Rocaterrania

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Rocaterrania

Saturday, 17 October 2009 20:00

October 16 through 18, 2009
Reviewed by Diane Carson

Renaldo Kuhler is a most curious and fascinating individual. To escape the ridicule heaped on him throughout his school years and to find solace from his loneliness as a teenager on a ranch in Colorado, he invented an entire country called Rocaterrania, the title of the documentary about him. His fantasy goes far beyond simplistic ideas, for Kuhler describes an array of Rocaterrania residents including rulers and their governance, history including civil war and revolution, preferred transportation and its development, an alphabet with Spanish and Yiddish influences, and social ills. They happen to parallel many of Kuhler's own problems.

Repeatedly Kuhler proves, as he asserts, the ability to fantasize is the ability to survive. In his own words, throughout Rocaterrania, Kuhler describes his personal problems and the ways he dealt with them by projecting through the details of his amazing world. For example, he named the prison in Rocaterrania after a boss he hated and he cast his parents as a foreign power trying to dominate his country, that is, him at a crucial stage of his development. When he felt shaky and insecure, so was the country, geographically sandwiched between Canada and upstate New York. Tired of feeling persecuted for his nonconformity, he made sure Rocaterrania did not discriminate in any way.

Most of the documentary observes and listens attentively to Kuhler, with the film's organization a bit discursive, appropriate to its subject. Still producer/director/d.p. and editor Brett Ingram makes time for Kuhler's sister who provides concise, helpful biographical background. Also on display and of particular merit are Kuhler's elaborate sketches of Rocaterrania and its inhabitants. Their superb quality will not surprise those who work with Kuhler as a scientific illustrator, employed by the North Carolina Museum. I can't help but observe that Rocaterrania proves once again that it's so myopic and foolish to judge a book by its cover.

Rocaterrania screens at Webster University's Winifred Moore auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Friday, October 16th through Sunday, October 18th. For information and the current schedule, you may call 314-968-7487 or you may go to the web site.