Animism: People Who Love Objects - Press Summary

Real to Reel Productions Animism: People Who Love Objects Canadian Broadcast Premiere - Global TV September 28, 2013 GAT PR Press Summary

Interviews Completed

The National Post Interviewed: Bill Spahic The Calgary Herald Interviewed: Bill Spahic, Linda Ducharne, Carl Tessier Reposted in: Vancouver Sun Interviewed: Bill Spahic, Linda Ducharne, Carl Tessier Reposted in: Edmonton Journal Interviewed: Bill Spahic, Linda Ducharne, Carl Tessier Reposted in: Montreal Gazette Interviewed: Bill Spahic, Linda Ducharne, Carl Tessier Reposted in: Canada.com Interviewed: Bill Spahic, Linda Ducharne, Carl Tessier The Jim Richards Show - NewsTalk 1010 Interviewed: Linda Ducharne, Erika Eiffel, Carl Tessier

The objects of my affection: Bill Spahic on his documentary, ‘Animism: People Who Love Objects David Berry http://arts.nationalpost.com/2013/09/26/the-objects-of-my-affection/

Though we like to make a big deal of it, tolerance is actually pretty easy for most of us, who after all rarely come across anything we don’t agree with in our day to day lives. In his new hour-long documentary Animism: People Who Love Objects, which airs this Saturday at 8 p.m. on Global, director Bill Spahic goes well beyond the average comfort zone and introduces us to object-sexuals, people with romantic desires for inanimate objects. Far from pushing buttons or poking fun, though, Spahic presents simple and very humane portraits of people like Erika Eiffel, Linda Ducharme and Carl Tessier, people who are currently in relationships with a crane, a Skydiver ferris wheel and a car, respectively. David Berry talked with Spahic about conversing with objects, avoiding the easy subject and learning tolerance.

First off, how did you come to find out that there were people who were in love with objects, that this was even a thing in the world?

I was doing research on subcultures, and I came across the usual suspects: the furries, the people who dress like Star Wars characters, you know. I could grasp what they were about, but one of the things that stopped me in my tracks was finding people who love objects. At the time, Erika Eiffel was the bellwether person. But I just didn’t understand it, and I wanted to know how it works.

What is it about the relatively garden-variety subcultures — furries, for instance — that was easier to understand, for you, than these people with object love?

To me, everyone has, to some extent, a passion — golf, collecting stamps, dressing up as furries and living that subculture. I can understand that, I have my own passions about certain things — some people take it to the extreme, but that’s all a continuum from what I understood. But this is different. It’s not a hobby, it’s their life. Yes, they fit into society — one’s a champion archer, one’s in IT, one’s a corporate pilot — but the rest of it is so different for me, and I wanted to find out how their love life worked. What is it that the object gives to them, what they give to that object, how does that work?

Those other subcultures you mention, most of them are based on a sexual relationship, but from watching these people, it’s pretty obvious that though that can be a part of it, it’s sort of secondary, or at least not the point.

These are relationships.

Absolutely. If I was to talk to you about your relationship, and you have a significant relationship with another human being, you’d talk about a lot of things: going out to the movies, things you like to do together, things that piss you off about your partner and there would be a sexual part, but it’s not all about that. The one thing that’s quite true for these people — and I really tried to search this out — it’s not a fetish. A fetish, in the classic, cliche kind of a way — a man that loves a woman’s shoe, say — that’s a physical need. He has his way with the shoe and puts it away in a drawer and doesn’t think about it anymore. These people worry about the objects, they’re “left” by some objects, there’s heartbreak — I don’t get the sense that the shoe fetish guy would be heartbroken if he misplaced his shoe. He’d get another shoe.

It’s mentioned in the documentary that this is something that awakens in puberty. Is there any other explanation you found, or is it just that some people like men, some people like women, some people like bridges?

It’s like that. I searched through their childhood, I searched to see if they had a particular penchant for toys or something.

Most people had an attraction for a toy at some point — the classic teddy bear. Jean Piaget, a child psychologist from France, termed that four or five year age, when kids actually have a relationship with a toy, actually communicate with a toy, he called it animism. I wanted to see if there was a difference between what average people went through and what they did. And no. My daughter, who’s heterosexual, was way more attracted to her little bunny than any of them were to their objects. So it’s not that. And I don’t really know. There’s a theory that perhaps it’s something in the brain wiring — like synesthesia, where if I say four, you see green — and they’ve looked at some of that, but there really hasn’t been many studies. There’s not many of them, and they’re not new, so no one has really studied them.

Within the group of people, I’d say a quarter of them are Asperger’s or autistic, which kind of makes sense, if you want to try to make sense of it. With autism, people can’t always pick up human signals, what people mean by body language and stuff. But then, three quarters of them aren’t.

Perhaps for obvious reasons, these people haven’t found a lot of acceptance in the world generally. How did you convince them to open up to you?

I treaded very carefully at first. I initially approach Erika Eiffel, who runs the OS Internationale site, which is a forum for people who love objects. She was very leery — she’s been screwed over by a lot of filmmakers. TLC's My Weird Obsession has come at her like five, six times: ‘Will you do an item with us; here’s 10 grand.’ I think they’re up to 50 grand now.

But she refuses, because she knows what they’ll do is a slash kind of thing where they basically make fun of it, not really get the idea that people actually love their objects.

A ‘let’s all gawk at the freak’ thing.

Exactly. So she’s leery. … But for your initial question, I got them to open up by talking to them seriously. I said I wanted to know how this works, and asked them questions. And they realized that I really did want to know how it works, and there was a trust that built up, because they knew I wasn’t doing a slam dunk, hahaha piece. And I mean Carl, he doesn’t know what his parents’ reaction is going to be. They’ll find out on September the 28th, when it airs. Linda, she’s worried about her corporate job. Not to mention the ridicule and the trolls once this gets out. But the reason they opened up was because they want the next generation of OS to have it a bit easier and to know that there are people out there. Because they felt alone for a long time; they didn’t know there were other people that loved objects. They’re looking for a little tolerance. They’re not doing any harm to anyone else or themselves; let them live their lives.

If I didn’t now know that these people actually exist, this could be a philosophical test about what society allows.

The movement for gay marriage, one of the arguments there is about consent — these are two consenting adults, freely engaged in a relationship. But obviously a Skydiver ferris wheel can’t consent — although it can’t not consent, either, really. What’s your perspective on that?

I know exactly what you mean. I asked them that question: how does an object say no to you? When do you know a relationship is over? And they feel it. They’ve had objects that they’ve had to leave and objects that they feel have left them. It works the same way as humans — it’s a two-way street. One of the things we talked about is how the world is full of objects, so how do you pick that particular one? And Linda says it best in the film: when you come into a room of people and you talk to someone and make this connection with a person at the other end of the room and the attraction goes — that’s exactly how it works for them. It’s real for them — that’s the one eyeopener I had after a year of talking to them.

Linda doesn’t spend $86,000 going through the heartbreak of rebuilding Bruce if she didn’t love him.

I’d guess not.

And each of them has their own kind of love. Erika is more open; she can have relationships with several objects, like some people can have with several people. Linda is more heart and soul: she married Bruce the carnival ride, she’s singular. And Young Carl in Montreal is interesting, because he’s searching for his sexual identity. He loves his car, but he’s not sure, he might go have a relationship with a man or woman.

Animism: People Who Love Objects airs Sep. 28 at 8 p.m. as part of Global’s Obsessions documentary series.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Animism: Man in love with car, woman with carnival ride Ruth Myles http://blogs.calgaryherald.com/2013/09/26/ruth-myles-people-who-are-in-love-withobjects-centre-of-the-documentary-animism/

It’s been said we can’t choose who we love. But some people say they can’t choose what they love.

Take Linda Ducharme. The love of her life is a carnival ride, a multi-storey Skyrider she calls Bruce. The Floridian is profiled in Animism: People Who Love Objects, a documentary airing Saturday on Global.

“I believe all things — objects, plants, people — have an essence of their own. We’re all made of atoms of energy,” says Ducharme, 55, who identifies as someone with Objectum-Sexuality.

“There is a chemistry. Just like a man walks into a bar and there are three women. He is more attracted to one of them. … I can’t explain all the chemistry … but I do know that it’s not the same for identical objects. One might appeal to you more than another.” Objectum-Sexuality, or OS, is when a person is emotionally and physically attracted to an inanimate object, regarding it as their partner.

Ducharme’s OS got her thrown out of home at age 17. She worked on a railroad, but was fired after being spotted in an “intimate embrace” with a locomotive.

She first encountered Bruce when she was 22. It was love at first sight. Ducharme joined the travelling carnival to be with him 24/7, working as his operator. They were together for four years, but a storm knocked the ride to the ground. Bruce was shipped off to be repaired.

It would be 25 years until Ducharme saw him again.

While Ducharme believes that Bruce is a “spiritual being” with a soul, Carl Tessier doesn’t believe the same of his partner, Blitz.

“That is what makes it even harder to understand for me, although I am a bit of that mindset when I am with my car … to make the relationship feel a little less empty,” Tessier says over the phone. Blitz is a black Pontiac Sunfire. “But if I said that I had the entirely sincere belief that my car had a soul, I would be lying.

Despite that, when I am intimate with my car, I pretend that it is responding to me in a way.”

Tessier can’t fully explain his feelings to himself, much less his parents. He is “out” with his OS to a gay uncle. In the film, Tessier’s accepting uncle says, “They make sexual orientation like it’s a big thing, but it’s a small thing.”

Tessier will have to see if the rest of his family feels the same way. Although the documentary airs Saturday, Tessier’s relatives are in the dark about his OS. “I am still working on the plan to tell the rest of my family. It’s not exactly easy,” he says. “I still live with my parents, so that could make it uneasy.”

Toronto director Bill Spahic searched out people like Tessier and Ducharme after he learned about OS. The owner/partner of Real to Reel Productions was researching “subcultures” that would lend themselves to compelling storytelling.

“I stopped dead in my tracks,” Spahic says of first reading about OS. He contacted Erika Eiffel, an American who “married” the Eiffel Tower. She is profiled, along with four other subjects. “What surprised me was how real it was for them. I expected some rationale for it, either psychological, or traumatic, or blah, blah, blah, but there isn’t any of that,” Spahic says.

Instead, the film’s subjects identified as OS in their early teens, he says. There isn’t much research into OS, he adds, which is why he chose not to have any “talking heads” in the documentary. “I couldn’t see letting experts — quote/unquote — give their opinions of them out of their field. I prefer to let the viewers hear and feel their love stories and relationships … and not have someone else colour what the viewers see.”

Ducharme doesn’t expect acceptance of OS to materialize overnight.

She took part in the documentary to make it less challenging for the next generation of people with OS. As she says in the film, “Inside of us, we are all the same.

My heart beats the same as anybody else’s out there. My heart might beat for something else, but it beats the same way.”

Objects can be people's obsessive affections Ruth Myles http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Objects+people+obsessive+affections/8972332/story.html

Animism: People Who Love Objects Saturday, 8 p.m., Global It's been said we can't choose who we love. But some people say they can't choose what they love.

Take Linda Ducharme. The love of her life is a carnival ride, a multi-storey Skyrider she calls Bruce. The Floridian is profiled in Animism: People Who Love Objects, a documentary airing Saturday on Global.

"I believe all things - objects, plants, people - have an essence of their own. We're all made of atoms of energy," says Ducharme, 55, who identifies as someone with ObjectumSexuality.

"There is a chemistry. Just like a man walks into a bar and there are three women. He is more attracted to one of them. ... I can't explain all the chemistry ... but I do know that it's not the same for identical objects. One might appeal to you more than another."

Objectum-Sexuality, or OS, is when a person is emotionally and physically attracted to an inanimate object, regarding it as their partner. Ducharme's OS got her thrown out of home at age 17. She worked on a railroad, but was fired after being spotted in an "intimate embrace" with a locomotive.

She first encountered Bruce when she was 22. It was love at first sight. Ducharme joined the travelling carnival to be with him 24/7, working as his operator. They were together for four years, but a storm knocked the ride to the ground. Bruce was shipped off to be repaired.

It would be 25 years until Ducharme saw him again.

While Ducharme believes that Bruce is a "spiritual being" with a soul, Carl Tessier doesn't believe the same of his partner, Blitz. "That is what makes it even harder to understand for me, although I am a bit of that mindset when I am with my car ... to make the relationship feel a little less empty," Tessier says. (Blitz is a black Pontiac Sunfire.)

"But if I said that I had the entirely sincere belief that my car had a soul, I would be lying."

Toronto director Bill Spahic searched out people like Tessier and Ducharme after he learned about OS. The owner/partner of Real to Reel Productions was researching "subcultures" that would lend themselves to compelling storytelling. "What surprised me was how real it was for them," Spahic says.

Ruth Myles: People who are in love with objects centre of the documentary Animism Ruth Myles http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/television/Animism+love+with+wom an+with+carnival+ride/8969011/story.html

It’s been said we can’t choose who we love. But some people say they can’t choose what they love.

Take Linda Ducharme. The love of her life is a carnival ride, a multi-storey Skyrider she calls Bruce. The Floridian is one of five people profiled in Animism: People Who Love Objects, a documentary airing Saturday on Global.

“I believe all things — objects, plants, people — have an essence of their own. We’re all made of atoms of energy,” says Ducharme, who identifies as someone with ObjectumSexuality. “There is a chemistry. Just like a man walks into a bar and there are three women, he is more attracted to one of them. . . I can’t explain all the chemistry . . . but I do know that it’s not the same for identical objects.

“One might appeal to you more than another.” Objectum-Sexuality, or OS, is when a person is emotionally and physically attracted to an inanimate object, regarding it as their partner.

Ducharme’s OS got her thrown out of her home at age 17. She worked on a railroad, but was fired after being spotted in an “intimate embrace” with a locomotive.

She first encountered Bruce when she was 22. It was love at first sight. Ducharme joined the travelling carnival to be with him 24/7, working as his operator. They were together for four years, but a storm knocked the ride to the ground. Bruce was shipped off to be repaired.

It would be 25 years until Ducharme saw him again.

While Ducharme believes that Bruce is a “spiritual being” with a soul, Carl Tessier doesn’t believe the same of his partner, Blitz.

“That is what makes it even harder to understand for me, although I am a bit of that mindset when I am with my car . . . to make the relationship feel a little less empty,” Tessier says over the phone. Blitz is a black Pontiac Sunfire. “But if I said that I had the entirely sincere belief that my car had a soul, I would be lying.

Despite that, when I am intimate with my car, I pretend that it is responding to me in a way.”

Tessier can’t fully explain his feelings to himself, much less his parents. He is “out” with his OS to an uncle, who is gay. In the film, Tessier’s accepting uncle says, “They make sexual orientation like it’s a big thing, but it’s a small thing.”

Tessier will have to see if the rest of his family feels the same way. Although the documentary airs Saturday, Tessier’s relatives are in the dark about his OS. “I am still working on the plan to tell the rest of my family. It’s not exactly easy,” he says. “I still live with my parents, so that could make it uneasy.”

Toronto director Bill Spahic searched out people like Tessier and Ducharme after he learned about OS. The owner/partner of Real to Reel Productions was researching “subcultures” that would lend themselves to compelling storytelling.

“I stopped dead in my tracks,” Spahic says of first reading about OS. He contacted Erika Eiffel, an American who “married” the Eiffel Tower. She is profiled in the film, along with the other four subjects.

“What surprised me was how real it was for them. I expected some rationale for it, either psychological, or traumatic, or blah, blah, blah, but there isn’t any of that,” Spahic says.

Instead, the film’s subjects identified as OS in their early teens, he says. There isn’t much research into OS, he adds, which is why he chose not to have any “talking heads” in the documentary.

“I couldn’t see letting experts — quote/unquote — give their opinions of them out of their field. I prefer to let the viewers hear and feel their love stories and relationships . . . and not have someone else colour what the viewers see.”

Ducharme doesn’t expect acceptance of OS to materialize overnight. She took part in the documentary to make it less challenging for the next generation of people with OS. As she says in the film, “Inside of us, we are all the same. My heart beats the same as anybody else’s out there. My heart might beat for something else, but it beats the same way.”

Objects can be people's obsessive affections Ruth Myles http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Objects+people+obsessive+affections/8972332 /story.html Animism: People Who Love Objects Saturday, 8 p.m., Global It's been said we can't choose who we love. But some people say they can't choose what they love.

Take Linda Ducharme. The love of her life is a carnival ride, a multi-storey Skyrider she calls Bruce. The Floridian is profiled in Animism: People Who Love Objects, a documentary airing Saturday on Global.

"I believe all things - objects, plants, people - have an essence of their own. We're all made of atoms of energy," says Ducharme, 55, who identifies as someone with Objectum-Sexuality. "There is a chemistry. Just like a man walks into a bar and there are three women. He is more attracted to one of them. ... I can't explain all the chemistry ... but I do know that it's not the same for identical objects. One might appeal to you more than another."

Objectum-Sexuality, or OS, is when a person is emotionally and physically attracted to an inanimate object, regarding it as their partner. Ducharme's OS got her thrown out of home at age 17. She worked on a railroad, but was fired after being spotted in an "intimate embrace" with a locomotive.

She first encountered Bruce when she was 22. It was love at first sight. Ducharme joined the travelling carnival to be with him 24/7, working as his operator. They were together for four years, but a storm knocked the ride to the ground. Bruce was shipped off to be repaired.

It would be 25 years until Ducharme saw him again.

While Ducharme believes that Bruce is a "spiritual being" with a soul, Carl Tessier doesn't believe the same of his partner, Blitz. "That is what makes it even harder to understand for me, although I am a bit of that mindset when I am with my car ... to make the relationship feel a little less empty," Tessier says. (Blitz is a black Pontiac Sunfire.)

"But if I said that I had the entirely sincere belief that my car had a soul, I would be lying."

Toronto director Bill Spahic searched out people like Tessier and Ducharme after he learned about OS. The owner/partner of Real to Reel Productions was researching "subcultures" that would lend themselves to compelling storytelling. "What surprised me was how real it was for them," Spahic says.

Animism: Man in love with car, woman with carnival ride Ruth Myles http://www.canada.com/entertainment/television/Animism+love+with+woman+wit h+carnival+ride/8969011/story.html It’s been said we can’t choose who we love. But some people say they can’t choose what they love.

Take Linda Ducharme. The love of her life is a carnival ride, a multi-storey Skyrider she calls Bruce. The Floridian is profiled in Animism: People Who Love Objects, a documentary airing Saturday on Global.

“I believe all things — objects, plants, people — have an essence of their own. We’re all made of atoms of energy,” says Ducharme, 55, who identifies as someone with Objectum-Sexuality.

“There is a chemistry. Just like a man walks into a bar and there are three women. He is more attracted to one of them. … I can’t explain all the chemistry … but I do know that it’s not the same for identical objects. One might appeal to you more than another.”

Objectum-Sexuality, or OS, is when a person is emotionally and physically attracted to an inanimate object, regarding it as their partner. Ducharme’s OS got her thrown out of home at age 17. She worked on a railroad, but was fired after being spotted in an “intimate embrace” with a locomotive.

She first encountered Bruce when she was 22. It was love at first sight. Ducharme joined the travelling carnival to be with him 24/7, working as his operator. They were together for four years, but a storm knocked the ride to the ground. Bruce was shipped off to be repaired.

It would be 25 years until Ducharme saw him again.

While Ducharme believes that Bruce is a “spiritual being” with a soul, Carl Tessier doesn’t believe the same of his partner, Blitz.

“That is what makes it even harder to understand for me, although I am a bit of that mindset when I am with my car … to make the relationship feel a little less empty,” Tessier says over the phone.

Blitz is a black Pontiac Sunfire.

“But if I said that I had the entirely sincere belief that my car had a soul, I would be lying. Despite that, when I am intimate with my car, I pretend that it is responding to me in a way.”

Tessier can’t fully explain his feelings to himself, much less his parents. He is “out” with his OS to a gay uncle. In the film, Tessier’s accepting uncle says, “They make sexual orientation like it’s a big thing, but it’s a small thing.”

Tessier will have to see if the rest of his family feels the same way. Although the documentary airs Saturday, Tessier’s relatives are in the dark about his OS. “I am still working on the plan to tell the rest of my family. It’s not exactly easy,” he says. “I still live with my parents, so that could make it uneasy.”

Toronto director Bill Spahic searched out people like Tessier and Ducharme after he learned about OS. The owner/partner of Real to Reel Productions was researching “subcultures” that would lend themselves to compelling storytelling.

“I stopped dead in my tracks,” Spahic says of first reading about OS. He contacted Erika Eiffel, an American who “married” the Eiffel Tower. She is profiled, along with four other subjects.

“What surprised me was how real it was for them. I expected some rationale for it, either psychological, or traumatic, or blah, blah, blah, but there isn’t any of that,” Spahic says.

Instead, the film’s subjects identified as OS in their early teens, he says. There isn’t much research into OS, he adds, which is why he chose not to have any “talking heads” in the documentary.

“I couldn’t see letting experts — quote/unquote — give their opinions of them out of their field. I prefer to let the viewers hear and feel their love stories and relationships … and not have someone else colour what the viewers see.”

Ducharme doesn’t expect acceptance of OS to materialize overnight. She took part in the documentary to make it less challenging for the next generation of people with OS.As she says in the film, “Inside of us, we are all the same. My heart beats the same as anybody else’s out there.

My heart might beat for something else, but it beats the same way.”

On Cable: ANIMISM: PEOPLE WHO LOVE OBJECTS Basil Tsiokos http://whatnottodoc.com/2013/11/11/on-cable-animism-people-who-love-objects/ Coming to Logo’s WHAT!? doc series tonight, Monday, November 11: ANIMISM: PEOPLE WHO LOVE OBJECTS Bill Spahic’s exploration of people who develop feelings for objects made its world premiere on Canadian television in September. The Logo airing marks its US debut. Spahic’s subjects identify as Objectum-Sexuals, an unfortunately clunky-sounding term that has helped to unite a small subculture of individuals who manifest strong emotional and romantic attraction to inanimate objects. Like Angela Tucker’s (A)SEXUAL, which deals with people who express no sexual desire at all, this doc in some part serves the purpose of trying to validate this still relatively obscure population to the mainstream.

Unlike the earlier film, what Spahic’s lacks is a strong central figure, so what results is basically a meandering survey that never gets particularly deep, following five figures: a woman who repairs and marries a carnival ride, a man who has sex with his car, a woman in a long distance relationship with the Statue of Liberty, a priest excommunicated for loving his soundboard, and a woman who married the Eiffel Tower, but finds herself falling for the Berlin Wall.

While genuinely curious, the doc profiles too many characters for its limited running time, and skirts close to the exploitative edge in that the viewer is never given much of a chance to understand these people as anything but OS. Still, it’s clearly a sympathetic portrait that successfully engages the audience to learn about something that they otherwise might not encounter.

Review: Animism: People Who Love Objects (2013) Jordan Ferguson http://nextprojection.com/2013/09/26/review-animism-people-love-objects-2013/ Editor’s Notes: Animism: People Who Love Objects has its World broadcast premiere September 28 on Global TV – 8PM EST. Objectum-Sexuality, the love of inanimate objects, has been the subject of cultural fascination for several years now. Much of this has seemed in some sense exploitative (episodes of shows like Taboo and My Strange Addiction have been dedicated to people with this orientation), a chance to leer at people who view the world differently.

To some extent, Animism seems dedicated to normalizing OS, and to making several selfidentified Objectum-Sexuals resonate as human beings more than side-show attractions. It is only intermittently effective at this, and at times strays far closer to the manipulative leering of the aforementioned programs, yet the documentary’s heart almost always seems to be in the right place.

The film follows several people in ongoing relationships with inanimate objects that range from the famous (Erika Eiffel is married to the Eiffel Tower, and Amanda Liberty is in a longdistance love affair with the Statue of Liberty) to the personal (Carl Tessier loves his car “Blitz,” and Linda Ducharme is married to “Bruce,” a carnival ride). More a series of profiles than a coherent narrative, Animism meanders through these people’s lives and only occasionally latches on to an actual point. This shiftlessness makes it hard to wrap your head around the film; it seems to lack a thesis or even a driving narrative. It’s an observational look at the lives of its subjects, but it tries to fit too many people into its 45 minute runtime. A tighter focus, a more structured narrative, or even a more searching examination into Objectum-Sexuality could have grounded Animism, which is left feeling like several slices of life cut too thin.

Director Bill Spahic adopts an observational style that is clearly intended not to judge, an admirable attempt that often leaves the film drifting. A point of view on which to anchor things would have been helpful here, but while Erika Eiffel and Linda Ducharme both get a lot of screen time, neither is given enough room to develop as a person.

The entire nature of the enterprise is defining these people by their sexuality, and without time to reach past that and find the people behind the label, Animism can feel as exploitative as the previous productions it seems intended to counteract. There are moments of excellence here, like a sequence showing Erika’s burgeoning relationship with the Berlin Wall that is deeply, achingly humanistic, but they are few and far between, interspersed with interviews given by friends who all say virtually the same thing: they were surprised when they heard about these relationships, but they accept them nevertheless (those that are less accepting are omitted).

It's not just that the film never asks its subjects any tough questions (that may be part of the point), just that the film never seems to ask them anything interesting or revealing at all.

Beyond their attraction to the particular objects and their families’ reactions to this, the film doesn’t delve into the ramifications of this love nearly often enough. It makes its subjects no more human than their lovers, and in fact, renders them far more two-dimensional than they envision their partners to be.

Objectum-Sexuality is still relatively new, as far as its cultural prominence goes, and the documentary may simply be trying to get the word out that this is a valid sexual orientation, but allowing it to define the subjects as completely as it does here doesn’t serve this ostensible goal. If the point here is that Objectum-Sexuals are people (and that is certainly the case), Animism far too rarely captures the humanity of its subjects. These people believe a soul animates the objects that they love and connects them. It’s a shame something similar doesn’t animate the film.

53/100 ~ MEDIOCRE. If the point here is that Objectum-Sexuals are people (and that is certainly the case), Animism far too rarely captures the humanity of its subjects. These people believe a soul animates the objects that they love and connects them. It’s a shame something similar doesn’t animate the film.

John Zaritzky making Super Channel documentary about eccentrics Etan Vlessing http://playbackonline.ca/2013/09/30/john-zaritsky-making-super-channel-documentary-abouteccentrics/ Oscar winning director John Zaritsky is to direct a documentary about eccentrics for Super Channel – what its producers call a film about “people who dance to the beat of their own drum.”

Eccentrics, from indie producer Real to Reel Productions, has also been sold to the Documentary Channel as a second window, and received $273,448 in financing from the Canada Media Fund, with an extra $37,500 for digital media.

The documentary will cover a range of people who stand out for the lifestyles they have chosen, including Daniel Suelo, who lives with no cash in caves in Utah by harvesting wild foods.

“He’s never earned a cent and spent a cent since. He lives off of what he can find in the outdoors, will occasionally work, but only to be fed,” said Bill Spahic ( Animism: People Who Love Objects), who runs Real to Reel Productions with partner Anne Pick.

Zaritsky won an Academy Award in 1982 for his documentary Just Another Missing Kid. His most recent doc is Do You Really Want to Know?, about predictive genetic testing.

Zaritsky, Pick and Spahic have known one another since their early years at the CBC. The trio are also collaborating on a second documentary by Zaritsky about Thalidomide, the severe birth defect drug.

Zaritsky did two earlier docs in 1989 and 1999 about victims of Thalidomide, and has chosen to do a follow-up film because the people he followed over the years are now dealing with the challenge of ageing as parents die and their own health suffers.

In addition, the completion of a landmark class action court case in Australia against the distributor of Thalidomide has revealed a wealth of historical documents formerly held under lock and key in Germany.

Saphic said the new documentation reveals the manufacturer of Thalidomide, Grunenthal, knew of links between the drug and adverse health effects.

Zaritsky’s doc will also probe links between Grunenthal and the German Nazis, and Thalidomide being developed during the Second World War and tested in a concentration camp.

“It (Grunenthal) was an old company and owned by a Nazi, and the drug was created by a doctor practicing in a concentration camp. And there was a push to get the pill out there for financial reasons,” Saphic explained.

Anne Pick said the Zaritsky doc will be an antidote to those who believe Thalidomide, which is now being used to treat AIDS patients, is a thing of the past as its birth defect victims remain very much alive and ageing.

“It’s starting to pop up again. It’s not over. This subject, we have to bring it to light,” she said.

Real to Reel Productions’ Animism: People Who Love Objects on the weekend kicked off Global TV’s docu-series strand Obsessions.

John Zaritzky making Super Channel documentary about eccentrics Etan Vlessing http://realscreen.com/2013/09/30/john-zaritsky-making-super-channel-documentary-abouteccentrics/ Oscar-winning director John Zaritsky is to direct a documentary about eccentrics for Canada’s Super Channel.

Eccentrics, from indie producer Real to Reel Productions, has also been sold to the Documentary Channel as a second window. The film received CAD$273,448 in financing from the Canada Media Fund, with an extra $37,500 for digital media. Producers say the film is about “people who dance to the beat of their own drum.”

The documentary will cover a range of people who stand out for the lifestyles they have chosen, including Daniel Suelo, who lives with no cash in caves in Utah by harvesting wild foods.

“He’s never earned a cent and spent a cent since. He lives off of what he can find in the outdoors, will occasionally work, but only to be fed,” said Bill Spahic (Animism: People Who Love Objects), who runs Real to Reel Productions with partner Anne Pick.

Zaritsky won an Academy Award in 1982 for his documentary Just Another Missing Kid. His most recent doc is Do You Really Want to Know?, about predictive genetic testing. Zaritsky, Pick and Spahic have known one another since their early years at the CBC. The trio are also collaborating on a second documentary by Zaritsky about Thalidomide, the severe birth defect drug.

Zaritsky did two earlier docs in 1989 and 1999 about victims of Thalidomide, and has chosen to do a followup film because the people he followed over the years are now dealing with the challenge of ageing as parents die and their own health suffers.

In addition, the completion of a landmark class action court case in Australia against the distributor of Thalidomide has revealed a wealth of historical documents formerly held under lock and key in Germany.

Saphic said the new documentation reveals the manufacturer of Thalidomide, Grunenthal, knew of links between the drug and adverse health effects.

Zaritsky’s doc will also probe links between Grunenthal and the German Nazis, and Thalidomide being developed during the Second World War and tested in a concentration camp.

“It [Grunenthal] was an old company and owned by a Nazi, and the drug was created by a doctor practicing in a concentration camp. And there was a push to get the pill out there for financial reasons,” Saphic explained.

Anne Pick said the Zaritsky doc will be an antidote to those who believe Thalidomide, which is now being used to treat AIDS patients, is a thing of the past as its birth defect victims remain very much alive and ageing.

“It’s starting to pop up again. It’s not over. This subject, we have to bring it to light,” she said.

Real to Reel Productions’ Animism: People Who Love Objects on the weekend kicked off Global TV’s docuseries strand Obsessions.g

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