Twin Peaks creator/legendary filmmaker David Lynch designed, with Joanna Plafsky and Michael Barnard, an MA in Film graduate program for the Maharishi University of Management in Iowa, a school that offers a Consciousness-Based education, wherein all of the students practice Transcendental Meditation. The first feature to result from this mixture of mentoring from Lynch and meditation is the psychological horror art film LILITH'S AWAKENING, which draws inspiration from Bram Stoker's Dracula.
LILITH'S AWAKENING was written, directed, and edited by first-time Brazilian filmmaker Monica Demes, who received guidance directly from Lynch while crafting the screenplay and used Transcendental Meditation to reach deeper levels of consciousness.
Demes' film tells the story of
Lucy, a sexually repressed woman trapped in a loveless marriage and a dead-end job in a small Iowa town. The highlight of her existence comes at night, when she dreams of a mysterious and beautiful woman who haunts the woods outside her modest home. One night, a mechanic who works for her father forces himself on Lucy, awakening in her an uncontrollable dark force. When he makes her promise to meet him later at his hideaway in the woods, it may be the girl of her dreams – not his – who shows up for the fateful rendezvous.
Produced by Demes, Roberto Honczar, and Mar Outsiders, LILITH'S AWAKENING won several Iowa Motion Picture Association awards, including Best Direction – Long Form. Director of photography Gregor Kresal won Best Cinematography, and Sophia Woodward won Best Actress for her performance as Lucy.
Woodward's co-stars include Steve Kennevan, Sam Garles, Matthew Lloyd Wilcox, and Brazilian pop star Bárbara Eugênia as Lilith.
The trailer for LILITH'S AWAKENING can be seen below. The film will be making its premiere as part of the Dances with Films festival at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on June 11th.