John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office (Documentary)

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Director: Michael Almereyda,Courtney Stephens
Producer: Taylor Hess,Jesse Miller
Screenwriter: Courtney Stephens,Michael Almereyda
Editor: Iva Radivojevic,Max Bowens,Courtney Stephens

Viewer Advice: Contains archival footage featuring depictions of violence towards animals.

What do isolation tanks, dolphin intelligence and psychedelic therapy have in common? You’re about to find out.

John Lilly was an inventor and a scientist who became something of a New Age visionary. Through his attempts to communicate with dolphins, research brainwashing and mind control, and explore the benefits of psychoactive drugs, he became a revered intellectual turned hippie guru who inspired Ken Russell’s Altered States and ended up concluding that we’re all living in a simulation. And that’s not even half of it! Narrated by Chloë Sevigny (Magic Farm, MIFF 2025) and featuring interviews with the likes of Alejandro Jodorowsky (The Holy Mountain, MIFF 2015), this documentary dives into the mind of a man who may have been either a genius or a crackpot – or both.

Director Michael Almereyda is better known for dramatic features like 1994 cult classic Nadja, famously produced by David Lynch, but his documentary work, such as William Eggleston in the Real World (MIFF 2006), is just as vibrant and fascinating. Here, he teams up with rising indie auteur Courtney Stephens (Invention) in sifting through a wealth of wacky archival material from across time – and maybe even space – to craft a documentary that, in its freewheeling examination of an unorthodox subject, is reminiscent of the documentary collages of Chris Marker and Adam Curtis.

“With a bounty of archival footage as well as a willingness to experiment with formats and ideas, the documentary is as informative as it is experimental, a fine exploration of the outer limits of outré scientific ideas.” – Journey Into Cinema