Best of Wholphin Vol. 1
The Best Of Wholphin Vol. 1 features Miguel Arteta and Miranda July’s beautiful short Are You The Favorite Person Of Anybody?; a documentary about a thirteen-year-old Yemeni girl who refuses to wear her veil; a miraculous, scientific discovery 7000 feet below sea; a band of Scottish nine-year-olds singing “Satan Rocks” at their county fair; an animated short about an aging rock star and his heroin-addicted carnival monkey; an infuriating expose of the U.S. governments arm twisting, horse thieving assault on two Shoshone Indian grannies; Academy Award nominated shorts; illegal border volleyball; and a sudden and unexplained appearance by David Byrne.
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LINER NOTES
TWO CARS, ONE NIGHT
Written and directed by Taika Waititi New Zealand, 2003 Q: Autobiographical? TAIKA WAITITI: What? Oh, yes, the film is slightly autobiographical in that it was shot outside the same pub I used to sit outside when I was a kid. The place is called Te Kaha and is part of our tribal lands. They knocked it down last year and are building some nice apartments for rich people. Q: Casting? TW: The casting was done around the area where we shot. We went to diferent schools and talked to about 150 kids. In the end, we chose three children who all went to the same school and knew each other well. The two boys are cousins—both were eight years old—the girl was ten. Q: Feature? TW: Yep. Just fi nishing up a script which is like an extension of Two Cars, One Night. More cars, more nights. Q: Idols? TW: Anyone who has fronted a band called Queen. Oh, hang on, there’s just one. Yep, him. Q: Hobbies? TW: Oh, I thought you said Hobbits. I was gonna punch you. Hobbies… Yes, punching. Q: Nightmares? TW: Livin’ it, every day. It’s called “not being a baby anymore.” Q: Rich? TW: Thousandaire. Q: Black belt? TW: Brown belt. Leather. Studded. Needs another hole in it ’cause I’m shrinking. Or my pants are growing. Q: Vegan? TW: When there’s no meat or eggs in the house. Q: Globophiliac? TW: Had to look it up. This interview is over. Q: Fears? TW: World War IV. And breaking up with girls. Q: Conspiracies? TW: The towers aren’t really gone, the government just made them invisible. Q: Wish? TW: I wish Columbus sailed a little more in the opposite direction. VS. Q: Guitars vs. turntables? TW: Guitars. Any day of the week, except maybe Friday nights in a large club. Q: Sexy accents vs. perfect teeth? TW: Sexy accents. Just don’t smile at me. Q: Money vs. integrity? TW: Integrity wins every time… Okay, but if I let money win just once, then I can do what I really love, right? Q: Greenpeace vs. Japanese exotic sushi lovers? TW: Greenpeace will smash their stupid brains in! Q: Sperm whale vs. colossal squid? TW: Show me this colossal squid. Show me even one tentacle, and I’ll humor you with an answer. The sperm whale laughs at you. Q: Trapjaw ant vs. parasitic wasp? TW: They don’t fight. They make love and have babies which are parasitic flying stripey beings called wantsps. These creatures are as big as your fist and can bite the head off a baby. They can wriggle up the end of your penis and make a nest up there. And then you become the food for the larvae. Horrific, I know. Q: Praxis vs. poiesis? TW: What the f*#k are you talking about? Q: Wholphin vs. Wholphin accounting spreadsheets? TW: Neither can survive without the other. They shouldn’t fight, they should be friends. Having said that, I suspect one is a little more boring than the other. Q: Taika vs. Hollywood? TW: I kill.HEAVY METAL JR.
Directed by Chris Waitt U.K., 2005 Q: How did you fi nd out about Hatred? Were you a satanic metal head? Are you now? CHRIS WAITT: I am a metal fan, yes, but that’s not how I came across the band. I met the lead singer when I was making another film, a fictional one, and happened to be casting at his school. He was perfect for one of the roles but his hair was pretty long, which was wrong for the part, as the fi lm was set in the 1930s. I asked him if he would cut his hair for the role. He said never. I asked him why not and he explained that he was in a metal band. When he told me the band’s name I was blown away and knew I had to make a film about them. Q: What drew you to them as a filmmaker? Were you ever in a band as a child? Did your parents allow you to rebel, or did they attempt to coopt your own efforts at rebellion in order to vicariously salvage their own failed dreams? CW: I was in a number of useless bands when I was young, and am still in a semi-useless band now. The main thing about being in a band when you’re young is to play loud. My parents have always been very encouraging, and my dad taught me to play guitar—so actually I didn’t have to do much rebelling in that area. Q: How long did you film? CW: We shot for ten days, spread over the course of about three months. Q: Did you ever get involved in the band drama? Like, did you weigh in on whether it should it be “Satan Rock” or “Satan Rocks”? CW: I tried not to, but they asked my opinion a lot, and got me to help out with riffs and chords. My vote went for “Satan Rocks,” for sure. Q: We found this comment online, posted by Paul McArthur on 4/3/2007: “Hey Everyone, looking back on hatred it seems so funny now lol, im now persuing my solo career, but dont worrie, i am much better than 2 years ago, watching the documentary now makes me cringe, and to think that its STILL going round the globe ha!. well add me if you want people and thanks for being so loyal to hatred heavy metal jr.” Is this true? Did the band break up? What caused the breakup, in your opinion? CW: I’m not totally sure they actually broke up—I think they just went to different schools. But, yes, essentially, it is with great sadness that I confirm that Hatred no longer exists. By the time the documentary was finished it was clear that some of the musical differences between the band members were reaching a breaking point. As far as I know, at that time, two members of the band were sacked and Hatred renamed themselves Fusion and went down a more soft-rock/eighties-power-ballad path. I also received a disturbing and, for me, sad phone call from Paul’s mum to say that he had finally had his hair cut short. Q: Where can we buy a Hatred CD? CW: I’m not sure you can. Hatred were an unsigned band and so never had any offi cial releases. However, I can burn CDs of their music at a very reasonable cost to those interested. Q: I’ve heard you’re a bit of a recluse, true? Care to talk about it? CW: I’d like to know who said that. It’s not entirely true. In fact, I often go out—generally at night, walking the streets alone in a long cloak. Q: Americans these days always talk about “British humor.” What is Scottish humor? CW: I’m probably not qualified to answer that one, as I am an Englishman who happened to live in Scotland for a few years. Scotland is cool, but I’m not sure that the film is a great example of Scottish humor. I’d like to think that the eternal struggle to rock like Satan is a universal theme.THE PITY CARD
Directed by Bob Odenkirk."The Celebration", "Husbands and Wives", "The Office (BBC version)"; I like all these things and tried to steal something from each of them for "Derek and Simon". Having said that, mostly I just wanted to work with Derek Waters and Simon Helberg, two really funny actors who really are friends and really are a comically perfect pairing. Having said that, I simply wanted to make some TV that I could watch without cringing, or feeling like I was being yelled at by the TV. The TV yells at me, you see. It doesn't tell me to kill strangers or wash my hands over and over, it just yells "LOOK AT ME, I'M BEING FUNNY, AREN'T I?!!" And I usually yell back (in my head) "Nope. No, you're not." And then we have a stare-off. Having said that, please forget everything I've said and just watch.
AMERICAN OUTRAGE (EXCERPT)
Directed by George Gage Written and produced by Beth Gage Excerpt edited by Emily Doe with Brent Hoff U.S.A., 2007 Q: Watching your incredible film, I kept wondering why it takes an independently produced documentary film for me to find out about the Dann sisters and this injustice that has reached all the way to the UN. BETH GAGE: We’ve had a similar reaction from most of our audiences. People are amazed that this is going on today, in the United States, and they’re completely unaware of it. This is not by accident. Ed Bradley from 60 Minutes covered the story of the Dann sisters about ten years ago, but the episode never ran. It was deemed too “political.” This country is only too anxious to expose human rights offenses in other countries while ignoring the same abuses going on right under our collective noses. Q: Did you experience any pressure or unwanted attention during filming from any people in dark sunglasses? Please explain. Are your phones tapped? Will mine now be? GEORGE GAGE: One of the security men that very rudely escorted me off the Barrick gold mine property was the first “policeman” on the scene when Carrie Dann’s car mysteriously blew up later that afternoon. Luckily a young volunteer was driving it, on her way to pick up Carrie, and her fast reflexes saved her that day. A few months earlier there was an unexplained fire in the Western Shoshone Defense Project office. Also, Mary Dann’s death has never really been explained. Probably the most dangerous thing we’ve done is told you. Q: Can you explain the role that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid played in this drama? GG: We were told by key legislative staffers that Reid pushed the money bill for the Bush administration—he had at least one meet¬ing with Karl Rove during that time. We didn’t feel it would be dangerous to bring this up in an election year, but it would raise very serious issues regarding collusion between industry and both parties. Reid’s not up for reelection this year so we could not be accused of trying to be political—just telling the story of what is happening. Regardless, neither political party is innocent of the abuses perpetrated on the American Indians. Q: Do you consider yourselves filmmakers who document activists, or activists who make documentaries? BG: I’m a storyteller drawn to accounts that inspire or infuriate, of indomitable spirit or gross injustice. George is drawn to powerful stories that offer dramatic visuals. The reporting about the Dann sisters in the New York Times really attracted our curiosity. We just couldn’t understand why the U.S. government was harassing two elderly ranching sisters in the middle of what appeared to be Nevada’s desolate desert. Q: A friend of mine who saw the film thought the mention of Mary Dann’s death from a fencing accident seemed a little odd. He wondered if there might have been more to that story. Any comment? GG & BG: We agree with your friend. Q: When Carrie Dann spoke at the Native American Film Festival, her speech was an admonition against using a lot of toilet paper when going to the bathroom. What other important advice has she imparted to you? GG: She’s brought so many things to our attention, but particularly the ongoing neglect and destruction of Mother Earth. Carrie and Mary try not to waste anything. When we went “pine nutting” with them, they counted the pinecones as they knocked them off the tree, and when they gathered them up, they counted again, making sure they found every single cone. BG: Another thing they talk about a lot is “not taking all.” Whether it’s pine nuts that you leave for animals or water for the next seven generations, sharing is an important aspect of the Native philosophy. Their sharing was at the root of their problems with the European pioneers hungry for land. Also, Carrie talks a lot about gold and the damage that’s done to the earth to extract it. When you realize that 90 percent of gold is used for jewelry, you can’t help questioning the rape of the land that takes place in order to extract it. Q: Do you ever have creative disagreements? If so, as a couple, how do you separate your creative disagreements from your personal relationship and vice versa? GG: Sure, like when I don’t know an important answer is being delivered in an interview and I’m focusing on someone’s nose hair. You don’t want to be in the editing room when those moments suddenly appear on-screen. BG: We usually only have disagreements in editing. George can’t stand an unaesthetic shot in the film, and I feel that sometimes it’s necessary for the story to work. Mostly we work together well; our strengths complement each other. We’ve been together so long, we can’t separate anything.WALLEYBALL
Directed by Wholphin
Edited by Encyclopedia Pictura
U.S., 2006
A human-rights lawyer told us we probably wouldn't get within a mile of the wall. Even if we did, she said, it would likely be double or triple-fenced with razor wire, not to mention patrolled by trigger-happy Neanderthals.
The carload full of players we'd recruited to share this historic moment got a late start and, after discussing the likelihood of being tagged in the head by a rubber bullet and/or arrested, bailed. We'd heard that sending anything across international borders without clearing customs could result in a felony charge, which meant that after three hits of the ball we'd all be subject to mandatory life imprisonment under California's three-strikes law.
At the border we held up our volleyball and called out the Tijuanans we could see through the slats in the unfinished wall: "Pelota?" Before we could remember the world for "play," a kid on the other side said, "Yeah yeah, we speak perfect English. Just serve." And so, as six half-curious members of the border patrol watched through binoculars from the hill above, we did.
--Brent Hoff
THE DELICIOUS
Directed by Scott Prendergast Q: Why do you make films? SCOTT PRENDERGAST: Honestly, because I want to dress up in crazy costumes and act like a weirdo. Q: What was the inspiration for The Delicious? SP: At some point I had the idea of a man standing in front of a mirror in a red suit making strange gestures and sounds. I liked the idea that this bizarre but basically harmless behavior was destroying his marriage. And I liked his sad wife having to deal with it. Q: Why the scissors? SP: Because the scissors are a part of it. Q: Fine. How was the shoot? SP: It was eight billion degrees (Fahrenheit) in Brooklyn when we shot this film. By the end the red suit was disgusting. I built the walk-in closet out of cardboard in my kitchen. The red and yellow suits were custom made by a fashion student. We asked her to design them as if they were for middleaged overweight women in the 1970s. Also, the confused authorities kicked us out of Prospect Park, twice, while we were filming the end. Q: We had a good talk once about the painful process of writing scripts. Tell me how you finally learned to write a script. SP: I learned through horrible, miserable, repeated failure. In trying to write a feature script, I thought I could just sit down and write out the idea I had in my head for a few months—which worked for me when writing short films. But I was horribly, miserably mistaken. I wrote my first feature script without any plan—just sat down and wrote. And although the characters and atmosphere were good, the plot was awful and went nowhere. It was so confusing, and seemed so tricky. I was convinced that I was a failure and would never be able to write a feature script. After much hand-wringing, I decided to screw all the crappy “Hollywood” advice I’d been given, and to write a feature for me to direct and act in. This time I spent one full month just outlining the film—something I had never done in any kind of writing, something that I thought would kill all of the fun. I went every day for a month to the public library and sat in a private study cubicle and came up with scenes for the feature, then fastidiously scratched them onto 3x5 cards and worked them into a large outline. I had promised myself that I would not write a word until I knew the plot in its entirety and had a rock-solid ending. And, although I hadn’t studied screenwriting or read the books, I did know the rule of 30-60-90, which was also very helpful. In the end, planning ahead did not kill the fun of writing; actually, the structure gave me more freedom. The script (KABLUEY) worked—and finally, I had done it. I wept, and donated $50 to the library.MORE
Written and directed by Mark Osborne MARK OSBORNE: The entire first year of my eight-year-old daughter Madison’s life occurred during the production of this animated short film. She doesn’t remember it too well, but she remembers the aftermath and has seen the film many, many times over the course of her life. Recently, I realized that we’ve never really talked about what the film means to her, or what she thinks of it. I was very curious, since, really, she was the impetus and the inspiration for the project. So in honor of this Wholphin release, I’ve asked her to reflect a little on the film and interview her old man about it. MO: If you had to describe the film in one sentence what would it be? MADISON: Is he an alien or a robot or something? MO: Well, I’ve always thought of him as an alien. M: Okay. It’s about this alien person who goes to work and there’s this mean guy, who I think is the boss or something, and so the alien person doesn’t like it so he buys these glasses and crushes them and puts them together with other pieces and makes these glasses that have happy things in them. MO: Pretty good. What was your favorite part and least favorite part? M: I didn’t really like the part when that guy was being kinda mean. My favorite part is when the glasses are all joyful. Why in the story was the guy like “get to work, get to work” but then in the glasses he was like waving? MO: Why do you think? M: Because it was the opposite? MO: Well, why was it the opposite in there? M: Because he made the glasses so people could see happy things. MO: And why do you think he did that? M: Because he didn’t like the man that was so mean to him so he made the glasses to change it. MO: I think that’s a good way to look at it. M: Did you make the movie all by yourself? MO: No, I had lots of great helpers. Remember it’s how we met Shannon and Keith and Rick? And remember David and Debra and Kelly? Remember the shop? M: Oh yeah. What was in his stomach? MO: What do you think? M: His heart? His spirit? What was it? MO: Well, I really like that different people have different ideas about what it means. Most of the time I think it’s his spirit too. M: Why did he give his spirit away? MO: Well, maybe sometimes people don’t know that they are giving their spirit away. Or they think that it won’t run out. Why do you think he gave it away? M: Because he wanted to be nice. MO: That’s a great answer. Do you know why your picture is at the end of the credits? M: Because I’m cool.A STRANGER IN HER OWN CITY
Directed by Khadija Al-Salami Yemen, 2005 A Stranger in Her Own City follows Nejmia, a thirteen year old girl, who flouts custom by not wearing a veil, by playing in the streets with boys her age, by riding a bicycle, a scooter, and generally by doing whatever she likes. She is cursed, ridiculed and threatened, but, buoyed by a truly indomitable spirit, she perseveres with incredible good humor and sense of perspective. Below, an interview with the director, Khadija Al-Salami. Q: First and foremost—a year later—how and where is Nejmia? Do you keep in touch with her? What is she like now? What has been the effect of this documentary on Nejmia? On the town? KHADIJA AL-SALAMI: Seven months after shooting the film, Nejmia’s father stopped her from going to school and ordered her to wear the veil. A year later, this film won first prize at the Beirut Film Festival. The president of Yemen was visiting France at that time and heard about the prize. He asked me to show him the film. I thought he would not like it because it shows society looking down on women, but I was wrong. He was drawn by Nejmia’s personality, and at the end of the film he asked me to tell Nejmia’s family that he would like to pay for her education. I was very happy to hear that and thought that was the best prize I could ever get for the film. Now, Nejmia is back at school. I think it is the most important element for a better and independent future. The more a woman is educated, the more she knows her rights and is able to defend them, the more useful she will be to her family and to society as a whole. The film was not screened on Yemeni TV because they are not accustomed to such controversial subject matter. Q: Were you ever worried for Nejmia’s—or your own—safety, while filming? KS: This film was shot without any preparation. One day I was walking around the old city of Sanaa with a group of French journalists I had brought with me to Yemen to promote my country as part of my job at the embassy. Suddenly I saw this young girl struggling to live her life freely and naturally in a society full of so many restrictions when it comes to women. Fortunately I had my camera with me and started shooting spontaneously. The second and third days I went to find her in her neighborhood and filmed as she struggled to defend herself. I did not have a problem filming because I was by myself and discreet and Nejmia’s personality put her in the spotlight because the people are not used to a strong girl like her.Though people were against her, I noticed a feeling of admiration as they joked and laughed with her. Q: You, like Nejmia, were born in Sanaa, Yemen. It’s incredible that despite oppression, you and Nejmia have such strong senses of self and entitlement. What inspired that strength? KS: I think the strength came from the desire to live free and with dignity, and to have our destiny in our own hands, not in the hands of tradition and culture. All human beings are born free, but unfortunately certain traditions and cultures in some countries impose a lot of restrictions, especially when it comes to women’s rights. It imprisons their dreams and goals in life. If a woman decides to break through and prove that she is equal to men and has the same abilities as men do, the consequences are heavy. She can easily lose not only her reputation, but the whole family will be badly criticized. Q: After escaping an unhappy arranged marriage at the age of eleven, you realized the importance of education as a gateway to freedom. How did you ensure yourself an education? And what do you think would have become of you had you not? KS: The road to my rebellious personality was not easy in a very traditional country like Yemen, where I was considered a woman at eleven years old and my family forced me to marry. At that moment, I realized that I was alone and decided to win this battle at any cost. When I saw there was no other choice, I decided to commit suicide. Fortunately it did not work out and at that moment my mother stood by me and helped me to get divorced. The marriage only lasted three weeks—during summer vacation—but I knew from an early age that education is the key to success and to independence. I did all I could to pursue my education and also to work at the same time. Those who opposed me very strongly when I was very young, especially family relatives, nowadays praise me and say they hope their daughters will follow in my footsteps. Instead of being the bad example, I became a good example. This change makes me happy, like I at least contributed toward the evolution of women in my country. Now we see women participating in political life and working in different fields. They have proven they are capable of making a great change in the society. If I did not do what I did, I would now be a grandmother with at least six children. Some women are happy with this life, but I would not be. Every woman should be able to choose. For me, I would be living miserably, not having the chance to travel and meet interesting people and learn so many things and appreciate life and what it has to offer. Q: I was surprised that the nearby mosque’s Imam was so supportive of Nejmia. Why was that? KS: The mosque Imam was so supportive of Nejmia because he does not interpret Islamic teachings to mean that women are inferior to men. He does not use religion as an excuse to deprive women of their rights, or use religion to justify their ideas whenit is really local customs and traditions.ARE YOU THE FAVORITE PERSON OF ANYBODY?
Directed by Miguel Artera, Written by Miranda July MIRANDA JULY: What happened was this: I had just finished shooting Me and You, and was waiting for my editor to finish the first rough assembly so I could begin editing. In the meantime I felt like I was in so deep with this movie stuff that I was never going to write another short story ever again. But then I wrote these three dialogues, and even though they weren't too substantial, I felt relieved that I had produced something somewhat literary. I read them to Miguel, and he said, "I want to shoot it this weekend." I read them through and saw that I had indeed written something more like a script than a short story. Miguel called up Mike White and John C. Reilly, and Chuy Chavez was still in town, shooting a documentary. He lived in Mexico City and was the DP on my movie and two of Miguel's previous movies. All these casting choices were Miguel's, and I thought they were really smart. I was especially excited to see Chuy act after working so intensely with him as a DP. Miguel also cast me and I was thrilled at the prospect of just being an actress, after writing, directing, and acting in Me and You. I remember walking away from John C. Reilly at the end of my scene and wondering if I was off camera yet. But no one yelled cut and I said to myself, "I'm just an actress, I'm gonna keep on walking until someone tells me to stop." I walked practically to the next neighborhood before anyone noticed I was gone. And when my scene was done, I left, which was a great feeling. A few months later I saw the finished thing and realized that it was perhaps slightly crazy to have made a short movie during my one week off. But it turned out okay. Q: Why do you make films? MIGUEL ARTERA: Because I'm a blunt person with blunt thoughts and staging actors within a frame is the only way I know to capture a little subtlety. Q: Why did you want to make this film? MA: I love Miranda's writing. She told me that as a girl, when strangers passed her by in the street, she would picture herself as that person and then ask herself, in that stranger's voice, "Am I someone's favorite person?" This script is gorgeous because it makes you wonder, what is your story? What is the quality of the relationships that define you? After years of having my head up my ass, due to living and working in LA these questions were a welcome gift. Q: In Chuck and Buck You presented a beautiful, yet fairly disturbing portrait of someone (Chuck) being someone else's (Buck) favorite person. Is it a good thing to be someone's favorite person? MA: Sure. And then usually that person wants to be with you in order to create another person that might become their next favorite. It can be just another person in themselves they are looking for, someone they hope to like better. If an actual baby comes, what are your chances of remaining number one? Sometimes even your pet can steal your title. Q: True. Is it good to have a favorite person? MA: Yep, but it would be better if we never said it out loud. Q: Yeah. Who is your favorite person? MA: My favorite person is married and lives in Brooklyn. Q: How long did it take to set up the shoot? Did you do any rehearsals? Did you send John C. Reilly and Mike White the script or did they just wing it? MA: Miranda wrote it on a Saturday morning and we shot it the next Tuesday. I faxed the dialogue to the actors on Sunday. They said their lines word for word, except for Mike White who kept forgetting to say "My girlfriend might like one." Q: Miranda says that after her scene, when she walked out of frame, no one yelled cut so she just kept walking into the next neighborhood. Why didn't you yell cut? MA: I knew this could be the last time I directed her, so I didn't want to yell cut. Q: That makes sense.BABY SQUID, BORN LIKE STARS
Scientific discovery of Brad Seibel, Steven Haddock, and Bruce Robison Edited by Encyclopedia Pictura Music: “I’ll Read You a Story,” by Colleen, courtesy of the Leaf Label Ltd. BRAD SEIBEL: In 1995, I captured a squid in a trawl net from 1700 meters depth that I could not identify. Many of the characters used to identify squids are located on the two longer feeding tentacles. This squid had only the eight arms and no feeding tentacles. In the same trawl bucket was an egg mass that also could not be identified. The eggs had not developed sufficiently to tell even what phyla they belonged to. They were not like other squid eggs I had seen. I preserved the squid and eggs in separate jars and forgot about them for about a year. In 1996, I caught a second squid from about 1400 meters depth. In the same trawl bucket were about 2000 hatchling squids. At that point I remembered the first capture and inferred that the squid must be brooding its eggs. I did some moredetailed dissections of the adult female squids and determined they were in the family Gonatidae but couldn’t identify species. I recruited the help of a molecular biologists who compared gene sequences and determined they were Gonatus onyx. I published that in Marine Biology in 2000. As juveniles, Gonatus onyx are abundant in shallow water, but the mature females and eggs had never been seen. I figured there must be a lot of them brooding eggs in the deep sea but I had relatively few opportunities to drag nets or use submersibles. In 2001, I started a fellowship with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. On my first expedition with MBARI and their submersible, Ventana, the chief scientist (coauthor Bruce Robison) asked what species I was interested in finding and at what depths we’d find them. I said I wanted to look for Gonatus onyx brooding squids below about 1400 meters. Robison and others thought I was a bit crazy. But on the first dive, at 2500 meters depth we came across a squid carrying an egg mass. As we pursued the squid the eggs started hatching. We observed several others over the next three years and have seen five with the sub to date. Q: What did you learn from this Gonatus onyx footage? BS: The direct submersible observations confirmed most of my previous hypotheses. I learned exactly how the egg mass is held, how it’s aerated, what sort of swimming capacity the squids have while towing an egg mass. We learned that the depth range extends to 2500 meters. We learned that the mother squids can “trigger” hatching by waving their arms about. Q: Would it be fair to say this discovery knocked the cephalopod community on its collective ass? BS: As I say, it was a long process and there was accumulating evidence that other species in the family Gonatidae have a similar strategy. Nevertheless, there were some that didn’t believe my 2000 paper suggesting that these squids brood. Nesis called that hypothesis “erroneous.” There had also been some ideas put forward about the relationships between squids and octopods based on the fact that octopods brood and squids don’t. Those ideas obviously don’t hold up. Q: Give us the stats. How long do Gonatus onyx carry their sack? BS:We estimate about six–nine months based on the size of the eggs, the cold temperatures, and what we know about other cephalopod species. Q: How many eggs does it contain, on average? BS: We’ve estimated about 2000–3000. Q: How does this affect the mother? She can’t feed while holding the sack, can she? BS: We think that the squids don’t feed. They survive through many months utilizing lipid stored in the digestive gland. By the time the squids reach sexual maturity, about 20% of the body mass is fat. That’s a lot of energy that can sustain their metabolism at cold temperatures for as long as nine months. Q: Is she literally holding it, or is it sort of growing out of her? BS: She’s literally holding the egg mass with hooks on the arms. Q: Lastly, what other currently disputed theories do you have about squid? Anything relating to cephalopod intelligence? Anything relating to Dosidicus gigas? What’s next on the list, basically? BS: I’m working on squids that migrate daily into a layer of very low oxygen at about 300 meters. Active oceanic squids are believed to be very sensitive to low oxygen, but the jumbo squid, Dosidicus gigas, manages To survive for several hours there every day. I’m also working on pteropod molluscs (very cute slugs that “fly” through water) in the Antarctic. They’re commonly called “sea angels.” They feed exclusively on a shelled species. The shells will dissolve as we continue to pump CO 2 into the atmosphere and it diffuses into the ocean lowering the pH. I’m starting a “save the sea angels” campaign. Perhaps you can help promote it! Q: Yes! Q: Bioluminescent squirt guns. You have one? STEVEN HADDOCK: Yes. Q: And when you’re not making new scientific discoveries you go bodysurfing and play in a Silver Jews-ish rock band? SH: Yes. Q: The envy. Besides squirt guns, what are some of the more interesting applications to your research into bioluminescence? SH: Applications are pretty wide-ranging. Markers that flash or glow are great signals because there are a lot of cameras and instruments to detect them, so people use them to light up wherever a process of interest is taking place. One specific example is automatically screening millions of bacteria and isolating only the ones that glow (the ones that have your gene inserted into them). You can light up tumors in a living animal, see a flash when an egg gets fertilized, and get a glimmer wherever calcium is released into a muscle cell. Q: Steve, what is a “squid hugger” and why did you call me one? SH: Sounds like you might be a little self-conscious about this. I didn’t call you a squid hugger—I just made general mention of this subset of people who become interested in marine biology. But you shouldn’t be ashamed of your proclivities—some of my best friends are serious squid huggers, and actually do it for a living. Q: Have you named your band? SH: Still waiting for the eureka moment. Among the names mentioned: The Glops, Pachyphone, Bucolia, Cool Limbs, Flameflicker, Wrok- Shop, Introverts, Imagine Mañana, Thumbstaplers, Tocayo, Amphipod Juju, Elbowbump, Tame West, Bailoteo, Blue Fritter. Pathetic, isn’t it? We need more inside jokes—we just get together to play music, so don’t have that many good ones. (Dr. Haddock is accepting band name suggestions; if he chooses yours, you’ll win a Wholphin subscription. Send contenders to contiguity@wholphindvd.com.)TACTICAL ADVANTAGE
Directed by Daren Rabinovitch U.S., 2006 Q: Do you believe in God? Is he as wrathful and Old Testament as you portray him? DAREN RABINOVITCH: I’m not really a believer in a God resembling the one in the movie. I think what we were more about doing was to make a kind of living cartoon of how he is casually represented in popular western culture. Then we offer a possible explanation for how death and misfortune might fit with that image. Q: I imagine he’s aiming for endangered rhinoceros. When he shoots, where does he aim? DR: Before we came up with a title someone came up with the idea of calling it God, Guns, and Gays, after the trinity of Republican hot-button issues. That would have given it a whole other dimension. In the end I think it works better leaving what he’s aiming at unspecified. Q: Does he ever miss? DR: I think so, but only when he means to. Q: What inspired you to make this beautiful, blasphemous piece? DR: The summer before starting this project I had gotten an e-mail from a couple of guys, Sean Hellfritsch and Isaiah Saxon, interested in what I was doing with my photographs. They had been studying film abroad and then formed a sort of collective in San Francisco. They had seen my work here and there. I think we had a mutual aquaintance who gave them my e-mail. The weird thing was that it turned out that we had all grown up partially on the same commune in Santa Cruz, California, founded by this sort of spiritual, eccentric guy named Mangello Tipperary. He and Isaiah’s family had some land they were building a big house on, and my mom and I lived there in a tepee. I’m a little older, so I only really knew them as toddlers running around with no clothes on, but I remembered their families. Isaiah and Sean have been more or less in touch all along, but my mom had moved away and lost contact with their families for more than twenty years. Mangello left Santa Cruz in the eighties and disappeared. The three of us had all pretty much taken a similar approach to art since then, which has made me form some more definite ideas about early childhood and creativity. Since his influence was so strong on all of us we named our group Mangello Tipperary, after him. I hadn’t made a movie before and wanted something that we could finish relatively quickly, a simple set with just a couple of characters. I wanted each shot to have a kind of monumentality, and, like a staged photograph, to be elaborate but entirely unreal. Keeping costs low probably had something to do with setting the movie in the sky; I felt we could make it work using polyester pillow stuffing and a painted backdrop. It wasn’t really about blasphemy for me. I was interested in using a character that was so highly overdetermined. The image of him firing off the cloud evoked a lot of things and worked as a striking still image. It made sense that if a still of the movie could convey a lot of the message, that directness could hold the thing together. Then we were free to build on that and have a good time designing and fussing with details. Q: This is the second-most-blasphemous film ever made. Do you know what the first is? DR: The Life of Brian? Q: How did you make the veins in God’s hands? DR: The character of God is wearing a full rubber prosthetic over his hands and face. We took a life casting of the actor and sculpted clay over that (including the veins) then took a mold of the sculpt and removed the clay. Then we replaced the life casting inside the mold and poured flexible silicone into the void made by the removed clay. This created a rubber glove made of silicone that was painted to look like skin. A similar process was used for the face. Creating prosthetics for all the visible skin probably took two weeks altogether. Q: How much did this film cost? DR: Between $1,500 and $2,000. We were able to keep the sum relatively low thanks to friends helping on set, loans of space, lighting equipment, etc., and shooting it digitally. Q: Besides a lifetime of death threats, what do you hope the reaction will be? DR:Wonder and amazement. Followed by almost fanatical praise.FILMMAKER BIOS
Khadija Al-Salami
Khadija Al-Salami, Yemen’s first female filmmaker, has made some twenty documentaries for various TV stations in France and Yemen. With her husband, she has written a book, The Tears of Sheba, about her experiences growing up in Yemen. Currently, she occupies the posts of Press Counselor and Director of the Communication Center at the Embassy of Yemen in Paris.Miguel Arteta
Originally from Puerto Rico, Miguel Arteta is best known for directing the films Star Maps, Chuck & Buck, and The Good Girl (starring Jennifer Aniston). His upcoming film, Youth in Revolt—a comedy starring Michael Cera, Steve Buscemi, and Ray Liotta—is slated for release in February 2009. He has also worked in television on shows such as Freaks and Geeks, Six Feet Under, and The Office.Colleen
Colleen is a French musician working within a minimalist and melodic aesthetic using acoustic instruments and modern technologies. She has released three albums on The Leaf Label, Everyone Alive Wants Answers (2003), The Golden Morning Breaks (2005), and Les Ondes Silencieuses (2007).George and Beth Gage
Beginning in the 1970’s, George and Beth Gage, as director and producer respectively, made hundreds of television commercials, including two honored in the U.S. CLIO Hall of Fame. In the 1990s they moved their company, Gage & Gage Productions, to Telluride, Colorado, to focus their energies on fi lms with a social conscience. Since then, working together, they have produced six documentaries, including most recently, American Outrage.Steven Haddock
While Steven Haddock was working toward an engineering degree at a small college, a far-sighted professor steered him to graduate studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Within a month of arriving, he was on a research ship off the Bahamas, diving in submarines with a team of experts who studied bioluminescence and jellyfish. He continues to study these wonders in his lab at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Central California.Miranda July
Miranda July is a filmmaker, performing artist, and writer. Her videos, performances, and web-based projects have been presented at the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, and in the 2002 and 2004 Whitney Biennials. Her fiction has been printed in the Paris Review, Harper’s, and the New Yorker. In 2005, she wrote, directed, and starred in her first feature-length film, Me and You and Everyone We Know. She is currently at work on her second film.Carson Mell
Carson Mell currently lives in Hollywood, California. His short films have been screened at Sundance, CineVegas, and the Los Angeles Film Festival. You can see more of his work at carsonmell.com.Bob Odenkirk
Bob Odenkirk did Mr. Show, and now he’s directing films and trying like hell to do good work. Pathetic. For more, see bobanddavid.comMark Osborne
Academy-Award-nominated director Mark Osborne studied art and animation at the Pratt Institute in New York and at the California Institute of the Arts. Funded as an independent project, MORE was the first fully animated stop-motion film to be presented for exhibition in the IMAX Giant Screen format and the first IMAX animation film to be nominated for an Academy Award. In 1999, MORE garnered several honors, including Best Short Film at the Sundance Film Festival, the SXSW Best Animated Short, and the Critics Week selection for Cannes. It has screened in over 150 film festivals worldwide. Osborne, a Guggenheim Fellow, has also directed much of the live-action material for the TV and film versions of SpongeBob SquarePants. He’s now working on a short film called The Better Half and codirecting Kung Fu Panda, a feature-length animated film.Scott Prendergast
Scott Prendergast is an Eagle Scout from Portland, Oregon. He has made five short films, including Anna Is Being Stalked, which played at Sundance and The Delicious, which did not, and one feature film, Kabluey, which stars Scott, Lisa Kudrow, Teri Garr, and a large blue mascot costume.Daren Rabinovitch
Daren Rabinovitch is an artist living in San Francisco. Tactical Advantage is his first film.Brad Seibel
Brad Seibel’s research explores the constraints placed on organismal function by the environment and how organisms have adapted to them. He has worked primarily in deep-sea and polar environments, focusing on cephalopods. Previous studies on shallow-living cephalopods have demonstrated very high metabolic rates due to the inefficiency of their jet locomotion and energy-demanding pelagic existence. Because of the constraints on their oxygen delivery systems, cephalopods appear to operate chronically on the edge of oxygen limitation. Yet unique aspects of their physiology have allowed them to exploit hypoxic deep-sea environments. This research has taken on new significance in light of recent proposals to mitigate global warming by dumping CO2 into the deep sea.Taika Waititi
Taika Waititi is of Te-Whanau-a-Apanui descent and hails from the Raukokore region of the east coast of New Zealand. Two Cars, One Night is Taika’s first professional filmmaking effort, for which he received a 2005 Academy Award nomination. After completing Two Cars, One Night, Taika went on to make his second short film, Tama Tu, as well as his first feature film, Eagle vs. Shark, which opened to rave reviews at Sundance in 2007. Taika recently attended the Sundance Writers Lab with Volcano, a feature film loosely based on Two Cars, One Night.Chris Waitt
Chris Waitt is a prolific writer, director, actor, animator, and puppeteer. Chris’s work ranges from cartoons to live-action documentary. He has a background in comedy as a writer for Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G), as a performer, and as an author of hundreds of extremely poor greeting-card jokes. He won a Golden Rose of Montreux in 2004 for his outrageous adult puppet comedy, Fur TV. Next up from Chris is a feature-length documentary.