Director Okay If People Walk Out During Premiere
Filmmaker Johnny Lange is hosting a trip for those who attend his debut feature, Split Personalities Alternate Dimensions, on April 1 at Facets. Besides arranging therapy for viewers who require emotional support, the Chicago-based director accepts that the crowd may diminish as the film plays.
“I’ll say to the audience, ‘if you guys don’t like the movie, that’s okay,’” says Lange. “You can leave.”
Split Personalities Alternate Dimensions is a four-part story inspired by the sensation of dreaming and a concept known as pareidolia, which is the phenomenon of perceiving faces in everyday objects. The film crosses several boundaries while exploring the grey matter surrounding those concepts. According to Lange, the individual vignettes can be described as action, thriller, horror and comedy (with a laugh track!). But, like much of his work, it’s open for interpretation.
As a filmmaker, Lange creates abstract visual symbolism that never fails to mesmerize, even when it appears not to make any sense; beauty is in the experience. A graduate of Columbia College, he began working on SPAD as a project for Group 312 Films, the Chicago-based artistic collaboration that challenges members to create monthly films based on specific themes (in this case, pareidolia).
Other factors influencing the feature seem to be 1980s music videos, David Lynchian humor and lo-fi techno grit. The results are worth the trip. Split Personalities Alternate Dimensions is not merely trying to be avant-garde. It was inspired by natural-born weirdness, and viewers will have a lot to talk about at the end.
‘Split Personalities Alternate Dimensions’ world premiere event happens April 1 from 6:30-10 pm at Facets Chicago (1517 West Fullerton Avenue). For tickets and additional information, click here.
EXCLUSIVE WITH FIILMMAKER JOHNNY LANGE
SPLIT PERSONALITIES ALTERNATE DIMENSIONS (NUMBER ONE) JOHNNY LANGE
SPLIT PERSONALITIES ALTERNATE DIMENSIONS (NUMBER TWO) BY JOHNNY LANGE
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