Tomorrow - TUESDAY - at the Silent Movie Theatre in LA - a rare appearance

“An Arkansas auteur… imagine if Fellini had lived in a trailer in Arkansas instead of Rome.” - The London Times

“Phil is simply a person who needs to create. He could have just as likely picked up a knife and whittled a wooden pig, or painted the Rapture on the side of a barn. Instead, he sat in the guard shack at the gravel pit every night, writing and planning his movies.” - Dub Cornett, Oxford American

Phil Chambliss is America’s first folk-art filmmaker. He’s lived his entire life in Calhoun County, Arkansas. He never went to film school or college, never took a class or read a book on filmmaking. The films he managed to see - Sergio Leone’s For a Few Dollars More, the entire Peyton Place television special, and a particular episode of The Rifleman in which Lee Van Cleef plays Johnny Drago - led him to take the 95 bucks his then-wife had saved for a new icebox, and spend it instead on a movie camera. With camera in tow, he wrangled some friends into acting, and went on to create a body of work that includes dozens of bizarre, brilliant, idiosyncratic films, shot over the course of several decades. Phil’s films are a revelation, full of unexpected humor, complex social commentary, and a strong, almost suspended, sense of time and place. There is only one Phil Chambliss, and The Cinefamily is very proud to present the first Los Angeles presentation of his singular work.

see his films and hear him speak:
go to Cinefamily for tickets

Serious fans of experimental cinema have a few benchmarks among them – not just a fervent love of unusual work in filmmaking and performance – but good transportation and a librarian’s sense of investigation. You need to be a fucking art detective at times in order to find great events.

There are many established outlets for the experimental world but consistency is difficult. Museums and film festivals are often event based and deal with high profile press and premieres to get folks in the door. Underground microcinemas are great but bills are tough to keep up with and getting the word out to fans across a big city is not cheap or efficient.

Which is why the new venue Light Industry is so exciting. Based in Brooklyn, the multimedia space is being invented by stalwart experimental cinema champions Thomas Beard and Ed Halter. Focusing on a weekly schedule, each event will be organized by a different artist, critic or curator. You may see an artists’ own collection of shorts, or a writer’s favorite lost film, or a collection of silent boxing movies discussed by a curator working in an entirely different field.

“There’s such a rich and varied body of film and electronic art being shown in the city right now, but the audiences for, say, contemporary art or experimental cinema or new media don’t overlap nearly as often as they could and should,” says Beard. “I feel like there’s something really exciting about the prospect of having all this different work under one roof, with the freedom to do things that might not make as much sense in more institutional contexts.”

Even in New York where experimental worlds have flourished. Series like the Robert Beck and Ocularis are defunct, MOMA and the Whitney create a single explosion and push it for months, and the New York Underground Film Festival is having its last fest this April.

“Right now, there’s nothing happening like this on a consistent, weekly basis,” Halter adds. “Particularly in Brooklyn, where is where the majority of these artists and curators now live.”

Beard and Halter have been pillars for experimental work for years. Beard is formerly a Program Director of Ocularis and a programmer at Cinematexas. Halter programmed and oversaw the New York Underground Film Festival from 1995-2005, wrote for the Village Voice, currently teaches at Bard College and wrote the book Sun Tzu to Xbox: War and Video Games. Both are currently editing books on aspects of experimental film exhibition – Beard on Live Cinema: A Contemporary Reader and Halter on Small Cinemas: American Avant-Garde Film Exhibition from Ciné Clubs to Microcinemas with Andrea Grover.

All events will take a place on Tuesdays at 8PM in Industry City, an industrial complex in Sunset Park, Brooklyn that’s home to a cross-section of manufacturing, warehousing and light industry. As part of a regeneration program intended to diversify the use of its 6 million square feet of space to better reflect 21st century production, Industry City now includes workspace for artists.

Opening night March 25 features the program “The Blazing World,” compiled by Beard and Halter. Pitting the love-all world of the avant hippie with AA-meeting views of today, the compilation is stunning, from 70s work by Kurt Kren, Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson to a 2007 short by wunderkid Michael Robinson.

Get more info on all upcoming shows at Light Industry: www.lightindustry.org

PT Anderson, Schnabel, Haynes… Did Eastwood make another B Movie this year?

The real film of the year is FROWNLAND, and has a show in Los Angeles tomorrow night…

Frownland
Sat, 7:30pm
Silent Movie Theatre
more info here

Director in town too!

The film that started a ruckus at CineVegas:

“Well, yikes, a fight nearly broke out after this one screening. Some guy in the back of the theatre was booing throughout the closing credits. When they ended, this other guy stood up, turned to face the booer, and screamed, ‘You! You’re a fucking asshole!’ I mean he really screamed. He was absolutely enraged. Red as a beet. Shaking. That’s when a third guy stood up and started defending the booer. The second guy turned on the third. Everyone was arguing. It was sort of a melee. Turns out that last guy was the attending critic for Variety and he wound up writing us a killer review. Which leads me to think that that kind of raw caustic energy is real good for the project. It forces people to quickly choose a position and defend it. I should probably start hiring shills to run up and punch me in the face after each screening.”

— Ronald Bronstein, director

Great lost films are not from 1919, but from the last 20 years.

In the film CHAMELEON STREET, the enigmatic Doug Street puts on a series of cons, sometimes to make money, sometimes to prove he can do more than what the world expects of him. In short time he goes from a simple extortion plot to complex impersonations, including as a reporter from Time, a Yale student, a lawyer and even a surgeon. Yes, a surgeon.

The point of the film is not just to tell a story of a conman, but asks what a black man is expected to do to make a living in this modern world. Based mostly on the true story of super-con-man William Douglas Street Jr, the film is written and directed by Wendell B. Harris Jr, who also turns in an uncanny performance as the lead character. The film existed in the burgeoning indie cinema of the early 90s. Unlike most of the films around him though, Harris provided a complicated character and not a simple genre drama or comedy. The extremely intelligent Street has great ideas to fight the system, but is constantly stumped by tiny details he cannot control. It’s a drama and you root for Street to win but feel sorry for the people getting conned as well. And it’s bittersweet funny, as the sardonic humor in the film rings all too true. Above all, you feel the frustration that leads to fighting back against the grain.

Harris acted in his own super-8 film shorts growing up in Flint, Michigan. After reading an article on Street in 1983, he started researching and interviewing him in order to write the script, resulting in 36 versions of the script over 4 years.

The film won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1990. But that didn’t lead to distribution. Rather, the prize led to many meetings in Hollywood, the insult of a possible remake rather than a distribution deal, some deals for writing scripts, and a brutal joke.

CHAMELEON STREET did get a forgettable theatrical release and Wendell was able to write some scripts. Only now at the end of 2007 does the film finally get a DVD release. A new video transfer, loads of extras about the making of the film in luscious 1980s video, and the trailer for the film. Also two great short videos, You Know Leadbelly?, which is an entertaining short resulting from pre-production character studies, and the great Colette Vignette, a heavily edited short that shows the basis for some of the artistic ends Harris puts into the film.

The behind-the-scenes footage is appropriately called The Process. The mainstream process of the film industry did not work as well. One of his projects that didn’t take off was Negropolis, a sword-and-sandal satire that he hoped would star Howard Stern as Alexander the Great (remember its 1990), Oprah as Cleopatra with a consortion of Cleos around the world, and Harris himself as “Canigula.” But STREET remains Harris’ only film as director.

The long overdue DVD is great. The big extra is a layered, interesting group of scenes presented as a 30-minute trailer for his film-in-progress titled Arbiter Roswell. Entirely shot, Harris is currently editing what may be the definitive film document on UFOs.

In the end, Harris feels like there is only one way to look at filmmaking.

I recently interviewed Harris for my zine Cinemad, which is available right here.

DVD available now from Home Vision and Image Entertainment for $26.99.

Live in Austin?? Lucky.

The bad news first: Cinematexas, the long-running, great underground film festival lost its funding from certain institutions and is over. Annually providing the best, brightest and cutting-edgest short (and occasional feature) films, CNTX was an exciting long weekend of political hotbeds, avant-garde works, underground sludge and music films that traversed all of those worlds. It also programmed for the community – programs and a competition for Univ of Texas student films, and various childrens’ shows.

The good news: The fest is having a going away show this weekend, the Cinematexas Viking Funeral.

On Saturday, December 1st there are three free shows:

RAGNA-ROCK. One of two compilations of new work by esteemed Cinematexas alumni like James Fotopoulos, Ben Coonley, Daniel Cockburn, Stephanie Gray, etc.)

UT HOLLYWOOD SHOWCASE. A local screening of this year’s best UT-produced student films, which screened at the DGA Theater in LA in September.

ASSASSINS: A FILM CONCERNING RIMBAUD. An early experiment by Todd Haynes and an clear precursor to his new Dylan non-biopic I’M NOT THERE. This film is rare!

Then on Sunday, December 2nd:

RAGNA-ROLL: More madness from Cinematexas chums. One of these two programs will have videos from the incomparable, one-man-band Laz Rojas.

INTERKOSMOS. A delightfully tongue-in-cheek homage to a fictional East German space project, Jim Finn’s INTERKOSMOS uses recreated newsreels combined with musical interludes to resurrect the ’70s in all its Brezhnev-era glory.

And two incomparable greats: FROWNLAND, the uber indie film from Ronnie Bronstein, led by the new short by Don Hertzfeldt, EVERYTHING WILL BE OK. This single show is so great its already sold out. But try to catch everything else you can. Criminy, its free and hard-to-find films…. Viva Cinematexas.

http://www.austinfilm.org/film/cinematexas-viking-funeral-frownland

From the stunning eight-minute opening shot of to the remarkable documentation of China’s Three Gorges dam, you are overwhelmed by MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES (2007). Partly by the size and space of the landscapes, but mostly by the incredible beauty of the images, their composition and color, only to be crushed by the content: a luscious world of destruction.

You can enjoy this vibrant doc even if you are not riding the current wave of environmental danger films. See the environment – see all of us run. If Al Gore makes you feel like you need more visual aids, or if you feel you need words with KOYAANISQATSI, then this is the perfect companion film for the trilogy.

Ultimately LANDSCAPES is the portrait of one man’s voyage, following celebrated still photographer Edward Burtynsky on a tour of Asia taking photos. Burtynsky takes large format stills of industrial landscapes – factory workers lined up to infinity, giant ships eviscerated, massive recycling dumps, expansive strip mines. The goal is to portray human’s relationship to nature in our pursuit of progress. His images are striking and picturesque, leaving the viewer on their own to comprehend the negative global ramifications within.

Director Jennifer Baichwal makes impressive choices. The film perfectly balances the images of Burtynsky and talented cinematographer/creative consultant Peter Mettler, an acoomplished filmmaker and imagemaker on his own. Burtynsky presents the expanse and philosophy, and the filmmakers examine the tiny parts. And when Burtynsky speaks, he doesn’t celebrate nor condemn, but explores who we are in relation to our planet. We need things from the environment to survive, and that is damaging the world.

DVD has tons of extras, additional scenes, commentary and interviews with Baichwal, Burtynsky and Mettler, and a great photo gallery with commentary. Released by Zeitgeist Video, available now for $29.99.

Part loving art-doc recreation, part comedic musical, INTERKOSMOS may be the best communist propaganda since 1955, a genre that excelled in style and mathematic form. It revels in the Russian avant-garde cinematics that bled into its bombastic government documentaries. Once some human issues come up (birds and bees and astronauts), the film gets realistic and funny. Although you are never quite sure what filmmaker Jim Finn takes seriously, alternating between laughs and existentialist atmosphere, as if it was a predecessor to the new Daft Punk film Electronoma.

Following the space exploits of cosmonauts Seagull and Falcon, East Germans on their way to conquer moons of Jupiter and Saturn, INTERKOSMOS blends the deadpan but beautiful vibes of newreels, NASA static drone cameras – and actual musical sequences with a drill team – to a great new film that’s almost educational. The feature started out as a sequel to one of Finn’s short films about a gerbil, hoping to send the little guy in space. The film kept growing until humans in spacesuits and dance numbers were added. It would win art direction awards if film fests had them. The music is original but drawn from 70s German pop and real communist morale boosting riffs. There’s even exit music. The scenes and dialogue are also new but inspired by real training films.

While its perfect for film fest crowds and art fans who’s temple is the Museum of Jurassic Technology’s oil painting lounge dedicated to the Russian rocket dogs who did not return from space, Interkosmos could also play on PBS. And I seriously, seriously want it to play to Russian audiences over 50 – can anyone make this happen?

DVD available now from Facets Video, 24.95 capitalist-pig dollars.

The Silent Movie Theatre in Los Angeles is reopening – with new sound and style. The SMT is old but the inside is amazing, and now sound films are running with the silents. Grand re-opening is tomorrow, 10/25, with a solid Halloween lineup.

A lot of great old stuff will be showing there, but in December there is a series of new indies: “The New Naturalists”, featuring The Puffy Chair, Mutual Appreciation, Old Joy, Apart from That and Frownland. Check out all their great lineups on their website. Official press release here:

Hadrian Belove of Cinefile Video, Sammy Harkham of Family Books and Dan Harkham of the Silent Movie Theatre have teamed up to launch The Cinefamily, a new venue for revival programming– from foreign to independent, from classical to cutting edge, from silent film to live music, and from exploitation to experimental. Our home is the world famous Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax. The theater will reopen on October 25th with a bigger screen, more comfortable seating (including plush, leather sofas), and state-of-the-art projection and sound. The Cinefamily is committed to the presentation of silent films with live musical accompaniment, while expanding our calendar to embrace all forms of cinematic experience. There will be an adventurous program of regularly-scheduled events devoted to specific genres and audiences including:

Silent Movies w/ live musical accompaniment- Every Wednesday Night
Musicals, Concert Films & Special Music Events- Every Thursday Night.
Mini-Festivals- Every Friday and Saturday
Holy F*cking Sh*t (Incredibly Strange Cinema)- Every Saturday Late Night
Noir Matinees- Every Sunday afternoon
Asian Cinema Night- Every Sunday evening
Experimental Cinema- Monthly
Movie/Movie-Notable people present their favorite movies- Monthly
Short Films before features
Oodles of Special Events- Ongoing

What is The Cinefamily?

The Cinefamily is an organization of movie lovers devoted to finding and presenting interesting and unusual programs of exceptional, distinctive, weird and wonderful films. The Cinefamily’s goal is to foster a spirit of community and a sense of discovery, while reinvigorating the movie-going experience. Like campfires, sporting events and church services, we believe that movies work best as social experiences. They are more meaningful, funnier and scarier when shared with others. Our home is the Silent Movie Theatre, one of Hollywood’s most beloved and beautiful cultural landmarks. There, The Cinefamily will provide a destination spot for Los Angelenos and others to rediscover the pleasures of cinema.

http://www.silentmovietheatre.com/

Live in San Francisco? Like short films? Like experimental freak out beauty? Then run to the great ATA this weekend for their 2nd Annual ATA Film & Video three day fest of “original, independent & underground” cinema. On Wednesday October 10th, the Opening Night Party will feature an eclectic music selection by dj_spaceinvader & Niles of mk2 reality enhancement, and will premiere local filmmaker Paul Clipson’s new super 8 film “Illuminations” with live musical score by Jefre Cantu-Ledesma.

On Thursday, October 11, the night starts with the experimental shorts program “Auteur Space”, anchored by the haunting Paradise Drift (Martin Hansen), following people whose bodies are on earth but their souls seem elsewhere. Followed by the political program “Reelpolitik”, a strong collection of films that are minimal yet very lyrical, including the mystical, endearing films Marmot (Olga Chernysheva); Tetescha Us (Stefanie Wuschitz) and La Parabolica (Xavi Sala).

The Friday, October 12, early program is “Mnemonics”, avant shorts of really nice, classic design like hand painting and scratching, and reinventing found footage. Flight Home (Tadashi Moriyama) is engaging, following these animated sort of Sim City guys in a strange universe, and Paul Clipson’s Echo Park is a luscious, epic lightshow. The later program is “States of Matter”, mixing a variety of films from rough art performance to articulate cut and paste animation. Sissy Boy Slap Party (Guy Maddin) and Phantom Canyon (Stacey Steers) are great standouts.

Also on the scene are ATA Film & Video Festival Installation Films:
Btween calm & chaos & calm & chaos… (Dayv Jones); Cantata In C
Major (Ronnie Cramer); Contraction (Marlon Gonzalez); Fanatica (Marco Castro); Hybrids (Niloo Tehranchi); La Fuerza Eyaculatoria del Ojo/The Ejaculatory Power of the Eye (Sara Sama Acedo); Three Decades of Static (Yin-Ju Chen); Todo Disfraz Esta Hecho de Recuerdos/All Disguise is Done of Memories (Manuel Olias).

Go support true indie art!

One of our favorite films from CineVegas 2006 is being self-released on DVD in a beautiful special edition with a photo book. Variety critic Robert Koehler told me it was his favorite American film made last year. Please check it out and see some true independent cinema.

from co-director Randy Walker:

Dear friends,
Well, after 24 festivals, 3 awards, a “limited
engagement” theatrical run in theaters across the US,
a Croatian television appearance, a nod and a shove
from WHOLPHIN:

http://www.wholphindvd.com/wordpress/2007/05/lost-pet-apart-from-that/

…these quotes:

“”an original and resonant feature debut…fashioned
by young artists with a defiantly personal sense of
visual design and pace, along with considerable
sympathy for their exceptionally human characters.”
-VARIETY

“…its characters are more akin to the American
grotesque of Raymond Carver and Flannery O’Connor than
any film precedents, save perhaps early Cassavetes.”
-THE LIST

…and let’s not forget this one:

“The sort of film you could threaten naughty children
with.”
-some guy in Scotland

…Jen and I are happy to finally announce the
official release of the APART FROM THAT SPECIAL
EDITION DVD/CD/ART/PHOTO PACKAGE, now available at

www.foreignamericanpictures.com

Here’s everything:

1. DVD including special features:
-behind-the-scenes documentary
-auditions
-deleted scenes
-interviews
-exclusive trailers for films
currently on the festival circuit that Jen and I are
in love with

2. CD SOUNDTRACK with original score composed by
Christopher Shainin, Patrick Shainin and Brian Olpin.
Also includes “Ulla’s recordings of sounds,” along
with other music and dialogue from the film.

3. ART+PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK; hard-bound/cloth cover,
consisting of over 50 photographs from the production,
combined with illustrations and correspondence from
the cast and crew.

If you know of anyone who might be interested in the
film, we are also on myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/apartfromthat

And you can also check out the ad for the book on
YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkoPApMaLyE

much love,
Randy & Jenny
APART FROM THAT
www.foreignamericanpictures.com

Great lost films are not from 1919, but from the last 10 years.

If you hear about a great, unique independent film that premiered at Sundance, you assume it got to theaters, is out on DVD, is in the indie film world consciousness. Nope. There are hundreds of great films that premiere at the big fest that still disappear a year or two later. Theatrical and home video distribution is not guaranteed for anyone outside of celebrities it seems. Even films with style, distinctive settings and hot topic plots may not find a superhero to get them out to the public.

one of five posters made for the film

Around seven years ago, Shemie Reut was a cinematographer on music videos in New York when he decided he needed a break. Heading upstate, he ended up in a job as a camp counselor at Paradox Lake, specifically for autistic children. Blown away by the kids and environment, he wrote a script about a 20-something guy looking to get out of the city and taking the same job at the camp, and returned a year later to shoot it the film.

In the opening of the film, lead actor Matt Wolf encounters an autistic man on the subway that opens his eyes to that world.

The resulting film is PARADOX LAKE, a beautifully subtle drama, following Wolf as his life changes within the camp. Looking for a new world to escape to, he struggles with a tough counselor and tries to date another one, all while taking care of the autistic teens.

Some of the kids seem to have luck predicting events. This gets intense as Wolf befriends an autistic girl who is playing a hide-and-seek game of sorts. The new world Wolf is searching for finally shows up.

Reut does a wonderful job of mixing the narrative and the real world, balancing an interesting story with the deep, unique atmosphere of the camp. While the start of the film and overall plot is scripted, the film changed with the kids’ reactions and scenes and story elements were then improvised. Handheld cameras follow everyone, but the film is not messy. It actually flows quite smoothly in image and plot. Reut talks about how the style was affected by the situation.

The camp kids knew a film was shooting, and their families gave permission, but it didn’t really change the kids’ daily routines. Reut knew this was better than bringing in all actors. Using the real camp environment and kids lends an undeniable authenticity to the film.

The lead autistic girl who Wolf becomes intertwined with is a real camp kid, not an actor. After capturing some footage of her, Reut felt she could lend something special to the film and worked with her family on the scenes. This takes the film from a simple drama to a level of magical realism.

After a long editing process with all the raw footage, PARADOX LAKE premiered in competition at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, and later won Best Film at the Los Angeles Film Festival. LAKE then enjoyed a long festival life around the world and played on the Sundance Channel. Unfortunately, no distributors took a chance on the small film with no stars, and still has not played the art house circuit or come out on DVD.

Great lost films are not from 1919, but from the last 10 years.

When you hear about “Great American Films” its usually something from the past. The acting is wonderful, you sink into the characters, luscious camera-work, interesting plot-lines that come together, great music, characters you wish you could hang out with, characters you wish would win in the end, characters you want to kiss…

As I think about those accolades for past films, I think about APART FROM THAT from just last year. I think about it as great American cinema, made by enthusiastic filmmakers and actors and crew. I think about how it looks and sounds great, not about how much it cost or what camera they must have used. I think about how great the quirky characters are, not about the actors who portray them. Because they aren’t famous. And since they aren’t famous, and since the filmmakers aren’t known, and since the film doesn’t fit into a marketable genre, I think about how you probably haven’t seen one of the great American films from last year.

Apart From That was written, directed and edited by Jennifer Shainin and Randy Walker.

When I called for the interview, an older woman answered and asked who I was. Then Jennifer got on the phone. “Mom, I got it!” I didn’t realize – the directors live at home with Jennifer’s parents. “Anything for film, man…” Walker relates. Since they started the film five years ago they’ve saved money the old fashion way.

After playing tons of film festivals, from SXSW to CineVegas to Edinburgh, the film has reached the end of the usual fest run. No distributor has picked up the film, at least in part to the fact the entire ensemble cast, while great, are not recognizable. They preferred to have young actors, or unknowns, or non-actors:

This has all led to the tone of the film, with overlapping stories of everyday people that are unique in their own way, with a touch of Raymond Carver-knack writing:

The film will now be part of Indiewire’s 2007 Undiscovered Gems series. Audiences will select their favorite film to win the Sundance Channel Audience Award. The winning filmmaker will receive a cash award of $50,000, a theatrical release in New York, Los Angeles and at least five other U.S. cities during 2008, as well as an exclusive broadcast on Sundance Channel.

Shainin and Walker at CineVegas 06:

Please go see APART FROM THAT in the theater, where it will look beautiful.

In the next month, Shainin and Walker will sell out – they are moving out of the parent’s basement to a place across the street.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul –also known as Joe – is Thailand’s leading experimental filmmaker. Which leads you to say, “how many experimental filmmakers are in Thailand?” Maybe a better description would be - Apichatpong Weerasethakul is one of Earth’s most interesting filmmakers. Since his first experimental feature, MYSTERIOUS OBJECT AT NOON (2000), through his Cannes award winning films BLISSFULLY YOURS (2002) and TROPICAL MALADY (2004), the musical comedy THE ADVENTURES OF IRON PUSSY (2003) and the new SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY (2006), Weerasethakul has established a beautifully composed, flowing style. Each film tells a story by taking its time, wandering then jumping in time and place, somehow without losing the characters or the audience, perhaps due to his stunning imagery and realistic actors. SYNDROMES will be released in America soon and Weerasethakul will have an art installation at REDCAT in Los Angeles, opening April 18, entitled “Unknown Forces.”

Faith, production still, 2006, two channel video
Courtesy of the artist

Each of your films has a distinct atmosphere. They feel very realistic, flowing naturally. But of course they are controlled, things happen in a “movie” way. SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY, for example, is heavily edited, jumps in time. How much of a film’s atmosphere do you, or can you, control?

My working process is more going with the flow. I always have to work with the same crew and same editor. I think this is very important because filmmaking depends on many factors. So it is basically about controlling the flow. It seems that they are “controlled memories” - I am trying to present certain feelings – of the personal experiences, coupled with the filmmaking experience with the cast and crew. It evokes a diary portrait of life as I live.

The idea of film-becomes-diary-is-my-life is endearing. Has there been a film you have tried to end a different way but it changed itself?

Always, usually we have different endings - more open ended. When planning the film, the story is more complete. But most of the time we found that the films will speak more to the audiences if there is a room to explore.

Is it melancholy that interests you, or does it just exist everywhere?

That feelings that is “hard to explain” is what I tried to achieve. Our brain always records, accumulates and arranges history, like cinema. We are melancholy animals.

Did you grow up in a rural area, as in some of your films? The forests are great, a far away land but comforting for the characters.

I grew up in a small city, but not as rural as I depicted in, say, TROPICAL MALADY. Since I have been living in Bangkok for quite a while, I constantly wish I could live in such rural environment.

Do you feel the film is successful to sink into your films, to feel like they are there? Or is it important to remain a film?

I prefer to remind the viewers that film is a film, an illusion, like life.

Has the Thai film community changed since you have started?

Stylistically yes. Initially there are more advertising directors coming into this field (Pen-ek, Wisit, Nonzee) - this group changed the look and the way we make film - more organized. They brought in some advertising gimmicks that are quite interesting. Then there are newer breeds of filmmakers that directly graduated from film schools, or made indie videos by themselves. These kids (Kongdech, Madiew, Thunska, etc.) make films that talk about themselves and have less lofty agenda and even less stylized. I think they are leading the future. At the same time, there continues same old filmmaking tradition that churns out ghost, transvestite comedies. These films are quite racist and sexist by foreign standards, but they have been accepted broadly in Thailand. They are quite interesting, but can get tired after you’ve seen too many remakes. Then there are those Korean-inspired movies that are not on par with the originals. But these films are here to
stay.

Are Thai audiences receptive to your art? The long takes you use are visually stunning, viewers get caught up in the characters then. But is that more mainstream there or do you often play “art houses” like in America?

Not only the audiences, but the theaters as well. The other day I went to a test screening of SYNDROMES at one of the cineplexes. I felt very strange because the place totally overwhelmed the film. Thai cineplexes are decorated heavily and everything reads “glitzy entertainment”. Even if I am there I wouldn’t buy a ticket to see my own films. We don’t have intimate, medium size art house kind of space. So now we are trying to put “art house” films into these theaters. I hope gradually people would feel less strange and get used to that. It is just a matter of adapting. Later in the year they will open a digital theater to screen student or independent videoworks in the cineplexes. So I believe that things will change for the best for non-mainstream films.

In SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY the modern, technological world clashes with an emotional world of people making connections. How do these worlds contrast for you?

I think in Asia, in Thailand, we accept everything of the changes and adapt to them. It fascinates me that people are talking about freedom while being so submissive while the landscape is changing quickly – heading without proper maps. So this should create chaos, conflicts, but people remain calm. It surprised me about surviving in Thailand. It inspires me to live and work there. Recently I just heard that Syndromes will be censored or banned. At first I was angry and surprised, because there are all these crazy Thai films out there in the theaters talking about sex, violence with crude languages, etc, without being censored, without rating system. Why me? Then I realized it was not about the film. It was about the system. I am releasing it without a connection to a studio. So the whole country still operates in an ultra conservative mode – with fears of the unfamiliar, mixed with the capitalist attitude of corruption in the governmental system. It coexists well. So I am fine if my film cannot screen there in the end. And this pushes me to create another film about this environment. It helps me somewhat.

What is your new installation at REDCAT about?

Actually, about surviving in Thailand. For me, the key is to be ignorant and powerlessness, voiceless. And the installation is a celebration of this idea.

Upon having his new film banned in his homeland, Apichatpong sent out this email request:

Dear All,

Regarding the censorship of my film. I am glad in a way that it is leading
to a very important step for our cinema.
Please kindly forward to the ones you think have relevant interest in this
issue. Thank you very much.

http://www.petitiononline.com/nocut/petition.html

—————

Free Thai Cinema Movement Petition
Statement by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
*with Bioscope, the Thai Film Foundation, Thai Film Director’s
Association, and Alliances.*

I am saddened by what has happened to my film. However, this is not the
venue to try to make SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY shown in Thai theaters. It
is not my intention to use this opportunity to promote my work.
But, it is time to seriously think about what is going on with our
censorship laws, so that the next generation of filmmakers will not face
the same problems as us, and so that the Thai audiences can truly
achieve a freedom of choice.

It is time we discuss whether all films, before being released, should
be seen by the Buddhist council, doctors council, teachers council,
labor council, the army, pet lovers group, taxi union, representatives
from other foreign countries etc? Or, is it easier to turn our nation
into a Fascist state so that we can live in harmony and don’t have to
waste time talking about democracy?

The system of the Thai Board of Censors needs to be evaluated. Their
members’ relevancy and efficiency needs to be questioned, and we should
decide whether the laws should be changed.

I would like to ask you to reflect on the censorship practices in our
country and to provide us with advice at

http://www.petitiononline.com/nocut/petition.html

Later on, this Petition will be submitted to the Thai government. Your
support will be a great contribution to our fight for one of our most
basic rights - that of freedom.

I am grateful for your time and your participation. Thank you very much.

Warmest Regards,

Apichatpong Weerasethakul

and their new dvd: “Not 4 $ale: A Vidjoe Rodeoe”

The Westworld robot, a video ape and Don Knotts started a pirate TV station. Not a metaphor, this is science fact. They have the finest video switching equipment but only cable TV footage and disco technique. All hail TV Sheriff and the Trailbuddies, who mine old VHS tapes and make golden nuggets.

More realistically, the Sheriff is a guy in LA who takes tons of found footage, from commercials to rare TV to Arnold to music videos and mashes them together to make new crunchy vids. His live shows at Star Shoes in Hollywood made him an underground legend, and this DVD collection of 30 videos is pretty killer.

TV Sheriff’s style is reminiscent of Animal Charm’s transgressive feel with more recognizable sources, and with the speed and techno vibe of EBN (Emergency Broadcast Network – remember them??) and even some of their politics. If Vice magazine’s TV Carnage wasn’t laid up in the hospital, but religiously healed by E, you would get TV Sheriff. Is there a name for this genre yet? Can I make one? Channel Knobs. No that sucks. Knob Surfers? Toaster Heads?

Because, there used to be this primitive home video switcher thing called Video Toaster and…screw it. See – its hard to mash ideas together. But the Sheriff pulls it together in a funny way, always entertaining but also with some social and political observations in there. YES, it is easy to say TV is twisted and sick and the evil tool of rich people. But it’s hard to show that and not be condescending. All hail TV Sheriff and the Trailbuddies.

Slick DVD production is great, easy to navigate and tons of extras, include “collaborations” with Coldcut, DJ Q-Bert and VJ V2, and an introductory essay by Gerry Casale (from Devo), which is like a blessing down from the heavens.

Why does everybody want Tom Hanks? Need a good actor? Here is your man.

Jay. Jay Rondot.

He stars in some comedy shorts, lovingly made for the internet by funny guy Ross Novie. The spy ones don’t even seem like a parody, since James Bond is so ridiculous in the first place. Jay is superspy Jack Butterscotch, who I think is poor, coz those aren’t gloves, he painted his hands black.

Hit up the Treasure Trail series and then… The Rascal. You don’t need to watch them in order, it ain’t brain surgery.

Jay also has a series of christmas cards over the past ten years chronicling a life. Beautiful. He says they’re not about him.