Antero Alli, the longtime underground filmmaker out of Berkeley, will be touring around the American Northwest in June with his latest film, The Invisible Forest. He’ll appear in person at each screening listed below. Here’s the official synopsis:

When a sleep-deprived theatre director undergoes hypnotic regression to stop a re-occurring nightmare, he unexpectedly participates in an ancient dreamtime ritual that sends him through the labyrinths of madness and transcendence.

That’s a plot enough to grab ya, but I really enjoyed this additional description from the filmmaker:

In Alli’s own words, “Cinema is a drug. If some movies put us to sleep like tranquilizers and others jack us up like triple espressos, The Invisible Forest is a 100% organic, user-friendly hallucinogen.”

I love that. The film is also inspired by the works of Antonin Artaud and Rimbaud.

Honestly, I haven’t been familiar with Alli’s work until now. But, in addition to the numerous films he’s directed, he’s also developed a type of experimental theater called “paratheatrical” that’s all about individual expression without public consumption. He seems like an extremely interesting artist after browsing around his website, Vertical Pool. And the trailer for this film, which is embedded below, looks totally freaky. I would definitely try to check it out if I were in any of these cities:

June 5 (Thursday)
9 p.m.
DIVA Center
Eugene, OR

June 6 (Friday)
9:30 p.m.
Hollywood Theatre
Portland, OR

June 15 (Sunday)
2 p.m.
NW Film Forum
Seattle, WA

June 18 (Wednesday)
8:30 p.m.
Pickford Cinema
Bellingham, WA

June 27 (Friday)
7 p.m.
Shiny Object
West Sacramento, CA

For more info, please visit Alli’s official site, Vertical Pool. Here’s the trailer:

One last thing: If you’re lucky enough to be in Amsterdam the weekend of May 29, you can witness Alli’s major European premiere with several of his films — but not The Invisible Forest — at the H3R3TIC Film Festival.