EPISODE 11 : The Ouija Board, from the seance to the toy store

And we’re back with the fascinating Mitch Horowitz (See Occult NYC Parts 1 and 2) and the incredible history of The Ouija Board. Learn about its early roots as a sort of ‘telegraph’ to the other side – to its evolution into the board game to outsell Monopoly. Get a haunting glimpse into some of the celbrities who used the board and learn about its ominous warning to poet Syliva Plath. Its more than just a toy and a Morrissey song (On le met en relation avec le Museum of Talking Boards: An Online Museum of Ouija Boards).

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The Midnight Archive is a new web series which aims to document the exotic, the strange, the eccentric and the truly unique. Often dark and always on the fringe, the series puts an honest look into some of the most fascinating people, places and artifacts that many people are wildly unfamiliar with. From a woman who mummifies pets to the largest collection of automata, the idea is for the subject matter to tell its own story and give the viewer just a taste of something ‘unusual’. No dramatic stings, no editorial drama – just the facts.

The series’ creator was inspired by an institution in his hometown called The Brooklyn Observatory. In 2010 he was asked to lecture there on his collection of mid-19th century 3D Demonic Stereo-Tissues and was amazed at both the variety and the number of people that came to the event. Talking to Joanna Ebenstein – one of the proprietors of the space and creator of the Morbid Anatomy Library, it seemed that there was a growing interest in the esoteric. So after much back and forth – they decide to undertake filming short pieces using the Observatory as their home-base …

themidnightarchive.com

The Stone Tape
Written by Nigel Kneale & directed by Peter Sasdy, UK, Original airing on BBC Two 25 December 1972, 90 min

A research team from an electronics company move into an old Victorian house to start work on finding a new recording medium. When team member Jill Greeley witnesses a ghost, team director Peter Brock decides not only to analyse the apparition, which he believes is a psychic impression trapped in a stone wall (dubbed a « stone tape »), but to exorcise it too – with terrifying results.

J’irai comme un cheval fou
Fernando Arrabal , France, 1973, 100 min

Poursuivi par la police pour le meurtre de sa mère, Aden se réfugie dans le désert où il rencontre Marvel, un homme étrange, aux mœurs érémitiques, qui communique mystérieusement avec la Terre et ses créatures. Aden l’invite à découvrir « la civilisation ». La grande cité où ils arrivent vit de leurres, de futilités et de perversions, c’est un lieu sans âme où l’Homme est seul, le contraire du désert de Marvel – WIKI

… ‘tout le monde a peur, depuis toujours’

Croire
Lina B. Moreco, Canada, 1998, 52 min

Utilisant la métaphore du pèlerinage initiatique de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle, en Espagne, ce long métrage documentaire nous fait rencontrer des individus aux parcours variés et alimente la réflexion sur la quête de spiritualité, les raisons de croire ou de ne pas croire et les choix qui se posent à la conscience.

L’éclipse du sacré
Nicola Zavaglia, Canada, 1998, 52 min

Devant la chute spectaculaire du nombre des fidèles et des nouvelles vocations partout en Occident, la religion catholique fait aujourd’hui face à une crise sans précédent. S’appuyant sur des images d’une beauté saisissante tournées à Rome, en Calabre et au Québec, ce documentaire dresse le portrait objectif d’une religion en questionnement. Deux mille ans après Jésus-Christ, le culte catholique peut-il espérer redevenir florissant?