House of the Gathering

Soldiers parade through an empty street. Young men pour fuel over fire in an old ruin.

A shadow figure rises from the black water of a creek long forgotten.

A seamless interweaving of archival footage, sonic atmosphere and hypnotic tableaux, House of the Gathering lends poetic form to the liminal plane between the past and present in a cinematic meditation on the history of Berlin/Kitchener, Ontario.

Creative team

Writer/director/producer: James Anthony Usas

Filmmaker’s statement

“The film is a poem to the lost city of Berlin, Ontario.

At the time of shooting I was heavily influenced by the philosophy of C. G. Jung and a concept he calls The House of the Gathering.

For Jung the confrontation of the shadow-self is the single greatest struggle anyone can endure.

According to Jung, someone brave enough to live within the House of the Gathering must confront their shadow rather than cast its darkness into the world around them.

Although the inspiration for the film was specific, its meaning is subjective.

It’s about allowing the images to wash over you.”

About James Anthony Usas

Born in Kitchener, Ontario in 1979, James Anthony Usas graduated in architecture from the University of Waterloo.

His award-winning films Winter Hunter (2001), The Window (2002) and Deliveries (2011) have screened at film festivals internationally.

House of the Gathering was an official selection of the 2013 Montreal World Film Festival.