We are not seeking followers. We are seeking collaborators.
A MESSAGE FROM THE TEMPLE is the first authorized documentary about Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth, told through the eyes of its members, collaborators, and persecutors via contemporary interviews, personal archives, and historical accounts from the mainstream media.
Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth (TOPY) was an “anti-cult” formed in the 1980s by a group of UK artists. Conceived in the aftermath of the punk and industrial countercultures, TOPY drew on the tenets of provocation, transgression, and the DIY ethos to form an internationally reaching network bound together by an esoteric sensibility.
By hurdling past the outer limits of propriety, the group aroused the moral wrath of “Satanic Panic”-era British authorities and caused the subsequent Scotland Yard raid and political exile of the group’s central figurehead, artist and provocateur Genesis Breyer P-Orridge.
A MESSAGE FROM THE TEMPLE traces TOPY’s influences and inception to its dramatic downfall and enduring legacy. Did TOPY ultimately relent to the systems of control it sought to transcend? Or was its existence an illuminating flash of the potential for the autonomy of the individual, poised to spark again? In a climate of political crisis and economic uncertainty, the ethos and urgency of TOPY’s message remains as relevant and influential today as it did during its initial inception thirty-five years ago.
In the words of Genesis Breyer P-Orridge: “We need this now, more than ever.”
On October 15 in NYC, there will be an evening of Psychic Television Transmissions and a moderated discussion among Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Tom Headbanger, Paul “Bee” Hampshire,Pieter Schoolwerth, and others, with a reception to follow, to benefit the Kickstarter campaign. Ticket presales are only available via Kickstarter.
About the crew: Director and cinematographer Jacqueline Castel’s films have screened at Sundance, SXSW, BAMcinemaFest, and festivals worldwide, and have featured collaborations with filmmakersJim Jarmusch and John Carpenter. Her archival and curatorial experience has extended to the estate of H.R. Giger, the Genesis Breyer P-Orridge archives at the Tate Britain, and screenings of the work ofDavid Lynch. Producers include Ryan Martin (Co-owner of Dais Records), Caleb Braaten (owner ofSacred Bones Records), and filmmaker Aldona Watts.
More information, including cast and crew bios, is available at the Kickstarter page:
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