DANCES SACRED AND PROFANE

Mark and Dan Jur (“Chillysmith Farm” and “For All People, For All Time”) spent 4 years exploring a fascinating realm of American subcults and rituals. Inspired by social anthropologist Charles Gatewood's studies of deviant behavior, the Jurys filmed the bizarre practices of, among others, the cultists of N.Y.'s Belle de Jour sex salon, Naked City, Indiana; uninhibited Mardi Gras revelers and Hindu rites in California, culminating with the spiritual quest of a “modern primitive” businessman whose Sundance ceremony climaxes with his communion with the Great White Spirit by transcending the agony of hanging from a tree by steel hooks piercing his pectorals. The provocative subject matter is treated with respect rather than sensationalism.