American Mystic
Docs in Focus: All Films • 1h 21m
Alex Mar • USA• 2010 • Three young Americans have chosen the fringes of alternative religion
Chuck lives in the South Dakota badlands. While he and his wife struggle to make ends meet, they find meaning in their Lakota Sioux heritage, making great effort to preserve their rituals, such as sundancing. In Northern California, Morpheus, a pagan priestess, cultivates a spiritual sanctuary; in the former revivalist district of Upstate New York, Kublai plies his trade as a Spiritualist medium. Among the dusky landscapes of rural America, these three individuals embrace distinct ways of life outside of mainstream society, immersed in alternative faiths.
A triptych portrait of modern American fringe-dwellers, American Mystic is imbued with a lyrical, separatist spirit. Alex Mar's first documentary premiered at Tribeca, San Francisco Docfest and Albuquerque.
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