Reality Films has produced a new DVD entitled The Seekers Guide to Harry Potter, and UK distributor Wienerworld kindly sent us some free copies to review and give away to you visitors as competition prizes.
Here is the official synopsis of the film:
The Seekers Guide to Harry Potter takes you on a journey and exploration into the underlying themes of J.K Rowling’s fantastically successful Harry Potter series. Drawing from her unique background and personal experiences, the author provides original insights into the mysticism, magic and symbolism within the world of Harry Potter. Dr. Geo Trevarthen is an academic who has painstakingly researched the Harry Potter craze. She goes far beyond the normal criteria and steps into a world of real magic and its shamanic past. In doing so she reveals the origins of many of the elements found within the novels and films.
HPSupporters Review
A Seeker's Guide to Harry Potter is an interesting exploration of the underlying symbolism, themes and messages in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.
A small scale, intimate production, it is shot in the appropriate location of Edinburgh (where JK penned much of the series) and is presented to us by Dr Geo Trevarthen who comes from a background of Shamanism. The film, therefore, may not sit comfortably with everybody. Its author's ideas and beliefs as well as the style, imagery and music used throughout strongly convey this spritual Celtic discipline.
Nevertheless, there were some fascinating elements examined in depth by this avid reader of our favourite story. She probes some real world magical and alchemic history and how they inspired JK's writing. For example I learnt about the ancient origins of characters' names, the symbolic nature and history of the golden snitch, the influences behind the four school houses, and the layers of meaning beneath these.
Dr Trevarthen also makes intriguing parallels between different parts of the novels and gives her thoughts on how some of Rowling's messages can connect with our own real world lives. One of the interesting issues she raised is that of love, a key feature in Harry's life, and something that she says is hugely important in the early stages of real-life childhood, bringing her in line with today's psychological and socialogical theories. Further themes she explores include the moral neutrality of magic, following true will over whim, and Death and the triangle of the three Hallows.
With future re-reads of the HP books I'm sure I shall now view many components of the canon in much more depth than I previously have. The film reinforces for me what a triumph of storytelling J.K. Rowling has created and the incredible expanse of meaning behind her stories.
For those Harry Potter fans with spiritual inclinations like those of this film's author and want to look at the novels from that perspective, or for those merely with an interest in getting beneath the surface of the books, this is a film you'll very much appreciate. For me, the DVD shall fit nicely in my collection of all things Harry Potter.
If you like the sound of this DVD then tomorrow evening on Twitter we will be giving away a copy to a lucky follower. Unfortunately, for postal reasons, the competition will only be open to people from the UK.
The opening of the WB Studio Tour: The Making of Harry Potter at Leavesden Studios is now less than a month away. Those with tickets to the tour will be extremely excited to see these new pictures and video released by Warner Brothers today, which show the beautiful scale model of Hogwarts used throughout the whole Harry Potter series, and visitors to the attraction will be able view this with their own eyes.
Even if you are not fortunate enough to be able to make it the Tour, we’re sure you’ll love these pictures no less.
As we’ve heard before, Leavesden Studios has had a big refurbishment which meant the sets had to be dismantled into smaller chunks, put into storage, and then put back together again ready for the tour. The time-lapse video below shows them putting the pieces of Hogwarts back together:
The Saturn Awards, by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, today announced the nominations for their 38th annual show.
In contrast to the disappointment of most of the mainstream award shows, especially the Oscars, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is very well represented with ten nominations, including Best Fantasy Film, Supporting Actor and Actress, Direction, Production Design and more!
See the full list of the categories they are nominated in below. Get the whole story »
The Time-Turner Tuesday for this week comes via the archives of The-Leaky-Cauldron.org and takes us back to May 7th 2005 when the amazing trailer for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was first released.
Go here to view the original post on Leaky, or click the image below get straight to the trailer.
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