A distillation of the hundreds of hours Clémenti and his friends spent smoking dope, performing and drop- ping acid, this is a mythopoeic evocation of man’s spiritual awakening. Set to a soundtrack by Clearlight Symphony, the film’s hypnotic intensity is maintained through a prismatic, iris-like mandala superimposed at center screen – a constant visual referent and the locus of concentration within the frame. A psychedelic overload of images both beautiful and troubling, the film is particularly effective in the deliberate shock of its montage: Clémenti on stage spitting a tarantula out of his mouth, James Brown and Jimi Hendrix in concert, Bertolucci on the set of PARTNER seen tugging at a noose around his neck, The Living Theatre’s historic performance at the Avignon Theatre Festival in summer 1968... Michael Chaiken