FILM REVIEW: In The Realms Of The Unreal Dir. Jessica Yu

This film explores the life's work of "outsider" artist Henry Darger (1892-1973). Darger was born and died in Chicago IL. He was orfaned at a young age and separated forever from his younger sister when his father was forced by extreme poverty to relinquish both children and move to a poor house, the very same poor house which by an unsettling geometry of fate Henry himself would eventualy inhabit shortly before his own death. This break, and the sudden news (shortly thereafter) of his fathers' death while Henry was just beginning what would become seven years of captivity at an Illinois institution for 'mentally infirm' children that was actually called the "State Farm", was such a formative experience of grief and abandonment that the lonliness and habitual isolation of his later life and his secret creative obsession with defending the purity and innocence of children which fueld his artwork... that only after his death when neighbors unearthed his work could his own story begin to make his volumious works of art only slightly less a surprise.

Henry lived as a "reclusive janitor by day, visionary artist by night, (his) 15,000 page novel details the exploits of the Vivian Girls, seven angelic sisters who lead a rebellion against godless, child-enslaving men"..."IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL explores outsider art from the inside. Eschewing expert opinion, it reflects the uniqueness of its subject, employing vivid animation and experimental elements to immerse us in Darger’s world and all its strange beauty."..."Darger lived a virtually friendless existence, but his imaginary life was as exciting and colorful as his real life was tedious. By day, he scrubbed floors, attended Mass, rummaged through garbage cans. By night, he ruled a world in which the forces of innocence and good fought a bloody battle against the forces of treachery and evil." (see above site, 'about the film').

I highly recomend this film.