Living On The Fringe: Q&A With 'American Mystic' Director Alex Mar

By Daniela Capistrano

What if your religion was very non-traditional? "American Mystic," a new documentary by Alex Mar, explores the lives of people who have separated themselves from mainstream America to attain spiritual goals. The film will premiere April 22 at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.

Intertwining very intimate, apolitical portraits, "American Mystic" attempts to capture your imagination with compelling characters: Kublai, a Spiritualist in the former revivalist district of upstate New York; Chuck, a Lakota sundancer in the badlands of South Dakota; and Morpheus, a pagan priestess living off the grid in old mining country in southern California.

I contacted Cuban American director Alex Mar to learn more about what her journey into Spiritualism was like, obstacles she faced during production and how her Catholic upbringing influenced her work. "American Mystic" is her feature debut.

Alex Mar on location for "American Mystic"

Tr3s: What are some myths or negative misconceptions about Spiritualism that you’d like to clarify for the Tr3s Comunidad?

Mar: As I understand it, Spiritualism is about the continuity of life after our physical body has died, and the continuity of our relationships with those who have passed away before us. So you can speak to the dead through mediumship — but, as Kublai asks in the film, "What's death?"

Spiritualists have also historically been among the most open-minded and progressive Americans. The first women allowed to speak openly in a public forum were Spiritualist pastors. Abraham Lincoln consulted with a Spiritualist advisor.

There's a lot of emphasis in the history books on the showmanship of the early days of Spiritualism — table-tipping, seances, spoon-bending (as you see in my film) — but that was merely meant to bring attention to the bigger picture.

Could you sacrifice comfort for your faith? Watch the trailer and read more of our "American Mystic" Q&A, after the jump!

Tr3s: Were people generally open to including you in private rituals? What did you do to gain their trust?

Mar: Everyone who chose to take part in the film took a brave leap. Talking about your spiritual beliefs on camera, and sharing in your private rituals, is no small thing. The decision to take part always came after a period of getting to know each other.

Tr3s: Your mother is Cuban. While you were making this film, did you find that your cultural background helped or hindered you in terms of access? Did it ever come up?

Mar: I don't have a look that's easy to pin as "Latina." I'm positively translucent for someone with this much island blood! But I did bring up my Cuban side in conversations about spirituality as far as it connects me to Catholic rituals and imagery.

My mother's side of the family is Cuban, but originally from the north of Spain. Our family settled in Gibara, on the far Eastern side of the island in the Holguin province, formerly part of Oriente, which is ironically where both Castro and the renegade author Reinaldo Arenas were born. (Arenas' story was told in the film "Before Night Falls.")

When you're making a film about faith, I think it's only fair to put your own family beliefs and your own questions on the line when approaching your subjects. Most people would only share with me about their own practices once they had heard about my own hopes and doubts about what greater meaning might be out there. For the record, I don't subscribe to any religious institution, but I do believe that we're here for some mysterious, larger purpose.

For all the lousy people in the world, there are simply too many inexplicable, beautiful moments for me to buy that life's nothing more than a divine joke.

Tr3s: You mentioned in a recent Tribeca interview that you were “raised a weird combination of Catholic feminist liberal whatever” and this informed your fascination with “all of the mysterious ritual and the icons and the martyrs and lighting candles and the robes.” Was there a defining moment you can share when you decided that Catholicism wasn’t for you?

Mar: Those comments about Catholicism were not at all negative — I was really inspired, from a very young age, by all that pageantry, and the great artworks the Church commissioned. And early on in Catholicism, becoming a nun was actually a sort of feminist act: you could avoid being sold off to a husband you'd never met for the price of a dowry, and instead spend all your days in meditation, reading, and local activism.

The stories of the martyrs, sometimes women as young as fourteen, could be very heroic — St. Catherine of Siena actually had a correspondence with the Pope while she was just a teenager. Totally unthinkable for women in that time.

I still feel connected to aspects of Catholicism, and its humanitarian message, but the political machine of the Church infuriates me. And the current child-abuse scandal the Church is embroiled in — yet again! — disgusts me.

Tr3s: You mentioned that you didn’t include any Latinos in your doc. Was that intentional or just an organic result of the casting process?

Mar: This was definitely a natural result of the casting process. I actually spoke with a few potential Latin subjects while searching for the right characters for the film — and I searched all around the country for nearly six months — but none ended up being the right fit. And by that, I mean the right balance: each of the three subjects of the film had to be personally relatable to the viewer, devout on their own terms, in a dramatically different part of the country, and also in a position to be very open and honest about their faith. That's a demanding list.

For the record, each of these Latinos were "recovering" Catholics involved in some kind of pagan practice — in the South, and in California.

As far as any regret, I don't think I would consciously cast or hire with a prejudice in favor of Latinos. And with an African-American, a Lakota Sioux, and a woman of Irish ancestry in the film, I thought I did a fairly good job of representing a cross-section of America.

Tr3s: What resources are out there for anyone who are interested in exploring a pagan lifestyle/spirituality? Are there any specific resources you can recommend?

Mar: That's an interesting question. First off, let me say that I'm not advocating any one spiritual path over another. But that said, I know WitchVox to be a useful site for pagans or people who are pagan-curious to connect locally.

I was told over and over again how much easier it's become for people who are curious about different forms of witchcraft to find mentors now that the Internet exists. The Wild Hunt is a widely read pagan blog about the latest politics and culture that's relevant to the pagan community. And there are major conventions a few times a year where young witches, warlocks, Druids, you name it, get together and mix and network and learn new techniques and dance to gothic metal bands.

Tr3s: Can you share some advice for anyone who wants to make a documentary but has financial obstacles?

Mar: I was fortunate enough to find a handful of individuals who believed in the project and made it happen. It doesn't necessarily work out that way! Even so, we were short of the funds to finish the film, and it was only thanks to some really talented people putting in extra hours and giving us much-needed breaks that we were able to create the final cut.

I think you need to be so thoroughly obsessed with the project that you cannot imagine taking no for an answer. There truly is no middle ground. And anyway, sometimes less money means you simply need to pony up creatively. Come up with unexpected, original solutions to those limitations.

Tr3s: How has making this film altered/enhanced your own spirituality?

Mar: I had a hunch that propelled me to make this film, and now I definitely believe it's true: we're all connected by a strong desire to find meaning in our lives. The beliefs we subscribe to may have little relationship on the surface, but we're all striving for the same thing.

Bonus Question!
Tr3s: What is your take on the Latino ‘Glee’ controversy?

Mar: I haven't been following "Glee," so I can't speak to that. But I still remember when I was in grade school, at a pretty refined Manhattan prep school, how another student asked me why I would choose to study Spanish instead of French. "Is it so you can talk to the maid?" I told my mother and she just laughed: "Tell her all our maids are French!"

It wasn't this young girl's fault — she was so used to seeing that kind of representation of Latin women in the media. That has an impact. Where are the sophisticated, well-traveled, influential Latin women in film and TV? And why does being Latina so often have to be written in as a major character trait, an obstacle to be overcome? For me, cultural background is secondary to what each person brings as an individual.

Bio
Alex Mar is a director/producer, and a native New Yorker. A graduate of Harvard University, she draws on a background in journalism, production, and video art. Previously a producer for MTV News and an editor for Rolling Stone, she has contributed to New York Magazine, Slate, Artforum, and others.

In 2008, Mar co-founded Empire 8 Productions, where she is developing For Your Entertainment, a dark psychological thriller directed by Fabrice Du Welz, set to shoot in New York this year. Mar is also currently in production for her second film as director, a soon-to-be-announced documentary produced by Hunter Gray (Half-Nelson, Momma's Man); and preparing to direct a self-penned horror film in late 2010.

To request a screening in your city, contact the filmmakers on the "American Mystic" Facebook page.

Tr3s Comunidad, what do you think about “American Mystic”? Tell us in the comments or @MTV3!

Tags Alex Mar, American Mystic, documentary, Q&A