Reviews from the Film is Dead Festival 2007
I recently returned from a trip to the states, and on a stop in Los Angeles I attended the 2007 Film is Dead Festival organized by the enigmatic Post-Cinematic Society. The films I saw, mostly shorts and vehemently ALL digital, were consistently good. Some of them were more than good, mind-blowing in fact. And the festival itself has become a major underground event in L.A. I was skeptical due to the lack of media coverage and Google hits about it, and yet the theater (a musty old art deco moviehouse from the 1920's temporarily retrofitted with a high definition beamer and dolby surround sound system) was completely packed every night of the festival. How does a digital movie festival avoid getting more Google hits? One of the organizers told me that's the nature of the Post-Cinematic Society--they're highly secretive--yet there are those who want to change that and promote the festival more actively. They tell me that since 1993 when it was started by some students of the famous digital media theorist Lev Manovich, the Post-Cinematic Society has refused to keep track of or promote it's membors, and even rejects the concept of membership. "It's all about the artworks" says festival organizer Morris Kline. Yet Kline admits that there are people, himself included, who believe that the society and the festival could increase it's online presence while still remaining independent, avant-garde, and perhaps more importantly Delphicly secretive.
I can't review all of the films from festival, but I'll highlight the ones I found most significant. What makes a work "significant" to me? Since this festival is about films that are specifically digital from production to distribution, I'm looking for technical and creative innovation that is specific to digital media. But for me there also has to be a strong concept, story and character development. I can be wowed by fancy effects, but for a film to really grad me it has to be intellectually or emotionally engaging.
Lover of Blades is a short digital movie by a young Chinese artist named Chi-Chen Hung. It's the first film I've seen that blends live action digital video with Flash animation to truly astonishing effect. It reminded me of a cross between Tsui-Hark's martial arts film The Blade and Mamoru Oshii's anime classic Ghost in the Shell. But besides the startling visual effects (which reportedly were all done on an iMac!) the artist is perceptive and subtle at developing the complex emotional state of the main character, a girl who becomes obsessed with knives after her older brother is killed in a street fight.
Lied and Iraqified by American-Iraqi artist Yasmine Ravanipour is a digital cutup of television news coverage about the war in Iraq. By mixing statements and press conferences by politicians and news pundits with actual news footage of the conflict itself, the obvious lies parroted by the news media are exposed in ways that are comedic, hard-hitting, yet astutely handled so that the message simply is what it is without being dogmatic. Ravanipour skillfully intermeshes television news and webcasts in such a way that she not only develops a story about the news coverage of the war, but also a rhythm that turns the work into almost a techno song. This is not simply an anti-war message, but a complex artwork that is subtly doing many things on many levels.
Piles of Dirt is the latest short documentary from artist and filmmaker Julian H. Scaff. Or is it a mockumentary? I think probably not, but one is never 100% sure with Scaff's works because of his ability to always step outside of himself and what he is doing. The film covers Scaff's latest public artwork, which consists of rows of small piles of dirt deposited across public spaces. He has now exhibited the work in several cities, including Beirut and Amsterdam. But what kind of art is it? Is it landscape art? Is it performance art? Famous and influential artists, critics and academics are interviewed in the film as they give wildly different interpretations of the work. By turning the very analog dirt artworks into a digital film, he has digitised the analog, one of the defining characteristics of digital media. In addition, Scaff has integrated the critical theory about the artwork with the artwork itself, two things which are usually kept very separate in the art world. This is, quite simply, one of the most significant films about art I have seen in the last decade.
Silvery Girl by Mexican artist Carmencita Hernandez is about a teenage girl who works in a silver mine in northern Mexico. The film is almost entirely a dream sequence, the fantasies the main character has about leaving the mine and going to school. The first and last shots of the film are live action, but then the majority of the film is done with digitally-drawn cell animation (in PhotoShop). The filmmaker's style of drawing is very much rooted in traditional northern Mexican art, yet it is clear that she is working with a digital medium, as when the girl's hair is pixelated and by brushing it it becomes anti-aliased. Hernandez has woven a subtly touching and emotional story about child labour, while at the same time found ways to use the digital medium in very culturally-specific ways, in essence inventing a native Mexican "digital aesthetic" that I think really goes to the core of what this festival is looking for.
Biting Bullets by Jordanian artist Abdul-Haq Shaloub is about a latino homeless man who finds an old t-shirt in a dustbin that happens to have a picture of Osama bin Laden on it. The homeless man is mistaken for a middle-eastern terrorist and arrested. Unbeknownst to him, the story spins out of control in the media, and eventually makes it into President Bush's State of the Union address as a "foiled terrorist plot." The film cleverly meshes live action footage with online blogs and webstreams, news reports and actual footage of a State of the Union speech. The amount of actual footage that Shaloub shot is minimal, probably less than a quarter of the film, making this mostly a digital cut-up of found and scavenged materials. While highlighting the unique ability of digital media to convert, transfer, and cut-and-paste almost any other media, this film also displays Shaloub's sharp sense of storytelling.
If you ever find youself in L.A. at the right time of year, I highly recommend this innovative, lively, and fiercely underground festivals. Other festivals that claim to be "underground" are not nearly as deeply buried as the Film is Dead festivals.
I can't review all of the films from festival, but I'll highlight the ones I found most significant. What makes a work "significant" to me? Since this festival is about films that are specifically digital from production to distribution, I'm looking for technical and creative innovation that is specific to digital media. But for me there also has to be a strong concept, story and character development. I can be wowed by fancy effects, but for a film to really grad me it has to be intellectually or emotionally engaging.
Lover of Blades is a short digital movie by a young Chinese artist named Chi-Chen Hung. It's the first film I've seen that blends live action digital video with Flash animation to truly astonishing effect. It reminded me of a cross between Tsui-Hark's martial arts film The Blade and Mamoru Oshii's anime classic Ghost in the Shell. But besides the startling visual effects (which reportedly were all done on an iMac!) the artist is perceptive and subtle at developing the complex emotional state of the main character, a girl who becomes obsessed with knives after her older brother is killed in a street fight.
Lied and Iraqified by American-Iraqi artist Yasmine Ravanipour is a digital cutup of television news coverage about the war in Iraq. By mixing statements and press conferences by politicians and news pundits with actual news footage of the conflict itself, the obvious lies parroted by the news media are exposed in ways that are comedic, hard-hitting, yet astutely handled so that the message simply is what it is without being dogmatic. Ravanipour skillfully intermeshes television news and webcasts in such a way that she not only develops a story about the news coverage of the war, but also a rhythm that turns the work into almost a techno song. This is not simply an anti-war message, but a complex artwork that is subtly doing many things on many levels.
Piles of Dirt is the latest short documentary from artist and filmmaker Julian H. Scaff. Or is it a mockumentary? I think probably not, but one is never 100% sure with Scaff's works because of his ability to always step outside of himself and what he is doing. The film covers Scaff's latest public artwork, which consists of rows of small piles of dirt deposited across public spaces. He has now exhibited the work in several cities, including Beirut and Amsterdam. But what kind of art is it? Is it landscape art? Is it performance art? Famous and influential artists, critics and academics are interviewed in the film as they give wildly different interpretations of the work. By turning the very analog dirt artworks into a digital film, he has digitised the analog, one of the defining characteristics of digital media. In addition, Scaff has integrated the critical theory about the artwork with the artwork itself, two things which are usually kept very separate in the art world. This is, quite simply, one of the most significant films about art I have seen in the last decade.
Silvery Girl by Mexican artist Carmencita Hernandez is about a teenage girl who works in a silver mine in northern Mexico. The film is almost entirely a dream sequence, the fantasies the main character has about leaving the mine and going to school. The first and last shots of the film are live action, but then the majority of the film is done with digitally-drawn cell animation (in PhotoShop). The filmmaker's style of drawing is very much rooted in traditional northern Mexican art, yet it is clear that she is working with a digital medium, as when the girl's hair is pixelated and by brushing it it becomes anti-aliased. Hernandez has woven a subtly touching and emotional story about child labour, while at the same time found ways to use the digital medium in very culturally-specific ways, in essence inventing a native Mexican "digital aesthetic" that I think really goes to the core of what this festival is looking for.
Biting Bullets by Jordanian artist Abdul-Haq Shaloub is about a latino homeless man who finds an old t-shirt in a dustbin that happens to have a picture of Osama bin Laden on it. The homeless man is mistaken for a middle-eastern terrorist and arrested. Unbeknownst to him, the story spins out of control in the media, and eventually makes it into President Bush's State of the Union address as a "foiled terrorist plot." The film cleverly meshes live action footage with online blogs and webstreams, news reports and actual footage of a State of the Union speech. The amount of actual footage that Shaloub shot is minimal, probably less than a quarter of the film, making this mostly a digital cut-up of found and scavenged materials. While highlighting the unique ability of digital media to convert, transfer, and cut-and-paste almost any other media, this film also displays Shaloub's sharp sense of storytelling.
If you ever find youself in L.A. at the right time of year, I highly recommend this innovative, lively, and fiercely underground festivals. Other festivals that claim to be "underground" are not nearly as deeply buried as the Film is Dead festivals.
posted by Taye Talbot at
22.3.07
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