A few days ago, in amongst the glut of pre-Cannes stories, one stood out. Written by the Associated Press on May 14, and syndicated to countless outlets worldwide, an article called 'Film purported to show actual deaths blocked by Cannes' read as follows:
French Customs officials have quarantined a 35mm print of the controversial film "Last Looks," which was on its way to a world premiere showing out of competition at the current Cannes Film Market.
The director of the film, Nick Brown, said the seizure was "a disguised act of censorship" and that the film deserved a public screening before condemnation.
A source close to the production described the film as showing the actual deaths of actors and behind-the-camera crew members during production of a low-budget American indie horror film called "The Evil Eye" that was filmed in the summer of 2006 among the Turkish and Greek Islands in the Mediterranean Sea.
"The Evil Eye" deaths were first reported in the Rhodes daily newspapers Dimokratiki. According to Dimokratiki, the largely American crew was using a 33-meter long Turkish ship as a set as well as for living quarters. But when that ship docked on July 3, 2006 in the port of Faliraki it was in order to seek medical help for a young actress, Malaysian born Ying-Yu Tan, who later died of unnamed injuries.
Reportedly, she wasn't the only victim. A crew member told the paper that the filming of "The Evil Eye" was aborted when the director Zack Freedman, the cinematographer Scott Maher and soundman Ryan Denmark (all three U.S. citizens) were killed when the small boat they were shooting from blew up during a staged explosion at sea.
Earlier, the French actress Verane Pick was also killed during the filming of a stunt scene involving a prop knife that tragically turned out to be a real weapon.
Greek authorities continue to investigate and were quoted as saying that it was impossible to say how many people had been killed or were missing because it appeared that some of the dead might have been buried at sea. The surviving production team refused to cooperate with authorities and fled the country.
Law enforcement officials briefly held a "person of interest" in connection with several of the deaths — the then 19-year-old videographer Nick Brown who is said to have captured the grisly events on his own camera. Brown, a citizen of Great Britain, was never charged with any crimes and was released. According to people involved in the production, after his release Brown returned to his home in New York City and edited the material into a feature-length motion picture that he titled "Last Looks."
Nick Brown is the son of famed British-born film editor Barry Alexander Brown, known for his Oscar-nominated work with Spike Lee ("Malcolm X," "Inside Man"), Mira Nair ("Monsoon Wedding") and Madonna ("Truth or Dare").
According to Nick Brown, he will fly to France in an attempt to resolve differences with French authorities, who were apparently tipped off by relatives of the deceased that he planned to screen his film out of competition at Cannes. Said Brown, "One way or another this film will be shown at Cannes, and I predict that people will find, in spite of all the rumors swirling around, that it is a very entertaining movie."
On the web site http://www.horror-no.com, a group calling itself Citizens Against Real Horror has lambasted Brown for his "callous use" of "The Evil Eye" tragedy to make a commercial motion picture. They have called for a boycott of the film at the Cannes Film Market.
Anyone one who has read this will agree that it's a very newsworthy story and extremely revealing about the lengths to which filmmakers are willing to go in order to become successful.
If you go to the
Citizens Against Real Horror website, you can find the
Dimokratiki article on the tragic deaths of the cast and crew, a video of a brother of the victims talking about his grief, and a radio interview with
Last Looks' director
Nick Brown from last month. All of them reveal Brown to be callous and calculating. The site calls
Last Looks "the worst, most crass example of commercial EXPLOITATION one can imagine!", and begs people to "show your support and boycott this film. Boycott the screenings and pass the word to unsuspecting buyers."
It's all pretty compelling stuff - except that it's a
fake. Far from being cinema verite,
Last Looks is a hoaxumentary (arguably mockumentary's poorer cousin...) directed by
Barry Alexander Brown, aka
Spike Lee's editor and the director of four low-budget, low-profile films.
Twitch and
LAist cottoned on to the fact that the whole
Evil Eye story is a concoction and the Citizens Against Real Horror website a sham, but everyone else - including the usually reliable Associated Press - bought it hook line and sinker. (Or should that be
Look line and sinker...?)
Personally, I think what Brown has done is inspired. There's no tragedy and no one's feelings have been hurt, but Brown has tapped into the perverse tendencies of the modern cinemagoer, and (he hopes) the opportunistic film buyer. Think back a few years to
Blair Witch Project, the most famous of the fake snuff movies, and the amazing impact it had because people believed it was real. Clearly Brown hopes to emulate what
Daniel Myrick and
Eduardo Sánchez did.
On the basis of
the trailer, I don't think
Last Looks has the potential to be a second
Blair Witch, but it's hugely impressive that with a tiny amount of effort, plus a lot of savvy, Brown has turned his little film into an international news story. It raises the bar in terms of what can be achieved with viral marketing; whether
Last Looks can emerge from Cannes with a distribution deal is another question.
# posted by Nick Dawson @ 5/18/2007 04:07:00 PM
Comments (2)
since when it totally lying something thats inspired?
i dont even think the film itself is real. its just another LonelyGirl pun'k by film failures who cant think of anything better to do than exploit the fact that the press are underpaid and omg human.
how about making a good film instead of lying to the press and putting easy to Out bs on the web?
hitchcock didnt need no viral nonsense
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posted by tony @ 5/19/2007 5:19 AM
I agree with the previous comment. Of course marketing involves one or other sort of lying. However, lying is not a property that makes a director great or "inspiring". Actually, I would just say that it is just irrelevant to the quality of a director.
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posted by @ 8/20/2007 7:38 PM
