A Cult Film Is Born

Tonight I attended a screening of Resurrect Dead: The Mystery Of The Toynbee Tiles. It's been well received at festivals and an excellent documentary by any standard, but it was made in my neighborhood, about a tale of my city, and people I know were involved in making it. It solves the 30-year mystery of who created tiles that printed a strange message onto the asphalt of city streets:

TOYNBEE IDEA
IN Kubrick's 2001
RESURRECT DEAD
ON PLANET JUPITER

I've stepped over them countless times over the years but never gave them much thought. Justin Duerr (2nd from Right, poster image), however, became obsessed with them. I was well-acquainted with him in the 1990s as a fellow human guinea pig, an artist and a good fellow. The film narrates his ten years of research to find the creator of the tiles. Once identified, they respect the man's private space. They kept the tiler aware of everything they were doing, knocked at his door, spoke to his neighbors, sent him a copy of the film, and invited him to the screenings, but have never gotten any reply. The tiler has been mocked, attacked, and harrassed for his belief that dead molecules will collect on Jupiter and revive the entire dead sector of the human race, and some years ago he stopped mingling with any other people. All I can say is, No wonder such a large planet was chosen.

All through the film I was slapping the side of my head, seeing familiar faces, spots in the city, and names mentioned that could have this effect only on longtime residents. It has sold out every show here and people who have moved away are horrified to miss be missing it. In the audience tonight, it felt like a celebration of our local civilization.

Having much experience in similar research, I can see that the filmmakers know a lot more about the tiler than they shared in the film, but decided to respect him and his personal space. That in itself is thrilling to me.