7th House's Animation Freakout Hangout is excited to welcome Whammy! Analog, LA's fantastic VHS-only video store and microcinema, to The Philosophical Research Society for a rare theatrical screening of what is perhaps The ultimate 90s "head film": BEYOND THE MIND'S EYE (1992)! And they'll be hooking up a VCR to present this "Vapor Wave Fantasia" on the warm n' fuzzy format on which most first experienced it — VHS!

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But that's not all! They've specially created a curated mix of some of their lesser known favorites from the direct-to-video CGI vibe tape genre, personally ripped from VHS copies that have graced their shelves. Strap in for a ride through the world of digital video psychedelia!

BEYOND THE MIND'S EYE (1992)

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"You are now entering a world inside the essence of your imagination..."

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For anyone who grew up post-Pixar renaissance, it might be hard to imagine just how mindblowing early CGI animation was to the masses. Animation has always been the medium that best illustrated artists' limitless imagination, and now there was a whole new box (...a big state-of-the-art box, replete with mouse & keyboard) of tools with which to push the boundaries of visual possibilities. Simply put, we'd never seen anything like it. Unsurprisingly, its inherent nature of uncanny, three dimensional unreality lent itself well to particularly weird and trippy experimentation – as artists showed off the technology's exciting potential.

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Recognizing this, enterprising young producer Steven Churchill (founder of photography and computer animation company Odyssey Visual Design) envisioned a series of films, made exclusively for the home video market, that would exquisitely pair cutting-edge CGI footage – sourced from demo reels, music videos, commercials, and feature films – with original scores by prominent electronic composers, creating kaleidoscopic audio/visual journeys. And so Odyssey Productions' MIND'S EYE video series was born, quickly becoming a popular fixture of on the shelves of Sharper Image, Radio Shack, and video stores alike. Of the four Mind's Eye videos released between 1990 and 1996, however, it was the second outing BEYOND THE MIND'S EYE (1992) that somehow (perhaps in nostalgic retrospect) managed to embody a particular time and a specific *viiiiiiiibe* so perfectly, due in no small part to the awesomely synthtastic score by the great Jan Hammer (of Miami Vice fame)!

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Viewed now, from the age of hyperrealistic graphics and deep fakery, BEYOND...'s then cutting-edge animation is all the more surreal and beautiful – a shiny artifact that epitomizes Silicon Valley-spawned psychedelia that, for Xennials of a certain age (or youngers with certain vaporwavey predilections) is liable to trigger the same Pavlovian nostalgia response as that Windows 95 startup sound. Join us as we chug the cosmic Crystal Pepsi for the ultimate trip through time, journey past the outskirts of imagination, and (to paraphrase the film's CG emcee)"Look within our dreams...they can take us BEYOND THE MIND'S EYE!"

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(Synopsis by 7th House)

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THIS SCREENING IS TAKING PLACE OFF-SITE AT THE PHILOSOPHICAL RESEARCH SOCIETY!

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SUN 4/20
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3910 Los Feliz Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90027

6:30PM - 8:00PM

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Presented as part of THE ANIMATION FREAKOUT HANGOUT at PRS – featuring hand plucked programs by some of LA's raddest cultural curators, including EXP TV, Animation Breakdown, Whammy! Analog, and Cathode Cinema! Going from 3pm to 9:30, come for one program or get a pass for discounted admission to all 4!

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MIND'S EYE tickets

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Festival Pass