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Wilhelm Reich Documentary Film Project: Edit Phase

Article by Kevin Hinchey

Wilhelm Reich Documentary Film Project: Edit Phase

WILHELM REICH DOCUMENTARY FILM PROJECT:

 

In Production Since January 2015 in the United States and Europe

 

Now Seeking Finishing Funds for Editing & Post-Production

 

In the fall of 2014, "Phase One:  Production" of this documentary was funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised $187,002 from hundreds of supporters in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/25874147/wilhelm-reich-documentary-film-project      

Since January 2015, this film has been in production in the United States and Europe, amassing over 30 hours of on-camera interviews and location shooting in Austria, Germany, Norway, New York, Maine, Arizona and Pennsylvania.

We’ve also digitized significant amounts of historic materials from Wilhelm Reich’s prolific archives:  photographs, personal and scientific films, and voice recordings.

Now we’re ready for "Phase Two:  Editing & Post-Production" for which this campaign seeks to raise the finishing funds necessary for us to assemble a factually accurate, 100-110 minute documentary about Reich’s life and work.

"PHASE TWO" FUNDRAISING GOAL:  $180,000

Assembling this film during the "Editing & Post-Production" phase will be every bit as labor-intensive and expensive as last year’s "Production" period.   Below are the key budget items for the completion of this film.

HOW WE’LL SPEND THIS MONEY FOR "EDITING & POST-PRODUCTION"

  • Editing the film:  This is the most time-consuming process of the entire project, meticulously assembling the film storyline from hundreds of photographs, excerpts of on-camera interviews, film clips, voice recordings, historic newsreel footage, animated sequences, and other resources.
  • Hiring medical illustrators and computer animators:  Designing visual sequences, based on Wilhelm Reich’s original drawings and diagrams, to accurately illustrate the scientific principles of his biological, medical and meteorological research.
  • Revising & finalizing the film script:  An on-going process throughout the editing phase to prepare our final script for the film’s voice-over narration.
  • Casting a professional actor/actress or voice-over talent:  This person will provide the voice-over narration for the finished film.
  • Booking an audio studio:  A recording session several hours long will be required to record the narration for the complete 100-110 minute film. 
  • Music/Color correction/Audio mix:  Composing and recording the music score for the entire film.   Final color correction for all color visuals in the film.  Final audio mix for the entire film.

And after all of this is completed:

  • Promotional expenses:  Screenings, travel, printed materials, film festival fees & appearances, etc.

WHY SHOULD YOU DONATE TO THIS FILM PROJECT?
OF WHAT INTEREST IS WILHELM REICH TO YOU?

Wilhelm Reich, M.D. (1897-1957) created a unique and valuable legacy of social, medical and scientific achievements in psychoanalysis and psychiatry; sexual health; the psychology of fascism; cellular research; the origin and experimental treatment of diseases such as cancer; infant and childhood health; and weather experimentation.  

But, tragically, Reich’s published books and research journals were banned and burned by the United States government in the 1950s, and again in 1960. 

How could such a thing have happened in America, the country to which Reich had emigrated just four days before the outbreak of World War Two?  What was in those publications that allegedly "merited" their destruction by the U.S. government?

And the prevalent distortions and misrepresentations about Reich and his work–which originated during his lifetime–persist to this day in poorly researched books, articles and films, and throughout the Internet, including Wikipedia.  

This painstakingly researched documentary film will help to correct and dispel these distorted narratives.

Your contribution will help ensure that Reich’s remarkable life, and his pioneering insights into human health and the health of the planet, will be presented factually and compellingly to widespread audiences.

So whether you’re already familiar with Reich or learning about him for the first time, perhaps there’s something about his life and work that resonates for you and will inspire you to help us finish this much-needed film.

THE LIFE AND WORK OF WILHELM REICH, M.D.  (1897-1957)

  • Begins studying psychoanalysis in Vienna with Sigmund Freud, the Father of Psychoanalysis.  (1919)
  • Revolutionizes psychoanalytic techniques in Vienna and Berlin which he presents in his classic book Character Analysis.  (1920s-30s)
  • Opens clinics in working-class neighborhoods in Vienna and Berlin which provide access to birth control and sex education.  (1920s-30s)
  • Publishes The Mass Psychology of Fascism after fleeing Nazi Germany, a critique of the authoritarian appeal of both Naziism and Communism.   (1933) 
  • Develops the first psychosomatic therapeutic techniques.  (1930s-40s)
  • Conducts laboratory research in Europe and the United States on the origin and development of cancer cells.  (1930s-50s)
  • Discovers a biological radiation in specific micro-organisms that can kill bacteria and cancer cells.  (1939)
  • Discovers this same radiation in the atmosphere.  (1940)
  • Conducts experimental treatment of patients with terminal cancer, early cancer and other diseases.  (1941-50s)
  • Fights the investigative abuses of the State Department, the FBI, and the Food & Drug Administration (FDA).  (1940-57)
  • Struggles against the collusion of the FDA and the American medical profession.  (1947-50s)
  • Warns of the pharmaceutical industry’s influence on the American medical profession.  (1950s)
  • Conducts weather experiments in Maine and Arizona to alleviate drought conditions.  (1953-56)
  • Confronts censorship and First Amendment issues when a Federal Court in America seeks to ban his publications from interstate commerce.  (1954)
  • Challenges the right of a court of law to judge basic scientific research.  (1954)
  • Witnesses the FDA’s burning of his publications at his laboratory in Rangeley, Maine.  (1956) 
  • Dies in the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary in Pennsylvania.  (1957)

SOME PRODUCTION PHOTOS FROM AMERICA AND EUROPE (2015)

Oslo, Norway
Outside of Tucson, Arizona
Outside of Tucson, Arizona
Mount Lemmon (outside of Tucson, Arizona)
Rangeley, Maine
Roof of the Orgone Energy Observatory at Orgonon  (Rangeley, Maine)
Mooselookmeguntic Lake, Maine
University of Oslo, Norway
Original Radium Hospital – Oslo, Norway
Outskirts of Oslo, Norway
Brandenburg Gate – Berlin, Germany
Lustgarten – Berlin, Germany
Wilhelm Reich’s Residence – Berlin, Germany
Former location of MASCH – Berlin, Germany
Bebelplatz – Berlin, Germany
Freud Museum – Vienna, Austria
WILHELM REICH, M.D.

This post was written by:

- who has written 4 posts on The Journal of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy.

Kevin Hinchey was a Board Member of The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust which manages Reich's archives at the Countway Library of Medicine at Harvard University; owns and operates The Wilhelm Reich Museum in Rangeley, Maine; and has worked with New York publisher Farrar, Straus & Giroux since 1960 to publish Reich's books. Mr. Hinchey was also the Associate Director of The Wilhelm Reich Museum.

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