Our research suggests our best shot at limiting the potential suffering related to this major evolutionary transition is by using our advanced technologies to help accelerate the evolution of individual and collective consciousness. Because of the short time we have to heal this gap between our collective consciousness and our technologies before the projected collapse of our current civilizational structures, we are focusing our attention on training as many integral (r)evolutionary change agents to use these advanced media technologies to accelerate the evolution of individual and collective consciousness, open sourcing our data, tools and practices to the world, and developing a global at-scale evolutionary media intervention.
This year the Integral Cinema Project embarked on a number of exciting new ventures...
The Cinevolve Inititive
This year the Integral Cinema Project embarked on a number of exciting new ventures. We have been called to codify what we’ve learned and put it into practice so we can begin to train media makers to understand Integral thinking and incorporate it into their own work. The time for research and theory-building expands to include a new initiative to put our findings out into the world! To this end, we have joined forces with other evolutionary-oriented institutions and organizations including Conscious Good Networks and Campus Co-Evolve, and created The Cinevolve Initiative, a Manhattan Project-style research and enactment initiative to uplift humanity through these challenging times by storifying and gamifying the stages of human development and the evolution of individual and collective consciousness. Operating under the auspices of the Integral Cinema Project, Cinevolve aims to create “proof of concept” content and train others to do so as well.Conscious Movie-of-the-Month
This year we joined with the Conscious Good Creators Network to bring integral cinema theory and practice to this collective of transformative media makers from around the world through our Conscious Movie-of-the-Month (CMoM) integral movie review and discussion series. The following are the 2019 CMoM virtual discussions:- The Matrix
- Selma
- What the Bleep Do We Know?
- Avatar
- The Great Hack
- Game of Thrones
- Black Panther
- Inception
Integral Cinema Courses 2019
This year also saw the beginning of our initiative to train as many media-makers in integral cinematic consciousness as possible to help assist humanity in navigating through our current evolutionary crisis/transition.- Transformative Media Creation and Reception - This year we also joined forces Campus Co-Evolve to create a Transformative Media Creation and Reception course to train evolutionary change agent and activists from around the world to use media in support of their efforts to help humanity evolve.
- Conscious Media-Making 101 - In this introductory course for the Conscious Good Creators Network, Integral Cinema Project founder Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D. explores what is conscious media and conscious media-making, what are some of the different potential forms of conscious media-making, and how different states and stages of consciousness effect the media-making process. Mark also explores how these structures of consciousness within us are communicated between us, the works we create and the individuals and collectives that experience our works…and how this knowledge can be used to create deeper and more transformative media experiences for creators and viewers on the individual and collective levels.
Integral Movie and TV List Updates 2019
The following are all the 2019 movies and TV series that tested positive for having integral elements and have been added to our IMDb Integral Movie and TV List.- High Flying Bird (Netflix, 2019) - Steven Soderbergh's elegantly complex exploration of the personal, interpersonal, cultural, social and historical dimensions of African American basketball behind-the-scenes politics that gives us a beautiful and deeply resonant "big picture" multi-dimensional perspective on the effects of structurally embedded white supremacy.
- Undone (Amazon Prime, 2019) - Amazingly beautiful exploration of the line between madness and enlightenment and the indigenous magic worldview and the modern and postmodern worldviews. This little hybrid animated gem using complex storytelling to take on cinematic trip into multiple dimensions of being and becoming.
- The Mandalorian (Disney+, 2019) - The first live-action series of the integrally-informed Star Wars Saga that marks a return to the saga's mythic storytelling roots in a clean and simple story structure. It also grounds us back intp an essential "Force"-oriented story that pulls our heart-strings with the introduction of "Baby Yoda". In many ways this series feels like an attempt to heal some of the fans wounds of the missteps taken in The Last Jedi and Solo and it appears to be doing just that.
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Disney/Lucasfilm, 2019) - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a masterpiece of integral-archetypal filmmaking completing the integrally-informed Star Wars Saga triple-trilogy journey with a visceral cinematic synergy that beautifully brings together multiple saga-wide storyworld streams to a wondrous crescendo. A must-see for integrally-informed Star Wars fans.
Integral Cinema Publications 2019
The following is a list of all our publications published in 2019:- Avatar and the Co-Evolution of Consciousness, Culture and Society - An exploration of the Co-Evolutionary relationship of consciousness, cultural worldviews and societal structures and how it is reflected in "Avatar."
- Cinema and the Evolutionary Emotional-Aesthetics of Sri Aurobindo - This is a research report on one of our current research projects exploring the integral-evolutionary theories and approaches of Sri Aurobindo's work.
- Breaking the Wheel: Reflections on Game of Thrones, Selma and the Great Transition - An exploration of the parallels between the "Game of Thrones" series (2011-2019), our current evolutionary moment and the movie "Selma" (2014).
- Healers in the Hood: Reflections on the Passing of John Singleton, Selma and the New Consciousness in African American Cinema - An exploration of the connections between the passing of African American filmmaker John Singleton, the film "Selma by African American filmmaker Ava DuVernay and the new movement in African American Cinema towards a more complex and comprehensive integral conscious-raising approach to capturing and confronting the continuing challenges faced by African Americans including structural and hidden racism and white supremacy.
- The Matrix and the Evolution of Consciousness - Or, taking the Red Pill and waking up to the coming of Winter: Reflections on meta-perspectival storytelling, The Matrix, Game of Thrones and our current global situation.
- The Pluralistic Worldview of Netflix’s Unbelievable - An examination of the ways the show is solidly Pluralistic, and how it could have been more Integral.
T.E.H.N.C. Podcast - Integral Cinema Sessions 2019
The following are this years integral cinema video podcast sessions between Integral Cinema Project founder Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D. and our Director of Communications and the host of the TEHNC Podcast series, Jonathan Steigman.- New Black Cinema: Roundup - Jonathan and Mark do a roundup of the latest works in the movement we have dubbed "The New Black Cinema." From "Black Panther" to "Black Lightning," from "Blindspotting" to "If Beale Street Could Talk," we discuss the state-of-the-art in New Black Cinema and its integral and near-integral underpinnings.
- Why the Game of Thrones finale is BRILLIANT! - Jonathan and Mark make the case that the GoT finale managed several extraordinary moves that deepened and anchored the entire series. With the finale, the whole arc and purpose of Game of Thrones became clear. The show is about the transition from the Mythic structure and the end of feudalism...and the rise and fall of an authoritarian demagogue with weapons of mass destruction.
- The Big Picture of the NOW - Jonathan interviews Mark as he explains why "All problems are problems of consciousness" and unpacks the current global situation: how we got here, why it's unprecedented in world history, and why media in all its evolving forms may be the best and most powerful tool to awaken us into a new paradigm of being.
- Why The Rise of Skywalker is brilliant! (and why it matters) - Mark and Jonathan make the case that: 1. J.J. Abrams took an impossible task and delivered beyond our expectations in this final installment of the Star Wars trilogies; 2. The Star Wars saga has important resonances throughout our culture and society, beyond almost any other popular work; 3. Critics (and film theorists and scholars) by and large don't know how to read the film, or evolutionary media in general.
Community Partnerships
In addition to the above projects we have been doing this last year with our partners, we are working with them in various other ways as well.- Campus Co-Evolve - We are developing additional transformative media courses and a Transformative Media Community of Practice with Campus Co-Evolve and working with the Campus’s founder, collective intelligence pioneer George Pór, to develop a collective intelligence approach to media-making.
- Conscious Good - We are developing additional courses and workshops with the Conscious Good Creators Network, we advised them on a research study exploring the connection between consciousness and media, and some of our integral cinema research findings were presented by Conscious Good founder Trina Wyatt at the Visionaries Summit, which was also attended by Integral Cinema Project founder Mark Allan Kaplan and Director of Communications Jonathan Steigman.
- Transformative Technology Community - This year we became a community partner with the Transformative Technology community of the San Francisco Bay Area, we were on the support team for the TransTech 2019 Conference, and we attended the TransTech Academy incubator for a second year in a row as well.
