Interview with Kevin Latham, our new Principal Writer

posted by Eivind on March 6, 2018, at 9:20 pm

kevin-mm

Hi everyone! In this interview, our first new content on Masculinity-Movies.com for more than two years, you will meet Kevin Latham, the man responsible for our upcoming review of “Logan” and for overseeing the future developments of this website. 

So without further ado, let’s meet mr Latham!

Who are you, Kevin?

I’m a self-taught artist, writer and poet – as well as a committed advocate of holistic self-development. I’ve always felt the urge to use my skills to inspire and nurture others, and so in addition to producing creative work that aims to enrich people’s lives, I’ve worked as a support worker for the homeless, ex-offenders, substance abusers, adults with learning difficulties and other marginalised groups.

What drew you to Masculinity-Movies.com?

I was directed to the site by my long-standing friend and occasional collaborator, David Schofield – who is a graduate of the Reclaim Your Inner Throne program. He felt that writing for the website could be a great opportunity to hone my skills and hasten my development – as well as making a valuable contribution to a thriving community of men committed to positive change. I think he was right!

I know you took some time reaching your decision to get involved. What tipped the scales towards YES?

I found the prospect of writing for Masculinity-Movies.com intriguing from the outset – having always been a bit of a film-buff, the idea of reviewing movies was immediately appealing to me – and the knowledge that I’d be evaluating those movies through an archetypal lens peaked my interest further. Having a number of strings to my creative bow, however, I had some other projects jostling for my attention and didn’t immediately give the concept the eagle-eyed focus it deserves.

It was only when I actually viewed the site and started thinking about how I might approach the material that I became really excited by the project’s potential. For some time now I’ve been re-evaluating my beliefs and cultural orientation in light of the new (or old!) knowledge that I now have at my disposal. I had not, however, applied this knowledge specifically to the cinematic arena, and contemplating the films I might be interested in reviewing, I was quite shocked to discover that I didn’t have to think very hard to extract multi-faceted layers of meaning from their narratives that only a short time ago would’ve remained hidden to me.

I don’t mean to suggest that teasing this stuff out is an easy business mind – upon closer inspection it then became apparent that I could peer deeper and deeper into the allegorical well, identifying evermore complex and subtle shapes bubbling up from its subterranean recesses. It’s this limitless process o exploration that I find so compelling – there’s really no cap on its potential for inspiration.

I know you have been on a journey of change yourself. Could you share a little about it?

I guess you could say that until recently, I’d confined my thinking to a pretty limited and insular political prism. I had other interests and influences – but I didn’t really allow them to alter the terrain of my psychological landscape.

Having been born and raised in Wales, at the height of Thatcher’s neoliberal revolution – I was brought up with staunchly socialist values and a pretty virulent attitude towards the political class that had instigated that policy drive – a tectonic shift that devastated the lives of working class communities throughout the region.

My dad was an extremely capable, intelligent and versatile man – a man of the old school, who favoured action over communication and whose sense of self-worth rested upon his ability to perform practical tasks and provide for his family. He also possessed a tremendously strong work ethic – even by the standards of his generation – and so when his dogged determination failed to free us from the poverty trap we were caught in, it proved to be a source of great pain, resentment and bitterness for him.

My mum, on the other hand, suffered from bipolar disorder and was hospitalised on several occasions due to a series of psychotic breaks – exacerbated if not caused by the pressures of an unstable economic life. Given these experiences – and the fact that I exhibited strong leanings towards openness and sensitivity from the outset, it was inevitable that I would identify with the plight of the poor and the disenfranchised – and seek to redress these injustices by means of left-leaning political solutions.

Learning more about the corruption and injustice permeating our contemporary socio-economic systems only solidified these predispositions – and although my hunger for change prompted me to devour texts on the subjects of politics, economics, ecology, spirituality and philosophy – I failed to recognise that my studies were causing me to become increasingly one-sided in my outlook.

I was steadily succumbing to a cultural tribalism that prompted me to repress fundamental aspects of my own nature. This reaped a pretty appalling toll on me – like my mum before me, I was gripped by mental illness – suffering from horrifically debilitating bouts of clinical anxiety and HPPD (Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder – a nightmarish visual trip that persisted long after the chemical effects of a particular batch of psilocybin mushrooms had worn off).

Though these experiences were not altogether ‘bad’ (even at their worst, I could see that they were opening me up to new ways of perceiving the world – and even the nature of reality itself) they were extraordinarily frightening – having no idea if I would ever make it back to a normative plain of consciousness.

It was the psychoanalytic practices of Carl Jung – whose direct experience of subconscious phenomena correlated so strongly with my own – that allowed me to wade through the psychic soup pervading my waking life and rejoin the land of the living. Interestingly enough, my mum always attributed her recovery to Jung’s work too – and so I represent the second generation of my family to be wrenched from the clutches of the underworld by the psychiatrist’s visionary mythological teachings.

I have since dedicated myself to the exploration of archetypal structures in psychology, mythology, indigenous practices and contemporary culture – and found, to my great surprise – that I share far more in common with those on the ‘other side’ of the political divide than I ever imagined. I now aim to focus on the ties that bind each of us together, rather than the competing forces that set us apart – and though I inevitably still posses personal and political views of my own – my focus is firmly upon encouraging others’ process of individuation, and facilitating constructive dialogue, compromise and reconciliation amongst people of all cultural creeds and dispositions.

What is your vision for your involvement with Masculinity-Movies.com?

Having established a greater sense of balance within myself as a result of the unveiling and application of archetypal structures in psychology and mythology, it’s my hope that Masculinity-Movies.com can be a potent catalyst for the same process in other men.

Cinema is a wonderfully accessible medium – too easily dismissed as a superfluous or trivial distraction; but even the most simplistic escapist fare depends upon an inexplicably dense foundation of archetypal imagery for its success. I want to mine this imagery, extracting the nuggets of gold nestled within its crevices – to alert men everywhere to the precious materials they already possess.

To this end I’ll be exploring a pretty varied canon, ranging from the classic to the contemporary – primarily examining material that already has a high profile within the public sphere, but also occasionally drawing visitor’s attention to works that may be less familiar to them (either older movies or indie/foreign language films – providing additional cultural context to the exploration of masculinity in cinema, by examining the similarities and differences in the way that alternative cultures broach the subject).

You have decided to write your first review on “Logan”. Why?

Well, firstly, it’s awesome! I really feel that it’s a creative triumph – a movie that operates equally well as both a scintillating comic-book action flick and a deeply reflective, thematically rich and intricately nuanced work of art. So, in-keeping with each of these traditions, it oozes mythological symbolism from every pore!

Add to that Jackman’s brooding, belligerent – but essentially honourable – portrayal of the ageing (and ailing) Wolverine, and we’re afforded an irresistible opportunity to peel away the Warrior’s adamantium armour and inspect the bones that lie beneath it. What more could you ask for in a Masculine Movie?

Do you have anything else you’d like to share?

Only that I would like the site’s audience to feel that it belongs to them every bit as much as it does to me. Whilst I hope that reader’s find my analyses of movies and masculinity insightful and provocative, I don’t claim to be an authoritative expert on either subject. It’s therefore my heartfelt wish that this site becomes a truly collaborative venture – and that others will feel compelled to contribute their own thoughts and observations to it – growing not only as individuals, but as a supportive community of movie-mad men!

I feel certain that this project can be a tremendous vehicle for integrative growth – but it can only achieve its full potential with your support and input. So, I urge everyone who’s interested to get involved and flex their film-reviewing muscles. Let’s set out on this hero’s journey together – and have plenty of fun along the way!

——

I’m grateful to Kevin for taking on this responsibility and to Reclaim your Inner Throne alumni David Schofield for making the connection.

(if you want to get to know Kevin better, you can check out his spoken word Youtube Channel)

Eivind,
Masculinity-Movies.com founder