Read

March/April 2004 Living Now
Portland Trumps Hollywood

Opening of Locally Filmed Feature/Documentary Hybrid
"What the #$*! Do We Know?": Entertainment for the Mind

An independent feature/documentary hybrid on mysticism and science, "What the $#*! Do We Know?" was filmed almost entirely in Portland, Oregon. The film starts its Portland run at McMenamin’s Bagdad Theater & Pub on SE Hawthorne starting on Friday, February 27th, and the buzz is growing. 

Local Filmmakers William Arntz, Betsy Chasse, and Mark Vicente previewed this original film at the Yelm Cinemas in Yelm, Washington on the February 6 weekend for sell-out shows. Over 1200 people saw the film with its cutting-edge special affects, award-winning actors, a powerful rock score, and a bold leap into the realm of quantum physics as applied to real life. The film, starring Marlee Matlin, is continuing to outsell "Lord of the Rings," "Miracle," and all other current films. The Tacoma News Tribune writer, Diane de la Paz called it "a provocative blast of fresh air."

The Filmmakers will be on hand on hand Friday, February 27^th and Saturday, February 28^th after the show at the Bagdad for a question and answer period. Director William Arntz said, "The success of this preview run underlines what our research had shown clearly; people are tired of being fed fast-food burger entertainment and want an alternative – entertainment that feeds the mind."

What the #$*! Do We Know: A Quantum Fable, will soon be released nationwide. Academy Award Winner Marlee Matlin plays Amanda, a divorced photographer, who finds herself plummeted into an Alice-in-Wonderland rabbit-hole experience when her uninspired daily life literally begins to unravel, revealing the cellular, molecular, and even quantum worlds that lie beneath. "Science has been saying the mind affects reality for quite some time," says Arntz. "This is the first non-fantasy film that not only says this, but shows mind/matter interaction and does it in a thoroughly entertaining way."

The film also employs interviews with leading scientists and mystics who act as a sort of Greek Chorus. Professor Amit Goswami, an eminent author and physicist at the University of Oregon’s Institute of Theoretical Science, introduces new concepts that then occur in Amanda’s increasingly unusual world. She is given the keys to transform her life, discovering that if reality itself is not questionable, her notion of it certainly is. Says Chasse, "We wanted to put today’s maverick scientists front and center and show the bizarre quantum world in a way that is entertaining and thought-provoking. That it is a hit with the audiences tells us that intelligent entertainment is the future of film."

"What the $#*! Do We Know?" employed a crew and cast of over 250 people, hiring local actors and extras for many of the roles and spent over $2.5 million in the process. "Portland is one of the Film Industry’s Best Kept Secrets," says Mark Vicente, who directed much of the action at Portland locations such as the train station, the subway and the park. The film also had multi-national flavor, filming all over the US and South Africa and using companies in LA, Canada, and South Africa.

In addition to the interviews and entertaining story line, the film features a banquet of visual effects. "Over 300 visual effects are employed - from pure computer generated graphics to animated cartoon characters interacting with our actors – all in all a true feast for the senses while also feeding the mind."

To say the film is "unique" is an understatement – it’s not a documentary, but neither is it straight fiction. It employs multiple media (i.e.: 35mm film, digital video, and computer graphics), and combines documentary-style filmmaking with the more traditional storytelling avenues that allow the filmmakers more creative ways to express their concepts than in conventional filmmaking.

Arntz, Chasse, and Vicente feel they have developed a form that audiences are craving. In essence, "We're re-defining the word "documentary," just like the The Da Vinci Code (the outrageously successful book that has become a phenomenon in the publishing world with 4.5 million copies in print) uses factual information within a contemporary story line. As Carol Fitzgerald, president of Bookreporter.com says in her December 11^th article in USA Today, "[People] say, ‘I like being able to learn something as well as read a story.’" The filmmakers concur, adding, "From the great success of our preview run, we see that Hollywood will have to wake up to the enormous audience out there, who want intelligent entertainment."

Bagdad Theater & Pub, 3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR, (503) 225-5555 ext. 8831, www.McMenamins.com or call 503-236-9234 for show times. Info: www.whatthebleep.com