Mythic Journeys is a performance festival and conference gathering held in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Founded in 2004, it began as a celebration of the works of Joseph Campbell and has expanded into a celebration of the role of myth and storytelling in the modern world.
Organized by the Mythic Imagination Institute, the conference attracts such guests as Deepak Chopra, James Hillman, Robert Bly, Janis Ian, John and Caitlin Matthews, Wendy and Brian Froud, Joyce Carol Oates, Terri Windling, Ulla Suokko, [1] and many other participants from such fields as psychology, religion, science, literature, education, entertainment, and the arts. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Released in 2009, the documentary film Mythic Journeys was written and directed by Stephen and Whitney Boe. With footage taken from the 2006 Mythic Journeys festival, [6] the movie includes animation and short film segments about the role of mythology and mysticism in modern society and storytelling, featuring interviews with Stephen Aizenstat, Ari Berk, Michael Beckwith, Tom Blue Wolf, Jean Shinoda Bolen, José Andres Botran, Duncan Campbell, Deepak Chopra, Honora Foah, Maren Tonder Hansen, Michael Karlin, Lynne Kaufman, Tricia Klink, Ellen Kushner, Michael Meade, Michelle Nunn, George Rosch, Delia Sherman, Sobonfu Somé, and Robert Walter. Documentary footage is placed within a frame story of Vikram and Betal for which Brian and Wendy Froud created the puppets [7] and actors Tim Curry, Mark Hamill and Lance Henriksen provided the voices.
Joseph John Campbell was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the human experience. Campbell's best-known work is his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), in which he discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero shared by world mythologies, termed the monomyth.
Brian Froud is an English fantasy illustrator and conceptual designer. He is most widely known for his 1978 book Faeries with Alan Lee, and as the conceptual designer of the Jim Henson films The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986). According to Wired, Froud is "one of the most pre-emiminent visualizers of the world of faerie and folktale".
Deepak Chopra is an Indian-American author, new age guru, and alternative medicine advocate. A prominent figure in the New Age movement, his books and videos have made him one of the best-known and wealthiest figures in alternative medicine. In the 1990s, Chopra, a physician by education, became a popular proponent of holistic approach to well-being that includes yoga, meditation, and nutrition, among other new-age therapies.
Tarnation is a 2003 American documentary film essay by Jonathan Caouette.
Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. She has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award.
Toby Froud is an English-American artist, special effects designer, puppeteer, filmmaker, and performer. He rose to prominence for his role as the baby who was wished away to the goblins in the 1986 Jim Henson film Labyrinth. He became a puppeteer, sculptor, and fabricator for film, television, and theatre. He wrote and directed the 2014 fantasy short film Lessons Learned. He was the design supervisor of the 2019 streaming television series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.
Wendy Froud is an American doll-artist, sculptor, puppet-maker, and writer. She is best known for her work fabricating Yoda for the 1980 film Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, for which she has been called "the mother of Yoda", and creatures for the Jim Henson films The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth.
Philip Robert Cousineau is an American author, lecturer, independent scholar, screenwriter, and documentary filmmaker. He lives in San Francisco, California.
Gotham Chopra is an American sports documentarian, media entrepreneur, producer, podcast host, director, journalist, and author. He is a co-founder of Religion of Sports, Liquid Comics, Chopra Media, and the Chopra Well. He is known for his sports-centric films, having worked with athletes such as Tom Brady, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Simone Biles and Michael Strahan.
Lipstick and Dynamite: The First Ladies of Wrestling is a 2004 documentary film about the early days of women's professional wrestling in North America. It was directed by Ruth Leitman, who interviewed The Fabulous Moolah, Mae Young, Gladys "Kill 'Em" Gillem, Ida Mae Martinez, Ella Waldek and Penny Banner for the film. The film premiered in 2004 in Toronto and was screened at various film festivals across the United States. The film also had a limited release in theaters in 2005. Reviews for the film were mixed.
Quantum healing is a pseudoscientific mixture of ideas which purportedly draws from quantum mechanics, psychology, philosophy, and neurophysiology. Advocates of quantum healing assert that quantum phenomena govern health and wellbeing. There are different versions, which allude to various quantum ideas including wave particle duality and virtual particles, and more generally to "energy" and to vibrations. Quantum healing is a form of alternative medicine.
Jareth is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the 1986 musical fantasy film Labyrinth. Portrayed by David Bowie, Jareth is the powerful and enigmatic king of the goblins to whom protagonist Sarah Williams wishes away her baby brother Toby. Jareth gives Sarah thirteen hours to retrieve the baby from his castle at the centre of an enormous labyrinth, during which time he sets obstacles in her path and tries to entice her away from her quest.
Endicott Studio was a nonprofit organization, based in the United States and United Kingdom, that is dedicated to literary, visual, and performance arts inspired by myth, folklore, fairy tales, and the oral storytelling tradition. It was founded in 1987 by Terri Windling, and is co-directed by Windling and Midori Snyder. In 2008, Windling and Snyder won the World Fantasy Award for the Endicott Studio's website and web magazine, The Journal of Mythic Arts.
Voyage of Time is a 2016 American experimental documentary film written and directed by Terrence Malick. The film is said to be an examination of the birth and death of the known universe. Malick had been working on the film for over forty years and it has been described by Malick himself as "one of my greatest dreams".
The Mythic Imagination Institute is a non-profit organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, whose purpose is to encourage a creative response to life, both individual and collective, through storytelling and mythology: "Every life is a story, and a story can change the world." The Institute's main vehicles for achieving this purpose are conferences, performance festivals, lectures, and educational classes.
Stephen Walker is a British author and filmmaker. He was educated at Oxford and Harvard universities. He has directed or produced around 30 films, and was twice voted in the top 10 directors in the UK in Broadcast magazine. His production company is Walker George Films. His author website is Stephen Walker Beyond.
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey is a 2011 American documentary film about Kevin Clash, the puppeteer behind the Sesame Street character Elmo who became a rising star and created a global sensation. “Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey” was one of the most talked about documentaries coming out of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
Space Tourists is a feature-length documentary of the Swiss director Christian Frei. The film had its premiere at the Zurich Film Festival in 2009 and has won the "World Cinema Directing Award" at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010.
Hollywood to Dollywood is an American documentary film that played at 60 film festivals in the U.S., Canada, Scotland, and Australia in 2011 and 2012. Directed by John Lavin, the film follows the cross-country journey of identical twins Gary and Larry Lane to deliver to Dolly Parton a screenplay they wrote, which includes a role for her. Hollywood to Dollywood has won 24 film festival awards and includes 17 Parton songs, two of which were previously unreleased. The film had a one-week theatrical release in New York beginning August 31, 2012, followed a week later in Los Angeles.
Heal is a 2017 documentary film that was written and directed by Kelly Noonan-Gores and produced by Richell Morrissey and Adam Schomer. The film focuses on mind–body interventions and follows several individuals who used these techniques after being diagnosed with a fatal disease. It was reviewed by critics as an "infomercial" that makes some valid points while it pretends to be based on science, yet it promotes pseudoscience.