through the mountaintops. I had hoped to see some footage of the amazing single-donkey-width agricultural terracing from around Huautla, but even without it, The Secret Life of Mushrooms succeeds in giving a good sense of the beautiful landscape.

The complete review at erowid.org

Is the Zealotry of Enlightenment Crippling the Credibility of Drug Policy Reform?

kat@katwerk.com (Kathleen Fitzgerald) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:04:00 +0000

I wrote a little missive on evolver.net, going in to some of my frustrations with the perception of drug culture I've encountered while trying to talk to people about the film.

The post on Evolver.net

Maker’s Diary: Sparky’s Wheel of Tesla

kat@katwerk.com (Kathleen Fitzgerald) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:29:00 +0000

Our pal Dan Glass interviews us about last year's sculpture on Governor's Island, Sparky's Wheel of Tesla!

Maker’s Diary: Sparky’s Wheel of Tesla

The Secret Life of Mushrooms is complete!

kat@katwerk.com (Kathleen Fitzgerald) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 20:04:00 +0000

We've sent off our festival submissions, and will be having a small preview screening this weekend for people who worked on the film. While we wait to find out where our official premiere will be, please spread the word, and enjoy our updated trailer for the film.

Fundraising for The Secret Life of Mushrooms

kat@katwerk.com (Kathleen Fitzgerald) — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:45:00 +0000

Screening at the Re/Mixed Media Festival

kat@katwerk.com (Kathleen Fitzgerald) — Mon, 03 May 2010 19:57:00 +0000

A video I made, Cyd's A Golddigger, will be screening at Galapagos Sunday, May 30, in the 2:45pm program, as part of the Re/Mixed Media Festival. Lots of great people are participating, including our pals from Hobotech. Go check it out!

Re/Mixed Media Festival
Sunday, May 30th 2010; 2 PM
Galapagos Art Space, 16 Main Street DUMBO, Brooklyn FREE!

Mushroom Hunting and Finishing Funds

kat@katwerk.com (Kathleen Fitzgerald) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:13:00 +0000

An excerpt from the current cut of The Secret Life of Mushrooms, where Dan and Job go mushroom hunting on their way to the top of Chikon Tokoxo, the Holy Mountain.

Also, please check out our page on IndieGoGo, where we are trying to raise the last round of money to finish up the film.

Even a couple bucks helps.

Secret Life Of... El Chato

kat@katwerk.com (Kathleen Fitzgerald) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:33:00 +0000

Outtake from The Secret Life of Mushrooms. Job tells Dan about El Chato

The Secret Life Of...

kat@katwerk.com (Kathleen Fitzgerald) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:40:00 +0000

I recently returned from Mexico, where I was with a small crew, shooting the pilot episode of a documentary series entitled "The Secret Life Of..." The show is hosted by Dan Glass, and each episode focuses on the lesser known stories behind different psychoactives in cities around the world.

For the pilot, we went to Huautla de Jimenez, Mexico, to talk to local Mazatec people about the use of psilocybin mushrooms in healing ceremonies in the area.

Huautla was made famous in the late 50's after R. Gordon Wasson published his documentation of a ceremony in Life magazine, resulting in a hippie invasion to the remote mountain town that lasted over a decade. Today, mushrooms are still commonly used for healing, and have become a very public symbol of Huautla's pride in their culture.

Our episode features interviews with anthropologist and author of "The Devil's Book of Culture," Ben Feinberg, local curandera Ines Cortes Rodriguez, Mazatec ritual specialist Edward Abse, and a wide variety of local historians, musicians, and business owners.

I've posted a trailer, and expect to have a cut of the show by mid February.

Current Reel

kat@katwerk.com (Kathleen Fitzgerald) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:42:00 +0000