In the Realms of the Unreal

In the Realms of the Unreal is a documentary about Henry Darger.

I've seen his work exhibited a few times, and really, really love it. It is so complex and so simple, so incredibly strange and unique.

I never knew anything about Darger other than he was an "outsider artist."

This documentary tells his life story, largely through the lens of his own writings, particularly his autobiography and the 15,000 page novel he wrote. All of his paintings are illustrations for that novel (I hadn't known anything about that) which is about the fight between good and evil empires lead by "The Vivien" girls, seven sisters fighting the cause of Jesus Christ. The title of the novel is In the Realms of the Unreal, and the story is incredibly complex and he spent his life working on it.

Darger was a recluse. Orphaned at young age he was a ward of Catholic charities throughout his childhood (although he had brief stint in an institution for "feeble-minded" children) and eventually became a janitor at a Catholic hospital. He lived all by himself with no family or friends in a one-room apartment. His only contact was with neighbors and his landlord (who provide a lot of the information and footage for the documentary). He died poor, in a Catholic charity run institution, and his work was discovered by his neighbor's after his death.

The documentary was beautiful, exploring so many of his paintings and drawings and using a technique that made them move in a way that I found effective. But, in spite of this, it was a rather flat film. There just wasn't a lot of story there. He remained a mystery. His inner world comes alive through his creative output, but somehow the work and the man are still impenetrable.