Director: Courtney Stephens, Michael Almereyda Run Time: 89 min. Release Year: 2026
Starring: Alejandro Jodorowsky, Allen Ginsberg, Chloë Sevigny, Scott McVay, Timothy Leary
Country: United States
Language: English
About the film:
The daring experimenter Dr. John C. Lilly dedicated his life to radical self-investigation and unlocking the mysteries of consciousness and communication. “My body is my laboratory” was the motto, and his research on the language of dolphins and whales – as well as psychedelics and sensory deprivation – assured his own cult status in 20th-century pop culture as the basis for Ken Russel’s Altered States and Mike Nichols’s The Day of the Dolphin.
Directors Michael Almareyda and Courtney Stephens, along with narrator Chloë Sevigny, explore the life of a determined scientist and his experiments into the psychonautical unknown.
About the filmmaker:
Michael Almereyda is an American filmmaker, writer, and producer known for his inventive, literary-minded approach to cinema. He gained recognition with his modern adaptation of Hamlet (2000), starring Ethan Hawke, and has since directed a wide range of narrative and documentary films, including Experimenter (2015) and Tesla (2020). His work often blends historical subjects with contemporary techniques, exploring the lives of artists, thinkers, and cultural figures with a distinctive, experimental style.
Courtney Stephens is an American filmmaker and artist known for her experimental and documentary work that explores history, memory, and the construction of narrative. Her films often combine archival materials with staged elements, creating layered, essayistic works that examine how stories are told and remembered. Stephens has built a reputation in the independent film and art worlds for her thoughtful, formally adventurous approach to nonfiction storytelling.
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