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ENEMIES OF THE STATE
Sitting here editing the latest issue of Filmmaker, I came across this interview segment from Andy Bichelbauer, the "Yes Man" featured in Chris Smith's outrageously entertaining political doc The Yes Men forthcoming this fall from United Artists.
The Yes Men are a group of political performance-art provocateurs who infiltrate government and NGO-type events and pose as World Trade Organization officials. But lately the group has been having problems dealing with the implications of the Patriot Act, which broadly construes a variety of behaviors as potentially terrorist acts. Within the art world, the first casualty is that of Steve Kurtz, a Buffalo art professor and member of the Critical Art Ensemble. In a truly disturbing case, after his wife died of a cardiac arrest in her sleep, Kurtz found himself in jail when the police officers who arrived at his home found supposed "bio-terrorism equipment" -- the Petri dishes and lab cultures Kurtz was using for a new art piece dealing with genetically modified foodstuffs.
Currently, Kurtz's students are being subpoenaed and the case will be presented before a grand jury at the end of June. Follow the link in Bichelbauer's quote for more info.
"Filmmaker: Andy, are you concerned that given the rising of the Yes Men it will be more difficult for you to infiltrate these organizations? Or are they just as defenseless as they've always been?
Bichlbaum: Right now we're so busy trying to deal with this FBI USA Patriot Act situation that I don't know what I think about anything else. We've found ourselves conscripted by the current situation described at length at www.rtmark.com. Basically, the FBI has decided to target this artist [Steve Kurtz]. He's going up before a grand jury in Buffalo on June 15 and he's a close friend.
Filmmaker: What can people do to support him?
Bichlbaum: Financial donations: The CAE Defense Fund has so far received over 200 donations in amounts ranging from $5 to $400. This is a wonderful outpouring of sympathy, but a drop in the bucket compared to the potential costs of the case. To make a donation, please visit The CAE Defense Fund. Letters or petitions of support from biologists, artists, and others, especially those in positions of responsibility at prominent institutions or companies, could be very useful. See www.caedefensefund.org for a sample of legal offers and letters of support. If you are a lawyer, offers of pro bono support or offers to write amicus briefs would be very helpful."
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/19/2004 04:35:09 PM Comments (1)
FREDERIQUE WOULD LIKE TO BE OF HOLLYWOOD
In our effort to present to you, our dear readers, with links and contacts you won't find elsewhere, I present the following sincere e-mail received by a reader of this blog, who has crafted a Flash animation site promoting both herself and Keanu Reeves and The Matrix:
"Hello, first congratulations for your website :-)
I present myself: I am a 36 year old young woman, impassioned by the cinema, Internet and Flashmx.
I invite you, by the present one, to come to visit my 4 galleries of
animated photographs, dedicated to the Matrix trilogy and Mister Keanu
Reeves, on the homepage of my website to the following address:
"http://www.frederique.ch"
Of course, my dream would be to work exclusively for the cinema and the
television, but that depends on the success of my work.
I thank you for making us dream and travel with the 7th art and the medias.
I will be grateful to you to give me your opinion and I thank you in
advance.
Please have my best greetings."
Those who would like to contact Frederique will find a contact e-mail on her site.
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/18/2004 12:44:05 AM Comments (0)
NEGATIVLAND'S VAULT CRACKED, JESUS ESCAPES
This weekend's Allied Media Conference will feature a keynote speech entitled "Adventures in Illegal Art" by Mark Hosler of Negativland, the recording group famous for testing the limits of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The conference will also feature the premiere of Negativland's mash-up of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ -- which, in a fittingly ironic gesture, was recently stolen by hackers from Negativland's mainframe computer.
According to the Negativland site, The Mashin' of the Christ "was created using a combination of decrypted footage ripped from DVDs rented from Netflix and Blockbuster, 'found' 16mm film footage, original CGI, films obtained from peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, the 'found' vocals of the Rev. Estus W. Pirkle, and original music composed and played by Negativland."
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 6/17/2004 10:51:06 AM Comments (0)
ASIAN HORROR INVASION
According to recent posts on the Fangoria Web site: MTV.com is offering a pair of on-line counterparts to fright film news segments that aired recently on MTV, MTV2 and MTVU. "The first piece, titled Hollywood Horror: Made (Originally) in Japan, looks at the Asian horror remake craze, focusing on The Grudge, The Ring and Dark Water. The segment (produced and written by Vanessa White Wolf with Robert Mancini) featured interviews with Grudge star Sarah Michelle Gellar, Rob Zombie, Ringu director Hideo Nakata (currently helming the U.S. sequel The Ring 2), redux producer Roy Lee and Fangoria editor Tony Timpone. 'It's all about Hollywood's new love of Asian horror,' says Mancini.
" 'Our second story explores the social context of horror,' says Mancini, 'looking at the theory that bad news is good news for horror films.' Dubbed It's Alive! Horror is Reborn (Again) and written and directed by Mancini, the segment boasted interviews with directors Wes Craven and George Romero, plus Zombie and Timpone once more."
In other horror-film-related news: Media Blasters has acquired two new movies from celluloid terrorist Takashi Miike for U.S. release: the violent (of course) Yakuza thriller Deadly Outlaw Rekka and his stunning Ringu-style horror yarn One Missed Call. The former, a 2002 tale of warring gangsters, stars Miike veterans Riki (Dead or Alive trilogy) Takeuchi, Ryosuke (Graveyard of Honor) Miki and Kenichi (Happiness of the Katakuris) Endo, with a cameo by Asian action legend Sonny (Kill Bill) Chiba.
Media Blasters is currently mulling over theatrical exposure for both titles, having scored earlier with Ichi the Killer. Meanwhile, both Deadly Outlaw Rekka and One Missed Call will screen at Montreal's Fantasia film festival, running July 8 to August 1.
Takashi Miike's surreal Lynchian/Cronenberg-like Yakuza/horror film odyssey Gozu will open theatrically via Pathfinder Pictures on July 16 at New York's Cinema Village, August 13 at the Landmark Kendall Square in Boston, August 28 at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, TX, September 10 at the Landmark E. Street Cinema in Washington, D.C. and September 24 at the Landmark Varsity in Seattle. More summer dates will be announced soon. # posted by Steve Gallagher @ 6/16/2004 12:54:02 PM Comments (0)
While writing the blogs below, I've been listening to the new CD remaster of Brian Eno's great Here Come the Warm Jets, which was recently released along with three other Eno classics from the '70s. Todd Haynes referenced this album in his Velvet Goldmine, and, if anything, it sounds more inventive and emotionally connecting after all these years.
All four albums are thoughtfully reviewed at Pitchfork Media, and tracks from two of them -- Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) and Before and After Science, along with a couple of other Eno albums, provide most of the soundtrack to Olivier Assayas's new film Clean. Here, from Enoweb, the Brian Eno website, is a posting from a viewer, N. Onnymous, who saw the film at Cannes and unraveled its music cue sheet:
"I thought I'd mention that I saw Clean in Cannes. Eno's music is used so beautifully -- not like some semi-mysterious, darkly tinted background, which is the way his music is often used in movies, but as a kind of redemptive aura around Maggie Cheung's character, and around her little boy. If I remember correctly, the tracks used are: 'The Lost Day,' 'An Ending,' 'Stars, Spider and I,' 'Taking Tiger Mountain' (Assayas does something wonderful with that one -- in a way, it's the little boy's theme), and a tiny bit of 'The Jezebel Spirit.'"
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/16/2004 02:05:36 AM Comments (0)
Back in 1999, the first film I ever worked on was Raul Ruiz's The Golden Boat (James Schamus's first production), and, using some grant money that I raised at my job at The Kitchen, I got my friend John Zorn to do the score. (I ran into Zorn on the street a while ago and he told me he'd score another film of mine if I asked -- "But you know the drill," he said. "I'll do it, fast, cheap, but I get complete creative control!"
Anyway, John did amazing work for not much money, and one of the score's best elements was the playing of Robert Quine. My jaw dropped when I walked in the studio and realized that Quine, whose work with Lou Reed, the Voidoids and others is legendary, was doing session duty on a no-budget film. His playing was magnificent. I was saddened to see in various places this week Quine's obituary. He apparently took his own life after being depressed by the death of his wife last year.
For more on Quine, check the Web site link above.
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/16/2004 01:53:45 AM Comments (0)
Producers don't get all the props that they deserve, so I was happy to see the glam portrait of downtown New York producer Caroline Baron, whose credits include Monsoon Wedding and Bennett Miller's upcoming Capote, in the new Vanity Fair. The article was as much about Baron's activities as a specialty exhibitor, though, as her producing.
What is her specialty distribution biz? Baron is the founder of FilmAid International, a non-profit organization that brings outdoor cinema to both countries devastated by war and the populations displaced by its effects. The organization also runs a video program that puts cameras in the hands of young refugees.
From the organization's homepage: "Civilians have always been the victims of war. Today, they are often the target. The world's refugee and displaced person population -- 30 million -- has never been as large. By the thousands, people in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America are forced to abandon their homes, families and livelihoods. Host communities and relief organizations respond quickly to immediate needs of food, shelter and medical attention, but refugees too often go without education, a sense of community and stimulation, or heart-lifting diversion. Trauma and depression can cripple their capacity to cope. These issues become acute as months stretch into years and decades of waiting in a refugee camp. FilmAid addresses what other aid agencies cannot."
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/16/2004 01:08:31 AM Comments (0)
The great U.K. music magazine The Wire doesn't have much of a Web site (there are some long interview transcriptions and MP3 downloads from artists like Sonic Youth's Jim O'Rourke), but the print edition remains invaluable for anyone interested in new music.
The mag has a small column on the Web and, this issue, it points to a couple of interesting sites. The first is The Eye, a Web site containing mini downloadable documentaries on music and media groups like Wire, Papa M, Locust and others. The column also mentions something closer to home -- the launch of P.S. 1's Internet radio station, which extends this New York institution's cultural reach to the broadband.
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/16/2004 12:52:51 AM Comments (0)
ANDY KAUFMAN LIVES
Did the performer Andy Kaufman fake his own death from a rare form of lung cancer in May 1984? Filmmaker Enrique Presley, who is currrently seeking look-alikes for a feature film project, seems to think so. And according to Claire Chanel's message board and the blog Andy Kaufman Returns -- on which Andy is thought to post frequent entries -- he is not alone. More importantly, if Andy Kaufman -- who would now be 55 years old -- did fake his own death and decided tomorrow to show up at Presley's casting call... would he get the gig?
You decide.
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 6/15/2004 04:14:24 PM Comments (0)
For a political documentary persecution might just be the highest form of flattery. As the release date of Michael Moore's documentary moves closer, so do the roadblocks. First, of course there was Michael Eisner and his Disney-isn't-political rejection of the film. Now the film must face ratings and the right wing. MPAA has given it a R rating because the documentary is, what? Too violent? Obscene? Truthful? The right wing doesn't want either children or adults to see the doc. David Bossie, president of Citzens United wants to tell people the terrible truth about left wing documentary filmmakers. He has targeted not only Michael Moore, but also philanthropist George Soros (whose documentary fund was subsumed by the Sundance Documentary Fund in 2001). For Bossie, "Moore and Soros are consumed by hate, hate of America and hate of President Bush. Soros writes million-dollars checks to left-wing organizations to run attack ads on President Bush. Michael Moore is a liberal filmmaker trying to rewrite history by ignoring the fact that Bill Clinton did nothing while terrorists waged war against Americans. These liberal America-haters cannot undo President Bush's track record of success in the War on Terror." Ouch!
Another group just wants the movie never to be shown. Move America Forward is calling on Americans to phone theaters and film execs to urge them to dump the film with the headline, "STOP MICHAEL MOORE FROM PROFITTING IN HIS ATTACKS ON AMERICA & OUR MILITARY." As Variety reports, "Organizers of MAF also were involved in the Defend Reagan Committee, which leaned on CBS to remove the miniseries about Ronald and Nancy Reagan from its sked." Move America Forward chairman Howard Kallogian and his group tell visitors, "If you don't want to see them promoting anti-American propaganda then tell these executives so directly." Of course, the free-speech door swings both ways. You could also write Move America Forward and tell them you want some Moore. info@MoveAmericaForward.org
# posted by Peter Bowen @ 6/15/2004 01:26:36 PM Comments (3)
Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me -- a tongue-in-beef documentary in which Spurlock eats only at McD's for 30 days -- has been setting box office records in Australia for a non-fiction film. It also has been making enemies. It turns out that Guy Russo, CEO and Managing Director of McDonald's down under, just isn't "lovin' it." Previously McDonald's has maintained a hands-off approach, attacking the film through position papers issued by pro-corporate fronts. But now McDonald's is speaking for itself. The Australians will be airing attack ads and have made the film the centerpiece of its Web site with the headline, "Seen 'That Movie' ? / Let's Separate Fact from Fiction." Ok, but can I get that with a side of lies. # posted by Peter Bowen @ 6/15/2004 10:32:45 AM Comments (0)
NOT A PROTEST FILM
Amid a pre-election summer of sweltering political films like Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and John Sayles's Silver City comes maverick director Esther Bell's "ficto-documentary" Exist.Weaving together documentary and fiction, Bell takes real activists -- she calls them "actorvists" -- and builds a dramatic narrative film around their experiences, intimately probing the individual lives of the millions marching in the streets.
Playing for the first time in the United States at a special preview screening sponsored by Clamor Magazine on June 19th at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, Exist is a centerpiece of the Allied Media Conference.
The Allied Media Conference takes place June 18-20 in the swing state of Ohio, where thousands of young people will participate in activist workshops about media coverage and the forthcoming protests that will surround the Republican National Convention.
Exist is Bell's second feature following Godass, a semi-autobiographical film starring Julianne Nicholson and the B-52's Fred Schneider, which was picked up by Showtime and the Sundance Channel following a successful festival run.
A lifelong activist, Bell is the founder of the Unamerican Film Festival, now in its third year. This traveling selection of trailers, teasers, and short films showcases political features and documentaries by American filmmakers that many Republicans attack as "unpatriotic".
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 6/14/2004 10:59:42 AM Comments (4)
For Philip K. Dick fans out there -- and I'm one of them -- there's a lot of excitement surrounding Richard Linklater's new film, A Scanner Darkly. Based on one of Dick's best books, the film promises to capture the Dick-ian mindset, with its mixture of philosophical paranoia, '70s drug-era existentialism, and topsy turvy identity questioning, in a way that none of the other Dick adaptations (Bladerunner, Total Recall, Minority Report, etc., have done.
Jason Koornick has long operated a Philip K. Dick fansite which recently went "official" with the participation of the Dick estate. On the site, there's now a page from Dick's children talking up the new film with some new on-set photos to boot. Check it out here.
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/14/2004 09:34:44 AM Comments (1)
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