Strange is normal. Reality is what you make it.

These are the slogans that US film distributor Reality Entertainment / Reality Films use in their marketing. These lines describe Reality Films' documentaries somewhat perfectly: you notice very quickly that these are not your normal History Channel stuff.

In the part 1 on these article series, we take a look at these three DVD releases. Stay tuned for more.

And don't forget to read The Alien Time Machine review.

The Initiation of Alice in Wonderland (directed by Philip Gardiner)

The Initiation of Alice in Wonderland takes a trip to Lewis Carroll's mind. The documentary focuses on authors interests and explains some of the crazy visions, we all remember from Alice's adventures. Director Philip Gardiner and co-writer Brian Allan have been investigating Carroll's life a lot, so if you are a Alice in Wonderland -fanatic, this is the film to check out. But beware the amount of information: Gardiner's narration feels like an endless speech. The documentary is packed with CGI effects and animations, along with live action scenes of "Alice".

The Magick of Solomon: Lemegeton Secrets Revealed

In The Magick of Solomon, Poke Runyon (founding president of The Order of the Temple of Astarte, which is USA's oldest continually operating ritual magick lodge) explains the techniques of old ritual magick and shows the ceremonies, where the magisters try to invoke Baal and Astaroth. Wow. The occultism is not my piece of cake, so pretty much every word here is like from another world. Most scenes of this DVD has been published earlier, but with new Reality Films' release there are some new footage as well. I can't help it, but Runyon reminds a lot of Sean Connery, who raises his eyebrows way too eagerly – and therefore it is very difficult to take everything seriously...sorry. If you are interested of the subject, you should definitely see it, though. The authentic spirit calling sessions footage is something to watch, even if you are not so into occult type of things.

Egypt Exposed: The True Origins of Civilization (directed by Philip Gardiner)

Philip Gardiner interviews Robert Bauval, who introduced to world his theory about connection between Egypt's Giza pyramids and the belt of Orion constellation. "The Orion correlation theory" (as it is known) has received a lot of criticism. but Bauval explains his backgrounds and interesting other theories about our civilizations to camera very intriguingly, whether they are believable or not. Egypt Exposed: The True Origins of Civilization documentary contains footage of interviews, CGI animations and photographs – like in many other Reality Films' documentaries.