Dark One_Indoctrination

Dark One

2007-03-28T10:51:00.000-07:00

Dark One Featured in Hot Docs Online library launch of Canadian documentaries. The launch will have approximately 100 titles, including 40 feature-length documentaries.
Hot Docs Library here
DVD available at both.....
CreateSpace and Amazon
Video on Demand - Amazon.com
See it at .... IMDb
DarkOne Movie and Trailer Blog
Dark One Channel- Vimeo
Punk TV Part 1,Part 2
At You Tube 10 Parts

Stay tuned for Indoctrination
a 3cd spoken word/soundscape adventure and feature movie...Music by The Qube: Dan Biholar, Cockroaches, Chris Gavin, and Darryl Miller

Indoctrination-3SongRoughCut from Darryl Miller on Vimeo.

-Dark One : Feature Length Experimental Documentary, 88 minutes
Director/Producer: Darryl Miller Executive Producer: Elaine Pain
Production Company: Ice Cube Factory , Cupar, Saskatchewan

-Nominated 2007 for Best Canadian Feature Documentary at Hot Docs (the biggest North American feature documentary festival).1743 entries. 129 films were screened.
-Selected 2007 for the official program of 50th edition of the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film.DOK Leipzig is the largest German and one of the leading international festivals for artistic documentary and animated films.Out of a record 2,600 entries, only 120 animated and 190 documentary films will be screened.
Dark One- was in consideration for Canada's Top Ten 2007 by the Toronto International Film Festival Group (TIFFG). Canada's Top Ten promotes and celebrates Canadian cinema through an annual initiative whereby some of this country's leading experts in Canadian cinema (film critics, academics and industry professionals) select the best Canadian films of the year. 100 films were in consideration.
-The International Documentary Film Festival Jihlava has requested Dark One be part of the new Documentary Film Center's archive in Prague, to be studied by students at FAMU,and viewed by journalists, film professionals and the public. Jihlava discovers authorial documentary film, and follows it's traditional motto of THINKING THROUGH FILM. FAMU is one of oldest film schools in Europe.
New York Times Review Summary - Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Dan Biholar is a poet and spiritual seeker who came of age in the Western Canadian city of Regina during the late 1970's. One of Biholar's greatest creative influences was William S. Burroughs, and unfortunately Biholar absorbed his appetite for drugs as well as his distinctive literary style. In the 21st Century, Biholar is still writing, but his life has become caught up in a downward spiral of drug abuse; he's addicted to opiates, and is looked after by his aging mother, a holocaust survivor who is struggling with her own emotional issues. Despite it all, Biholar is still searching for a spiritual redemption that will free him from his thirst for drugs and allow his muse to take him to new places. Darryl Miller is a filmmaker who was close friends with Biholar when they were both teenagers, and has fought his own battle against chemical dependency; Miller revisits his old friend Biholar in the documentary Dark One, and paints a vivid portrait of a soul in crisis and an artist struggling against the bonds that hold him back (only one of which happens to be drugs). Dark One received its world premiere at Toronto's 2007 Hot Docs International Film Festival.
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/395705/Dark-One/overview
Screenings:
-World Premieres: Hot Docs International Documentary Festival
(Co-presented with The Images Festival)
-April 20th,2007 Bloor Cinema, Toronto - 11:30 PM
-April 22nd,2007 Innis Town Hall, Toronto - 8:45 PM
-Sept 13,2007 Regina Public Library - 9:00 PM
-Sept 14,2007 Regina Public Library - 7:00 PM
-Oct 31,2007 "naTo" National Front Theater - 10:15 PM DOK Leipzig
-Nov 2,2007 Filmeck Theater - 02:00 PM DOK Leipzig, Germany
-Nov 10,2008 University Of Regina-Film 250 Lecture + Screening

DARK ONE - Leipzig Summary
Dan Biholar sits at the kitchen table preparing his next 'shot' with a teaspoon and a lighter. While doing so he argues with his mother who survived the Holocaust, but still has to deal with death on a daily basis thanks to her son. In the background a parrot is dismantling a gas cooker and dropping pieces of metal noisily to the ground. A stranded family's everyday madness, that Dan uses morphine to escape from. Images merge and visions of decay and death take him on his trip to a different dimension. Dan is followed by his friend, the filmmaker Darryl Miller, who captures Dan's hallucinations and transforms the gloomy poetry of the addict into a hypnotic, visual and auditory trip that can only be created by someone who has experienced these abysses himself. Miller has been working on his disturbing film for nine years. A film that dissolves genre borders in a surreal way. In the end he succeeds in finding access to a hurt and desperate soul, threatening to burn on it's quest for spiritual salvation.
Who Is Dan Biholar?
Dan is a poet,a drug addict, searching for spiritual enlightenment, spiraling into oblivion. Many documentaries on drug addiction present one dimensional cardboard characters with no interest in anything except their next fix, stereotypically drunken, homeless, skid row bums.Any complexities in their lives as multi-faceted individuals are reduced to a safe distance from our own almost acceptable make believe middle class lives.They are the hopeless.There is no salvation.We remain safe, pure, and exempt because there can be no possible connection between us.We can judge, but not understand or participate.Dark One is NOT one of those documentaries.I met Dan over 20 years ago, in our late teens.Dan was a poet.I was a musician. We were both experimenting with drugs.My interest was LSD, MDA, Coke and whatever else I could get. Dan got into morphine and other hard core drugs.We were both on a spiritual quest.I became heavily addicted to these mind expanding drugs and started having bizarre hallucinations, seeing spirits and experimenting with telepathy.I became delusional like Dan is(at times).Six years later I sought help and went to Detox and treatment twice.The spirits went away.I directed my energy to my music and finally a film degree.I have remained a friend of both Dan and his mother Helen.In the late 90's ,I started a soundscape/poetry project incorporating Dan's words and my music.During the project.I realized that the concept could be better utilized in film. The result is the 88 minute film "Dark One", and 45 minute audio soundscape CD , also called “Dark One”.Both works feed off and augment the other and will be sold together as one package.Check out the MP3 link...Dan at a young age modeled himself after William Burroughs, and now regrets it.Dan's poetry and voice quality reflect this influence. His voice is hypnotic and often has an unearthly tone to it, like a bad dream. Not only has his poetry taken on a stream of consciousness style, but his whole life, moving from concise idea to literary roughness that is often brutally honest to a fault, and often crude and uncultured.His experiences, stories, memories constantly alter with each telling.There are however consistent themes that weave in and out and form his life and this documentary on his life. William Burroughs, poetry and artwork, the quest for spirituality, his addiction are the most obvious.However his family, friends and search for love and acceptance are also critical.His treatment, by the establishment, as represented by the police and lawyers etc.has further molded his attitudes, demonstrating the hypocrisy of those in power. As a result of an institutional tendency to hide problems, lock them away, instead of trying to help individuals or accept the true reality of living with a life situation.The prison experience has become more than personal.The legal taxation of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes versus personal use of drugs demonstrates to Dan and his mother a blatant double standard.Dan's mother, Helen, struggles with Dan's addiction lifestyle, and her own dark memories about her husband's alcoholism and her experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camp as a child.Lastly Dan's bird, a beloved member of the family, to Dan a symbol of freedom and unconditional love wanders about the kitchen, oblivious to everything but her toys and surrogate lover, a blue stuffed bunny...Dan constantly attempts to achieve freedom: from society, from drugs, and from himself.He has extreme moments of clarity and delusion.He has delusions of grandeur, thinking he can save the world, but then realizing he can't even save himself.He has been on the methadone program on and off, always getting kicked off due to abuse of the system.He has come to a belief that spirituality is his only means of redemption.Reading many controversial, religious and spiritual books, he has developed a personal and unique belief system that takes bits and pieces of different ideologies , mixing and remodeling them.Magic, demons and God co-exist in constant battle. "Dark One" explores Dan's life and enters the psychological time and space of addiction where reality is only a dream.~ Darryl Miller.

Note: According to Dan, Mihi Baitse/Baitze, Helen Biholar's father, came from Leipzig to Romania in the early 1900s. Helen was born Sept 2, 1928. Helen's life experiences were often dark and quite complicated. Dan Biholar is the main focus of this film, and although we look briefly at interactions with his family, the film only looks skims the surface of Helen's past experiences during wartime. I collected much more material, but it would have altered the flow ,direction and duration of the film. I have uploaded 54 minutes of MP3s of Helen discussing here life and experiences here
Blog http://icecubefactory.blogspot.com/

Director/Producer: Darryl Miller Bio

2007-03-28T09:51:00.000-07:00

Darryl Miller has worked as an audio post engineer and location sound recordist for the past 20 years. While working as an audio engineer in Regina Saskatchewan at Protrax, Twisted Pair and Talking Dog, he was involved in a number of feature films, Incredible Story Studio episodes, Mentors episodes and other made for television programs. Darryl has worked with his wife Elaine Pain on her last 6 films in a variety of key capacities including videographer, editor and audio post + location audio.Darryl is also a music composer whose original scores have appeared in a number of productions. Darryl received a grant from Common Weal Community Arts in Regina to produce a 47 minute audio CD called " I Remember ". The work documents oral history, traditions and community issues in rural Saskatchewan. You can download the I Remember CD MP3s at http://www.box.net/shared/m2hxbohs0g
In recent years, Darryl has received artist grants from The Canada Council of the Arts, The Saskatchewan Arts Board and SaskFilm for his work on the feature experimental documentary "Dark One".Nine years in the making, "Dark One" is Darryl’s first independent feature film.
Filmography - Selected Works
2007 - Dark One - 88 min experimental documentary
2003 - I Remember - 18 min promotional video- Documents a special screening of Prairie Echo Clips. A community tea,which brings together the people from “I Remember”, with The Board of The Cupar and District Heritage Museum -Director-Darryl Miller
2003 - Prairie Echo Clips -30min historical/promotional video- Eight individuals from the Cupar area share stories of early life and growing up on the prairies.Director : Darryl Miller. A 45 minute audio CD was produced, with assistance from Common Weal Community Arts. The clips are some of the stories before editing.
2002 - Communities In Bloom-CuparPromotionalVideo –13min-A tangible demonstration by the citizens for cultivating public areas, parks, trees and personal gardens.Director : Darryl Miller
2002-Memories Of Cupar with Brock Turner-18min-Personal thoughts and memories of 100 years of a small Saskatchewan town.Director:Darryl Miller
2001-Cupar Canucks/Cubs Reunion-1hr-Hockey as a small town institution and contributions of local hockey legend Eddie Shore Director : Darryl Miller
1996 - Thin Ice - 14 min.(shared videography credit) Elaine Pain
1993 - Neurasthenia - experimental nature
1993 - Shapes - animation
1992 - All We Say to America - experimental narrative
1992 - Water Colour - experimental nature
1992 - Truth - experimental AND NOW-Truth Redux 2008
1992 - Confine Your Art - experimental
1992 - Propaganda - experimental
1992 - Time Moves On - narrative ( co-director) sound/editor
1991 - Serenity - Director Elaine Pain - Music + Sound -Darryl Miller
1991 - The Spotted Dog of Truth - animation
1991 - Voices - experimental
1991 - Is this Progress? - experimental
1990 - The Dragon - animation
1990 - A Different World - experimental narrative
1989 - Circles - music video
1989 - Home of the Free - music video
1989 - Mechanical Reality - music video
1989 - Rays - music video
Nominations :
2007 - Dark One :Nominated Best Canadian Feature Documentary
The Saskatchewan Film and Video Showcase Nominations:
2003-Memories of Cupar :Nominated:Best Educational,Best Host Presenter
1996 - Thin Ice : director: Elaine Pain. Award for Best Experimental.
Nominated: Best Direction,Best Videography, Best Overall Sound
1995 - The Trickster : director: Gordon McLennan. Best Music.
1992-Truth : director: Darryl Miller. Best Experimental in student category.
1991 - Voices : director: Darryl Miller. Best Student Film.
Awards :
1996 - The Saskatchewan Film and Video Festival:The Willing Voyeur: director: Richard Kerr.Best Overall Sound by Protrax Digital Inc.
1993 - Images '93 : V is for Video-Truth-director-DarrylMiller.People's Choice Award.
1993 - 7th Annual National Student Film and Video Showcase-Shapes-director-Darryl Miller-Jean Oser Award of Merit for Best Overall Sound.

About Me :
Darryl lives in Cupar, SK, a town of less than 600 people located 75 kilometres northeast of Regina. It is most famous for the Cupar Gopher Drop, a unique lottery held every summer. Stuffed toy gophers (Richardson's Ground Squirrels) labelled with numbers are dropped from a hot-air balloon along with numbered gopher holes. The "owner" of the gopher that lands nearest Hole 1 wins first prize, and so on.

Dark One: Dan Biholar Selected Poetry

2007-03-28T05:45:00.000-07:00

Institute ( Part 1. )
D.Miller-Composition,recordings,keyboards,samples,loops,backmasked keyboards,atmospheric sound design + mix
Chris Gavin- Bass guitar
Dan Biholar- Voice + Words
Lyrics...Where am I? It seems like days - I've been playing on the edge.I've never been this sick before - The radioactivity has finally affected most of us - And then for my treatment - I hallucinate madly
- I hallucinate about the doctor and his little case with black
crystals dripping with opiates - which my body dying to have.The
crystals made the withdrawal easier. It's funny how an hallucination
can blend with reality.I left the hospital and reality that night -
I walked out.When I came back - I was let back.I laid down and
suddenly I was transported - India somewhere - somewhere in one of
those desert Arabian continents - sand everywhere.I was an
assassin.I was to do my job - my pay would be food,lodging and
crystals.I saw the only means of escape was a trail. There was a
dock that jutted into the ocean - fifty or one hundred feet. The sun
was sort of mid up the horizon - it was hot.I started walking the
trail - a few dead trees littered it's path - and bones - The
bleached bones of those who have tried and gone before me.Some
didn't make it very far at all - How far was I expecting to make
it ? I went the other way. I ended up somewhere I didn't expect to be - A Forest - But it wasn't a forest - hanging sheets of polyethaline - painted silhouettes of trees - hanging. Fill the room - spaced out, spaced out - on the floor people lying there - fungus addicts. They would take the fungus - the drug - and they set it on
their sides.And, hours would pass by like this - where they would
just lie there - their metabolism slowed almost to nil. I spent a
week there without even knowing it.I left when I got hungry.

The Blue Waters of Truth :
D.Miller- Composition,recordings,keyboards,samples,loops, keyboards,guitar,atmospheric sound design
Dan Biholar- Words + Voice
This is another stream of consciousness vocal performance by Dan.I deleted the odd phrase or line that did not fit with the subject matter and repositioned some words.The song is more poetry based then others and it is one of my favorites.
Lyrics....Live suspension - only time is the essence - slowly pouring - so slow - on and on, drag on. But time travels a different frequency - travels a different realization - minutes still seem hours, hours to days, days to months, suspension - The story.These moments are my canvas and I quickly, slowly, fuse ink to paper in such a manner as to create meaning - slow meaning in the soft fire. Worlds burn incandescently - illumination - the stars and
perfection of the cool sweet night - phosphorescent eyes - blue flames of truth, seared souls forever.Feel the wind - Feel the while - Feel the warm water drops burst
gently on your skin.Wash the dust of the day - Broken dust - Going
away - Gentle rain - Warm wet rain, fall through wind begin - New
life - Life, in a drop - and I dive right into the icy waters of truth.

Early Morning Gig
D.Miller- Composition,recordings,keyboards,samples,loops+mix
Chris Gavin- Bass guitar
Dan Biholar- Voice + Words
This composition was created using a percussion loop and eastern string samples.keyboards and bassguitar were added later.Dan made up the words and delivered the voice performance thefirst time he heard the song.I did some minor voice placement changes and cleaned up the voice to make it more audible.This was a stream of consciousness performance.
.....Lyrics....It scared me - I didn't want no part of it - I held off the best I could. But I'd see her and I'd talk to her and I'd touch her and gaze into those eyes - and I knew this was a woman that I could love. So love has left me with a wounded heart. Love's like a drug habit - It takes awhile to kick.3 year relationship - 5 year - okay 2 or 3 -unless of course your the one with the extra partner. She hurt me - She didn't hurt me - Wake Up!
Arouse softly - the rain. We walk out into the day's mystery - and embrace it - A self propelled wheel - a mighty yes. The child - crowned and conquering - This is that which is of us, which we must aspire to be - To arouse in ourselves - This pride - this strength - this beauty - this gift ! A child crowned and conquering - standing on the shoulders of a giant white steed - smoke billows from his nostrils. It's a strange dance of movement - It's the new alien - The new day - It's a new time - This is our God.

The Urban Dilemma
D.Miller-Composition,recordings,keyboards,samples,loops,backmasked keyboards+guitar,atmospheric,sound design + mix
John Frederick-Additional keyboards
Dan Biholar- Voice + Words
This composition is constructed from two different songs.I took Dan's voice from another song and placed it and timed it into this song because I felt the voice fit the music better.I found that I liked the music better backmasked and then I added forward performances and urban sound effects.
.....Lyrics....City life - The urban dilemma - How to walk with no legs - How to see with no eyes - How to love with no heart. Urban people - urban dilemma.How to create more than a reasonable facsimile of the fulfilled life.The world is an illusion - Feelings are real.

Dan Biholar May 17 2007

Dreams man, these dreams are walking on my days.
I remember moving in the summer garden.The night was in the sky,the air; still, balmy, sweet w/scents and clear.
VIVID DREAMING,MEGLOGOGIC DREAMS; I experience them both.And sadly they seem better than my waking time, whats this about ??And I remember so little just enough that I am familiar ,even nostalgic about a Place that exists in my dreams....... I cannot explain this………………….....
THE PREDOMINANCE OF GREATNESS. TWO TIMES ,DAY AFTER DAY.. THE QUERY WHERE WILL IT LEAD?? WHERE WILL IT ALL LEAD?? THESE ARE DAYS OF CHANGE I am sleeping through...What are we neglecting to do???

Dan Biholar Artist Statement

I was asked to write a few words regarding my impressions of DARK ONE,and what this project meant to myself. Well,it's a lot like this: My end... words spoken, weaved into a poetic and profound pleasing form.Then Darryl Miller and his partner,Elaine Pain,moved the work into the next level of the creative process, creating an audio and visual soundscape/landscape.To see my work turned into so much more than the original I was truly amazed each time Darryl sent me updates on the work.I am proud to be a part of this creation and I plan on doing as many projects in the near future as I can.Working on DARK ONE with Darryl and Elaine gave me a chance to witness and experience the passion and satisfaction that comes whist coaxing a project such as DARK ONE from conception up to public release.Today finds me working in a field totally unrelated to my art and working on another series of ideas with what time I have left during the day. Contact me at
ddbiholar@accesscomm.ca
danbiholar@hotmail.com

Dan Biholar December 27 2007

WHEN, WE FIRST CREATED SOME OF THE TRACKS THAT BECOME DARK ONE ,NO ONE KNEW ABOUT WHAT WAS COMING BUT DARRYL ;IN DARK ONE THE VIEWER IS TRANSPORTED VIA WORD [SOUND] AND COLORS PATTERNED BY THE MAD ASSEMBLING OF THESE TWO....HYPNOTIZING AND FREEING AT THE SAME INSTANT.... PROVOCATIVE YET REPULSIVE;INSIDIOUSLY BLANKETING THE SENSES UNTIL MY TRIP IS YOURS AND FOR THE REMAINING ETERNITY,WE ARE FREE TO EXPLORE QUESTIONS;QUERIES ABOUT THE SPIRIT OF MANKIND AND JUST WHAT THAT IS IN MINE EYES;AGAIN WE HAVE THE PRODUCERS TO THANK FOR ALL THAT COLOR AND BEAUTY THAT EXISTS IN SPITE OF THE PATH I USE TO WALK ON;BEAUTY ITSELF EXISTS TO REMIND US OF OUR DIVINE NATURE.

Dark One Credits, Reviews + More

2007-03-28T04:46:00.000-07:00

Darryl Miller-producer,director,videographer,editor,special effects,sound design, location audio and sound mix.
Elaine Pain-executive producer,additional videography, photography,assistant to director.
Skulls provided by The Bone Man
Case Study Footage provided by Gordon McLennan
Music composed by Darryl Miller
Bass Guitar by Chris Gavin
Additional Keyboards by John Frederick
Words and Poetry by Dan Biholar
Special Thanks goes to:Dan and Helen Biholar,Boobaloo,Pat Butler,Steve Hasiak,My Family,Our Lord Jesus Christ,Darrell Prohor and Roland Bourgeois,The University of Regina.
Additional audio samples provided by DoruMalaia(http://www.dorumalaia2.com/)
and The Freesound Project http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/index.php
Financial Participation:
Elaine Pain + The Ice Cube Factory

FREESOUND SAMPLES USED IN THE CURRENT MIX
#01-I used many dronetails by Jovica.Which ones?Who knows?I renamed them.Sorry about that Jovica-You have many good samples-good for transitions.Thanks
#02-24175_patchen_dropping
#03-25075_FreqMan_whoosh07_with_pan
#04-14308_wingz_prayBahai
#05-14308_wingz_prayBahai
#06-14310_kostasvomvolos_Waterphone_1
#07-15488_djgriffin_tibetan_chant_4_colargol_2
#08-19029_sazman_060501_ezan_yeni_camii_complete
#09-23722_milo_ship2_bergen.wav
#10-27160_Piero_Pepin_Ethiopian_Xmas_in_Addis_Abeba_07_01_2006
#11-28282_genghis_attenborough_Imam_May_04
#12-7527 _jesges_alien_factory
Dark Thoughts by Nora Gardner Saskatchewan Film Cooperative's Splice
-04/03/09-
Like any film or video maker, I am interested not only in a work’s look and sound - I am also interested in the story of its making and where it gets to travel once it is completed. This is the story of Dark One, the first feature length work of Darryl Miller, completed in 2007. There is plenty to be fascinated with in this film as Miller is a obsessively gifted sculptor of both the visual and sound mediums.
I’d like to say, however, that I am as equally appalled as I am fascinated by this work. The subject matter of drug abuse, self-destruction, nightmarish delusion and death are so depressing in nature that to consider a character in such pain is a tragedy. Here, the overwhelming tragedy is that this film documents a human life - that of Dan Biholar whose “search for his soul” through drug abuse results in poverty, jail time, multiple hospitalizations, mental illness and a wasted life. In a lucid moment, Biholar says “I wanted to destroy myself, but I couldn’t - so here I am.” The sometimes seemingly prophetic, more often delusional reveries of Biholar, which have been equated with the stream-of-consciousness poetry of William S. Burroughs, are further shaped by Miller to take on demonic tonal proportions as incantations for Miller’s complex multi-layered visual nightmare representing Biholar’s inner psychic experience as a drug-addicted poet. “All the dark dreams and nightmare screams come to light”, says Biholar in the film.
Miller constructed Dark One over the course of nine years. The film transcends as many boundaries in cinematic language and genre as it does in the technological advancement of video and digital media. Miller documents Biholar’s life in Hi-8 (w/ some final shooting in Digital 8), while employing avant-garde techniques, rigorous editing and multiple image manipulations to present the audience with the uniquely uncomfortable ordeal of joining Biholar in his forays into drug abuse. Miller does this by using out-of-focus, de-saturated, and diffused images, multiple filters and masks, the look of multiple exposures, kaleidoscopic images and psychedelic visual effects. For the most part, he used Photoshop, Boris FX and After Effects to achieve his ends. Miller said he found Boris FX to be the most user-friendly when working with transparencies. He combined these visual elements with soundscapes created from the words and poetry of Biholar, sound samples and music. The soundscapes are as distorted and complexly-layered as the visual elements. He recommended the use of sound samples from the Free Sound Project. While working on his sound, Miller used a SoundToys plug within Pro Tools and completed the work in Pro Tools LE.
The genres of Canadian Documentary, German Expressionism and American Experimental film are immediately called to mind when viewing this film. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Dark One received acclaim at Hot Docs when it premiered in 2007 at the festival and was nominated for the Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award. Following on the heels of Hot Docs, Miller travelled to Jihlava in the Czech Republic after his film almost made it into the programme of the International Documentary Film Festival Jihlava. He said because Dark One almost made it into the programme in 2007, they requested the film for the new Documentary Film Centre's archive in Prague, to be studied by students at FAMU, and viewed by journalists, film professionals and the public in general. The festival in Jihlava discovers authorial documentary film, and follows the motto of “Thinking through film!” FAMU is one of oldest film schools in Europe. On the following site http://www.dokument-festival.cz/new_index.php under the Thinking through film! link “authorial documentary film” is described as “A work of art voicing a unique experience, connecting existence and essence, that arise and die out in each other.” This caption does indeed describe work such as Dark One.
Even more fortunate, Dark One was accepted into the programme of DOK Leipzig in 2007 and Miller was in attendance for a number of screenings at the festival. DOK Leipzig is one of the leading international film festivals for documentary and animation in the world. Upon his return from Germany, I went to Cupar, Saskatchewan to interview Miller about his film. Despite all the trials and tribulations of intermittent funding, fickle software, unreliable technology, and a bad screening here or there, Miller was grateful for the financial support of the Canada Council, the Saskatchewan Arts Board, and SaskFilm. He was also adamant in his appreciation for the enormous amount of support that he received from his partner Elaine Pain, who is also the film’s executive producer.
While tired in appearance, Miller seemed confident about finding a niche market and distributing his unusual feature length film. Of Dark One, which he described as an ambient epic approach to storytelling, Miller says: “There are a lot of ways to tell a story.” Continuing in a frugal fashion, as any independent filmmaker would these days, Miller found the https://withoutabox.com/ service for independent film distribution to be a great starting place. Information about Dark One, including several trailers, is available at numerous blogspots such as http://icecubefactory.blogspot.com/, appears on IMDb, Amazon, and the complete film will shortly be featured on Punk TV and MyDocumentary.ca. Miller does appear to be mastering the arts of self-promotion and finding niche-markets for distribution.
In closing, I will return to the film’s story and the life of Dan Biholar. The film concludes with the death of Biholar’s mother Elena, an Auschwitz survivor with horrible dreams of her own, and foreshadows a continued downward spiral for Biholar, himself. Wishing to complete his promotional work for Dark One and take up work on a new project, Indoctrination (working title), Miller reminded me to complete this article. My final question for Miller was to ask about how well Biholar is doing these days. Miller confided: “Dan is still writing, but his words are becoming more confused… I am concerned for him… He is depressed and wants to work on his art, but even when he has the time, he either sleeps or is out searching for more drugs.” Biholar’s only saving grace, the redemption that he seeks in the film, is documented by Dark One. However, Biholar himself remains a lost soul and will never be able to claim what he seeks. But then again, perhaps, the search is all there is…

“Where am I… playing on the edge. I’ve never been this sick before. Capture my soul. Isn’t that what true film is? Capture my soul and free it, free it, free it…” (Dan Biholar).

My own personal post-script, an observation (downtown): Spring is here. The mentally-ill walk among us, no matter how they got there, remember sometimes we are them (it’s a delicate balance). Be kind. Wishing you all - the best in mental health.

Review from John Thomas Frederick
" MAGNIFICENT ! I am fortunate to have received today one of the first DVD copies of the film "Dark One" by Darryl Miller. I just finished watching it on my 32" Sony, and I was completely blown away ! Darryl has painted a masterpiece of visual images. Think what you want of the Documentary subject-matter (the Review posted by Cyberite is so far off; he/she obviously didn't get it !)( Cyberite's Hotdocs Review is on the HotDocs Dark One review page. ) Darryl documents Dan's journey with such honesty that he manages to capture both sides of drug addiction; the junkies side and the observers side, without forgetting to show Dan's spiritual and intellectual aspects. Dan is not dehumanized by his drug use or by Darryl's document. My impression of Dan after watching the film, is that Dan is an intellect and by way of his own spiritual, (maybe even Mystical), experiences, has developed a keen, intellectual, even theosophical intuition for his own spiritual nature and for the Metaphysical nature of his life and environment. Darryl seems to understand this and remembers to document this aspect of Dan. Darryl also seems to see the value in; and the importance of Dan's creative outlet of poetry and visual art. Many documentaries on drug abuse or on drug users tend to ignore these Human aspects of the junkie; turning he or she into an object of curiosity only; something to be viewed by 'the rest of us' at a safe distance. In this film Dan is all of us and none of us. He is a human like the rest of us and a soul like no one else. Many who watch the film may not realize that Dan is himself the writer and performer of most of the lyrics and poetry put to music by Darryl in the film. All this aside, the film is the most fantastic painting of moving images and color I have ever seen. Musicians creating music in the 'Psychedelic' Genre should be lined up at Darryl's door begging him to create their next Music-Video. Film-makers and editors who have seen the film must be scratching their heads wondering how he did it and asking their doctors for ant-depressants as they try to recover from their jealousy induced depression caused by a sudden and utter drain on their self-esteem. Anyone who can't see the superb artistry in the flow of the images and color has no idea how many years and hours it must have taken (did take) Darryl to make this masterpiece. Above all, that is how I see this film; as a visual masterpiece ! In my eyes and ears it is an Art piece before it is a documentary and its showing should not be limited to just documentary festivals. Anyone who appreciates the visual arts will find this film entrancing and a real piece of eye-candy. I also loved the sounds and music; but I may be a bit biased since I have been collecting and listening to Darryl's music for 20 years. Darryl lovingly gives me credit for ' additional keyboards' at the end of the film, but honestly and humbly, I must admit, that his mastery at sound editing and manipulation makes it virtually impossible for me to recognize any of the synthesizer playing that I did on one or two tracks on one or two of the musical pieces; 20 years ago in my parent' basement while Darryl and I drank and smoked our way deep into the night (and sometimes on until morning.) Darryl has been for more than 25 years a master of recorded sound enhancement and manipulation, now after finally seeing "Dark One" I can without bias and with complete confidence, pronounce him, a master of the moving image. Thank-You Darryl; after waiting all these years for you to complete the film, I can honestly say it was worth every minute of the wait. BRAVO !
Miyako HotDocs Review
Interesting and Esoteric. The pet bird facilitated the kindess,humility and benevolence the protagonist had for all living beings despite the lifestyle addiction can have on the affect and behavior of humans.
Nathan Southern - All Movie Guide
Sanity, for the half-burnt out poet Dan Biholar, is growing ever tenuous. With ruinous, bleak and empty days sitting in his yellowed kitchen and coiffing morphine alongside his concentration camp survivor mother and his pet bird, Biholar reaches out to latch onto the literary brilliance now often eluding his grasp. Emotionally, Biholar plummets through a host of phases, from extreme depression to poetic bliss to unbridled mania - often without transitions or in-between lulls. With his documentary Dark One, avant-garde director Darryl Miller (once a down-and-outer himself, who rebounded) witnesses Biholar in his most private and intimate moments. Miller travels one step beyond, however, by then recreating, with his cameras, the hallucinatory mental state experienced by Biholar - an onslaught of dissonant sound and visual fury. The director thus unifies the audience, sensorially, with the film's subject.
QOKEQUIHALLIA'S HotDocsREVIEW -
Dark One beckons you to follow the rabbit down the hole and screams at you to stop at every turn. Having done the drugs and traveled sections of that route with Darryl, I can attest to the authenticity of the dimensional shifting and gravitational pull that influences our own perception and how that looks to others watching. Dark One shines through the facets of life that accompany hard drug abuse that often go neglected in the glorification of the war on drugs and the message of abstinence. Looking at family and relationships in ways that push you to look deeper into your own judgments of what a junkie is. As a viewer you have to be in for some psychological rough trade and the visual overload that can become abundant in drug induced hallucinations. Music and art that show originality and craftsmanship as alive and well as ever.................
David Sloma Rockin' Films
I really liked the film! Looking forward to a surround sound mix. The soundtrack CD is awesome too!Great stuff, Darryl...stunning! I remember when I saw this at HotDocs on the BIG screen..blew me away! Dan's words are an inspiration to me, as a fellow creative type.
Matt Caravella from Boris FX, Inc. comments....
Fantastic Job. A wonderful and creative use of compositing and effects. Best of luck with the film, surely it will not be overlooked. Again, terrific work.
CBC Anonymous Review
Dark One was an intense, documentary detour on an afternoon of multiple screenings. Your creativity in imagery & sound is humbling.
Wilfred Gayleard
I got to see this last weekend, it is amazing. Darryl does once again an amazing job of constructing a complex montage of visual and sound editing. Sounds great and looks beautiful
ChristianaPictures
Great score. Nice "film" treatment on the footage. An interesting character. I'd definitely check it out at a fest or Netflix.
Artwork Scan#1 - Fragments of Dan's painting discussed in Dark One
Artwork Scan#2 - Fragments of Dan's painting discussed in Dark One
Artwork Scan#4 - Fragments of Dan's painting discussed in Dark OneUnfortunately the Filmeck screening in Leipzig Germany had technical difficulties. Audio was poor and the projection bulb was on it's last legs. The "nato" screening went well !!! :) Sounded wonderful, looked great, and there was an extensive question and answer period after. It was here I had an in depth conversation with Detlef Kuhlbrod, a writer from Berlin . Read his impressions of Dark One below....or in the article titled "Gestorben wird uberall" in "Tageszeitung", the German national newspaper.
For a couple of days,I was with the Canadian filmmaker Darryl Miller,whose experimental documentary "Dark One" , I was very impressed with.A difficult psychedelic film on the level of technology.It is about the morphine addicted poet Dan Biholar,with his mother,who was in Auschwitz.The reality shocks between drug images,hallucinations and history of the mother.The perspective of the film is extremely fickle; infected by Miller's own drug history. Exhausting,sad,radical,psychedelic, sometimes with a little gallows of humor; when a little bird, totally uninterested in fact, always on the verge of small tin bowls.The kitchen cabinet in black and white,for a small moment of clarity again.The drug-addicted artist who logically as a teenager began to emulate Burroughs, loves this bird is very fond of him and then told,almost entirely,as this bird dies,it would be the fifth or seventh dead bird in a few years.A film,in which the spirits dropped,as it were....An Envoy of the "Human Rights Documentary Days" from Kiev, a soulful - looking man who inspired me to a Russian mystic recalled or Andrzej Rublev (quickly gets you into stereotypes);The least hardly spoke English and yet shy and seemed curious, felt of "Dark One"also directly addressed.The film was such an existential thing. That is something quite different from the more or less good at documenting performance of a subject.Of course, Miller was much too long (eight years) in the movie.Darryl Miller was the first time in Europe and had a heavy travel behind him.A week earlier,he was at a film festival in the Czech Republic and had been robbed.Fortunately,he had not had so much money on.During the day he ran through Leipzig and filmed trams and trains.There were many policemen on Oct 31, because of the football in the city;Many people on the street or in the tram. Always pretty nervous;On the verge of paranoia probably; Many people whose language he spoke not;Yes, he lives in a town with 600 inhabitants,and this was but sometimes too much.Now he flies back grad direction toward Saskatchewan.Somehow ...The director... I had a couple of beers, a smoke, and just thought.
DETLEF KUHLBRODTCockroaches
A VERY GREAT WORK THIS FILM ! THIS FILM BRINGS THE REALITY OF THE DRUG EXPERIENCE WITH THE PSYCHOLOGY OF A HUMAN , BUT THE MAIN ARTIST IN THIS FILM Mr BIHOLAR HAS A VERY STRONG LIFE POWER, AND I THINK SOME '" ENLIGHTENMENT " , A NORMAL PERSON NEVER MAKES IN THIS LIFE. RESPECT TO Mr DARRYL MILLLER AND HIS WORK ! GREETS : Michael ( GERMANY )
Lordofallfire - Jan 08/2007 - It's more of an experience than anything else. All the fx, visual and audio are very cool. I kept thinking to myself, 'how did he do that?'. I know a bunch of Photoshop stuff so I have a slight idea what was happening with some of it. There are so many little things in the visual collages that I'll have to go back and watch it again to catch them all. I was kinda thrown off at first by the actual raw colour footage, but then it made sense with the content to bring some realism to the doc. I thought it was funny but worked really well when you and the subject are driving by the Lakeview Food place and the 7-11 and you blur out the whole image to hide the signs. At times it reminded me of Naqoyaqatsi (love the Qatsi trilogy) but also added a disjointed narrative to it. To be honest, I had an idea to do an experimental doc for a few years but never understood of how I could pull it off. This is pretty much how I would have pictured it, so thanks for stealing my idea, haha, JK. Not a lot of people will like this or even get it, but there are those of us who live for it. Hope it ends up doing well. The music was way, way awesome. .... and where your feeding him his lines, haha, so good!
luckplc | 01/10/2008 10:27 AM --5 out of 5 stars
"Darryl Miller weaves a spellbinding ride into the scary zone. Drawing on all the experience Darryl has had with drugs and alcohol, a story winds itself around the mind of Dan Biholar stitching the influence of drug addiction to a soaring spirit yearning to break free. The door to the other side is all the way open and the weirdness is leaking out."
the_guinness-10.1.2008 9 out of 10 stars
You don't know it yet but Darryl Miller is a master film maker. Dark One is a trip that grabs a hold of you and first strips you of reality then tosses you to the demons lurking just on the other side of drugs and booze. For those experienced this is a ride through it with road signs to the freaky bits. For the rest of you, talk with your psychologist and bring a hand to hold on to. Bravo Darryl!
K00k00s', an artist I met in Jihlava, has contacted me a number of times in regards to Dark One. Here are his kind words....
Oct29-"we met in Jihlava, 2 days ago, I am Jan... long-hair-bad-English-animator. Today I opened my wallet and saw your calling card - after watching your videos and translating some sentences, I leave with eyes and mouth wide open. Your videos are very suggestive and so atmospheric. Well done!"
Jan15-" I am listening to your music now, and its brilliant! Very impressive, deep and atmospheric! I like it! I made this fractal montage, while listening to your soundtrack. Do you think it is possible to use some of your songs in some of my noncommercial projects?"http://dumb.ic.cz/fist3/fist3.html
Len Gieni
Dark but good. Couldn't stop watching.
Alex Conrado
I like your aesthetic. ENHORABUENA¡¡¡ I'm impressed by your work. Felicidades¡¡
SinnerFire
i`d like to say that I'm impressed to say the least....
your work has a real magical quality to it that takes your breath away at times and swallows u up the rest ...:) Really like the movie....evil as fuck...peace.
A Million Minds
DUDE your music is kickass! I love the rawness of it!
That "dark one" movie looks pretty eerie! But cool.
I like your psychotic nature. I mean... human nature. hehe