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672 - Psychedelic Filmmaking

Oct 02, 2021, 62 min read

Program Notes

Date this lecture was recorded: September 30, 2021

Guest speakers:Clement Hil Goldberg and Charles Costas

Today’s podcast is a conversation from the live Psychedelic Salon featuring Clement Hil Goldberg, the writer, director and animator behind the upcoming sci-fi comedy Let Me Let You Go. We talked about how mushrooms can save the world, stop-motion animation, Bett Williams’ The Wild Kindness and contemporary psychedelic literature, non-human agency, queer culture, psychedelic capitalism, and how psychedelics can inspire a new future for art, poetry, and music.

Clement Hil Goldberg is a queer and nonbinary trans, award-winning Multidisciplinary Artist, Writer, Director and Animator. Their satirical yet hopeful projects center collective grief rooted in climate crisis, cultural erasure, displacement and end-stage capitalism. Their work has been exhibited at REDCAT Theatre, VORTEX Rep, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive and the Worth Ryder Art Gallery, Institute of Contemporary Art at U Penn, Anthology Film Archives; CounterPulse, Yerba Buena Center For The Arts, SOMArts, Luggage Store Gallery, Artists Television Access, all in San Francisco; and over 50 international film and arts festivals including Frameline, Outfest, MIX NYC, Hamburg International Queer Film Festival and Cleveland International Film Festival. Clement received an MFA in Art Practice and a Graduate Certificate in New Media Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

clement hil goldberg

Let Me Let You Go Kickstarter

The Deer Inbetween Full Webseries

Our Future Ends Excerpt

Valencia Excerpt

Clement Hil Goldberg, psychedelics, filmmaking

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Transcript

00:00:00 ►

Three-dimensional, transforming, musical, linguistic objects.

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Alpha and Omega.

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Greetings from cyberdelic space.

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This is Lorenzo, and I’m your host here in the Psychedelic Salon.

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As you know, every Monday and Thursday I host a live salon for our friends on Patreon.

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After the pandemic began, I started recording those sessions and posting the audio of our conversations on the Patreon feed.

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And as of today, there are almost 90 of those recordings that you can listen to over on Patreon.

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Now from time to time we have a guest join us

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for an interview there, and those sessions I usually podcast, which is the case today.

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In just a moment you’ll hear my co-host for these live salons, Charles Costas, lead our discussion.

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In fact, this was the only live salon that I haven’t participated in myself, but it wasn’t for want of trying.

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Earlier in the week, we had a lightning strike literally next door, and at the time I was

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zooming with Charles when all of our electricity suddenly went out. We’ve recovered now, except

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for a few computer problems, like the fact that I still haven’t been able to access the

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latest version of my new book.

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But that’s another story.

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What happened for our live salon is that my audio wasn’t working.

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They could hear me, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.

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Well, so I just stepped back and let Charles take charge.

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Now, for the very first time, I’m going to be able to listen to a podcast from the salon right along with you. So, well, this should be fun. Now, here’s Charles. All right, well, let’s get started,

00:01:58 ►

everybody. Thanks for coming out this evening. We have a special guest here in the salon tonight.

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It’s my pleasure to welcome Clem Goldberg. Clement Hill Goldberg is a queer and non-binary trans award-winning multidisciplinary artist, director, and animator.

00:02:25 ►

Sharp-eyed readers will recall their appearance in The Wild Kindness by Bette Williams, rooted in cultural crisis, cultural climate crisis,

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cultural erasure, displacement, and end-stage capitalism. Their work has been exhibited at numerous venues, including the Red Cat Theater, Vortex Rep, Berkeley Art Museum, and PFA in Berkeley,

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as well as 50 international film and arts festivals, including Frameline, Outfest, Mix NYC,

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and others. Clement received

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an MFA in art practice and a graduate certificate in new media studies from the University of

00:02:50 ►

California, Berkeley. So it’s a pleasure to welcome them this evening to talk about their

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work in psychedelic film. And Clem, I guess the key question for me is what came first,

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psychedelics or filmmaking? Psychedelics. Well, waitics well wait no wait that might not be

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true um hmm i think filmmaking actually came first um because i was sort of i grew up surrounded by

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video equipment because of my um my grandfather was really into it and was kind of, um, a film pirate and had a film

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pirate business. And so he had like cameras around. And so I, I did, um, make little videos

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and have access to that kind of stuff, but psychedelics, um, I mean, the first time I took acid was when I was 14. And so that was pretty

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life changing. And then and so I was obviously not a professional filmmaker at that time.

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And then I mean, I continue to make little movies and things like that. And then I think they just

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kind of went hand in hand at a certain point.

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And when you say pirate film, so what does that mean exactly that your grandfather was involved in?

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This sounds tantalizingly illegal.

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It was definitely illegal.

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I mean, he definitely eventually got raided by the ATA and wait, ATF.

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ATF, right?

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Firearms.

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Anyways.

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But yeah, he, he basically had a business where he had like VCRs all stacked up and then they were sort of recording and then he had like a catalog and, you know, he had

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pirate people’s films and he was pirating films when he was kind of had, he was like

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pirating, I think like Hollywood classics

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and Disney films he got in a lot of trouble often he was sorry he was an outlaw he was kind of uh

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you know an outlaw influence I would say and so did you internalize that outlawness into

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your own explorations as you came of age um I think definitely. I mean, my grandmother was the source of that inspiration

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for him as well. I actually am learning. I learned a lot of this more recently because my friend

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Abigail DeKosmic has been doing some research around pirating and ended up talking to my

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grandfather while he was still alive. And so I’ve actually learned some more about the family history through her. And my grandmother was a Holocaust survivor. She had a lot, they met sort of doing black market schemes. And so she had a couple different things running. And I think his impression from her was just this, I don’t know, a real outlaw, just kind of like, I mean, I think there was a sort of

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irreverence built in because the state had turned against her. So I think I just grew up with this

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feeling. I mean, I think a lot of Jews kind of have that feeling if they have like pogrom and

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Holocaust histories, it’s just that like that feeling that the state could turn against you.

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And I mean, I’m sure a lot of people have that feeling, but it was very much something like that.

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And then I think there was just sort of an outlaw mentality that kind of worked hand in hand with

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that a little bit. And so you said your first psychedelic experience was at 14.

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So tell me a bit about that and how it shaped you.

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Um, you know, I just, I didn’t know what I was getting into. I went with some kids to a place

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called the lake and, um, someone handed me some acid and was like, this is double dipped white

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water. I didn’t really know anything about it. And I, um,

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and so I, I came into it without knowing what I was getting into. And it was this really beautiful

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experience that, um, I did very well in science class after that. I just kind of have these very

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strong memories and sort of understanding, like, I remember seeing my hand kind of come apart into like a molecular structure and and uh and

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then reassemble and I just suddenly was like oh right like elements and particles and atoms and

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I just could like see it and understood and it’s very um easy to understand it just became very

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easy to grasp kind of what nature and elements were. So, um, I mean,

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it didn’t stick. I ended up in the arts. I don’t, as far as like going towards the sciences, but I,

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I have always, um, had an interest in ecology. I would say that stuck as well. Um, and then I,

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I definitely didn’t, I didn’t touch it again until, um until I was about 18 or so. And that’s around

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the time that I was going to a used bookstore a lot and sort of had discovered the beats and

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then went from the beats to Ken Kesey and like, and sort of followed that path to like feminism

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and other things. So I think through that sort of literature subculture that, um, that was kind of, um, opening my eyes to psychedelics

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and they were always very powerful and helpful, um, and beautiful experiences.

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And how did that start to weave its way into your concerns as a filmmaker?

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I mean, I think so much of it is just my concerns

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around the, like the earth itself.

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I think that when I would take mushrooms and psychedelics,

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it’s like I could just hear, I think,

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the sort of state of things.

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And I would feel these like calls to action and felt really like a responsibility

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I guess as an artist and as a person in the world like it felt like a direct responsibility to

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somehow bring more care into how people think about the natural world and and I think that like understanding that

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everything is alive and that we should give care to a blade of grass as much as like a dog and a

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tree and to a human like that it’s all very important and so I think um yeah it was I guess

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I felt like anytime I took them there just just felt like I was getting messages that wanted to come through artistically, I think.

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And also like a very,

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and with like a sense of responsibility and humor.

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One of the things that struck me

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in your short film series,

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The Deer In Between,

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and folks, I’m going to put a link

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to Clem’s work in the chat here.

00:09:45 ►

Well, first, can you set up what the deer in between is?

00:09:47 ►

It’s this really cool stop motion animation, but perhaps you can give us a brief synopsis of the series.

00:09:53 ►

Okay, sure.

00:09:54 ►

It is sort of an existential drama that takes place between a pair of deer, a pair of worker deer who are working in the underworld and their job is to weigh

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souls to see if they are lighter than a feather heavier than a feather and if they’re lighter

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then they reincarnate and if they’re heavier then they’re eaten by a monster and on the other side

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of this is mushrooms which are and fungus which are about to inherit the earth and so they’re sort of

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plotting their return to being in charge and it’s done through a sort of a kingdom like the fungal

00:10:34 ►

kingdom so I kind of play with like phylum and kingdom and stuff and so you kind of watch and see that um the deer’s own like the deer’s role in measuring the souls and like

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do are they impacting the scales and then are the mushrooms really going to inherit the earth and so

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you’re kind of going back and forth between these two stories um and that’s all stop motion and it’s

00:11:00 ►

for free on vimeo um yeah and one of the things that was so interesting talking about your concerns for the natural world and giving agency to the natural world is that it’s really infused in that story.

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I mean, there’s a lot of humor in that story.

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And there’s some super rank puns, which good on you for that, in that story.

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But the thing that just really struck me is that, you know, it was like a species, this version of the Bechdel test.

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You know, it’s all of species, this version of the Bechdel test, you know,

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it’s all of this non-human agency being explored. And, you know, I was wondering if you could speak

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to how the non-human and this reverence for the non-human impacts your work.

00:11:40 ►

I mean, I think there’s, I think that it just, it feels important to highlight. And, and when I was writing it, I really thought the deer were sort of bring in as characters. They all were very unique. And I would and I really would just hear sort of the there.

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I don’t know. They were just very alive. And it was very easy to write the mushrooms.

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I could just kind of feel their drama. And and it was just funny just to think about fungus on the whole.

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to think about fungus on the whole and what, you know, like how black mold impacts, you know,

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other mushrooms who may be like the golden chanterelle who’s sort of, you know, maybe has a different personality and, you know, it’s more in well regard. And, and so I think in that way,

00:12:37 ►

it’s just all very chatty. I think I’m, I’m a very chatty animator, writer animator kind of,

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and, and I think the natural world is just very chatty. And so I just sort of chatty animator, writer animator kind of, and, um, and I think the natural world is just

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very chatty. Um, and so I just sort of, I guess I, I try to bring that, that through. Um, and then

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I did work with a more recent project was around lemurs, um, and that, and it was sort of, um,

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a play on lemurs and conservation centers that are like rehabs.

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So I had lemurs in rehab.

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And that’s also kind of like a psychedelic storyline.

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But they’re near extinct species and lemur translates to the word ghost.

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And so there was something very poetic about that.

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And so that also, that sort of became important to me.

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And I think the way that mapped onto queer culture and I would have queer and trans artists be the voices of these characters.

00:13:36 ►

So, so could you, can you talk a little bit about, you were talking about how the lemurs map onto queer culture.

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Could you unpack that idea a little bit?

00:13:43 ►

Yeah, I mean, all of, I mean, I think all of these sort of stories do I might the first time I started working with pop puppet stop motion

00:13:50 ►

animation was in this film called Valencia that was an adaptation of Michelle T’s memoir, and 20

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filmmakers each took a chapter of the book, and then did a five minute short film that we then put together into a feature

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um and so in my chapter i was like well i really want to try puppet stop motion animation and this

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is a really good chance to do it because i’ll do half live action and half puppet stop motion and

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if it’s if i’m terrible at it and i it’s you know a fail it’s only two and two minutes two and a

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half minutes that i have to kind of resolve you, so it seemed like a queer cultural text.

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And so in that story, I had taken these queers and then turned them into animated buffalo.

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Because the chapter that I was working on, they take magic mushrooms.

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And then there’s also a scene at the Buffalo Paddock in San Francisco.

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And so there was something about talking about, you know, I think that

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it’s sort of, I’m coming to it in my own, in my own way, you know, outside of that. But I think

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it’s, you know, there’s a lot of people before me that have had this sort of reverence for nature,

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a relationship to it and a way of like belonging to the earth that, you know, I think psychedelics have like definitely opened

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me up towards, you know, um, and so with the lemurs, uh, similarly it’s, um,

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there, there just is no home for them to go back to. Like they exist in the wild in Madagascar

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and that’s where they’re from but they sort of have been

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um living at the Duke lemur Center in this sort of limbo state because if they’re able to then

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they’re keeping them wild and the in the optimistic hope that they can return them to Madagascar

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someday um but with deforestation and uh political instability it’s just it’s not that likely so

00:16:26 ►

you have these these lemurs existing in this like in north carolina in durham north carolina it’s

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just so strange and like some of the species they have uh like partnered together and it’s um

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and i don’t know there was something very queer about that too. They just kind of, it was sort of like Muppety and queer.

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And so I think these queer narratives run through all these different projects.

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And there’s something about, I think, cultural erasure in general, displacement, climate

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crisis, like there’s no disconnect.

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like there’s no disconnect but i think where i can bring in my own point of view um and i feel a relationship to what the conditions of nature are is through this like queer lens you know

00:17:14 ►

whether it’s like insects disappearing or lemurs in some other city that is not their home that

00:17:22 ►

they like were evolving on madagascar for millions of years on

00:17:26 ►

their own but you know certainly certainly that sense of certainly that sense of there’s no normal

00:17:33 ►

to return to is now you know something that we all live with on a on a daily basis yeah

00:17:39 ►

which is which is fascinating to see and also fascinating was that sequence that’s in the Valencia excerpt is I loved how you depicted that sense of discovery of the psychedelic space with your actors.

00:17:53 ►

And one of the things that really strikes me in your work that I’m very curious about is that the psychedelic state is such a personal and subjective experience. So what are some of your, your key guidelines for

00:18:06 ►

how to convey that or capture it in such an objective, uh, imagistic experience?

00:18:12 ►

I mean, I, I, yeah, totally. It’s totally subjective and that’s very interesting thing,

00:18:18 ►

but I think, you know, we all, I think it’s those sort of,, right, that people relate to where you’re, I think, for the most part in our brains.

00:18:30 ►

You know, I mean, I think Dr. Oliver Sacks wrote about it really well and stuff.

00:18:34 ►

I just think there are these like experiences that we all tend to share, you know, staring at something a little too long and it sort of starts moving around.

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And so I think it’s like those

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sort of relational things but I think I just always go for the humor maybe and so maybe that’s

00:18:51 ►

what translates to a more universal uh moment for people um I think that’s kind of what I run with

00:19:00 ►

in that in that instance so but I I really had fun um shooting the scene where they’re all staring

00:19:08 ►

at the garage door like it was very uh fun to shoot because it just felt like um i don’t know

00:19:15 ►

i think a shared experience if you talk to people who like tripped and stuff i mean i i definitely

00:19:19 ►

remember a time of like seeing some friends suddenly dressing very differently and i was like oh they did acid yeah i think i think we all resemble that remark to a certain to a certain

00:19:31 ►

extent and in this room uh and and the humor is a good uh a good pivot to talk about uh your new

00:19:37 ►

story uh let me let you go and so i’m uh do you want to play the clip first do you want to play the clip first? Do you want to set it up first?

00:19:56 ►

I mean, I’ll set up very briefly just to say that Let Me Let You Go is a film that I sort of came to me in the spring of 2019.

00:20:05 ►

I was writing about a bar in Los Angeles that really didn’t exist for very long, but it was a place that I went to in my twenties. And it just ended up being this really formative art space where

00:20:10 ►

a lot of the artists, like even Bette Williams, I met there, there,

00:20:15 ►

Vaginal Davis had a night. I met Guinevere Turner and Jose Munoz wrote about it in one of his books.

00:20:28 ►

Jose Munoz wrote about it in one of his books. And so it was like this very short lived magical bar that went away. And then there was a bar in San Francisco called The Stud and it felt very like a similarly formative and generative space.

00:20:38 ►

And so I was this is not in the script at all, but this is just the backstory, which I think is kind of important as far as like there are living in San Francisco for 10 years.

00:20:49 ►

I just watched so many experimental art spaces, not even necessarily queer ones, but certainly experimental art spaces either have to constantly fight to continue to exist or disappear.

00:21:08 ►

um and so I think that that storyline and that and that importance of um a gathering space of you know weirdos and artists like how that was a very important thing and and I think accessing

00:21:13 ►

these memories I don’t I don’t know what happened but I went from writing a piece that was supposed

00:21:18 ►

to be a very straightforward piece for SFMOMA open space Space ended up becoming this treatment for a feature film that was totally

00:21:29 ►

fungal like it was just this queer sci-fi feature film super fungal and it just came in like a

00:21:36 ►

download and I had like most of the film and then like one day and then the next day I like I had a

00:21:43 ►

dream of what the ending was going to be.

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And I woke up crying and I could just see it. And and I ended up well, open space just got cut from SFMOMA’s platform.

00:21:55 ►

And then the bar, the stud also during the pandemic had to close its doors.

00:21:59 ►

And so while working on this thing for a couple of years, like it was, it was definitely

00:22:06 ►

prescient. And I had to change a lot of the jokes because they were a little too close to

00:22:11 ►

what we were kind of living out. And so there came a time where I was like, was this just like

00:22:15 ►

an omen? Or like, was this actually art? And I’m not sure. But I did a lot of work to create a

00:22:22 ►

hopeful ending, which was similar to the one that I thought about. But

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I just realized that we really just don’t need another dystopic apocalyptic story. And so I

00:22:32 ►

really wanted to create something hopeful. And so I wanted to create something funny and hopeful.

00:22:40 ►

And so what you’re going to see is really just the first page of the script and kind of a riff on it.

00:22:45 ►

And I created this. It’s pretty much what the first page is, but it’s slightly different.

00:22:51 ►

And I created this because I am doing a Kickstarter for this feature and I wanted to be able to show like a sense of the humor and kind of the world that we are going to be like in but departing

00:23:06 ►

from you know so i guess that’s a very long setup but a setup nonetheless okay sounds good so let’s

00:23:13 ►

take a quick look seed capital seed currents seed currency you got to get in early Seed capital. Seed. Currents.

00:23:26 ►

Seed.

00:23:27 ►

Currency.

00:23:29 ►

You gotta get in early.

00:23:31 ►

While it’s still morally objectionable.

00:23:36 ►

Like crypto or deep sea mining.

00:23:38 ►

NFTs are still bad. Are there fungible and non-fungible tokens in the shroom boom?

00:23:44 ►

Culturally speaking.

00:23:45 ►

Oh, well…

00:23:47 ►

So, it’s this brand new 3D printed earth that hovers above the older extracted one as the sea rises.

00:23:54 ►

You know, the earth is 71% water.

00:23:56 ►

So you could, like, double the continents.

00:24:01 ►

the continents.

00:24:06 ►

Ooh.

00:24:09 ►

Ooh. Ooh.

00:24:13 ►

Would you like another orange?

00:24:23 ►

Oh, shit. Was that the helm?

00:24:26 ►

A fledgling idea.

00:24:28 ►

Miguel, shouldn’t you be documenting my insights?

00:24:32 ►

Oh, um, you’re basic, but if you want to upgrade to the innovator package, I can…

00:24:42 ►

Nah.

00:24:43 ►

I brain train.

00:24:44 ►

Nootropics five days a week.

00:24:46 ►

Outstanding memory.

00:24:48 ►

But don’t worry.

00:24:50 ►

I’ll give you a good rating.

00:24:54 ►

Oh.

00:24:58 ►

Well, I love how you

00:25:02 ►

anticipate how this grand thing

00:25:04 ►

that we’re all working for can become very paltry.

00:25:08 ►

So I just it’s just that that was just awesome.

00:25:13 ►

Like, I don’t know how many folks have really thought about the reality of like, oh, my God, I’m going to be a trip sitter.

00:25:19 ►

And what does that mean to be a corporate trip sitter?

00:25:21 ►

Like, walk me through that that anticipation process and what you’re putting in here. It’s really funny. Really funny. Oh, thanks. Oh, good.

00:25:30 ►

Always what I’m going for. Well, you know, I think it’s just from living in San Francisco for,

00:25:35 ►

I’m not there. I moved to LA, but being in San Francisco for 10 years, I think it’s like,

00:25:39 ►

you just saw the way different things went. And like, I don’t know if you just saw the way different things went and like I don’t know if you just saw scooters

00:25:45 ►

everywhere wherever you live respectively and how the scooter thing went um and I and every time I

00:25:51 ►

would see like a certain number of scooters I just was like we need a word for this I was like it’s

00:25:55 ►

an embarrassment of scooters like what what is the plural for this um and so I think and I just

00:26:03 ►

watched like tech like eat San Francisco like so many people

00:26:07 ►

and um from the Google buses to everything so I think there’s just this like this feeling of

00:26:15 ►

I guess the gig work like really it’s just about setting up the gig economy and these

00:26:20 ►

and gig workers you know and like what, that kind of anything else would be

00:26:25 ►

better than this. And then, yeah, and then your future idea, like what it just really would be

00:26:32 ►

like being an eight hour, like in an eight hour Uber or Lyft driver, you know. So which just seems

00:26:41 ►

kind of terrible to be because like, who’s going to be the client that’s going to pay for that, you know, too. So it’s kind of thinking like, who’s gonna, who are these people that are going to be booking this and then who are the people that are going to be working in this job. So, yeah.

00:27:05 ►

is like, I think, I don’t know if this is what’s being worked for. I feel like there’s the, there is the like work for like the Michael Pollan, take mushrooms on a couch with your therapist,

00:27:12 ►

but then there’s also like, you know, take mushrooms with your pal Johnny on the beach.

00:27:17 ►

And I think that that’s like, that’s a really important thing is to like go to the beach or

00:27:22 ►

to go to a forest. And, I think there’s there is a concern

00:27:26 ►

that I have personally about taking the ecology away from the psychedelic, you know, and the

00:27:33 ►

community aspect of like a casual, awkward friend thing, you know, but not to put that stuff down

00:27:39 ►

either, because I do think plant medicine is really important. I just those are the things

00:27:44 ►

I worry about. So then I just make it funny. And I, you know, make a important. I just, those are the things I worry about. So

00:27:45 ►

then I just make it funny. And I, you know, make a movie. That’s how my brain works. But I’m so

00:27:49 ►

curious what everyone thinks and what you think and all that. Well, let’s, let’s open it up. Does

00:27:55 ►

anybody want to share their thoughts or have any questions they’d like to share about the clip or

00:27:59 ►

about Clem’s work broadly? Yeah, I did want to ask Clem about like uh their influences basically i almost am thinking

00:28:08 ►

about somebody like kuchar or kenneth anger or something like that you know like classic

00:28:14 ►

underground films um but who is really what really brought you to filmmaking itself or is there any

00:28:22 ►

was did you have a like you mentioned the beats for instance you know

00:28:25 ►

that influenced you but what were the filmmakers that really pointed you to that medium um you know

00:28:33 ►

i think it’s like i think the muppets had a you know jim henson and like had a major impact i

00:28:41 ►

think the never-ending story really impacted me and like Pee Wee’s

00:28:46 ►

Big Adventure. And so I think there was something about like Rocky Horror Picture Show and those

00:28:53 ►

kinds of things. Not to say that underground cinema wasn’t incredibly important. There’s a

00:28:58 ►

filmmaker, John Grayson, who’s this really incredible experimental filmmaker um who has this film fig trees that felt really um pivotal

00:29:07 ►

uh seeing that um and so I think I think I spent a lot of my 20s at like queer film festivals and

00:29:17 ►

so I took in a lot of um you know outsider art and um you know and and again like vaginal davis felt really important

00:29:28 ►

ron athie feels really important um and so and then the people that i’m i’m kind of able to be

00:29:34 ►

working on this film with so silas howard and harry dodge had this film by hooker by crook

00:29:39 ►

that was this really incredible landmark uh buddy film um about two trans guys that was really impactful as well.

00:29:48 ►

And Silas is my executive producer on this project. And then Zachary Drucker is another

00:29:55 ►

incredible filmmaker and she’s collaborated with Wallace Sabrina. One of my favorite films of hers

00:30:02 ►

is At Least You Know You Exist. And so I’m working with both of them on this project.

00:30:08 ►

And I think it’s kind of to like weave in that magic and their influences as well.

00:30:14 ►

Thanks for that question.

00:30:17 ►

Thank you, Justin.

00:30:19 ►

Melissa, did you have a question?

00:30:20 ►

I see that you put your video on there.

00:30:22 ►

Hey, thanks for um i did check out that film

00:30:25 ►

before the video before we started our show here and um and then checking it out again it really um

00:30:34 ►

put a lot together when you said that a lot had to do with the beat service which i am a child of, I mean, not the beat service, but the beats, um, uh, culture, subculture. And, um, I’m

00:30:48 ►

extremely, of course, fascinated because that’s, uh, the relations and association of when I was

00:30:54 ►

born and what my father had, uh, the, the, when you said you were into used books and my father

00:31:03 ►

had a bookstore called the hip pocket bookstore here

00:31:05 ►

in santa cruz which led a huge movement as well in relations mostly with those guys and before it

00:31:13 ►

turned into even what they thought as a subculture but what i take out of everything including

00:31:19 ►

what you’re promoting or or um and i shouldn’t say promoting because that’s not what you’re doing

00:31:26 ►

you’re you are just proving um what we all need is equality and in every regards of you know being

00:31:35 ►

human because that’s what we need now due to the pandemic because it’s not that uh you know we’re

00:31:42 ►

all here now and i think people are starting to get it.

00:31:46 ►

I think that psychedelics are a huge movement.

00:31:49 ►

And like you said, with the Michael Pollan and with the meetings, therapeutic wise have taken the psychedelics.

00:31:55 ►

I think there’s a beyond to that as well, especially, you know, with the indigenous people and becoming having to be respectful for that type of world.

00:32:11 ►

And, you know, I just appreciate you. I just want to say I second time around watching that even more so.

00:32:18 ►

And I look forward to more of your work.

00:32:20 ►

Oh, thank you. That’s really kind of generous and really sweet to hear.

00:32:24 ►

And yeah, I mean the

00:32:25 ►

used bookstore was there was just like this counterculture shelf and I think I I eventually

00:32:30 ►

got through the entire shelf you know and then had to like make my own way it was sort of like

00:32:34 ►

Ken Kesey, Tim Leary, Ram Dass it kind of just ended there and then I kind of had to you know

00:32:39 ►

find my own way after that um but I mean I think a lot of signposts were eventually to go to San Francisco

00:32:45 ►

and LA as well. So I think California has been really good for my brain in that way. But I agree.

00:32:55 ►

I mean, I think I had different thoughts about living in San Francisco during a lot of those

00:33:00 ►

fires. I thought that was going to be a great equalizer. And then I just realized that,

00:33:06 ►

because I was like, well, we all breathe the same air.

00:33:08 ►

So this is really going to be this great unifier.

00:33:12 ►

But the thing I didn’t anticipate

00:33:13 ►

was just that the wealthy and elites

00:33:16 ►

would just get on a plane and go to New Zealand.

00:33:19 ►

And I guess that’s kind of, you know,

00:33:21 ►

and it was also, I sort of like,

00:33:22 ►

in writing this film,

00:33:23 ►

I got very interested in like billionaire bunkers. And that was another thing that like in researching that it was like,

00:33:29 ►

oh, billionaires don’t need bunkers. They just have places all over the world and passports

00:33:34 ►

for all over the world. So it’s not, you know, it’s it is really like capitalism and collapse

00:33:42 ►

and, and kind of and so I guess that is the thing about who is benefiting from cryptocurrency and these kind of alternative systems and kind of looking to each other and community really into fighting for, you know, hopefully people realize the importance of public parks during the pandemic too.

00:34:04 ►

And hopefully people will fight for those as well. And the importance of public spaces.

00:34:09 ►

Up there. Anybody else want to want to jump in.

00:34:12 ►

Go ahead, Andrew.

00:34:25 ►

hit very close to home precisely because of how well it was done and how well the you know the words and everything were chosen um i i didn’t expect it to hit quite as close to home as it did

00:34:32 ►

and and and all that i could you know do was like fall back on well like you know at least i’ll be

00:34:41 ►

able to grow my own at home and do my own thing out in the canyons. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. The world will be fine. Okay. And, you know, so just the extent to which you transported me

00:34:49 ►

into that world, you know, it was, it was, I was well transported.

00:34:55 ►

Oh, thank you. Well, you know, I learned a lot while Bette Williams was writing her book,

00:35:00 ►

because I spent time. And so I think I was just an earshot of maybe the political underpinnings of

00:35:05 ►

psychedelics and and so I think it is that like I hope that’s the case and I hope that goes

00:35:11 ►

this like decriminalization way and that everybody can grow what they want and do what they want

00:35:16 ►

I just would hate to see it become this like pharmaceutical only you know, carceral situation, that the carceral situation doesn’t change, you know,

00:35:27 ►

or it becomes kind of a Monsanto type thing or something. It seems like a big moment, really.

00:35:37 ►

But also an exciting moment as far as like other kinds of mushrooms and their role in being able to do so many different things for

00:35:46 ►

climate change. So it wasn’t just like psychedelic mushrooms that influenced this feature script that

00:35:52 ►

I’m working on, but it’s definitely like a lot of Paul Stamets work in this like understanding of

00:35:57 ►

all the different attributes that mushrooms have to like cure cancer and clean water and

00:36:02 ►

like boost our neurotransmitters and and like neuroplasticity and

00:36:08 ►

stuff like there’s really just so much um i have so much hope and then i’m so in awe and then there’s

00:36:13 ►

also of course the terence mckenna sort of like a ufo outer space aspect to the to the mushroom um

00:36:20 ►

story too which you know um i seem i i think seems very likely as well. It’s just mushrooms are really

00:36:28 ►

powerful. I definitely a lot of times feel like I’m working for them and I’m not mad at it.

00:36:34 ►

And you raise a really interesting observation in talking about Bette and talking about

00:36:38 ►

your own work in contrast to the current psychedelic celebrity, which tends to be around researchers

00:36:46 ►

and advocates. You know, those are the names that you see up in lights on the psychedelic conferences.

00:36:50 ►

And there’s a lot of good reasons for that, because they’re changing a lot of public perception and

00:36:54 ►

really putting their neck out, their necks out in affecting the legal and the cultural environment.

00:37:00 ►

And yet, when you contrast this with psychedelic history, it was artists and writers and musicians that really defined the discourse around psychedelics in the 1960s and the 1970s. will play a role regarding the psychedelic conversation or what is your call to action

00:37:25 ►

if that’s not too strong a phrase for your peers in the arts like you and bet to participate in

00:37:31 ►

this conversation from that point of view i mean i think bet did a lot already like just in the sort

00:37:37 ►

of um in the book that she wrote in the wild kindness like i think her writing sort of became it is a contemporary

00:37:47 ►

moment you know it’s a different voice it’s it’s her voice it’s a different voice than

00:37:52 ►

than was you know um that moment with like tim leary or ken kesey or the beats or something

00:37:59 ►

like that i mean there were women that were a part of the beat movement but you know it’s like

00:38:03 ►

they’re not the like williamroughs headliner, you know?

00:38:06 ►

And so I think there’s something about like that as an artist and a poet and

00:38:11 ►

being able to just sort of bring this really beautiful aesthetic and writing

00:38:17 ►

and, and, and,

00:38:19 ►

and bringing that lyrical voice and talking about the present moment, I think it really moved things

00:38:26 ►

into a really exciting place that I also hope that there is this broadening of who those people will

00:38:36 ►

be, right? And I think she kind of points to them in her book, like the Detroit scene and different

00:38:41 ►

scenes where you have a lot more of a diverse group of people.

00:38:47 ►

And then I also hope like, you know, and I think the Beats also had like a queerness for sure to

00:38:53 ►

them. There were, but I think like that broadening to like queer and trans people and like a more

00:38:57 ►

diverse moment, I think is a really exciting if there if there are these sort of outsider marginalized artists like who are like

00:39:09 ►

stepping into this cultural moment of um psychedelics i think that would be this really

00:39:14 ►

exciting way as a call and response to the amazing culture that happened in the 60s and 70s around

00:39:21 ►

psychedelics it would be like a really fun call and response kind of thing or just like a a new moment to sort of speak to where we are at now which is very different and the

00:39:30 ►

stakes are really different with climate crisis and stuff like we are really in a different time

00:39:35 ►

and there is no going back and it’s it’s a far more developed world and you know it, it’s definitely needs a lot of artistic attention.

00:39:47 ►

If you were projecting out what you want that artistic attention to look like in, say, five years, what would that be?

00:40:12 ►

coming out of this experience that there is this revitalized um energy and urgency around like art having and maintaining art spaces that are accessible you know and that are um

00:40:21 ►

that can exist and that are not these corporate entities or that have like these, you know,

00:40:29 ►

that have, that there are local scenes and that there are spaces that are, that the rent is low

00:40:37 ►

enough that people who are in the margins can generate culture, you know, and have a space to have a local scene.

00:40:46 ►

I think it’s like, we’re still sort of fighting back this, this corporate moment that happened

00:40:53 ►

following, you know, like Reagan and all of these things. It’s like that we’re still kind of pushing

00:40:57 ►

all of that back. And we’re in, and we’re capitals at and wealth disparity and this advanced end stage capitalism collapse moment.

00:41:08 ►

You know, if I in an ideal world, there’d be like land back and abolition and like in a whole like renaissance of public parks and and forestry and art.

00:41:22 ►

Like, I’d love to see that be the five years that we’re looking at is like

00:41:25 ►

you know a lot of soul searching and a lot of change in an immediate fashion you know because

00:41:30 ►

we don’t have the time I think that I had a lot more hope around that around like the George Floyd

00:41:38 ►

moment and the public energy that was there and then um since, I’m just not so sure. And I don’t know what

00:41:47 ►

this sort of we can’t go back, but we have to go forward kind of thing is going to look like.

00:41:54 ►

But I am excited about like the mushroom moment and like the psychedelic moment, because I do

00:42:00 ►

think that there is like a creative thinking that can happen en masse if we can sort

00:42:07 ►

of get out of this economic situation and really start taxing the rich or, you know, and like

00:42:13 ►

holding these people accountable or really making a firm cultural decision that we don’t want to go

00:42:20 ►

to Mars, you know, that we don’t want billionaires putting satellites all over the planet. We want

00:42:26 ►

to see our stars. I’d like to see a return to the technology of nature. And I guess that is sort of

00:42:32 ►

like at the heart of my future and why I’m making this film and why I feel so passionate about it

00:42:38 ►

is I do feel this like real sense of urgency around what happens with fascism and the rise of global fascism

00:42:46 ►

and culture, and the disappearance of culture and the removal of critical thought and like

00:42:53 ►

interesting books and films. And, you know, and so I think, yeah, there’s just a real,

00:43:00 ►

I have a real sense of urgency around what that five years is going to be. And I think this election for the United States in 2022 is going to be a really deciding factor, because it is this moment where our political system is either going to be gerrymandered forever, and there is no getting democracy back it was like we have this thin little shred of a sense of of whatever this democracy is that we’re calling democracy and um and i think if

00:43:30 ►

we kind of lose it and it and it goes this other way then it’s sort of this like white minority

00:43:36 ►

with all the money and power um gets to maintain that and then i think it i’m not saying that that

00:43:42 ►

would be forever i think it’s just a harder it’s’s a harder fight, you know, it’s an uglier fight. And I just don’t think it has to go that way.

00:43:50 ►

I think that it’s like, yeah, sorry.

00:43:52 ►

No, no, please go ahead.

00:44:05 ►

like importance in science and stuff. It’s like, once you sort of strip away the humanities and the arts, you kind of end up in this moment, you know, you do need the sort of like the art and

00:44:12 ►

the humor and the psychedelics in, in a good way, you know, and the cosmic thought and, and sort of

00:44:19 ►

the reverence of things and that, and that awe, you know, I think maybe that is my favorite thing

00:44:24 ►

about like plant medicine is like the awe that you get to carry around, you know, I think maybe that is my favorite thing about like plant medicine

00:44:25 ►

is like the awe that you get to carry around, you know, I think we need some more awe.

00:44:31 ►

Absolutely. And, you know, when you look at the dystopian fiction of the late 20th century that

00:44:38 ►

were, you know, that was designed to be cautionary for the environments that we’re moving into,

00:44:44 ►

not, you know, dystopia should not be documentary.

00:44:47 ►

And so there’s a call to action inherent in what you’re saying that is giving artists

00:44:53 ►

and creative people permission to dream their way, our way out of this, to provide the thought

00:45:00 ►

leadership examples for this is what the world could look like. You know, these are,

00:45:05 ►

these are some scenarios for how the 2040s need not be a dystopian hellscape. And there’s something

00:45:12 ►

in the log line of your film on Kickstarter, and I’d like you to talk about the Kickstarter after

00:45:17 ►

this, but there’s something in the log line of your film about artists merging with the mushrooms

00:45:22 ►

to create this kind of new being and and i’m wondering if maybe you

00:45:26 ►

can talk about what that merging looks like not only in your film but perhaps for those of us

00:45:30 ►

that are looking to embody a more helpful path forward um so i mean i i’m trying to figure out

00:45:37 ►

and this was something i struggled with with like the kickstarter but i do because i didn’t want so many spoilers in sort of the synopsis.

00:45:46 ►

But so you have these two characters who were working in the gig economy as artists,

00:45:53 ►

and they’re given this opportunity by a nefarious biotech billionaire to become cross-species with fungus.

00:46:01 ►

Or not, you know, so that but but basically they’re told that like the world

00:46:05 ►

as they know it is over and that you know they if they want to survive then they can become

00:46:10 ►

cross-species with fungus and then they get all those those positive attributes of of the fungus

00:46:14 ►

um and so that way they can like survive what is to come and so they agree and then they end up being relocated to this refuge site, which is kind of like an artist colony for other artists that have become part fungus.

00:46:34 ►

And so over the course of the film, they become more fungal.

00:46:41 ►

And I guess maybe the hopeful, the hopeful side of it.

00:46:46 ►

I mean, it was interesting when I wrote it, I think I just kept like,

00:46:49 ►

and I wrote it before the pandemic and it sort of also involved booster

00:46:52 ►

shots. So it was kind of this very strange thing, but I,

00:46:54 ►

I kept this like feeling of like, well, we’re going to be okay.

00:46:57 ►

Cause we’ve all, you know, had the serum and like, it’s going to be fine.

00:47:01 ►

But, but that was just this like fiction in my head, you know,

00:47:04 ►

it was sort of I just was like, all the weirdo artists are going to be all right. But, you know,

00:47:11 ►

I guess that’s the thing, or maybe, you know, maybe the film is just that, that feeling that

00:47:17 ►

we could be all right. And maybe it is. I’m not sure if it’s a metaphor about like working with nature, but I mean, I think it kind of gets

00:47:26 ►

into this idea of, you know, compost and like, holy shit. And, and that is sort of like the

00:47:36 ►

relationship between like compost and death and life and rebirth. Like there really is something

00:47:42 ►

of this like mycelium that is running underneath

00:47:45 ►

everything and the way that like these ideas and art and connectivity like all that stuff feeds the

00:47:52 ►

feeds the grassroots and feeds the connectivity so i think you know engaging in um practices that

00:47:59 ►

connect us to um the earth and and sort of think, I guess, I guess some boundaries, I guess. I mean,

00:48:09 ►

this is not what my film is doing. But I think I’m going into a tangent here. And I just,

00:48:13 ►

I just have to say, like, I just hope we can start to have some boundaries around air quality,

00:48:20 ►

and the quality of water. Because I think in the same way

00:48:25 ►

that developers will keep pushing it

00:48:27 ►

and we’re watching it all over the world,

00:48:30 ►

I think it’s like these green new deals

00:48:31 ►

and sort of these things.

00:48:33 ►

I think even like on a personal level,

00:48:35 ►

I think the stakes of that feel really dire.

00:48:39 ►

So I am just like,

00:48:41 ►

I’m just worried about that kind of stuff.

00:48:43 ►

So I guess maybe it is like, taking care of like

00:48:46 ►

paying attention to the bees and like, taking care of insects and like maybe paying attention

00:48:51 ►

to what’s around you a little bit more and making sure those like ecological systems are doing okay,

00:48:57 ►

because we are all in an ecology together. And then there’s all these like local tiny ecologies,

00:49:02 ►

there’s no separating, you know, and I think people really, especially in the US, they just have this idea that we can be this separate thing. And it’s, there’s just no separation. And I think that that’s the psychedelic message, right? It’s all, we’re all part of this thing. You know, there’s no getting away from it. I mean, and if you do go to Mars, fine, don’t come back, you know, or, you know, or maybe like you just have to pay back.

00:49:26 ►

Like there’s an exit toll and you have to pay back everything you mined to get to Mars.

00:49:31 ►

Right. You’ve got to pay that back. So everything you extracted, we get and you can go.

00:49:37 ►

And that’s and that’s such a hopeful message, too, that, you know, you can have you can have this this monoculture of the technology, but you got to have your feet

00:49:47 ►

in the dirt. You got to meet your neighbors. You got to find that you have your own agency. And I

00:49:52 ►

think that’s really comes through within all of your work that I’ve seen is this call that

00:49:57 ►

it’s the people you know and the relationships that you build that create this this sense of alternative uh to whatever the dominator culture

00:50:06 ►

is telling you you can have uh there there’s there’s other agency and you have more agency

00:50:11 ►

than you know yeah and like you know you think about the 60s and the 70s and all that culture

00:50:17 ►

around us and other things it’s like the the darker side of it was all the like experiments

00:50:21 ►

that were happening from the government and the you know

00:50:25 ►

and like the dismantling of the left wing and murdering of of uh black power and you know i

00:50:30 ►

mean it is just a constant resistance it hasn’t stopped you know so i think it’s just paying

00:50:36 ►

attention to like the fight that’s been continuing but just becoming um i guess more glossy and sort of corporate, you know, so.

00:50:46 ►

I have a question. I don’t know.

00:50:47 ►

Yeah, go ahead, Justin.

00:50:48 ►

Yeah.

00:50:50 ►

Interesting to know, Clement, what your opinion, when you think about the 60s counterculture, which is probably the one thing that derives most direct, we both directly derive from in terms of psychedelic culture and its vision.

00:51:05 ►

directly derived from in terms of psychedelic culture and its vision what do you what sort of what do you think it what do you think those lessons are for us now the things that it can

00:51:10 ►

give us or maybe the things that we should ignore versus the things that it really has to give us

00:51:15 ►

that we should sort of be pushing forward as we sort of like push forward into this newer era

00:51:20 ►

you know the psychedelic i want to say poetry i want to say the importance of poetry i think

00:51:27 ►

i think love and poetry right is like that’s just what’s there i think there’s something about like

00:51:33 ►

let’s not forget the poets you know and and sort of elevate that and listen to that because it’s

00:51:40 ►

it’s um yeah i that’s i mean that’s like was my first sort of instinctual response.

00:51:48 ►

And I think it was like, I think my favorite stuff about, you know, finding that used bookstore

00:51:56 ►

is like a little trans kid who’s like queer and didn’t quite have names for things and

00:52:01 ►

just couldn’t kind of figure out like why I was so different and just sort of

00:52:05 ►

like, you know, lonely and different. And then I what I found in the beats was like, I mean,

00:52:10 ►

of course, it was like, the homoerotic relationships, and then homosexual relationships

00:52:15 ►

was obviously very eye opening and helpful. And I thought, okay, like, I need to move to California,

00:52:19 ►

that seems like, I’m queer, and I need to move, seemed very apparent to me but I think like the beautiful

00:52:26 ►

stuff in there was sort of this um was the friendships were really strong and um and I

00:52:34 ►

think and like the collectivity and the and the gathering in public space and um and just kind of

00:52:39 ►

being weird together I think that sort of weirdness and group activity and like exploration

00:52:47 ►

of art and nature all kind of going together. I think there’s something really, you know,

00:52:53 ►

and music was also, so it was like poetry and music. And, you know, I worry about the musicians

00:52:57 ►

now too, you know, cause that like making a living as a musician has only gotten harder also,

00:53:03 ►

you know, it’s kind of these are

00:53:05 ►

important the arts are really really important and I think maybe it’s because it’s like

00:53:09 ►

it is that like sense of reverence and awe and love and connectivity um but yeah I think those

00:53:16 ►

like local artists local musicians I think like that sort of like um band of people that are that are around you. I think there’s something,

00:53:27 ►

there’s something in the sixties and seventies to that, that like also feeds into the politics

00:53:32 ►

and, and values aligning and the, and the fights for things, um, that, that matter to all of us.

00:53:38 ►

I think there is something about getting together, you know, it’s definitely about getting together in art and music.

00:53:53 ►

Could you please elaborate on any favorites of music or poetry? Sorry, I had tears in my eyes till you’re bringing tears to my eyes. Oh, that’s very sweet. I mean, I think if you kind of plow

00:54:01 ►

through Bette Williams’ Wild Kindness, there’s like a really wonderful,

00:54:05 ►

you kind of come into contact with a lot of great voices.

00:54:10 ►

You know, there’s people,

00:54:12 ►

I love Michelle T and Ariana Rimes and Dia Felix

00:54:16 ►

and Eileen Miles.

00:54:20 ►

There’s a lot of really brilliant new narrative people.

00:54:23 ►

Like if you start looking into the new

00:54:25 ►

narrative i think you kind of open up into this really exciting portal um you know like getting

00:54:31 ►

into like kevin killian’s work and i don’t there’s a really um and camille roy uh i think you kind of

00:54:38 ►

like go down that new narrative road i think it’s it’ll just like open on to all these exciting voices um i think it’s

00:54:46 ►

it’s uh there’s a lot of a lot of magic and and beauty there and at the risk of interjecting the

00:54:52 ►

the beat poet that really stands out for me in this space is diane deprima and there’s an amazing

00:54:58 ►

new edition of revolutionary letters that city lights just put out. And if you really, Melissa, want to get into like the deep

00:55:06 ►

poetry of the psychedelic feminine, Loba by Diane de Prima is just a masterpiece.

00:55:13 ►

Wow, thank you. And I’ll also plug my friend Stephen Rain’s book, A Quote for David, which is

00:55:19 ►

not psychedelic, but it is. It just came out on City Lights. And it’s this beautiful book long poem

00:55:28 ►

about the dentist that was accused of having AIDS by Kimberly Burgalis. And it’s sort of a

00:55:35 ►

different turn on that story. So that just dropped. So I’m just going to put that out there.

00:55:42 ►

Unrelatedly.

00:55:48 ►

Well, now is the time of poetry. We’re seeing a lot of poetry, you know, really resurging. So I think it’s a timely call to action, Clem.

00:55:52 ►

Can you tell us a little bit about, I know you’ve got about what, two weeks left in your

00:55:55 ►

Kickstarters. Could you tell us a little bit about, you know, what some of the rewards are

00:55:59 ►

and how people can support your work and help this film film become a reality that would be very exciting

00:56:05 ►

thanks for thank you for setting that up i appreciate it um so yeah there’s actually

00:56:09 ►

it’s there’s like 10 days left it’s it’s really thinned out we have a long way to go um and it’s

00:56:17 ►

um so if you just go to kickstarter let me let you go is the name of the film and then it’s under

00:56:24 ►

where you could look up Clement Goldberg.

00:56:26 ►

I think either way it would come up.

00:56:28 ►

And there’s a bunch of different reward tiers.

00:56:31 ►

So, you know, you can, I mean,

00:56:33 ►

you can contribute as little as a dollar

00:56:34 ►

and that’s helpful.

00:56:36 ►

Everything makes the dial move up.

00:56:38 ►

And so, you know, we have like the $5,

00:56:42 ►

like sort of like a social media situation.

00:56:43 ►

And then for $25, I will, I’m going to

00:56:48 ►

make an addition postcard print and, and mail that out. So I’ll see, should this be successful,

00:56:56 ►

I will see the number of people that have gotten that, and that will be the number of additions.

00:57:00 ►

So it’ll be a limited edition postcard that I will make um then we have like

00:57:08 ►

you could have your name in the end credits is another reward and I’m also offering um like you

00:57:14 ►

can see the film is another one so if you want to see the final film if you contribute and um

00:57:19 ►

and then there’s the trip set with bet Williams um And then also I did for LA people, you can, Michelle T and I will come and show the film Valencia in your, in your yard and do like an outdoor cinema moment, which I’ll bring, I’ll bring the tech for that and bring Michelle and we will come to your yard and show the movie.

00:57:47 ►

um but yeah there’s really only 10 days left and we need like yeah like a little more than 80 of the funding but i guess um what i understand about kickstarter is sort of like people really come

00:57:53 ►

together at the end oh i forgot my most favorite reward the one thing that i wanted to tell everyone

00:57:57 ►

about so there is a mushroom collective that is that’s my favorite one and that’s for like the

00:58:03 ►

film enthusiasts and the people that love stop motion animation you get i will um both share the shooting script as soon as we’re done

00:58:10 ►

with production and then i will share like stop motion builds and like the sets and um and like

00:58:17 ►

puppets that i build and then also like you’ll see sort of the artist refuge you’ll just get

00:58:22 ►

like an insider look um and access as we go into production forward so you’ll be sort of the artist refuge you’ll just get like an insider look um and access as we go into

00:58:25 ►

production forward so you’ll be sort of on an inside track and be part of the the mushroom

00:58:30 ►

collective our little foray so um that was a fun one um but yeah there’s uh i if if you can if yeah

00:58:38 ►

if you want to join us or like share it if you don’t have if you don’t want to contribute

00:58:43 ►

financially but you’re willing to just even share the campaign that also helps. I just kind of needed to go mycelial and quickly and,

00:58:50 ►

you know, spread the spores as it were and get out there as fast as possible.

00:58:56 ►

And, and then, you know, and then what happens with that money is that I will be able to pay

00:59:02 ►

like the weirdo artists to come and make this

00:59:05 ►

movie. Like,

00:59:06 ►

it’s just this little queer ecology of like of weirdos that will assemble and

00:59:11 ►

make this fabulous feature that I’ve written and will direct and,

00:59:15 ►

and have these, you know, as I said,

00:59:17 ►

Silas Howard is executive producing and Zachary Drucker is a producer on it.

00:59:22 ►

So we’re in good hands.

00:59:24 ►

Should we be able to get the financing together to do it?

00:59:28 ►

Well, well, thank you for sharing that.

00:59:30 ►

Does anybody have any last thoughts or questions here this evening?

00:59:34 ►

Okay. It feels so weird to not have Lorenzo participating here. Lorenzo,

00:59:38 ►

I’m so sorry about the tech not working. We miss your voice dramatically.

00:59:43 ►

Well, Clem, thank you so much for, for sharing this with us tonight. And do you have any last thoughts or, Ward, are you trying to get in there? I saw you unmuted.

00:59:51 ►

Oh, it’s okay. I just wanted to sorry that it didn’t work out with Lorenzo,

01:00:10 ►

because that would have been really exciting as well. And, and I will say that, like, my animation is available for free. If you go to clemgoldberg.com, and you go to animation, you can watch

01:00:16 ►

most of my stuff for free. And, and then there’s links to like, a couple things um and other than the kickstarter but um yeah thank you so very much

01:00:27 ►

for having me it’s really fun and um i hope to sort of be a part of this community and i look

01:00:33 ►

forward to making this movie and kind of bringing it into bringing it into the fold and staying in

01:00:38 ►

conversation with everyone great thank you so much for joining us and in in lieu of lorenzo saying it

01:00:44 ►

keep the old faith and stay high.

01:00:47 ►

Come back. Come back.

01:00:49 ►

Thank you.

01:00:50 ►

Thanks a lot, everybody.

01:00:52 ►

Thank you.

01:00:54 ►

And for now, this is Lorenzo signing off from Cyberdelic Space. Namaste, my friends.

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