When I think about the best docs I’ve seen, I find that they all land on a sweet spot for me as a viewer. The very best nonfiction films I’ve experienced unspool with a perfect blend of interesting subject matter and perfect execution. It’s not enough just to fascinate, or look pretty. To be truly great, a doc has to do both at the same time…and that’s exactly what RESURRECT DEAD achieves.

RESURRECT DEAD: THE MYSTERY OF THE TOYNBEE TILES introduces us to Justin Duerr, a musician and artist living in Philadelphia. Back in 1994, Duerr began to notice random tiles embedded into the streets and sidewalks of Philadelphia. They all conveyed the same cryptic message:

Toynbee Idea
In Kubrick’s 2001
Resurrect Dead
On Planet Jupiter

These pieces are like metaphysical leaflets taped to phone poles. They take public installation art and fuse it with an urgent manifesto. They were showing up in city after city for twenty plus years – even sometimes on lanes of busy highways. And most curiously, their origin and the person responsible, remained a complete mystery for decades.

This film looks glorious, with the tiles getting treated with the sort of reverence one usually associates with Renaissance masterpieces. Just as wonderful are moments the film uses comic book-like animation to illustrate situations being discussed. These moments draw us deeper into the mystery, and honour the philosophical artist at the core of the story…and what a story it is!

We begin to obsess over an obsessive. We get the faintest of clues and listen as some would-be Hardy Boys work to solve a mystery that has never been solved. What makes it so intriguing though, is the impression that these men don’t seem completely sure that they want to solve the mystery. The seem to walk right up to the velvet curtain, ready to finally look upon Oz the Great and Powerful in all his glory…but right then they hesitate. It’s a puzzle that has stood for years…the subjects and this film want us to think long and hard about whether it really should be solved.

This story of RESURRECT DEAD, the people who tell us the tale, and the pretty packaging that wraps this gift of nonfiction are a rare gift. They represent the best thing about taking you inner-most beliefs and nailing them up for all to read: That moment of pure joy when another person reads them, and believes in them too.

RESURRECT DEAD: THE MYSTERY OF THE TOYNBEE TILES premieres Tuesday May 3rd – 9pm at The Lightbox, again on Wednesday May 4th – 11:45pm on The Bloor, and once more on Saturday May 7th – 9:15pm at Cumberland.