Review: The Seekers Guide to Harry Potter
| | 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 ReviewA 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.
Jun
27
Yesterday marked fifteen years since the first publication of Philosopher’s Stone (they only printed 500 copies!). In honour of this anniversary, The Guardian re-published one of their very early articles about JK Rowling and Harry Potter. It includes an interview with JKR herself, which is fascinating to read in hindsight, where she speaks about getting accepted by Bloomsbury and expresses her astonishment at the huge (now comparatively tiny!) six-figure sums of money coming her way.
Have a read of that right here. Click the image for a larger version:
Jun
24
With Pottermore making updates until the release of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the Pottermore Insider recently announced that they are setting up a House Cup Tournament. As you already know, the House Cup is awarded to the house with the most house points at the end of the school year. On Pottermore, you can achieve house points through brewing potions and dueling. Here is what Pottermore said:
Pottermore students have been working hard on their potion-making and duelling skills to earn house points for their respective houses. Those points have been gathering and, with the numbers building up to impressive heights, we can now announce that the Pottermore House Cup will be awarded soon! The house with the greatest number of points will win the Pottermore House Cup, so keep up the duelling and brewing. We’ll be posting updates regarding the Pottermore House Cup both on the Insider and on the Pottermore Gateway, but also somewhere else… We’re pleased to announce that each Pottermore house now has its own noticeboard. Your house noticeboard can be found in your house’s common room on Pottermore – make sure you visit to stay up to date with the latest house news as we begin the countdown to the announcement of the Pottermore House Cup winner. It’s an exciting time; good luck to all houses!
Everyone go online and get to brewing and dueling! The House Cup will be awarded on July 5th.
Jun
12
E3, the video game and entertainment conference, was held earlier this past week and CinemaBlend previewed Harry Potter Kinect. They shared a few thoughts on how they thought gameplay faired on the Kinect console: Get the whole story »
