Anatomy of Failure

UK 2008 | 53:00 min | digital video, sound

Anatomy of Failure is a fragmentary biopic about Carlos Castaneda, 1960s cultural icon and author of The Teachings of Don Juan. In a series of Californian road trips projected realities, circling around the disappearance of five women closely associate with Castaneda, become as contradictory as the wildly differing characters encountered in the film. Multiple voices serve as a body of unreliable witnesses bringing into question the viewers’ complicity in ‘fictioning’ the real. Anatomy of Failure is a slow drip inquiry into power relations, myth-making and the culture of belief set against the Los Angeles cityscape, featuring Norman M. Klein amongst others.

Premiered at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Toronto (2008).