Fascinating documentary film about John of God at Innis Town Hall June 23, 2006

NEARER MY GOD TO THEE", a documentary by FILMMAKER MARC ISRAEL, will
have its WORLD PREMIERE at the REELHEART INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
(www.reelheartfilmfestival.com) in TORONTO on FRIDAY JUNE 23, 2006 at
9:15 p.m. at INNIS TOWN HALL on the University of Toronto campus.
Selected as the festival's "PROGRAMMERS' PICK", this deeply personal
and humorous feature film explores the filmmaker's misadventures in
Brazil visiting world-famous healer/surgeon John of God, while
simultaneously probing both the troubles that brought him there and
the filmmaking process itself. Mr. Israel will introduce the film and
a discussion will follow the screening.

See below for a more extensive film description, artist bio, and
sample press. Further press material, film stills, and movie samples
may be requested by contacting:

Marc Israel
Phenomenal World Cinema
62 West St. Suite #3
Northampton, MA 01060 USA
413-586-7572

Nearer My God To Thee
a film by Marc Israel

Marc Israel had been filming his life for a decade, including
hitchhiking & street-performing adventures, love connections, and
ongoing mental struggles. Then, in 2004, a series of near-plagues
occurred one after another: a severe case of lovesickness after a
failed long-term relationship, an invasion of ants, followed by moths,
into his apartment, physical injuries including two massive earaches,
a frightful accident concerning his private parts, and, finally, the
sudden loss of function in his arms due to tendinitis. Deep in
despair, Marc by chance came across a T.V. documentary on the
internationally renown "Miracle Man" healer, John of God, and quickly
booked a flight to Brazil. What follows is an exploration of the Self,
via encounters with the mysterious and controversial John of God, his
community of pilgrims and self-styled spiritualists, the sacred
ceremonies of the Fulnio Indians, the jungles rife with strange life,
all of which are interwoven with ghostlike flashbacks drawn from years
of constant video self-surveillance. Through images both real and
surreal, conversations with friends, visits to doctors and therapists,
intimate video journals, detailed probes into the natural world, and
the editing process of the film itself (also documentary fodder),
Marc's pathology and innate wisdom often coemerge to provide
surprisingly humorous and lighthearted moments of relief.

About the artist

Marc Israel grew up in Cinnaminson, New Jersey. First as a
drummer, later as a guitarist/singer/songwriter, he led several rock
bands in high school and then New York City. He also created several
short fiction films with friends. Graduating from the New School for
Social Research (NYC) in 1992, he spent the next six years performing
a one-man-band show on streets & stages around the world. Employing
hitchhiking as means for movement, his travels have included Mexico,
Ireland, Denmark, Poland, Israel, Vietnam, India, and Tibet. He also
crisscrossed the United States over ten times by thumb. In 1993 he met
the poet Allen Ginsberg and a close friendship was formed. He lived &
performed with Ginsberg on & off until the poet's death. Israel's
first full-length film, "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" (1997),
documented one of his cross-country hitchhikes as well as the
effect/aftershocks of Ginsberg's passing on his close friends.
In 1999, due to a nervous breakdown in the middle of a courtship
with Elektra Records, Israel abandoned his music career and retreated
into the world of film. "Frankenstein's Little Monster" (2000), a
re-visioning of Mary Shelley's novel, focuses on the monster's
monstrous sexual desires and eventual spiritual awakening. A
comic/horror/feel-good movie with deep philosophical undertones, it
features famed Beat Generation poet Peter Orlovsky as hindu holyman
Rick Shaw. "The Motion-Pixeled Museum of Moving Magic" (2001)
functions as a curated tour through strange and otherworldly images
collected on Israel's travels. As further footage unfolds, it becomes
increasingly difficult to believe that the people & places are what
the curator claims. We visit a nude sunbather applying lotion to her
buttocks on a city rooftop, a Stonehenge-like "circle of chairs" made
from an early meteor explosion, a Canadian Indian tribe consisting of
men in gnome-like beards toasting marshmallows, and more. "La
Hamburguesa Magica" (2003) presents the whole plagued & near-fatal
Mexico misadventure undertaken by Israel and then-girlfriend Elyse. By
trip's end they have separated and Marc is in a mental hospital. His
latest film, "Nearer My God to Thee" (2005), picks up where
"Hamburguesa" left off. A heartbroken and mentally-troubled Israel is
in Brazil, seeking the help of famed "Miracle Man" John of God.
Perhaps his most ambitious film, it also explores the year's previous
events leading to this journey, including the above-mentioned
heartbreak, plus various pestilences, rashes, & ravages of body, mind,
and household, all presented with Israel's usual honesty and
comicality.

Sample press

"...Nearer My God to Thee" relentlessly pursues Israel stripping
himself down for the camera, examining himself moving as a naked human
in space-time. The film just pulls you in, and, with perfect timing,
presents a direct imprint of suffering on the viewer that somehow
moves beyond the pain and desire and into some kind of tentative,
elusive grace. It is the simple poetics of human frailty in all its
besotted sadness. Israel's influences include Paul Auster's novels,
Robert Crumb's comics, and American string and jug bands – all of
which co-mingle in his movies to make for deeply compassionate, often
startlingly irreverent documentaries. Tempered with humor, his
self-portraits offer evidence that even the worst things are bearable,
and once born, can open the heart to some basic joy in our very
ability to bear....

-Scott Webel
Curator, Museum of Natural & Artificial Ephemerata
Austin, Texas

Official Website: http://www.reelheartfilmfestival.com/