Here are two music videos by Drew Henkels, he of Drew & the Medicinal Pen fame. Actually, these are like little musical interludes, tiny repetitive melodies accompanying experimental films.

The top one, Part One of Magical Mundane, has a Philip Glass type of vibe. It reminds me of a shorter, lower budget Koyaanisqatsi with a little Kenneth Anger Fireworks thrown in. (Although, without the sexual storyline.) I find the video to be very relaxing and I especially like that it was originally shot on film, giving it a very muted, diffused look.

Part Three of Magical Mundane, embedded below is much more hyperkinetic. The music is much more repetitive and I like how the layers suddenly add up and then get subtracted back out throughout the song. I’m not sure how this one was shot, either on film or video — I’m not the best at spotting that kind of thing — but it’s obviously much more colorful, which is befitting of the music.

Both videos only run about two minutes each, but I feel like I could groove with them for at least 10.

Read More:

• Drew Needs A Drummer
• Drew & Brent Live Film Performance
• Drew & The Medicinal Pen At Rooftop Films
• Drew & The Medicinal Pen at Rooftop Films

(Screened at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival on June 20.)

There are two things in this world I truly don’t understand. One is professional sports. The other is why isn’t Patton Oswalt a superstar.

Big Fan is a sports movie, but told from the point of view of a crazed football addict, who is especially obsessed with New York Giants quarterback Quantrell Bishop (Johnathan Hamm). Oswalt stars as the titular “big fan, ” Paul Aufiero, an unambitious man-child who works all day as a parking garage attendant where, in between making change for drivers, he pens monologues for himself to read on a sports radio call-in show.

Paul also lives at home with his screechy mother (Marcia Jean Kurtz), sleeps underneath a giant poster of Quantrell hanging over his bed and, instead of a girlfriend, keeps a tube of lube handy on his nightstand.

He is, by most agreed upon definitions of the word, a loser.

But he’s not a loser who is a victim of a lousy personality or by fate or chance. Paul is a happy loser, supremely confident in all of his decisions that have brought him to this point in his life. He doesn’t want a girlfriend or a wife. He doesn’t secretly wish to be a pro ball player. He already thinks of himself as a star thanks to his radio call-in rants.

And this is why Patton Oswalt deserves to be a superstar. He makes Paul so blissfully happy in his loser-dom, that you root for him to hang on to the nothing his life is filled with. When his entire family yells at him to grow up and get a life, you wish they’d shut the hell up and leave him alone. As portrayed by Oswalt, Paul empowers the über-nerd in all of us that just wants to forget about real world concerns and relationships and concentrate on what’s really important: Our pop culture obsessions.

Plus, while Oswalt is a gifted comedian, Big Fan is more or less a serious film. Yet his somewhat schlubby comedic persona is a tremendous benefit that prevents the film from becoming bogged by it’s own dour worldview. Big Fan is the directorial debut of screenwriter Robert D. Siegel who wrote the 2008 Darren Aronofsky hit The Wrestler. Siegel also wrote the script here and he appears to have taken copious notes on directing style and pacing from Aronofsky.

Big Fan exists as a good companion piece to The Wrestler. One film examines the world of sports fandom from the pro viewpoint — e.g. The Wrestler’s Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson lives for the adoration of his fans — and the other obviously takes the fan point of view. In fact, it wouldn’t be too difficult to transfer Paul Aufiero’s idol worship from quarterback Quantrell Bishop to The Ram. Also, both films feature uncomfortable confrontations on chilly sidewalks and have the requisite strip club scenes.

It’s also hard not to feel that Siegel has also incorporated influences from other “shaggy dog who can’t fetch the bone” films. Paul’s calling into his beloved sports radio show while his mother yells from the other room to shut up feels borrowed from the horrifically awkward basement tape recording scene from Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy, which features the same screechy kind of mom. Also, seeing co-star Kevin Corrigan wrapped up in NY Giants jerseys and sweatshirts directly recalls Corrigan wearing similar Buffalo Bills gear in Vincent Gallo’s Buffalo ‘66.

But that’s not to say that Big Fan is solely derivative. As we fall deeper into Paul’s nerdy little world during the film’s first few scenes, the movie then takes a really interesting twist when Paul has the unfortunate experience of actually meeting his idol. While this is the hook on which the film is most easily sold, it’s probably a better experience going into the film not knowing what that hook is. The real joy of the film is watching Paul’s reaction to that meeting and his subsequent desperate clinging to the ideals he believes in, whether those ideals are understandable or believable by anyone else, including the characters in the film or the audience.

More on this film: Amazon | Netflix | Spout | IMDB | Official Site

Watch the trailer:

Read More:

• Zero Bridge
• 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival: Underground First Take

The annual Mono No Aware film performance festival is gearing up for another night of unique visual experiences. This year’s event will take place on Sunday, November 29 in Brooklyn, NY. This is not strictly a one-night film festival, but an all-out performance event that is looking for artists who blend audio and film projection with a live experience. And the emphasis here is on “film.” No video will be accepted or projected.

Proposals for performance events are due by:

Final deadline:
Nov. 9

In the old days, they used to call this “expanded cinema,” sort of like the goal is to “expand” film beyond the limited confines of the traditional movie screen. For Mono No Aware, you can submit proposals for a cinema performance that only involves film, either 8mm or 16mm, e.g. running several projectors at once. But I think they’re also more interested in performances that do include a live performance component, such as live music or poetry reading or things along those lines, yet maybe more complex than those particular suggestions to run concurrently with a film screening.

If you’d like some better ideas of what Mono No Aware is looking for, you can check out last year’s lineup of performances. I’m also going to just run their entire “call for entries” announcement below, since I think they can better explain what they want than I can. And if the below gives you some ideas, go to their website and submit a proposal.

You are welcome to submit. MONO NO AWARE is open to any person or group of persons making work incorporating Super8 or 16mm film format as part of that presentation. For example: blending film & theater performance, musicians creating a visual experience for their sound, & experimental filmmakers working with story tellers. Entries will only be accepted on Super8 or 16mm film. FILM ONLY. No Digital Video.

Part of our purpose in having this gathering is to put an emphasis on the cinematic experience. Film & video are so easily accessible, you can watch something on a website, television, a home projector, or even your cell phone. For some filmmakers those vehicles are copies of the original artwork, each one degraded by its format. We believe there is a magic in seeing the film as a print. There is a presence a poet has reading his/her own writing. There is a feeling that resonates in your chest when you see a band live. For these reasons we are encouraging live music, performance, and audio to expand the cinematic experience beyond the screen. We ask that in the spirit of the festival you not video or create copies of your performance. Some participants have gone as far as to destroy the work after its first run at the event.

Embrace the film medium. Cut & splice found footage you picked up at a yard sale. Take all your unused footage from an old project and create something new with the unused scenes.. Spend 50 bucks to shoot & process 100 feet of 16mm & make a 3 minute masterpiece with a friend’s Bolex. Paint on the film surface. Go on eBay and pick up a dozen old reels for ten bucks. Run 10 projectors at once on a single screen. Splice, dice, paste, shoot, and do it all over again. Create visual poetry, colorful abstractions, a comedic narrative, a cinematic comet that will light up the space for several minutes and live in the minds of those there to see it in its pure state. While it’s there, fill the audience’s ears with a score nothing short of sonorous.

Read More:

• 2008 Mono No Aware: Official Lineup
• 2008 Mono No Aware: Call For Entries

(Screened at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival on June 20.)

Tariq Tapa’s minimalist Zero Bridge begins with a young man taking a plunge off of the titular structure. Well, not literally, but it’s a plunge nonetheless into a fate from which the main character spends the rest of the film trying to escape.

Rather than jump over the railing to get away from his unfortunate circumstances, Dilawar (Mohamad Imran Tapa) hops on the back of his cousin’s motorbike after being threatened by an armed soldier ordering him to move off the bridge. Although we don’t know it initially, but we soon come to learn that “cousin” is a code word one starts throwing about when caught associating with unsavory characters.

In voiceover, Dilawar narrates a letter to his mother, whom he hasn’t seen in a long time. He insists he is a good student and doing well in school. Again, this is something we’ll discover is partially true. Although smarter than his station in life would presume him to be, Dilawar is mostly studying to be a thief and his “cousin” is his teacher. After a quick heist of some purses, Dilawar gets his two biggest lessons. First, he learns not to trust anybody when his teacher tries to rip him off. And second, after they are arrested for arguing in public, he learns he’s going to have to be even craftier to avoid the petty crimes that will land him in jail.

Zero Bridge is a real location that spans the Jhelum River in Srinagar, Kashmir. Taking a cue from the Italian neorealists, Tapa shoots in an intimate, documentary-flavored style on the gritty streets of Srinagar using a cast of non-professionals. While the film doesn’t get into the history or political situation of Kashmir, the presence of armed soldiers and police officers who wander the streets without uniforms but with unholstered firearms lend an extra air of oppression over the vast poverty on display.

The film also isn’t a travelogue of Kashmir, a location not frequently seen on film, and the action never strays beyond Dilawar’s immediate meager surroundings. The only glimpse we get that another world even exists outside of these slums is when Dilawar, in his one legitimate job, takes a pair of European tourists on a boat trip down the Jhelum. The boat, tricked out with fancy silks and soft pillows, is a con, to convince the outsiders that they are somewhere exotic and magical where if they saw their guide’s real home, they’d probably leave the country in disgust.

The scene with the tourists is brief, but it sets up that Tapa, an American of Kashmiri descent, isn’t here to snow us with a romanticized portrait of the land of his father. Dilawar, while a sympathetic character, isn’t a charming rogue or a thief with a heart of gold. He is a brash, know-it-all kid looking for the easy way out because he sees what the hard way gets you: Nowhere fast.

Dilawar is raised by his strict disciplinarian of an uncle, Ali (Ali Muhammed Dar), who toils all day as a mason building extravagant houses for the upper class only to come home to his own ramshackle dwelling every night. Ali attempts to apprentice Dilawar in masonry, but the only decent thing that the boy can do with his hands is pick pockets. Dilawar is also exceptionally bright. He should be going to school as a good education is probably his best chance for his escape from poverty. Since Ali can’t or won’t pay for school, Dilawar makes money doing the homework of teenagers too lazy to concentrate on their own studies.

Using untrained actors proves a bit distracting in the film’s early scenes. The actor Tapa is the first-time director Tapa’s cousin — a bit ironic given what I explained in the second paragraph above — and his early thieving scenes fighting with his crooked teacher aren’t entirely convincing. However, I don’t know if the film was shot in sequence or not, but the actor Tapa really grows into the role the more we see his silvered-tongued con man side come out.

Dilawar also becomes a much more complex character as the film goes on. On the one hand, he is a very self-assured, opportunistic scoundrel. On the other, he’s very unsure of himself, particularly with the ladies. As Dilawar’s sides are slowly revealed, the actor Tapa really rises to each occasion, much more than the early scenes would indicate. By the end of the film, Tapa has convinced us that Dilawar is a fully-realized, complex person.

But the film really opens up when Dilawar befriends Bani (Taniya Khan), a shipping clerk with her own dreams of escape. Having studied science for a period of time in the U.S., Taniya has returned home to be treated as a slave by her aunt and sold into an arranged marriage by her uncle. Taniya is also, unbeknownst to her, a victim of Dilawar’s crimes. He has stolen her passport, and the boondoggle needed to acquire another one, has dampened her dreams of returning to America.

Dilawar is smitten by the slightly older woman, especially hard not to do given Khan’s pleasant, modest smile and caring eyes. He cons his way into her life, keeping his guilt secret from her and their time together is a pleasant retreat from their difficult lives. One of their scenes alone together in Taniya’s home, without any kissing or touching, includes what has to be the most romantic, sensual chess game in film history.

Zero Bridge is a subdued, audacious debut by Tariq Tapa, who directed, lensed, recorded and co-edited by himself. He takes us to a place little seen on the screen that his characters are desperate to escape from. Although set in a poverty-stricken slum, the film features a wealth of emotion while eschewing a reliance on genre conventions. The drama unfolds naturally, piling on relationship complications without contrivance and a romance without romanticism. Ultimately, Kashmir comes off not as an exotic locale, but a place where the struggle for survival is familiar the world over.

More on this film: Amazon | Netflix | Spout | IMDB | Official Site

Watch the trailer:

Read More:

• Big Fan
• 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival: Underground First Take

It looks like the San Antonio Film Festival had another successful year, their 15th. Fifteen years is an awesome run — and still going strong! The fest ran on June 25-28 and if you missed out, you can check out the fun and excitement in several photo galleries posted on Facebook. (You don’t have to log in to look at them.)

Below is the list of this year’s award winners. There were several jury awards and two audience awards. What’s really nice to see, though, is the SAFF honoring both local and young filmmakers with their Best San Antonio Filmmaker and Best High School Filmmaker awards.

The big winner of the fest was filmmaker Eric Fonseca whose Funeral March for a Marionette won both the Grand Prize and the Jury Prize for Best Animated Short. But congrats to all the filmmakers who won:

Grand Prize
Funeral March for a Marionette, dir. Dir: Eric Fonseca

Jury Prize for Best Narrative Short
La Tangente, dir. Vincent Vesco

Jury Prize for Best Documentary Short
In His Blood, dir. Vianna Davila

Jury Prize for Best Animated Short
Funeral March for a Marionette, dir. Eric Fonseca

Jury Prize for Best Performance
Michael Ray Escamilla
Cruzando

Audience Award Best Narrative Feature
Doctor “S” Battles the Sex Crazed Reefer Zombies, dir. Brian Ortiz

Audience Award Best Documentary Feature
Beyond the Call, dir. Adrian Belic

Best San Antonio Filmmaker
Death Rattle, dir. A.J. Garces

Best High School Filmmaker
La Memoria de Amor, dir. Andie C. Flores

Read More:

• 2009 San Antonio Film Festival: Official Lineup
• 2009 San Antonio Film Festival: Call For Entries — UPDATED
• 2008 San Antonio Film Festival: Official Lineup
• 2008 San Antonio Underground Film Festival: Call For Entries

2009 marks the twelfth year of the epic Revelation Perth International Film Festival in Australia, but this is also the second year it’s being run under the purview of film historian and writer Jack Sargeant, who returns as Program Director. Based on the lineup listed below, it’s a stunning encore. The festival runs July 2-12 and there are a ton of great films to check out.

I can only speak about one of those films from personal experience: Bad Lit’s 2008 Movie of the Year, Altamont Now, directed by Joshua von Brown. I’ve been beating the drum for this underground masterpiece for just about an entire year now and I’m glad the film’s hugely successful 2008 festival run has now spilled over into 2009 at such a great fest like Revelation. It’s only screening once, on July 11, so don’t miss it.

But there’s lots of other great films, too, that I wouldn’t miss were I in Perth. There’s Nina Paley’s festival hit, the animated musical Sita Sings the Blues; and Chusy Haney-Jardine’s Anywhere USA, which has been making the U.S. underground rounds. Plus, there’s some great sounding documentaries like The Seventh Python about “lost” Monty Python member Neil Innes; and Ben Steinbauer’s acclaimed Winnebago Man; as well as Josh Koury’s hit Harry Potter fan doc We Are Wizards.

But the film I’m most anxious to see is Kenta McGrath’s documentary Three Hams in a Can, about musicians on tour in Tokyo. I’m a huge fan of McGrath’s short fictional films, so I’m real curious what his doc is like. So for all ya’ll who’ll get to see this before me, I’m insanely jealous.

That’s only a few films I’m calling out and there’s even more that sound equally fabulous. Once you get into the meat of the lineup, I think you’ll agree:

July 2
7:00 p.m.: Sita Sings the Blues, dir. Nina Paley. An animated musical that uses the ancient Hindu text The Ramayana of Valmiki to explore modern notions of love and fidelity.

July 3
7:00 p.m.: Soul Power, dir. Jeffrey Levy-Hinte. This documentary sheds light on the African music festival that ran concurrently with the famous Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman brawl, “The Rumble in the Jungle.”

7:15 p.m.: American Swing, dir. Jon Hart & Matthew Kauufman. A documentary profile of Plato’s Retreat. The infamous ’70s NYC sex club that was founded by Larry Levenson.

8:45 p.m.: Adventures of Power, dir. Ari Gold. An air drummer dreams of the day when he’ll finally be recognized for his vast talent. Maybe losing his mining job is just the break he’s been hoping for.

9:00 p.m.: Anywhere USA, dir. Chusy Haney-Jardine. A trio of stories in which a man gets beaten by his wife everyday at 2:00 p.m.; an eight-year-old accidentally eats a pot brownie; and a man eating a steak realizes he doesn’t know any black people.

10:30 p.m.: Dead Snow, dir. Tommy Wirkola. A group of medical students vacationing at a snowbond chalet in Norway are attacked by a horde of zombie Nazis.

July 4
1:00 p.m.: Good Dick, dir. Marianna Palka. A video store clerk becomes infatuated with a pretty female customer to the point that he relentlessly pursues her affections, despite her being completely disinterested in him.

1:15 p.m.: Iseta: Behind the Roadblock, dir. Juan Reina. Cameraman Nick Hughes returns to Rwanda many years after he documented the horrific genocide that occurred in 1994.

2:30 p.m.: NYC Foetus, dir. Clement Tuffreau. A documentary profile of Jim Thirlwell, the Australian expatriate who founded the influential industrial music project, Foetus.

3:00 p.m.: Sita Sings the Blues, dir. Nina Paley. An animated musical that uses the ancient Hindu text The Ramayana of Valmiki to explore modern notions of love and fidelity.

5:00 p.m.: Soul Power, dir. Jeffrey Levy-Hinte. This documentary sheds light on the African music festival that ran concurrently with the famous Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman brawl, “The Rumble in the Jungle.”

5:15 p.m.: Three Hams in a Can, dir. Kenta McGrath. This documentary follows three musicians — Chris Cobilis, Predrag Delibasic and Stina — as they travel across Tokyo performing their unique brand of electronic music.

7:00 p.m.: Van Diemen’s Land, dir. Jonathan Auf Der Heide. Based on the true story of eight men who attempted to escape from the penal colony of Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania.

7:15 p.m.: The Seventh Python, dir. Burt Kearns & Brett Hudson. A documentary about Neil Innes, one of the founding members of Monty Python.

9:00 p.m.: Darklovestory, dir. Jon Hewitt. A couple try to escape the criminal underworld of Kings Cross, an inner city suburb of Sydney, Australia.

9:15 p.m.: The Fall, dir. Tarsem. An injured stuntman spins wild tales for the benefit of a sick little girl.

10:30 p.m.: “Late Night Wonders and Gothic Nightmares”
A retrospective of the work of Lisa Hammer.

July 5
1:00 p.m.: Saint Death, dir. Eva Aridjis. This documentary profiles a Mexican religious cult in which transvestites, fallen women and criminals worship a female grim reaper.

1:15 p.m.: Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans, dir. Dawn Logsdon. This documentary tells the story of 19th century New Orleans, where free slaves received integrated education and were able to hold public office.

2:45 p.m.: FLicKeR, dir. Nik Sheehan. Examining the invention of Brion Gysin: The Dreamachine, a spinning barrel from which emanates a piercing light. The device allegedly induces altered states without the use of drugs.

3:30 p.m.: The General, dir. Buster Keaton. The classic silent film will be projected with a live soundtrack by the band Viola Dana. (Not the actress in the film.)

4:15 p.m.: Van Diemen’s Land, dir. Jonathan Auf Der Heide. Based on the true story of eight men who attempted to escape from the penal colony of Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania.

5:00 p.m.: We Are Wizards, dir. Josh Koury. A look at the phenomenon of “Wizard Rock,” i.e. rock bands who only sing songs about the world of Harry Potter.

7:00 p.m.: Chevolution, dir. Luis Lopez & Trisha Ziff. A documentary history of the famous photograph of the revolutionary Che Guevara, which has gone on to become a pop icon.

7:15 p.m.: American Swing, dir. Jon Hart & Matthew Kauufman. A documentary profile of Plato’s Retreat. The infamous ’70s NYC sex club that was founded by Larry Levenson.

8:45 p.m.: Soul Power, dir. Jeffrey Levy-Hinte. This documentary sheds light on the African music festival that ran concurrently with the famous Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman brawl, “The Rumble in the Jungle.”

9:00 p.m.: The End, dir. Nicola Collins. A profile of East London gangsters directed by the daughter of one of them.

July 6
7:00 p.m.: Sita Sings the Blues, dir. Nina Paley. An animated musical that uses the ancient Hindu text The Ramayana of Valmiki to explore modern notions of love and fidelity.

7:15 p.m.: Saint Death, dir. Eva Aridjis. This documentary profiles a Mexican religious cult in which transvestites, fallen women and criminals worship a female grim reaper.

8:45 p.m.: Three Hams in a Can, dir. Kenta McGrath. This documentary follows three musicians — Chris Cobilis, Predrag Delibasic and Stina — as they travel across Tokyo performing their unique brand of electronic music.

9:00 p.m.: Xaviera Hollander: The Happy Hooker, dir. Robert Dunlap. A documentary about the infamous call girl.

July 7
7:00 p.m.: One Fast Move Or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur, dir. Curt Worden. This documentary examines the California coastal town that so enthralled author Jack Kerouac.

7:15 p.m.: Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans, dir. Dawn Logsdon. This documentary tells the story of 19th century New Orleans, where free slaves received integrated education and were able to hold public office.Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of New Orleans

8:45 p.m.: The Fall, dir. Tarsem. An injured stuntman spins wild tales for the benefit of a sick little girl.

9:00 p.m.: “Music Camera”
Music videos from Western Australia.

July 8
7:00 p.m.: The Matador, dir. Stephen Higgins and Nina Gilden Seavey. A profile of David Fandila, aka El Fandi, a popular young Matador in Spain. The documentary also examines the history of this controversial sport.

7:15 p.m.: “Animated Eruptions, Exultations and Ordinary Madness”
Gluteus Maximus: The Man Behind Mankind’s Behind, dir. Mick Elliott & Brendan Cook
Reach, dir. Luke Randall
The Cascade and Its Dust, dir. Stefan Pautze
The Not So Great Eugene Green, dir. Michael Hill
Lash, dir. Elka Kerkhofs
The Funk, dir. Cris Jones
Life’s a Witch, dir. Cam Rossiter
Ink, dir. Justine Wallace

8:30 p.m.: The Possibility of an Island, dir. Michel Houellebecq. Based on the director’s own quasi-science fiction novel, a tale about a man and his future clone trying to find meaning in a Godless world.

8:45 p.m.: The End, dir. Nicola Collins. A profile of East London gangsters directed by the daughter of one of them.

July 9
7:00 p.m.: “Get Your Shorts On!”
Layoordoo, dir. Mark Cole Smith
My Uncle Bluey, dir. Britt Arthur
The Daily Grind, dir. David Meadows
The Deep End, dir. Damien Spiccia
The Nappy Tree, dir. Christie Sistrunk
Tinglewood, dir. Alex von Hofman
Victims, dir. Julia Ngeow

7:15 p.m.: “San Francisco’s Doomed”
A retrospective of the films of Danny Plotnick.

9:00 p.m.: The Dead Girl’s Feast, dir. Matheus Nachtergaele. An Amazon village with it’s own saint prepares for an important annual event. If the event fails to run smooth, it could devastate the village’s entire economy.

9:30 p.m.: Winnebago Man, dir. Ben Steinbauer. A documentary about the infamous star of one of the most popular viral videos of all time, the profanity-spewing Winnebago salesman.

July 10
7:00 p.m.: “Music for Silents”
Musician Steven Severin will provide live soundtracks to several silent films.

7:15 p.m.: The Seventh Python, dir. Burt Kearns & Brett Hudson. A documentary about Neil Innes, one of the founding members of Monty Python.

8:45 p.m.: Chevolution, dir. Luis Lopez & Trisha Ziff. A documentary history of the famous photograph of the revolutionary Che Guevara, which has gone on to become a pop icon.

9:00 p.m.: “Revel-8 Super 8 Competition”
One-take, one-reel short films by the students of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

10:30 p.m.: Cigarette Girl, dir. Mike McCarthy. In the year 2035, all smokers are forced to live in a special neighborhood called the Smoking Section. In this world, a cigarette salesgirl tries to quit cold turkey, but the mob won’t let her.

July 11
1:00 p.m.: Sita Sings the Blues, dir. Nina Paley. An animated musical that uses the ancient Hindu text The Ramayana of Valmiki to explore modern notions of love and fidelity.

2:00 p.m.: Adventures of Power, dir. Ari Gold. An air drummer dreams of the day when he’ll finally be recognized for his vast talent. Maybe losing his mining job is just the break he’s been hoping for.

2:45 p.m.: Anywhere USA, dir. Chusy Haney-Jardine. A trio of stories in which a man gets beaten by his wife everyday at 2:00 p.m.; an eight-year-old accidentally eats a pot brownie; and a man eating a steak realizes he doesn’t know any black people.

4:00 p.m.: We Are Wizards, dir. Josh Koury. A look at the phenomenon of “Wizard Rock,” i.e. rock bands who only sing songs about the world of Harry Potter.

5:00 p.m.: Winnebago Man, dir. Ben Steinbauer. A documentary about the infamous star of one of the most popular viral videos of all time, the profanity-spewing Winnebago salesman.

5:30 p.m.: FLicKeR, dir. Nik Sheehan. Examining the invention of Brion Gysin: The Dreamachine, a spinning barrel from which emanates a piercing light. The device allegedly induces altered states without the use of drugs.

7:00 p.m.: NYC Foetus, dir. Clement Tuffreau. A documentary profile of Jim Thirlwell, the Australian expatriate who founded the influential industrial music project, Foetus.

7:00 p.m.: Iseta: Behind the Roadblock, dir. Juan Reina. Cameraman Nick Hughes returns to Rwanda many years after he documented the horrific genocide that occurred in 1994.

7:15 p.m.: Original, dir. Alexander Brondsted and Antonio Tublen. A man who rejects bad loans at the bank for a living gets dumped by his girlfriend and loses his job, which may be the break he needs.

9:00 p.m.: Welcome to North Korea, dir. Linda Jablonska. Following a touring party from the Czech Republic as they travel across North Korea.

9:15 p.m.: Wake in Fright, dir. Ted Kotcheff. This 1971 Australian classic follows the story of a teacher stuck in a rural town with no chance to escape.

10:45 p.m.: Altamont Now, dir. Joshua von Brown. Mark Clark is an investigative journalist who penetrates the underground world of rock revolutionaries who literally live under the ground of the California desert and the site of the notorious ’60s Rolling Stones concert. This is what happens when the youth really stage a revolution. (Read the Bad Lit review!)

July 12
1:00 p.m.: The Matador, dir. Stephen Higgins and Nina Gilden Seavey. A profile of David Fandila, aka El Fandi, a popular young Matador in Spain. The documentary also examines the history of this controversial sport.

1:00 p.m.: Chevolution, dir. Luis Lopez & Trisha Ziff. A documentary history of the famous photograph of the revolutionary Che Guevara, which has gone on to become a pop icon.

2:45 p.m.: Original, dir. Alexander Brondsted and Antonio Tublen. A man who rejects bad loans at the bank for a living gets dumped by his girlfriend and loses his job, which may be the break he needs.

3:00 p.m.: The Dead Girl’s Feast, dir. Matheus Nachtergaele. An Amazon village with it’s own saint prepares for an important annual event. If the event fails to run smooth, it could devastate the village’s entire economy.

5:00 p.m.: The Fall, dir. Tarsem. An injured stuntman spins wild tales for the benefit of a sick little girl.

5:15 p.m.: Good Dick, dir. Marianna Palka. A video store clerk becomes infatuated with a pretty female customer to the point that he relentlessly pursues her affections, despite her being completely disinterested in him.

7:00 p.m.: Xaviera Hollander: The Happy Hooker, dir. Robert Dunlap. A documentary about the infamous call girl.

7:15 p.m.: One Fast Move Or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur, dir. Curt Worden. This documentary examines the California coastal town that so enthralled author Jack Kerouac.

8:30 p.m.: The Possibility of an Island, dir. Michel Houellebecq. Based on the director’s own quasi-science fiction novel, a tale about a man and his future clone trying to find meaning in a Godless world.

9:15 p.m.: Welcome to North Korea, dir. Linda Jablonska. Following a touring party from the Czech Republic as they travel across North Korea.

Read More:

• 2008 Arizona Underground Film Festival: Official Lineup
• 2008 Melbourne Underground Film Festival: Official Lineup
• Rockocalypse To Annhiliate Austin
• 2009 Backseat Film Festival: Official Lineup

Iraqi-born, Chicago-based filmmaker Usama Alshaibi has collected ten of his short films made between 2001 and 2008 for Solar Anus Cinema. This DVD shines a light on the transgressive director’s interest in the female form primarily through a series of highly stylized film portraits of women.

Nine out of the ten films included are short profiles of women that run just a few minutes long. The tenth film, the longer running narrative The Amateurs, I’ll deal with below. But, with the portraits, sometimes the object of them is Alshaibi’s wife, performance artist Kristie Alshaibi, but mostly he has convinced other women to pose, strut or writhe in front of his camera’s leering gaze.

The antecedent to Alshaibi’s transgressive work here is Richard Kern’s 1993 My Nightmare, an autobiographical fiction that has the director fantasizing about getting it on with a sexy nude photography model while in “real” life the model is repulsed by his come ons.

For his own female portraits, Alshaibi rarely inserts himself into the action, but his presence is always strongly felt in each piece. While the women are typically posed alone in a studio, Alshaibi’s moving camera constantly reminds us that his subjects are never by themselves, that they are sharing their space with a director who runs his camera over their bodies, soaking in the whole of them as well as their individual parts. Sometimes it’s by an aggressive camera that races and moves in, out and around its nude or barely-clad subject, other times it’s a static camera locked on a tripod that still achieves the same effect through cutting between close-ups, medium shots and full body shots.

Also, whereas Kern explored his physical fantasies in My Nightmare, Alshaibi’s own realized fantasies are purely what we get: Visual. Alshaibi seems genuinely fascinated just by the mere bodily existence of these women. With the exception of his own wife, the women are purely objectified. They are objects to be viewed and admired and there is no tension that Alshaibi wants to touch any of them. His camera’s piercing gaze is all the penetration he needs.

Alshaibi does transform his gaze into physicality with each portrait’s oblique and direct references to violence. Yet, this violence, although outwardly reflected on the women’s bodies, are acts of self-flagellation. Alshaibi is punishing his own guilty consciousness over his voyeurism by transforming the women from sexually seductive beings into physical forms made up of flesh and blood. Alshaibi reminds himself, and the viewer, that the women are not objects, but subjects.

Before running through the film portraits individually below, I’d like to discuss the centerpiece of the collection that concludes the disc, The Amateurs. Alshaibi explores these same ideas in a longer narrative that casts himself as an amateur pornographer with unruly subjects. The “violence” here though is on an emotional, psychological level as the aspiring porn actors try to negotiate their way through their scenes.

Alshaibi’s alter ego in The Amateurs is much more aggressive than what we believe the real Ashaibi, the one who directs the film portraits, to be. For the most part, he keeps himself removed from the on-screen “action.” He remains mostly behind the camera cajoling his two male cohorts to do terrible things to the women who have arrived for the shoot. The film is a comedy with the humor arising both from Alshaibi’s ridiculously bold requests and the males’ reluctance to do what he asks even when the women seem agreeable, sometimes too agreeable.

It’s an interesting turning of the tables on the sexes. The men are humiliated when they act sensitive towards the women. Both the female subjects and Alshaibi the director directly insult and humiliate them. But when push comes to shove and Alshaibi is forced to take the reigns, even he is unable to consummate the acts he desires to watch.

While much of The Amateurs is extremely funny, two scenes are unbearably tense. The first comes from knowing a little bit about Alshaibi outside of the Solar Anus Cinema disc. It’s not identified beforehand, but one of the women in the film is Alshaibi’s real-life wife, Kristie. The closest to sexual touching — and I want to point out I’m not referring to anything explicit here — comes when Alshaibi touches Kristie in ways to show the men what he wants done to her. During these scenes one starts to wonder how far Alshaibi is going to go with this charade.

The film then concludes with it’s most tense situation yet. The Amateurs, although knowing it’s fiction, has a very strong, realistic documentary feel to it and by doing things like casting his real wife, one starts to wonder how much fiction and documentary are influencing each other. The final scenario involves a girl who doesn’t speak English and her drunk, unconscious boyfriend. The violence is ratcheted up to an almost unbearable level when one just doesn’t know how much is acting and how much is real. Does the actress speak English or no? Is that guy really drunk or is he exceptionally convincing? Setting up these tense sequences is when Alshaibi shows off his greatest skill as a transgressive filmmaker.

As for the short films preceding The Amateurs, here’s the specific rundown:

Traumata. Sarah Lynn stands before us fully exposed in front of a white wall. Her body is covered with evidence of domestic abuse. Black eyes. Bruises. Bandages. Her right leg in a cast. A wrist cast comes and goes. The bruises seem more abundant in some shots than others. Meanwhile, Alshaibi races in and around her body focusing on these wounds while a pounding punk rock score by Custom Car Commandos pounds away at a happy, frenetic pace. The camerawork turns her bruises into entertainment, but Sarah Lynn’s sad, humiliated expression reminds us of the emotional pain that scars deeper than the physical wounds.

Organ Molly. The film begins with Molly mostly clothed. As she vamps it up and rolls around on a bare mattress, the camera races around her body at a jittery, sped-up frenetic pace. Her clothes are quickly removed in stages and she taunts the viewer, reminding us that we can only look at her as she looks at her own body through the viewfinder of a still camera. Eventually, she presses her face against a plate of glass and chews on her necklace until her mouth bleeds. Blood and saliva mix and are rubbed all over her lips and face, making herself look like the victim of abuse. Alshaibi does pop up briefly near the very end where we see him holding his camera high up over Molly’s prostate form. We are reminded that he is the voyeur as much as we have been.

Self-Contained. A completely nude Kristie lies on the ground wrapped up tight in plastic wrap like a mummy. The camera pushes in and out on her predicament. However, the tables turn for a brief shot of a freed Kristie wrapping the camera lens in plastic as if to taunt the viewer: “What would you do if you could wrap a girl in plastic?” She’s soon back on the floor, wrapped up again, but with her sex parts fully exposed. Not only does the camera find these parts, but she pushes them into our face, putting them out there. She knows what we would do.

Slaughtered Pigtails. The best title of all the films. Like a clip from a horror movie, a pigtailed Kristie runs for her life through a field while the camera races right behind her. The cameraman’s hand reaches out to pull her pigtail. Her panicked gasping lets us know she fears for her life. And like in any horror movie, she falls to the ground and the cameraman is on her, frantically tearing at her clothes. A clear plastic bag goes over her face. And she cries. Her faceless assailant comforts her. But is this a scene performed by actors? Or is this Kristie fearing a scene directed by her husband has gone too far? Who is comforting her? The cameraman “character”? Or the real Alshaibi? This is the kind of film if you found it on your own and didn’t know who Kristie was, you’d think all of it was 100% authentic and not made by a loving husband and wife.

Convulsion Expulsion. Kristie stars as a being from another dimension — one covered in white pancake powder and bandages — who convulses and explodes from entering our world. And by “exploding” I mean blood shoots out of every orifice. This is an otherworldly film, but one has to really marvel at the sheer technical mastery of Kristie expunging fluid out of certain places they shouldn’t be spewing out of.

Runaway. A woman gyrates while multi-colored spotlights roam over her body along with the camera. There are also some superimpositions that give the film a ’60s psychedelic feel. This is the only film on the disc that doesn’t have an undercurrent of violence running through it.

Gash. A nude woman leans against a wall and plays peek-a-boo with the camera and a large open wound a few centimeters away from her vagina. The colors of the film are extreme. She subject is mostly bathed in a muted orange, plus with the rapid camera rushing in and out it’s hard to tell if the wound is real or overly convincing make-up. Mostly the camera hovers below around her crotch, but sometimes it pans up to her seductive face, which silently asks, “Don’t you want to touch it?”

Patient. The only B&W film in the collection, a woman writhes around on a plush leather loveseat. She is completely nude except for torn black stockings and a bandage wrapped around her head. She is smiling and having a good time, but the bandages hide some type of wound that peeks out around the edges. She appears to be happy that the viewer can still look at her as a sexual being despite whatever deformity is happening with her face. There is a short burst of color at the end of the film, switching to a disconnected orange sky.

Spoiled. This is the one film in the collection that I personally can’t watch, but I have a thing about food. The film stars a woman kneeling on the ground munching on gummy worms that spill out from between her teeth and lips. That’s when I get grossed out and have to tune out. I should watch for full reviewer’s fairness sake, but looking at chewed food is beyond something I can get over. So, my apologies.

Buy Solar Anus Cinema at Amazon!

Learn more about Usama Alshaibi at his official site.

Watch the trailer:

Read More:

• Bad Lit: Underground Film Quote Whore, Part II
• Usama Alshaibi: Art Kills
• First Look: Profane
• Filmmakers Post Videos, Too

Hosted by: Midsummer Night’s Scream II

Every Other Day Is Halloween is director C.W. Prather’s documentary about Count Gore De Vol, the beloved Washington, D.C. TV horror movie host. Portrayed by Dick Dyszel, De Vol was a major cult celebrity in the nation’s capital during the ’70s who fell victim to ’80s media consolidation. After being tossed off the air, De Vol turned to the Internet where he has led a renaissance of horror movie hosting. Also, the “Other” of the title refers to other characters Dyszel portrayed on TV, including Bozo the Clown and the sci-fi themed kids show host Captain 20.

You can read Bad Lit’s review of Every Other Day Is Halloween here. It’s a fantastic and inspiring documentary.

The screening will feature director Prather and Count Gore De Vol in person. The post-screening Q&A will be moderated by D.C.’s own documentary filmmaking legend Jeff Krulik.

C.W. Prather is also the founder and director of Washington D.C.’s Spooky Movie Film Festival.

For more info, please visit the AFI website.

Read More:

• Every Other Day Is Halloween
• Bad Lit: Underground Film Quote Whore
• Festival Of Horrors: Volume One
• Say Goodbye To George!

This is an important milestone. The San Antonio Film Festival is celebrating its 15th year on June 25-28! Special congrats to fest head honcho Adam Rocha for staying in the game for so long, putting out one great edition after another for fifteen years. This years SAFF runs June 25-28, so go attend and celebrate.

The festival, which used to have “underground” in it’s name until recently, is a four-day all short film event. Two screens will run concurrently with completly different lineups. While I haven’t officially counted how many films are listed below, just by glancing at the schedule you can see it’s a lot. A LOT.

I’m not personally familiar with any of the directors or films on the list, so I can offer any recommendations. But that’s one of the great things about a fest like this. There’s so much new stuff to discover!

The festival is again screening at the Instituto Cultural de Mexico and this year the fest has chosen Monterrey, Mexico as its Special Guest City. And one other note I personally find interesting: The opening night celebration, a Saturday workshop and the Saturday Awards Ceremony will all be translated by sign language for the deaf. I went to film school at RIT, which had a large deaf community, so seeing SAFF have translators makes me happy.

And now, here’s the lineup. Each day has different screenings that run at the same exact time, so check the SAFF website to see what exactly is playing in which theater:

June 25
2:00 p.m.:
The Twenty, dir. Chopper Bernet
Ride of the Yoga Valkyries, dir. Dan Berman
Repaired?, dir. Seung-Hoo Ihm
Jeff and Freddy, dir. Andrew Martinez
The Miracle, dir. Jeffrey Jon Smith
Shaken, dir. Sylvia Rincon

2:00 p.m.:
Teponazcuicatl, dir. David W. Bailey
Sam’s Rain, dir. Craig Curry
Sketch, dir. Emanuel Bermudez
Lalo, dir. Daniel Maldonado
The Thing Waiting Outside, dir. Valdemar Belmares
Truth, dir. Herbert Midgley
Journey of the Opportunist, dir. Mark Walley and Angela Guerra
Watch the World by 2nd Day, dir. Jesse Schroeder

7:00 p.m.:
Stalk Much, dir. Bill Baykan
Consensus Chalice, dir. Sandy Erickson
La Tangente, dir. Vincent Vesco
Cumbia Callera, dir. René Villarreal

7:00 p.m.:
Grapes on a Vine, dir. Alfred “Skip” Robbins
Junkyard, dir. Michael Skvarla
Mute, dir. Hassan Said
Purge, dir. Brad Kammlah
Silent Shame, dir. Tadeo Garcia

June 26
2:00 p.m.:
The Other Side of Immigration, dir. Roy Germano
Hector Corp., dir. Gary Lee
Hungry God, dir. Sukhada Gokhale-Bhonde
Kids of the Majestic, dir. Dylan Verrechia

2:00 p.m.:
Barstool Cowboy, dir. Mark Thimijan
The Dying Western, dir. Michael Kortlander
Sun Up, dir. Jeremiah Flores
OK, dir. Brett Mauser
Goin’ Nowhere Fast, dir. Shawn Adams

6:00 p.m.:
Trash Day, dir. Sam Lerma
Noor, dir. Razan Ghalayini
American Faust: From Condi to Neo-Condi, dir. Sebastian Doggart
Liminal, dir. Stephen Keep Mills
Death Rattle, dir. A. J. Garces
Flores Para el Soldado, dir. Javier Garza Yáñez

6:00 p.m.:
Curse of the Lechusa, dir. Amza Moglan
Richard Dooling’s Bush Pigs, dir. Christian Champoux & Topler Ahrens
Without Papers, dir. Florencia Krochik
Passing Fancy, dir. Wei-Hsin Yang
No Soliciting, dir. Wes Barlow
The War Boys, dir. Ron Daniels

June 27
2:00 p.m.:
Trust Us, This Is All Made Up, dir. Alex Karpovsky
La Memoria de Amor, dir. Andie C. Flores
Alex Rubio, dir. Sergio Ramos & Emileigh Potter
Desierto Adentro, dir. Rodrigo Plá

2:00 p.m.:
Kings of Appletown, dir. Bobby Moresco
September 17, dir. Wilson Bondesen
This Is Your Life, dir. Cydney Cox
The Art of the Deal, dir. Emilio Mazur
Perpetual, dir. David Kerr
9:20, dir. Jay Dotson
Lucky, dir. Yvonne Hernandez & Robert Castaneda
The Reality Remote, dir. Maggie Richardson
Tour de Gruene, dir. Dylan Maldonado
My Big Family, dir. Donovan Mejia
Karma, dir. Nicolas Garcia
The Hundred, dir. Fidel Ruiz-Healy
The Change ProjectProducer, Russ Ansley
Eye Remember, dir. Richard Hernandez, Yvonne Lopez, Fayzohn Shelby, Severa Wilson, Pedro Cedano, and David Sutcliffe
Busy Signals, dir. James Gottfredson
Accessories to Murder, dir. Carlos Medina & Marissa Vega

6:00 p.m.:
Alison WonderlandDirectors, Toni, Yesenia, & Natalie
The Earth Is Warming, dir. Christine & Chernai
Water Pollution, dir. Nick & Jacob
Beyond the Call, dir. Adrian Belic
Funeral March for a Marionette, dir. Eric Fonseca
Cruzando, dir. Michael Escamilla & Mando Alvarado

6:00 p.m.:
Art from the Streets, dir. Layton Blaylock
Midsummer, dir. Hans Montelius
Twinmates, dir. Patricio Salinas
One Hand Claps the Other, dir. Melinda Rainsberger
El Corrido, dir. Donnie Meals
Automatic, dir. Sharon A. Mooney
The Coffee Shop, dir. Brevig Madison
Left, dir. Froukje Tan

June 28
12:00 p.m.:
In His Blood, dir. Vianna Davila
A Man, His Music and His Legacy, dir. Veronica R. Hernandez & Joe Miraglilo
Under Lock and Key, dir. Jenifer Westrup
Almost Every Day, dir. Gandja Monteiro
The Boys of Ghost Town, dir. Pablo Veliz

12:00 p.m.:
Under the Bridge, dir. Craig Ballin & Scott Rudolf
Bad Timing, dir. Keller Davis
Sinnerman, dir. Kelly Daniela Norris & Travis Pittman
Vitruvius Toybox, dir. Dennis Iannuzzi
Man vs. Opera, dir. Matthew Diekman
Fifth Form, dir. Adam Orman

5:00 p.m.:
Desdemona, dir. Phillip Guzman
Doctor “S” Battles the Sex Crazed Reefer Zombies, dir. Bryan Ortiz
I Luv U Mamas, dir. Ian Tyler Ibarra
Tacoland, dir. Laura Escamilla-Fouratt
Ram, dir. Ian Tyler Ibarra

5:00 p.m.:
One Nothing, dir. Todd Harter
The Optician, dir. Jane McGee
Half Kenneth, dir. Ken Ochiai
Tale 52, dir. Alexis Alexiou

For more info, please visit the official San Antonio Film Festival website.

Read More:

• 2009 San Antonio Film Festival: Award Winners
• 2009 San Antonio Film Festival: Call For Entries — UPDATED
• 2008 San Antonio Film Festival: Official Lineup
• 2008 San Antonio Underground Film Festival: Call For Entries

Who’s the biggest star in Hollywood? No, it’s not some lame brained actor. It’s the city of Los Angeles itself, that’s who! And filmmaker Charles Doran is once again honoring this multi-faceted metropolis with the second annual Los Angeles as a Character short film festival, which will run on Nov. 14.

He’s looking for short films, whether they be experimental, narrative or documentary, that specifically features some aspect of L.A. If you have a film fitting that category that’s under 20 minutes, submit it. And you have no excuse as there’s no entry fee:

Final Deadline:
Oct. 1

I can tell you from personal experience that this is one helluva fun event.  You can read my review of last year’s films here.

The event was held — and will be again — at the awesome Echo Park Film Center and I went last year. For it, Doran curated an amazing lineup of diverse films. I’ve lived in L.A. for seven years now and I love just how big and diverse it can really be, which Doran really captured through his selection. I’m really looking forward to going again this year.

Films can be submitted on DVD, VHS or MiniDV, but selected films can screen in 16mm, Super 8mm, MiniDV or DVD. For the full submission guidelines and entry form, please visit the official Los Angeles as a Character website.

Then, submit, or if you’re not submitting, just go to the event on Nov. 14. It’ll be a blast. Guaranteed.

Read More:

• Los Angeles As A Character: Screening Review
• Los Angeles As A Character: Nov. 15
• Los Angeles As A Character: Call For Entries
• Westsider Strikes Again