A movie by holistic detective Jost van de Loo, starring (amongst many other fine individuals) forensic biologist Dr. Mark Benecke and his sister

Dutch 🇳🇱 Imagine Special — Finding Tom Bombadil 🍿 Also at Imagine Film Fest 2021 with Q&A Special ✨

De hulp van het Imagine-publiek wordt ingeroepen bij een wereldwijde zoektocht naar Tolkiens meest mysterieuze fantasiefiguur.

Hoe herken je een superwezen? Deze vraag achtervolgt Finding Tom Bombadil, een detective-documentaire over een man die op zoek is naar zijn favoriete fictieve personage in de echte wereld. Nu roept de maker de hulp van het publiek in – met een film en een presentatie over de voortdurende, wereldwijde zoektocht naar Tolkiens meest mysterieuze fantasiefiguur.

Tom Bombadil is een bijfiguur in Lord of the Rings, die van de natuur houdt en meestal onzinliedjes zingt. Hij is ook de enige op wie de Ring geen invloed heeft. In 2015 werd Joost van de Loo een holistische detective die zich toelegt op het vinden van Tom Bombadil. Hij is al jaren op zoek en heeft daarbij ook al vijf verschillende werelddelen bezocht. Joost zegt: ‘Op de een of andere manier viel Tom Bombadil me altijd op. Hij is zo positief en uniek; de oudste en misschien wel machtigste persoon in het universum, maar totaal niet geïnteresseerd in macht. Mijn project gaat ervan uit dat hij echt bestaat. Wij denken dat Tom Bombadil ergens op de wereld gewoon tussen de mensen leeft.’

English 🇬🇧 Finding Tom Bombadil

Finding Tom Bombadil is a detective documentary about a man on a quest to find his favourite fiction character in the real world. The film tracks the early stages of this worldwide search for Tolkien’s most mysterious fantasy figure. Coincidences and chance encounters lead Joost van de Loo – a holistic detective helped by a host of volunteers, field researchers and advisers — to investigate candidates in Shetland, Germany, England, New Zealand, South Korea, Tanzania, Finland and the United States. After years of searching he realises that the search is only just beginning.

Director Joost van de Loo is conducting a coincidence-powered quest to find Tom Bombadil, Tolkien's most mysterious fantasy figure, in the real world. Joost has also helped to launch a new programme for BBC Four television, created 'Castrato Superstar' (an Augmented Reality sculpture based on the true story of Paul Texel, a natural castrate opera singer with a soprano voice, who was discovered by Andy Warhol and then lost his voice) and interviewed contemporary hermits in the UK, India and The Netherlands.

Joost: “Somehow Tom Bombadil always stood out for me. He’s so positive and unique; the oldest and maybe most powerful person in the universe, but power leaves him cold. My project assumes that he actually exists. We’re assuming that somewhere, Tom Bombadil is living and walking amongst us.”

Holistic detective and film director Joost van de Loo appeals to the public for help with the worldwide search for Tolkien’s most mysterious fantasy figure.

How do you recognise a superbeing? This question haunts Finding Tom Bombadil, a detective documentary about a man on a coincidence-powered quest to find his favourite fiction character in the real world.

Tom Bombadil is a nature-loving, minor character in The Lord of the Rings, who mostly sings nonsensical songs. He’s also the only one unaffected by the Ring. In 2015, Joost van de Loo became a holistic detective dedicated to finding Tom Bombadil. He’s been searching for years, investigating across five different continents.

Joost says: “Somehow Tom Bombadil always stood out for me. He’s so positive and unique; the oldest and maybe most powerful person in the universe, but power leaves him cold. My project assumes that he actually exists. We’re assuming that somewhere, Tom Bombadil is living and walking amongst us.”

Finding Tom Bombadil tracks the early stages of the worldwide search for Tolkien’s most mysterious fantasy figure. Coincidences and chance encounters lead Joost – who gets help from a host of volunteers, field researchers and advisers - to investigate candidates in Shetland, Germany, England, New Zealand, South Korea, Tanzania, Finland and the United States.

After more than three and a half years of searching, Tom Bombadil; a 13.7 billion year old whimsical, musical superbeing who is keen on pleasing his girlfriend; has not yet been found. But Joost is undaunted. Through one of his advisers, professor of mathematics David Hand, author of the Improbability Principle, he has learnt about the Law of Truly Large Numbers.

So now, Joost is appealing to the public for help. He is inviting thousands of people around the world to become holistic detectives too and join the search for Tom Bombadil.

Finding Tom Bombadil Live on stage

Scope

Finding Tom Bombadil Live tours the world to mobilise audiences to join the search for Tolkien’s most mysterious fantasy figure. The performance is a holistic detective experience that fuses documentary, comedy, music and philosophy. Director and holistic detective Joost van de Loo presents a documentary film about his first 3.5 years of searching, appeals to the public for help and explores the joys, and pitfalls, of finding your favourite fiction character in the real world.

Duration: 90 minutes

Programme

HOW I STARTED AND WHY
WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE SEARCH – documentary film 46 mins CHASING THE IMPROBABLE
BEING A HOLISTIC DETECTIVE

Some questions that the performance raises

Who is Tom Bombadil? How do you find a fictional character in the real world? How do you chase an extremely rare event? How do you investigate the improbable? What is like to be a holistic detective? Does the universe belong to a fantastic genre? Is it true that we can’t create anything new; that we can only discover what is already out there? What if writers do not create new characters, but instead sense their existence? Is it possible to establish that someone is literally a fiction character? How do you prove that someone is a magical, supernatural being? What do you do when you experience miraculous coincidence? What happens if we find Tom Bombadil?

Q&A Special on April 11, 2021 at Imagine Film Fest

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11. April 2021 · Mark auf dem Imagine Film Festival in Amsterdam 🇳🇱 Seid mit bei unserem Abend mit dem Regisseur (und mir) 🍿 Ein wirklich schöner Dokumentations-Film über die weltweite Suche nach Tom Bombadil aus dem Herrn der Ringe, der im Film fehlt 🧙🏻‍♂️ Mit vielen kauzigen Typen, darunter eben auch ich 😅 Vorschau-Videos hier → https://home.benecke.com/…/imagine-film-fests-2019-2020-fin… 🎥 Eure: Markito Dr. Mark Benecke, Joost van de Loo & die ganze Gang The Lord of the Rings Trilogy The Lord of the Rings Online 🇬🇧 🔎 Dectective Panel discussion with Mark Lee Hunter, professor David Hand, Dr Mark Benecke and Rutger Jakobsen: "How do You Find your Favourite Fiction Figure in the Real World?" ▶ Sunday 11 April at Imagine Film Festival 🕋 Finding Tom Bombadil Live Blackbox Special

— Special thanks to Marc Abrahams for bringing Mark & Joost together —