Bad Lit

REDCAT: J. Hoberman On Flaming Creatures

screenings — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:00:28 +0000

Nov. 9
8:30 p.m.
REDCAT Theater
631 W. 2nd St.
Los Angeles, CA

Hosted by: REDCAT

Village Voice film critic and film historian J. Hoberman is the world’s foremost authority on the 1963 underground film classic Flaming Creatures, directed by Jack Smith. Preceding a screening of the film, Hoberman will discuss the film’s creative origins and the charges of obscenity it faced after being screened.

Smith described Flaming Creatures as a “comedy set in a haunted movie studio” and features a cast of transvestites and artistic types vamping it up in front of the camera until an earthquake breaks up the good time. The film also does have brief male nudity and the suggestion of rape, which got it labeled as pornography. After one fateful screening, both Jonas Mekas and Ken Jacobs were arrested and eventually convicted of projecting pornographic material.

Despite the arrest, Mekas continued to promote the film, which created a deep rift between himself and Smith. Feeling like he was being exploited, Smith refused to finish another film for the rest of his life, although he would screen footage he shot during live performance pieces he put on in his Manhattan loft space. Smith died on Sept. 25, 1989 from AIDS-related pneumonia.

Although Smith entrusted his creative legacy to fellow artist Penny Arcade, a dispute with Smith’s only living relative — a sister he rarely had any contact with — has prevented any of his films from being properly released.

Hoberman has been a fierce supporter of Smith’s throughout his entire career, particularly championing the place Flaming Creatures has as the single most important and influential underground film ever made. In 2001, Hoberman published a monograph on the film entitled On Jack Smith’s Flaming Creatures (And Other Secret-Flix of Cinemaroc).

This event is curated by Steve Anker.

For more info on this event, please visit the official REDCAT website.

Lunchfilm At AFI Fest 2009

Mike Everleth — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:00:12 +0000

“That’s the problem with calling something ‘Lunchfilm.’ You always get an afternoon slot.”

That was Lunchfilm curator Mike Plante quipping before his 1:00 p.m. screening on Nov. 2 at the 2009 AFI Film Festival in Hollywood. Hell, I’m a matinee kind of guy so I happened to be thrilled, even with having already seen half of the program back in May of this year. There were promises of some new short films and extended versions of old ones, but some of the repeats are just too good to pass up when they’re re-screened.

Here’s the quick rundown for the uninitiated: Mike Plante — journalist, festival programmer — buys lunch for a filmmaker, who then promises to make a film for Mike for the same amount as the lunch. This works out excellently for two reasons. One: Filmmakers always need money and inspiration. Two: Mike knows a helluva lot of supremely talented filmmakers. The results are a fascinatingly eclectic bunch.

There are fictional narratives, documentaries, experimental films, unique hybrids and some just really oddball art pieces. At this particular event, 13 films from the Lunchfilm collection — I think Mike has said there’s around 50 total — were screened. No lineup was printed in the AFI guide, nor were any filmmaker names mentioned beforehand. (I only knew about some of the new ones through insider information.) And I think that’s the way it should be. Just a total blast of the unknown for 90 minutes, jumping from one style to the next, never knowing what you’re going to be either assaulted or soothed by.

As I said above, I already saw a good portion of the films at a previous screening.

But here were the 13 courses we were served this time out:

1. We began with Nick McCarthy’s Chinese Box, a fictional narrative that I enjoyed the first time around, but this time I was thoroughly blown away by just how loudly the subtle nuances speak here. This is a two-character piece and from the instant we lay eyes on these two, we get the picture: A perpetually down-on-his-luck kind of guy is hoping to hook back up with the girl who got away. If he can’t get that, he’ll settle for some cash. And there’s no way in hell he’s going to get her again. Fantastic script, great acting, and one totally bizarre story.

2. Jean, directed by Kelly Sears, uses text appropriated from somewhere and photos to recount the suicide of French actress Jean Seberg. But beneath the floating words and pictures are old religious drawings that call to mind Sebring’s first film role: Joan of Arc in Otto Preminger’s Saint Joan. Really smart and pretty and dreamy how Sears ties it all together.

3. The Call is a split documentary between David Fenster and David Nordstrom. This was one of my favorites from my first Lunchfilm screening and my admiration is not diminished the second time around. Somehow, a rancher’s whole life is summed up in making sourdough biscuits, a tiny graveyard is found buried in a stone wall and an odd dream is recalled that makes a man start to believe in the supernatural. It all joins together for an otherworldly experience, with the biscuit-making being grounded in the ultra-real and the others from some other realm.

4. Goldthwait Home Movies is Bobcat Goldthwait’s hilarious fake commentary on his real, old home movies with comedians Tom Kenney and Jill Talley pretending to be his siblings. The jokes are just as good the second time around.

5. Clear Glasses by documentarian Sam Green is also just as wildly entertaining the second time around. The film documents the importance of an obscure object of history, Weather Underground member Mark Rudd’s fake glasses. The story of the glasses is related via voiceover from Sam and Mark, with a really cool visual effect of old nighttime news footage unspooling as a series of photocopies. The effects were done by Eric Escobar of kontent films. I made sure to note his name during the end credits to give him a shout-out this time.

6. Filmmaker and photographer Sarah Soquel Morhaim goes boy crazy for her short All Day All Night. A woman puts on a sleep mask while faceless men pose, dress and undress for the camera while old movie music and dialogue plays on the soundtrack. I also like the static shots of empty beds and bedroom furniture that imply that the woman is trying to remember all the places she’s made love to these faceless guys. Or, thinking about the places she wants to. You can actually watch this one on Sarah’s website.

7. Letters Real, Names Not by Azazel Jacobs makes one wonder if the title is a put on or not. A mother corresponds via email with a rock star who wants to date her daughter. The rock star responds that he only has honorable intentions when he wants to fly said daughter to some event with him. The rock star assures mom that he can bag any chick he wants, so he wouldn’t go through all this rigamarole just to sleep with her daughter. He just really likes this girl. Mom confesses she once dated Bill Wyman, but couldn’t see herself eventually becoming “that” kind of wife. Will mom let daughter go? A very nice, fun back-and-forth between mom and rock star is casually entertaining while also really keeping the suspense up through the whole film.

8. Friends, directed by James Graham. What would it be like to be your friend? Would it be awesome, like winning the lottery? Or would it totally suck? Actually, the funniest part about this film is the way its sole actor addresses the camera directly. So, it’s not really what would it be like to be friends with somebody else, it’s what it’s like to be friends with you, the viewer. After watching this, I felt like a really bad person. But, I feel like that most days anyway.

9. Weird Carolers is a typically sad, creepy stop-motion animated film from Brent Green. “Typically” for Green actually means the film is extraordinary. The film tells the story of the composer Beethoven as narrated by Green in his nervous, shaky voice. The figures in Green’s films always look like they’re immobilized in a state of decay. Beethoven is no exception as he thrashes about his apartment, breaking the furniture and mirrors hanging on the wall to feel the vibrations when they smash so that he can recreate that feeling in music. Of course, all the smashy-smashy drives his downstairs neighbor, a single woman, completely insane. The lesson: To make great art, one must first create terror.

10. Home Movie by Braden King is just as emotionally devastating the second time around. It appears to be a fictional film about a woman trying to explain divorce to her two young boys. But there are moments when the children, who are clearly not actors, break the fourth wall and spot “daddy,” who’s allegedly absent holding the camera filming the entire tableaux. Very real and claustrophobic film.

11. Like the first time I saw it, Tin Woodman’s Home Movie #2 is probably my favorite film of the bunch. Co-directed by Lee Lynch and Naomi Uman, a man dressed as the Wizard of Oz character stands in a field of flowers that look like Oz’s poppy field while passers-by stop and have their picture taken with him — and the Tin Wood-dog. The action is slowed-down considerably while the similarly slowed-down refrain of “If I Only Had a Heart” grinds away on the soundtrack. One eerie, haunting, mesmerizing film.

12. Randy Walker sent Mike a longer version of Whiskeypriest than I had seen at the previous Lunchfilm screening. The additions make for a more successful, more memorable film, even though it was pretty entertaining at the shorter length. However, now, a more laconic pace acts to heighten the intense parts. The most intense being a mellow middle-aged dude going on a blind date with a hyper-aggressive real estate agent. Roxy will only go on the date in the white stretch limo she bought off of eBay and her idea of a good time is showing off all of her different smiles. There’s also a tale about a blues singer practicing and trying to find gigs; and another one about two latchkey tween girls trying to amuse themselves. And the film does feel like Walker could keep adding material to the film to lengthen it out into a feature, which I would totally dig seeing someday.

13. And, lastly, Tom Brandt’s Offshore Bank is an absurdist comedy featuring film financing frauds, sting operations and insulting cologne ads. It’s a bizarro cocktail, but Brandt shakes it all up into one freaky, tripped-out experience. And those eyes. Those eyes! (See above.)

Visit the official Lunchfilm site for more info on the project.

L.A. Filmforum: Film About A Woman Who…

screenings — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:00:46 +0000

Oct. 8
7:30 p.m.
Egyptian Theater
6712 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA

Hosted by: L.A. Filmforum

For the second screening in the L.A. Filmforum’s season-long retrospective of the work of Yvonne Rainer, they will be screening her most famous and popular film, the 1974 feature Film About a Woman Who… The description of the film from the Filmforum site reads:

Rainer’s landmark film is a meditation on ambivalence that plays with cliché and the conventions of soap opera while telling the story of a woman whose sexual dissatisfaction masks an enormous anger.

NOTE: Rainer will NOT be in attendance at this screening.

Robbed! Aurora Picture Show Needs Help

Mike Everleth — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:00:55 +0000

On Monday, Oct. 26, Houston, TX’s Aurora Picture Show had its microcinema broken into and several pieces of valuable equipment were stolen. The organization has put up a Wish List of replacement items and are looking for donors for the specific pieces or asking for people to make just cash donations or to sign up for new memberships.

For those who don’t know, Aurora is a nonprofit cinema dedicated to screening non-commercial films at both its own microcinema and at other locations around Houston. On Bad Lit, I’ve recently started listing some of these screenings with notices going up a couple days before each one. Aurora also has an 800 title non-circulating video library that visitors can watch for free on the premises.

Also, Aurora has its own DVD label. Most recently, they put out the amazing Cinemad: Almanac 2009 short film compilation curated by Mike Plante. Other titles they’ve put out are: The Best of SLANT: Volume One; Lost Broadcasts: Video Works by Eileen Maxson; and A Film Is a Burning Place: Works by Enid Baxter Blader. DVDs can be purchased directly from their website.

As you can tell, they’re a fantastic organization and this is a lowdown, crappy thing to have done to them. Although I’ve been trying to keep up with their screenings lately, I totally missed the news of this event when it happened. But, I’m trying to get the word out there now. So, please, help ‘em out if you can.

Aurora Picture Show: Wide Awake

screenings — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:00:51 +0000

Nov. 7
7:00 p.m.
Frenetic Theater
5102 Navigation
Houston, TX

Hosted by: Aurora Picture Show

Wide Awake is filmmaker Alan Berliner’s examination of his own problems with insomnia and with a wider culture that praises the positive effects of getting a good night’s sleep. The film combines personal documentary footage, archival found footage, interviews with sleep specialists, a visit to a sleep sleep lab, dream visualizations and other cinematic techniques that takes viewers on an insightful journey into one man’s restless mind.

Berliner will appear in person at this screening. Also, the next day on Nov. 8 at 1:00 p.m., Berliner will hold a workshop and lecture on personal documentary filmmaking. This event will take place at the Aurora Video Library, 1524 Sul Ross, Houston, TX.

Watch a trailer for Wide Awake:

2010 Revelation Perth International Film Festival: Call For Entries

Mike Everleth — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:00:57 +0000

The 13th annual Revelation Perth International Film Festival is already revving up for its run on July 8-18, 2010 in Perth, Australia. The fest is so excited to be celebrating the big one-three that they’ve gone ahead and created the above celebratory video featuring highlights from past films. Can you name some of the films excerpted? Hey, I found an Altamont Now blip, so I’m thrilled.

So, there’s only one deadline to make note of if you want to submit a film and it’s a ways off, but remember it and submit somethin’ if you got it. Revelation is one damn cool festival. Anyway, here’s the deadline:

Final Deadline:
April 9
$38 (Australian)
(approx. $34 U.S.)

But, you may be asking, what kinds of films are they looking for exactly. I’ve listed the lineups for the previous two festivals (2008, 2009), so check those out to get an idea. Although, I can say they screen a pretty eclectic bunch of films. They have cool underground film retrospectives, international cult movies, horror, documentary, whatever. Here’s a bit of what they say themselves:

The event seeks to showcase the progressive, individual and signature driven work from the international film community across all genres, formats and durations. We love first time filmmakers… we love dead filmmakers… we love experimental filmmakers, in fact we love all filmmakers so don’t be afraid to submit. Rev is organised by filmmakers and film lovers so we welcome the lowest of the low-fi to well resourced features, documentaries, experimental works and animations. Our primary criteria is spirit.

Bottom line: They screen interesting stuff. If you feel like your film fits that category, please visit the Revelation Perth official website for more submission info and forms.

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo

Mike Everleth — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:00:44 +0000

(This film was screened at the 2009 AFI Film Festival in Los Angeles on Oct. 31.)

What if the lowly beetle were to miraculously gain the ability of comprehension and began to fully understand the Japanese culture’s obsession with its tiny black form? Would the beetle be flattered? Baffled? Or would it feel the sting of oppression and exploitation?

According to Jennifer Oreck’s stunningly beautiful documentary Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo, the Japanese are absolutely mad about insects and, in particular, the beetle. Beetles are everywhere. They are sold in pet shops the way hamsters are sold in the U.S. And when one is done admiring live beetles bought at the pet shop, one can play a video game and catch digital ones.

There are beetle conventions in Japan that look like American comic book conventions, but instead of pawing through cardboard boxes stuffed with old comics, attendees can pick out live beetles out of mountains of clear plastic containers. And, instead of fawning over aging movie and TV stars from the ’80s and ’90s, one can meet a unique kind of Japanese superstar: Men who star in DVDs about beetle hunting in the forest.

Beetles are huge business, too. Not only are there beetles to buy, but special beetle food to eat, grass to burrow into and various aquarium-style knickknacks to adorn their cages. And, once one’s beetle kicks the bucket, one can buy a special shadow box and pins and cellophane to display the corpse in. The beetle inspires such a huge business, one young man is seen proudly driving a Ferrari, which he bought from money earned selling beetles. The man drives his Ferrari out into the woods so he can kick trees and snatch up new, dazed and confused beetles to sell.

Oreck shows all of this in equal measures of history lesson, science lesson and through sheer artistry. The cinematography by Sean Price Williams is exquisite, capturing the diminutive beetle and blowing it up to gargantuan proportions so we can study its every detail — not easy given how slickly black the beetle’s outer armor is. We can partially grow to understand Japan’s obsession just by admiring how unique and unusual a creature it really is.

At the same time, human subjects are also placed under the camera’s microscopic lens as if to form a connection between admirer and source of admiration. Most of the people we see in detail in the film are children, particularly one young boy who is as crazy for beetles as other boys might be crazy about power rangers or ninja turtles. He’s so in love with beetles he looks like he’s about to burst in every scene he’s in. It’s an enthusiasm that’s infectious that carries throughout the film.

The film also alternates between verité scenes of the modern day love affair with beetles with narrated segments detailing the origins of that affair back through the centuries. There are many tales about emperors and other noblemen demanding poems to be written about beautiful insects they’ve crossed paths with. Despite the particular attention heaped on the beetle, the Japanese insect craze also extends to crickets, lightning bugs, cicadas and others. One modern man keeps a house full of chirping crickets that is music to his ears, but may drive most sane men mad.

All of this, including the narration, is in Japanese. It’s difficult to explain an entire culture, but Oreck does a masterful job of immersing us into the science, history and philosophy of Japan. Oreck is especially deft in how she ties together several Japanese traditions that Westerners may already be familiar with to explain why they’re so fascinated by what we might consider creepy-crawlies. The tradition of the haiku, the religious beliefs in Buddhism and Shintoism all tie into the concept of “mono no aware,” which is the ability to see the beauty in the transient.

Also, as Tokyo grows ever higher up into the sky and wider out into the earth, keeping beetles is but one way urban dwellers can stay connected to the nature they can’t otherwise see. On the one hand, beetles look like little alien entities. And on the other, they really are completely alien to the inner city of Tokyo. There are many shots of crowded, busy Tokyo streets. Grey buildings wrapped in neon seem to stretch into the landscape into forever. People and cars bustling everywhere. But, in the homes, there are beetles to be admired, adored and loved — a brief, natural respite from the man-made, manufactured chaos outside.

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

Watch the trailer:

Anthology Film Archives: New Films By Mike Kuchar

screenings — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:00:03 +0000

Nov. 5
7:30 & 9:30 p.m.
Anthology Film Archives
2nd Ave at 2nd St.
NYC, NY

Hosted by: Anthology Film Archives

Mike Kuchar has been making underground films since the mid-’50s and he’s still hard at work crafting irreverent masterpieces. Tonight, he presents two programs of recent films made between 2007 and 2009. The 7:30 p.m. show and the 9:30 p.m. show are two completely different lineups of shows. Each program runs about 90 minutes. Mike Kuchar will also appear in person at both screenings.

Here’s the full lineup for both programs:

7:30 p.m.:
The Faery Garden (2007, 15 minutes, video)
Ephemeral Seizure (2009, 20 minutes, video)
Identified Objects (2008, 5 minutes, video)
A Dream of Roses (2008, 15 minutes, video)
The Vernal Zone (2009, 15 minutes, video)
Witchery (2008, 15 minutes, video)

9:30 p.m.:
Song of the Seven Senses (2007, 20 minutes, video)
Peek-a-Boo (2007, 10 minutes, video)
Tarnished Utopia (2008, 20 minutes, video)
Obsessive (2009, 10 minutes, video)
Cinefest (2009, 10 minutes, video)
The Tiger (2009, 10 minutes, video)

Kickstarting The Battle Of Brooklyn

Mike Everleth — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:00:16 +0000

Battle of Brooklyn is a documentary that’s been in production for six years now that chronicles the fight to prevent the controversial Atlantic Yards project from demolishing several Brooklyn neighborhoods. The film is being produced by Rumur Releasing, the multimedia studio run by Michael Galinsky, Suki Hawley and David Bellinson.

However, as the film nears completion, it is looking to raise $25,000 before Dec. 1 through the fundraising site Kickstarter. Rumur hopes to fund the rest of the film by pre-selling DVDs of the documentary. If you go to the Battle of Brooklyn page on Kickstarter, you’ll find different donation levels that will earn you a copy of the film and other swag.

As production on the film comes to an end, the Atlantic Yards project is also nearing a critical juncture. The film focuses mostly on the story of Daniel Goldstein, a young husband and father, who refuses to sell his home to the developer and is now being threatened by an eminent domain seizure by the State of New York. Daniel continues his fight and, according to the Battle for Brooklyn page on Kickstarter, if the developer doesn’t get their shovels in the ground by Dec. 31, then it’s most likely that the project will not be built.

If you’re interested, you can also have input in the editing and production of the film. Between now and Dec. 1, Rumur will be posting a video clip from the film that you can comment and give suggestions on. Several months ago, I was lucky enough to watch a rough edit from a portion of the film and it looks to be an exciting and engaging documentary that does address both sides of the issue. Is a development like Atlantic Yards beneficial to the city and its residents? Or does it come at too high a cost of displacing families and changing the landscape of a neighborhood?

I’ve also received and reviewed several of Rumur’s previous documentary offerings, such as Horns and Halos and Occupation: Dreamland. So, I am a fan of theirs, which is why I’m posting about their plea here. I also don’t know too much about Kickstarter, but I’ve been hearing about it quite a lot lately as more filmmakers and film festivals are using the site to raise money.

So, if you want to help out some great filmmakers and/or get involved in the process, please visit the Battle of Brooklyn page on Kickstarter.

Double Negative Collective: Alchemical Illumination

screenings — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:05:26 +0000

Nov. 5
7:30 p.m.
Club SAW
67 Nicholas St
Ottawa, ON K1N 7B9

Hosted by: Double Negative Collective

The Montreal-based filmmaking collective Double Negative presents a night of fourteen short films that challenge the “current stagnation of film the 21st Century.” The full lineup of films screening is below and includes Bad Lit favorites Ghosts and Gravel Roads by Mike Rollo and Karl Lemieux’s Western Sunburn. Members of Double Negative who will be present at the screening are: Mike Rollo, Amber Goodwyn, Daichi Saito and Malena Szlam.

Founded in 2003, Double Negative is made up of twelve filmmakers who are working to more broadly disseminate the experimental film experience and help open up a dialogue about the future of filmmaking among the independent film community.

Here’s the list of films screening for this program:

All That Rises, dir. Daichi Saito
Parallax, dir. Christopher Becks
Paper Nautilus, dir. Amber Goodwyn
Fracas, dir. Eduardo Menz
Untitled, dir. Lucia Fezzuoglio
The Nervous Loops, dir. Julien Idrac
Artifacts, dir. Steven Ladouceur
Chronogram of Inexistent Time (Single Channel Version), dir. Malena Szlam
Western Sunburn, dir. Karl Lemieux (Read the Bad Lit review.)
Lola, dir. Mike Rollo
Though She Never Spoke, This Is Where Her Voice Would Have Been, dir. Lindsay McIntyre
Pan of the Landscape, dir. Christopher Becks
Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis, dir. Daichi Saito
Ghosts and Gravel Roads, dir. Mike Rollo (Read the Bad Lit review.)

Bad Lit

REDCAT: J. Hoberman On Flaming Creatures

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Lunchfilm At AFI Fest 2009

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L.A. Filmforum: Film About A Woman Who…

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Robbed! Aurora Picture Show Needs Help

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Aurora Picture Show: Wide Awake

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2010 Revelation Perth International Film Festival: Call For Entries

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Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo

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Anthology Film Archives: New Films By Mike Kuchar

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Kickstarting The Battle Of Brooklyn

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Double Negative Collective: Alchemical Illumination

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