Stereo (1969 film)

Stereo is a 1969 Canadian film written, shot, edited and directed by David Cronenberg. It stars Ronald Mlodzik, who also appears in Cronenbergs Crimes of the Future, Shivers and Rabid. It was Cronenbergs first featurelength effort, following his two short films, Transfer and From the Drain. It is a brief feature film, with a running time of a little over one hour. This film is set in 1969.

The film purports to be part of a mosaic of educational resources by the Canadian Academy of Erotic Enquiry. It documents an experiment by the unseen Dr. Luther Stringfellow. A young man Ronald Mlodzik in a black cloak is seen arriving at the Academy, where he joins a group of young volunteers who are being endowed with telepathic abilities which they are encouraged to develop through sexual exploration. It is hoped that telepathic groups, bonded in polymorphous sexual relationships, will form a socially stabilising replacement for the obsolescent family unit. One girl develops a secondary personality in order to cope with her new state of consciousness, which gradually ousts her original personality. As the volunteers abilities develop, the experimenters find themselves increasingly unable to control the progress of the experiment. They decide to separate the telepaths, which results in two suicides. The final sequence shows the young woman who developed an extra personality wearing the black cloak.The film was shot in black and white, and silent because the camera Cronenberg was using made too much noise. A commentary, purportedly by various followers of Stringfellows theories, and parodying scientific and metaphysical jargon, was added later. The film was shot at Scarborough College University of Toronto. ........

Source: Wikipedia