LUCKY PEOPLE CENTER INTERNATIONAL

Swedish directors Eric Pauser and Johan Soderberg spent two years travelling around the world, in an effort to record the pulse of the modern-day world on film. The result is Lucky People Center International, a collage of sounds and images, edited to the rhythm of techno and house music, through which parades a highly diverse, multicultural group of people. Among them, a Thibetan monk, an American rapper, a porn queen, a fakir, a voodoo priestess, a militant environmentalist, and a primatologist. In their search for a viable alternative to the frenzy of contemporary life, they each use a different ritual, involving either song or dance, which has helped them discover the meaning of life. For example, the voodoo priestess explains that the intense forces that are released during a trance are so powerful, that she can feel neither pain nor fear, while porno queen Annie Sprinkle states that sex is the most natural drug and preaches a hedonistic philosophy in which sexual energy is no longer suppressed, but used. Both directors are members of Lucky People Center International, a collective which was founded in 1984, by people with an interest in progressive dance music. In fact, "man must dance" is the conclusion of this life-affirming film, in which rhythm is the measure of all things.