Documentary about vampires
B J Kuehl
I received the following email message and thought I'd share it
with the readers on alt.vampyres. Can any of you help this person
out? What aspects of vampirism would you like to see addressed in
a documentary about vampires and vampirism? What aspects do you
think have been done to death? Does anyone know if the Comedia
del Sangue is still operating?
^BJ^
From zan...@reallygoodproductions.com Wed Jun 12 13:35:17 2002
To: b...@csd.uwm.edu
From: Really Good Productions <zan...@reallygoodproductions.com>
Dear Barbara,
My name is Valerio Zanoli, and I am writing to you because Really
Good Productions is currently working on a documentary about vampires.
As you may know, last year we produced a documentary about “Demonic
Possessions,” and the numbers provided by “The Hollywood Reporter”
indicate that the film had a projected audience of over 52 million
people -- in the United States alone. We take pride in such a success,
and the comments that we have been receiving indicate that our research
was interesting, accurate, and groundbreaking.
By remaining objective and analyzing every point of view, we now
plan to conduct a similar study about vampirism. For “Demonic Possessions,
” we talked with the most famous and knowledgeable exorcists, psychiatrists,
writers, anthropologists, sociologists, journalists, medical doctors,
lawyers, archbishops, Satanists, magicians, and possessed people
in the world. Furthermore, we have obtained footage of exorcisms,
black masses, vandalized churches, liberation prayers, and the Pope
himself as he speaks about demonic possessions.
The documentary about vampirism will analyze all the different points
of view, too. Popular legends and shocking realities need to be investigated
with the same preciseness and, though we are already in contact with
several people who drink blood and sleep in coffins, I must emphasize
right away that our study will be serious and comprehensive.
It is this burning desire to make a great documentary that makes
me contact you.
Over the next few months, I will travel all over the United States
and Europe, and I would like to know from you which aspects of vampirism
I should take into consideration for the documentary. About the folkloristic
aspect, for example, I wanted to schedule an interview with the Comedia
del Sangue (Vampire Theatre), but it looks like the group no longer
exists. Do you know anything about it?
I thank you in advance for your cooperation, and I look forward to
talking with you.
Sincerely,
Valerio Zanoli
Really Good Productions, Inc.
William R. Thompson
>
> I received the following email message and thought I'd share it
> with the readers on alt.vampyres. Can any of you help this person
> out? What aspects of vampirism would you like to see addressed in
> a documentary about vampires and vampirism? What aspects do you
> think have been done to death? Does anyone know if the Comedia
> del Sangue is still operating?
I've done some searches and I haven't been able to find anything
about this "Demonic Possessions" documentary. An nslookup on the
reallygoodproductions.com address said that it doesn't exist.
There is a "Really Big Productions, Inc." in Italy, but my system
crashed twice while I tried to access its site through a Google
search. Zanoli's talk about a projected audience of 52 million in
the United States alone is at best spurious--that's one out of
every five people in this country. He should know by now how many
people actually saw it. I know I'm one of the 223 million or so
Americans who never even heard of it.
If this vampire thing is a genuine production, I know what I don't
want to see--what I never want to see again, ever, whether it
involves vampires, flying saucers, the Bermuda Triangle, conspiracy
theories, or whatever topic is hot this season. It's the generic
scenario that amounts to this:
Scene 1: Interview with the Expert
We're in the office of Dr. Brainiac. We see shelves groaning
under the weight of books, and other evidence that the good doctor
is an educated man who is capable of delivering an informed
opinion.
Narrator's Voice-over
(smarmy as hell)
Dr. Brainiac has studied every aspect of vampirism
during his fifty year academic career. He has travelled
the world in the course of his research. His opinion?
Dr. Brainiac
There is absolutely no evidence that undead creatures
rise from the dead to drink blood. All I've ever found
are nut-cases, liars and--at best--sincere people who
were mistaken about the evidence.
Scene 2: An abandoned graveyard in Outer Slobovia
Narrator's Voice-over
(smug and sinister)
Ah, but *we* know better, because we have found Ivan
Inbredsky, a professional village idiot who has
inherited a family legend about his great-great-great
great grandmother who once slept with a man who had a
friend who had heard about somebody who was definitely
bitten by a vampire in this very graveyard.
Scene 3: Ivan Inbredsky's padded cell
Ivan Inbredsky
(badly translated)
It must be true, because my senile aunt told it to
me when I was very little, and why would Aunty lie to me?
--Bill Thompson
Richard Morrison
>
(snip)
>
> I've done some searches and I haven't been able to find anything
> about this "Demonic Possessions" documentary. An nslookup on the
> reallygoodproductions.com address said that it doesn't exist.
> There is a "Really Big Productions, Inc." in Italy, but my system
> crashed twice while I tried to access its site through a Google
> search. Zanoli's talk about a projected audience of 52 million in
> the United States alone is at best spurious--that's one out of
> every five people in this country. He should know by now how many
> people actually saw it. I know I'm one of the 223 million or so
> Americans who never even heard of it.
re: "Really Good Productions", I found their website at
http://www.reallygoodproductions.com but all it says is that
it's under construction.
I did find a job listing
they posted with the Harvard Career Service on May 8, 2001:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Really Good Productions
Internship- (Short Term)
Category: Architecture
Really Good Productions is a company that makes films in the Los Angeles
area. Within one year, we plan to move most of our activities to Italy
and build a $2.5 million High Definition facility. Not only High
Definition will be the standard choice in the movie industry, but TV
networks have already been forced by law to start broadcasting in this
new medium.
We obviously have some ideas about the construction and design of our
new home, but we would like having YOU take care of every detail. Fresh
ideas are always welcome, and the only requirement is that you are
open-minded, with original views, and capable of delivering a visual
presentation on Internet. Your name will always be mentioned with the
project and, though we can't pay you at this point, you will obviously
be the best candidate for the position of paid architect/designer once
the Italian Government approves the funds.
If you are interested, please let us consider your portfolio, and
transcripts. Though letters of recommendation are not required, they
would greatly help us in our determination. In your reply, please
mention your contact us through E-mail at one of the following
addresses: reallyg...@msn.com or webm...@egothcfilm.com.
Salary: Unpaid position
Contact: Valerio Zanoli"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
On April 23, 2002, the Italian newspaper "La Nazione" carried this
brief squib about "Demonic Possession": (As translated by Google.)
- - - - - - - - - - - -
A documentary
on the worshippers
of the Malignant one
MASS -- the cinematographic society American Really Good Productions,
Inc. is turning a documentary on the satanici movements magical in the
world. For Italy, like experts, Amorth father has felt, the
anthropologist Trocchi Cat, Climati journalist, Medina cardinal and
investigator Luca Umberto Venturini.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
And another from the same issue: (Again, translated by Google.)
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Hidden rituals to Carrara
Uncovered the tempio
of one satanica schism
MASS -- an enormous pentacle, realized with is known is the "pavement"
of a mysterious place in a gorge in the heart of apuane mountains
uncovered some days before from Valerio Zanoli, producer of an American
cinematographic society that is turning a documentary on the movements
magical-satanici in the world, and from Luca Umberto Venturini, a
private investigator whom it inquires in the world of the hidden one.
The rich place of symbols of the mystery is found over Carrara, to
little distance from other situated ones, considers you magical, come to
the light in the 98. E' be caught up of night from one square (composed
from operating of the cinematographic society and investigators) and
filmato with television cameras to infrared beams to the March end. The
images (piece strongly of the documentary that will come transmitted in
the USA and Europe) show alarming rests, symbols that they make to think
next to magical ceremonies and rituals of stregoni (the pentacle is
considered a protection for who it completes gestures and it pronounces
formulas through which it is convinced to evoke demons or other
entities).
On some cliffs strange rests of the passage of the man are written,
difficultly decipherable and.
Perhaps draft of sancta a sanctorum of some used schism or of a tempio
from the satanisti of the Tuscany for the black puttinges. Sure it is a
place that it has been attended in past.
"From what we have seen -- Venturini investigator explains -- he could
be a place of great importance. E' an enormous gorge, with a pentacle, a
star species, that it has a diameter of twenty meters. Probably they
gather lě pertaining to one esoteric schism, perhaps satanica, in the
thought days important in order to complete magical-esoteric rituals ".
And it is not the single mysterious place in the province of Carrara
Mass. In a forest of Pontremoli, called "cursed", in fact, in september
96 it was found died Fabio Rapalli, young person entrepreneur of
Monfedele Coast in the province of Pavia. And two years after, in the
same forest, an other young person was recovered corpse. An inquiry from
the Power of attorney of the Republic of Mass was opened, that satanica
schism assumed the istigazione to the suicide from part of one. The
inquiry hour has been archiviata under the rows "ignoti the authors".
But a tradition of surveyings has carried the police officers of
Stradella, in the Oltrepň pavian, to put under accusation eight persons
for sexual violence in the comparisons of one girl, lesion and
profanazione of sacred places. All above suspicion ones that being to
the enquirers they would have participated to black puttinges in the
church abandoned of stinks to you, to Piacenza. The same one that being
to the police officers of Stradella, could have attended Fabio Rapalli.
of Alberto Bags
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
If anybody else would care to try their luck at translating, the Italian
original is at:
http://ad1.dada.it/html.ng/site=lanazione.it&sez=cronache_regionali&PagePos=1&bannersize=120x60
(If that link wrapped, you may have to copy and paste to get it to
work.)
Laura Dove
<3D07FA23...@ix.netcom.com>:
> If this vampire thing is a genuine production, I know what I don't
> want to see--what I never want to see again, ever, whether it
> involves vampires, flying saucers, the Bermuda Triangle, conspiracy
> theories, or whatever topic is hot this season. It's the generic
> scenario that amounts to this:
Sure. All too often, such shows result in destroying any idea that the
topic just _could possibly_ be serious. I also discussed with gothic
friends, telling they once were interviewed by people claiming to be
creating an emission about gothics... just to discover later that the real
topic was sects!
Never ever trust a journalist. They don't research any truth, they are
just looking for a hot topic to have much success...
Laura
--
Email: La...@Espezon.org Web: <http://www.Espezon.org/>
() ASCII Ribbon Campaign - Against HTML emails
/\ Against unreadable or useless attachments
William R. Thompson
> "William R. Thompson" wrote:
> > If this vampire thing is a genuine production, I know what I don't
> > want to see--what I never want to see again, ever, whether it
> > involves vampires, flying saucers, the Bermuda Triangle, conspiracy
> > theories, or whatever topic is hot this season. It's the generic
> > scenario that amounts to this:
> > [...]
> Sure. All too often, such shows result in destroying any idea that the
> topic just _could possibly_ be serious. I also discussed with gothic
> friends, telling they once were interviewed by people claiming to be
> creating an emission about gothics... just to discover later that the real
> topic was sects!
> Never ever trust a journalist. They don't research any truth, they are
> just looking for a hot topic to have much success...
Outside of the Fraud--er, Fox News Channel, most journalists are honest.
Granted, there are some who want to have Robert Redford play them in the
movie of their life, but they're in the minority. One of their problems
is that they're in a business, where they have to make deadlines and
beat
out the competition for customers. Plus the real news has to share
space and time with fluff--astrological forecasts, Britney Spears,
George W. and so on. Plus the editorial process is often influenced by
the people who own the news services; if they don't weant you to hear
about something, you won't hear it from them.
(It could be worse. As someone who read Pravda and listened to Radio
Moscow in the early Eighties, believe me, I *know* worse.)
As for "Really Big Productions" (and who do they think they're
kidding?),
I'd like to think that they're working on a James-Randi style
debunking of nonsense, but my suspicious nature causes me to doubt that.
--Bill Thompson
B J Kuehl
> [snip BillT's no-nos]
Me, I'm tired of seeing long-winded, 99% false accounts of how
Bram Stoker "based" his story on Vlad Tepes. Ms. Miller might be
all wet with her theory, based on a thorough reading of Stoker's
writing notes, that Stoker did not know much about Tepes except
for his name 'Dracula'. But, until we have further evidence to the
contrary, it appears that the Stoker-Tepes Dracula connection was
one in name only. If Tepes is to be featured in this documentary,
I would like to see that connection questioned instead of exploited.
^BJ^
-------------------------------------------------------------------
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-------------------------------------------------------------------
Elizabeth Miller
On 14 Jun 2002, B J Kuehl wrote:
> Me, I'm tired of seeing long-winded, 99% false accounts of how
> Bram Stoker "based" his story on Vlad Tepes.
Methinks I can agree with this! :)
> Ms. Miller might be
> all wet with her theory, based on a thorough reading of Stoker's
> writing notes, that Stoker did not know much about Tepes except
> for his name 'Dracula'. But, until we have further evidence to the
> contrary, it appears that the Stoker-Tepes Dracula connection was
> one in name only.
Naw, I am as dry as a bone!
It's a bit more than just the name: Stoker knew that there was a "voivode"
named Dracula who fought against the Turks. But little more. The one that
really annoys me is the constant repeating of the invention that
Vlad dipped his bread in the blood of his victims then slurped it down,
technically making him a vampire. And if one more documentary repeats the
nonsense that Vlad became a vampire because he was excommunicated, I will
s-c-r-e-a-m-!
> If Tepes is to be featured in this documentary,
> I would like to see that connection questioned instead of exploited.
But that is not what people want to hear. And herein lies the problem.
Last month I did a couple of interviews for upcoming documentaries and
this came up. I elaborated in detail. But I won't be surprised if little
or none of it is used. That happened in the "Dracula's castle" docu that
is being aired again on June 25 (I think) on the Travel Channel. While
they did use a few bits and pieces from an interview they did with me,
they totally ignored everything I said about Vlad, opting to use the same
old stuff.
Elizabeth
William R. Thompson
> if one more documentary repeats the
> nonsense that Vlad became a vampire because he was excommunicated, I will
> s-c-r-e-a-m-!
Is it true that he *really* became a vampire when he went to
Scholomance U., where he joined the Eta Bita Nek fraternity and
performed ghastly rites as a pledge during Hell Week?
--Bill Thompson
White Spirit
> Outside of the Fraud--er, Fox News Channel, most journalists are honest.
> Granted, there are some who want to have Robert Redford play them in the
> movie of their life, but they're in the minority. One of their problems
> is that they're in a business, where they have to make deadlines and
> beat
> out the competition for customers. Plus the real news has to share
> space and time with fluff--astrological forecasts, Britney Spears,
> George W. and so on. Plus the editorial process is often influenced by
> the people who own the news services; if they don't weant you to hear
> about something, you won't hear it from them.
Last night, the news that a solar system had been found similar to our
own got five seconds of air-time. This was after a documentary of at
least ten minutes of how Notting Hill or some such snobbish shitty place
didn't want a Starbucks cafe.
> (It could be worse. As someone who read Pravda and listened to Radio
> Moscow in the early Eighties, believe me, I *know* worse.)
Distributing propaganda should carry the death penalty.
> As for "Really Big Productions" (and who do they think they're
> kidding?),
Probably every ignorant fuck with an IQ no greater than their shoe size.
> I'd like to think that they're working on a James-Randi style
> debunking of nonsense, but my suspicious nature causes me to doubt that.
I have heard that Randi sticks to the same old formula. Namely, three
parts truth to one part lie, a recipe people often find easier to
swallow.
He did at one time, as I recall, plug his books on various newsgroups
concerned with the paranormal under a variety of assumed names.
William R. Thompson
> "William R. Thompson" wrote:
> Last night, the news that a solar system had been found similar to our
> own got five seconds of air-time. This was after a documentary of at
> least ten minutes of how Notting Hill or some such snobbish shitty place
> didn't want a Starbucks cafe.
55 Cancri. The big news is that it has a Jovian planet orbiting it at
a distance of approximately 5 AUs; about the same distance as Jupiter
orbits our sun. This is unusual because earlier planetary systems
have been found with Jovian planets orbiting much, much closer to
their primaries; earlier theories of planetary formation said that
a gas giant couldn't form so close to a star. It's definite that an
Earthlike planet couldn't exist in such a system. 55 Cancri could at
least in theory have a terrestrial planet.
I think there's more information about this on sci.space.news
> Distributing propaganda should carry the death penalty.
Then our surviving dittoheads would have to find a new pathological
liar,
draft-dodger and wanna-be child molester to fill their empty heads.
> > I'd like to think that they're working on a James-Randi style
> > debunking of nonsense, but my suspicious nature causes me to doubt that.
>
> I have heard that Randi sticks to the same old formula. Namely, three
> parts truth to one part lie, a recipe people often find easier to
> swallow.
That's a better signal-to-noise ratio than the people he critiques.
I like what I've seen of his work, although he was a lot more
abrasive before Uri Geller took him to court and CSICOP left him in
the lurch.
--Bill Thompson
Elizabeth Miller
On Fri, 14 Jun 2002, William R. Thompson wrote:
> Is it true that he *really* became a vampire when he went to
> Scholomance U., where he joined the Eta Bita Nek fraternity and
> performed ghastly rites as a pledge during Hell Week?
Don't laugh! Manuela Dunn Mascetti actually proposes in that
error-ridden, totally unreliable book entitled _Vampire: The Complete
Guide to the World of the Un-Dead_ that Vlad was "buried at the secret
school of Hermannstadt [the Scholomance mentioned by Bram Stoker], or
that the secret school was situated at Snagov [where Vlad is buried] ...
and the imagination got the two places confused" (146). Later on the same
page she suggests that if Vlad had indeed attended the Scholomance, this
would explain his "passage from the historical to the fictional,
supernatural character."
Here endeth your history lesson...
Elizabeth
emi...@mun.ca
http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/ ["Dracula's homepage"]
---------------------------------------------------------
"Razbunarea mea de abia incepe! Va dainui prin veacuri si
timpul e de partea mea."
(DRACULA, Romanian edition, 1993)
---------------------------------------------------------
William R. Thompson
> William R. Thompson wrote:
> > Is it true that he *really* became a vampire when he went to
> > Scholomance U., where he joined the Eta Bita Nek fraternity and
> > performed ghastly rites as a pledge during Hell Week?
> Don't laugh! Manuela Dunn Mascetti actually proposes in that
> error-ridden, totally unreliable book entitled _Vampire: The Complete
> Guide to the World of the Un-Dead_ that Vlad was "buried at the secret
> school of Hermannstadt [the Scholomance mentioned by Bram Stoker], or
> that the secret school was situated at Snagov [where Vlad is buried] ...
> and the imagination got the two places confused" (146). Later on the same
> page she suggests that if Vlad had indeed attended the Scholomance, this
> would explain his "passage from the historical to the fictional,
> supernatural character."
> Here endeth your history lesson...
I can just see my post being cited in one of these works.
If it's any comfort, history is filled with examples of crackpot
lies about what *really* happened. The moon landings were faked,
President Roosevelt planned Pearl Harbor, the Wright brothers
weren't the first to fly, there's a UFO hidden in Nevada (no,
Ohio--no, Virginia), America has never lost a war, Peter Jennings
is anti-American and Ken Tobey can sing. Dracula isn't alone.
--Bill Thompson
Laura Dove
<Pine.OSF.3.95.102061...@plato.ucs.mun.ca>:
> But that is not what people want to hear. And herein lies the problem.
Yep, and that's the main problem with journalists. I don't tell they
are worse than anybody else, but they are not paid to explain the truth...
they are paid to attract a large audience. Thus, to please, not to teach.
And sometimes lies and deformation sound more pleasant than disturbing
truth.
Really Good Productions, Inc.
operating in California. You can look up its information in the "Blue
Book," which is the film directory edited by "The Hollywood Reporter."
On the Internet, the company is listed on the Secretary of State
website. Here is a direct link:
http://kepler.ss.ca.gov/corpdata/ShowAllList?QueryCorpNumber=C2252738
Really BIG Productions is in no way associated with Really GOOD
Productions. The two companies have two different names, and they
operate in two different states – however, a more accurate research
would have showed that the former company is not operating in Italy.
Their website is .AU and, if the company were registered in Italy, it
would have been .IT. Another thing: "Inc." stands for "Incorporated,"
and the Italian equivalent is "Spa" (Societa' per azioni).
Some confusion may have been created by the fact that Really GOOD
Productions, Inc. is listed in some Italian newspapers, which have
their articles posted also on Internet:
http://lanazione.quotidiano.net/2002/04/23/giornale/7/3/
http://lanazione.quotidiano.net/chan/7/1:3262120:/2002/04/23
Besides the links that were given above, it must be pointed out that
Really Good Productions, Inc. owns more than ten domain names, whose
registration can EASILY be verified on Internet. Though nobody at
Really Good Productions, Inc. is a journalist, everybody appreciates
accurate information...
Last but not least: The documentary "Demonic Possessions" is currently
being re-edited for international distribution. The existence of such
a product was advertised only to a targeted audience in the film
community, and the numbers that you were given represent the
"projected audience." The film has not yet been released but, if
anyone doubts people's interest in demonic possessions, you should
probably be aware that one out of eight Americans believes to be
possessed.
REALLY :)
Ben Hostmark
President of Really Good Productions, Inc.
Tiny Human Ferret
>
> I received the following email message and thought I'd share it
> with the readers on alt.vampyres. Can any of you help this person
> out? What aspects of vampirism would you like to see addressed in
> a documentary about vampires and vampirism? What aspects do you
> think have been done to death? Does anyone know if the Comedia
> del Sangue is still operating?
>
> ^BJ^
>
> From zan...@reallygoodproductions.com Wed Jun 12 13:35:17 2002
> To: b...@csd.uwm.edu
> From: Really Good Productions <zan...@reallygoodproductions.com>
>
> Dear Barbara,
>
> My name is Valerio Zanoli, and I am writing to you because Really
> Good Productions is currently working on a documentary about vampires.
<snips>
>
> Over the next few months, I will travel all over the United States
> and Europe, and I would like to know from you which aspects of vampirism
> I should take into consideration for the documentary. About the folkloristic
> aspect, for example, I wanted to schedule an interview with the Comedia
> del Sangue (Vampire Theatre), but it looks like the group no longer
> exists. Do you know anything about it?
>
> I thank you in advance for your cooperation, and I look forward to
> talking with you.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Valerio Zanoli
>
> Really Good Productions, Inc.
Wowsers! Congratulations, BJ! You're evidently the expert now!
Years and years of diligence, paying off at last...
Be sure to send 'em around to the a.c.v FAQ, eh?
Maybe send me an e-mail if you have time, if anything comes of this!
--
Be kind to your neighbors, even though they be transgenic chimerae.
Whom thou'st vex'd waxeth wroth: Meow. <-----> http://earthops.net/klaatu/