Author: Ferguson Ulrich

THE ABSURDIST FILM FESTIVAL

Announcing the much needed, much waited for coalition of absurdist film and video makers under one umbrella, on one screen, as part of one festival.

The first ever Absurdist Film Festival is set to go down November 6 outside of Boise, Idaho.

A bit of history is being made here with the first ever absurdism based cinema fest, which essentially solidifies the movement, as a movement.

Cinema in one form or another has always existed on the fringe; the avant garde in the 60’s-70’s, the Cinema of Transgression in the 80’s, the Underground film fests of the 90’s; and the lost decade of no representation in the 2000’s now ends, and begins with late 2010 marking the period for fringe cinema to take on the absurd; a state of being that is currently encompassed on all levels and as always it is those working in the margins calling it out and creating the rear view relevant art that the future co-opters salivate over.

American Films is behind the scenes on this one, and rather than exclusively crash the party, looking at their line up they chose to ease into history by including the outsiders from the 80’s and the 90’s right alongside of current troublemakers. Nick Zedd is showing, as well as heavyweight Damon Packard (and there’s a rumor floating that Packards powerhouse REFLECTIONS OF EVIL may get a screening after the regular roster of films play).

The lineup also features many who have been written about here at the AVA blog, and those on the burner to be featured in the near future.

While this cinematic historical event is going down in IDAHO, there are plans to have it play around the U.S. in various venues. Contact or comment if interested in hosting an AFF screening in your area.

It’s time.

FACEBOOK PAGE HERE

BRESS IS BACK

On YouTube that is. Brian Bress started posting videos back around 2006, opening up the online world to the performance art world. The expected, and at times awesome, responses ensued:

“you are not funny. you look like a fool.”

“choke. please do. you wouldn’t notice talent if you bit you on the genitals.”

“Are you supposed to be avant garde? There are 5 year-olds on You Tube with more talent. Hopefully bankruptcy might stop you.”

Thankfully bankruptcy didn’t. Apparently he was featured at the Getty museum in L.A. sometime in 2008, and continued to post work online up until last year, but now put up his latest work today. And despite the genital biting crowd, he has a strong following for YouTube, with already a smattering of comments appearing for his latest uploaded 19 minute piece, STATUS REPORT.

Great performance art pieces with sets it seems he created himself; Different characters, jumbled dialogue, wild and awkward movements, Bress does it all, creating a flurry of absurdity. A recent comment said it best:

“man this dude can put together some nonsense”!

Here’s his latest STATUS REPORT, followed by some earlier works.

“You are one of the more absurd heroes! Thank you for what you have put forward; it makes things a little easier for all of us…”

-Ted

Bress website – http://BrianBress.com

RYAN TRECARTIN RANDOMS

“Life has changed greatly since 1995 and so should the logic of storytelling and the look, structure and creation of the moving image. I use manners that relate and challenge current life, and that meditate on future possibilities. I would argue that the word professional is slowly becoming harder and harder to understand or evaluate.” – Ryah Trecartin

I first saw Trecartins art sculptures featured some years ago in a small, new Los Angeles gallery.

Accompanied was an amazing video piece, 45 minutes or so long if I recall, which was a lo-fi, frantic, manic, absurdist masterpiece.

Many “gallery based” video artists don’t have their work online, and usually resort to the “brief clip” or excerpt. But Trecartin has a wonderful and full selection on his YouTube channel – http://www.youtube.com/user/WianTreetin

Here are some random Ryan Trecartin pieces:

ARGUMENTS FOR AMATEURISM

Mainstream:

1. A person who engages in an art, science, study, or athletic activity as a pastime rather than as a profession.

2. Sports An athlete who has never accepted money, or who accepts money under restrictions specified by a regulatory body, for participating in a competition.

3. One lacking the skill of a professional, as in an art.

Origin:

Coming from a Latin word meaning “to love a craft”.

Somewhere along the line “amateurism” got morphed into a negativity, as in mainstream definition #3 “lacking the skill of a pro”, rather than the true meaning of, say, ‘exceeding the structured/limited text book skill, and creating with openness and new eyes, driven by the love of doing it, rather than career/profession/status pursuits…’

“There’s a purity of vision when what you are doing is being done for fun, as a learning experience, which is the essence of amateurism, a much maligned term. Every child knows this. Adults try to beat it out of them. The amateur is the one who makes the discoveries and advances all human thought . This has been demonstrated throughout history.” -Nick Zedd

And in the future, as systems continue to break down, and money incentives become irrelevant, clearly it will be the amateur lover of craft, the garage tinkerer who will come up with the important technologies; inventions that will pave the way towards new ways of living.

“German and Russian seem to have done somewhat better in preserving it (the term amateur) to simply mean “lover” in the non-erotic sense. The word’s relatively high standing in France can be seen in the titles of two fairly recent books, one, L’Amateur du poeme, celebrating poetry for the sake of poetry, the other honoring the donor of a huge art collection to the National Museum of Modern Art at the Pompidou Center: Donations Daniel Cordier: Le regard d’un amateur. But in America it is on the defensive. The association of Amateur Chamber Music Players not long ago polled us members about whether we shouldn’t drop the word “Amateur” from our name. Too many people, some were saying, see only the dismissive definition in the word. Many of us fought to retain it, and by now we who love the word seem to have won our battle to keep it in the title. But who knows what will come?” -Wayne Booth

“Coppola ended the conversation by educating us on the true definition of amateur, stating it’s about real passion for something. Then he declared, “I want to be an amateur filmmaker, because I love films.” Indiewire.com

MIL: “Your films often seem as if they are shot from a mobile phone or a handheld video camera rather than by a professional filmmaker. How do newer video technologies influence your work?”

RT: Life has changed greatly since 1995 and so should the logic of storytelling and the look, structure and creation of the moving image. I use manners that relate and challenge current life, and that meditate on future possibilities. I would argue that the word professional is slowly becoming harder and harder to understand or evaluate.” -Ryan Trecartin

“Professionalism is a curse; a straightjacket stifling innovation, and the dependence upon it by artists, politicians and and those in power has left us bereft of excitement, surprise or joy. My work is an antedote to this malaise.” -Nick Zedd

LINKS:

Zedd interview – http://www.zoom96.com/nick-zedd-king-of-underground-films-8

Wayne Booth – http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/065863.html

Coppola interview – http://www.indiewire.com/article/coppola_auteur_aspiring_to_be_an_amateur1/

Ryan Trecartin interview – http://moreintelligentlife.com/blog/whitney-ford/qa-ryan-trecartin

Amateurism Exhibition – http://www.academievanbouwkunst.nl/nl/nieuws-en-agenda/capita-selecta/2007-2008/amateurism/

FLOODING WITH LOVE FOR THE KID

I had thought the whole “I made a movie for 100 dollars” angle had run it’s course. 10 years ago that seemed something, but now, not so much. And what’s with 100 dollars. How about 10 dollars. How about 10 cents. Would that make a film even more special, appealing?

“Shot entirely for $96 in a 220 square foot studio apartment in Manhattan, it was adapted, directed, filmed, acted, designed, and edited by one man.

FLOODING WITH LOVE FOR THE KID has received a lot of attention. The LA Weekly gave it a whole column write up recently.

It’s a feature length, one man cinematic show…

“Actor and filmmaker Zachary Oberzan, performing all two dozen characters himself, created this monumental, transgressive film as a testament to the animal ingenuity and triumphant spirit of the lone artist with no money, no resources, no nothing.”

Based on early Rambo…

“Meticulously adapted from David Morrell’s novel First Blood, which introduced the world to a kid named Rambo waging a one-man war against a sheriff and small town..”

It’s supposedly serious while looking pretty horrible but then is sort of admirable, and then feels like what the fuck and why, yet it doesn’t seem to work, and all this is just from viewing the trailer below, so then maybe there is some merit.

Link to LA WEEKLY article –RAMBO FIRST FILM

Zachary’s website where a DVD can be purchased (out of stock as of this writing it appears) – http://www.zacharyoberzan.com/

matthew topartzer’s MUSTARD AND BEER

Product Details

“Mustard and Beer is a collection of short scenes, each bizarre and not intended to be seen by the public. An accidental documentary, or an experimental comedy, mostly filmed in the 80s and 90s, it is a plot less and strange mixture of videos tying together strangers from across the USA.”

A rare gem of absurdist/surreal work in the found footage arena, Mustard and Beer takes the throwaway VHS home video tapes from the last few decades and re-works them into a seemingly non-cohesive fashion, churning out a feature length piece, that somehow works.

Not an easy task but Topartzer weaves these vignettes of everyday culture of the times, taking the on the surface mundane and showcasing it for what it truly is: absolutely, and absurdly, bizarre.

Ironically, many VHS home life documents of 80’s and 90’s lifestyle, once treasured, labeled and stored inside cabinets underneath television sets, now more than ever are making their way into “free bins” at local thrift stores as homes are massively being foreclosed on, and storage unit rents are going unpaid. Which brings the next point on the relevant factor of Mustard and Beer:

If nothing else it serves as an excellent glimpse into everyday USA, during a time when worries about societal collapse were vacant in the minds of the citizens. That is, when futures want to look back and have a glimpse at the mindsets from the cheap oil overabundant times, wondering “what were they thinking”, or weren’t thinking, Mustard and Beer is a great starting point into the absurdity on tap.

You can watch Mustard and Beer full screen, online for a $1.99 right here (7 day rental) –

http://www.amazon.com/Mustard-and-Beer/dp/B003E6P3JA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=digital-video&qid=1275520410&sr=8-2

Or to add to your electronic permanent collection for 10 dollars, here –

http://www.amazon.com/Mustard-and-Beer/dp/B003E6V64Q/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=digital-video&qid=1275520410&sr=8-5

BoydsBrain – Appropriation and the New Art Education

Still from “Super Mario Clouds” by Cory Arcangel – “a digital artist who lives and works in Brooklyn. His work is concerned with the relationship between technology and culture, and with media appropriation. Arcangel’s best known works are his NINTENDO game cartridge hacks and reworkings of obsolete computer systems of the 70’s and 80’s.”

A latest blog entry (re-posted below) from Andy Heck Boyd is a good inside glimpse of not only what’s been swirling around boyds brain as of late, helping to inspire and self educate through the exploration of both past and current experiments; but also how one experiences online art in a way one experiences gallery art, in the sense of that “feel” you can still get when you come across a particular work from your computer screen that does it for you.

He starts out by bringing attention to recent simple appropriation from video games to popular animation, which both receive viewer comments from: “What an utterly lazy piece of pretentious garbage” to the usual “this is just awful”. Boyd shines his own light on the works.

Finally he concludes with the online site source Ubu.com, which it seems he has discovered just recently. What is interesting here is his admittance of “lack of art education”, and the effort to have to dig everything up. But really a site like ubu, and the internet in general, can far surpass most kinds of traditional art education. The key as he put it, is having to dig it all up; i.e applying the time and effort, not towards an institution classroom (and the mountain of debt required to enter such a classroom), but rather an individual learning, taking the time and patience to do so and reaping the reward of surprise as a result.

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Fine Art Film Note may/10 -Heck Boyd-

i think the video i think of the most the past few weeks is ‘clouds’ by cory arcangel,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkkJaqBbXV8

Makes me smile and excited, because its fairly new discovery for me. Very simple effective. very different in opening new ways of looking at video making. i like moving pictures, just pictures brought to life with motion in specific viewing areas (tvs/computers), to put it simply. it doesnt have to be anything, just something that challenges me at how i look at the medium. push things forward.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6HwSq3sp8o
bart the general series done by famicon is another personal favorite ive been obsessed with lately. i have downloaded the six separate episodes off youtube and have edited them and burned to dvd as one 42 minute movie.

http://www.ubu.com/film/gidal_upside.html
peter gidal, who ive never heard of until today seems to have blown my mind with a feature he did in 1967 called ‘upside down feature’, where the whole film is upside down. this is very exciting, ill watch it tonight.

http://www.ubu.com/
a site i found while looking for paper rads other video works. its a media art site, poetry, film and video, music etc. well i found the paper rad videos, i think four of them. trash talking, dr doo in fucland, smells like burnt speaker, p-unit mixtape, and super mario brothers movie. i snapped them up for my collection. then i perused around and discovered hundreds of fine art filmmakers from the last century into this one, and its mind boggling what i’ve found so far. and i’ve only looked at a dozen different people at random, so it will be extremely interesting to see what else is there.

i’ve never really had a good art education, so i am not fully aware of any other major artists, i have to dig to find them. which is fine, its a new surprise when you discover something! so this site is also a great find if you are into film as fine art, as opposed to hollywood which isn’t experimental in the least bit. anyways

Festival of Note : VIDEO ART AND EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL

“The panel discussion will explore issues such as the definition of the video art and experimental film genre in the wake of the new era of the digital and internet revolution and the complex relationship between online communities dedicated to video art and experimental film versus offline spaces such as galleries, museums and film festivals. Videoart.net Artistic Director Dan Fine says, “The festival aspires to shed new light on the definition of the video art genre and will become an important step to democratize the relationship between artists, curators, institutions, and the public worldwide.”

It took 10 years, but finally it’s being talked about.

It’s also impressive they include an online video site director as part of the panel:

“Panel participants include Ross Harley, a distinguish professor from Australia, Ed Bowes, a SVA professor and winner of the Guggenheim Award, and Blake Whitman, Vimeo Community Director.”

For more info : http://VideoArt.net

And for those attending drop a note at Ferguson “@ symbol” parismail dot com for thoughts, feedback, etc. and I’ll post.

AMERICAN FILMS : Market Penetrations from the Obscure Absurdists

I first came across American Films around 5 years ago. Their films were some of the best shot, best visually looking works online; not to mention some of the most absurdist character pieces out there. Their early characters ranged from avant garde versions of the Trailer Park Boys to religious fanatical freaks to hopeless fruitcakes and fuck-ups; plus weirdos, wingnuts and washed up cocaine nose candied 80’s icons.

Somehow I missed these guys on the usual underground screening and festival circuit of the time. Or so I thought. When I emailed them years ago, asking where their work was showing, and had showed (festivals, screenings, etc.) the response to me was a shocker. Essentially nowhere. Online was their main home.

This was one of the first major signs that I realized how asleep at the wheel film and video programmers had become. Every experimental/underground/counter-current/alternative film and video curator should have been emailing these guys, requesting work to screen.

Instead, as their work continued to amass, it continued going virtually unnoticed in all the traditional alt. screening outlets. Yet blowing away all the content that all the traditional alt. screening outlets were showing.

Eventually screenings did pop up, but it wasn’t the curators responsible for them. It took other artists to point out American Films and actually show the work themselves. I tracked down a screening in Hollywood around 2006 put on by stage performer/actress and Mel Brooks favorite Ann Randolph who showcased an American Films piece called “Peggy” at one of her events. A few other screenings and small festivals followed, but in the rosters of the usual spots where odd/avant/experimental film and video was normally shown, work from the AF troupe was noticeably absent.

Meanwhile AF continued to pump out more and more work; the productions bigger with what looked like upgraded sets, along with characters more developed and of course, pieces even more absurd. There was even rumor of a feature film that had been shot and possibly completed, but nothing has surfaced as of yet.

In any event, some major penetrations have been fornicated forth by American Films thus far in 2010. Some very good actors seem to have joined the group and possibly some added talent behind the camera and in the editing room. The group has been participating in live shows and screenings, and online their work continues to grow.

Their latest focus revolves around the advertising/marketing racket. And it’s starting to gain traction. A sort of underground minor viral send around seems to be occurring with their latest piece, ridiculously titled “Get Ready to Shift the Paradigm on Your Corporate Branding and Marketing”.

Shot in infomercial style, the piece satirically nails the heavy loaded bullshit dished out by the marketing guru firms, but goes well beyond your typical mock up hit job. An unexpected character break down occurs near the end, and we are granted the coveted answer to the most common question of all time regarding these real life marketing machines, “do they really believe their own bullshit?”

Hopefully American Films will stick with the absurdism of the corporate marketing machine theme for a while, giving us more pieces nailing the catastrophe and collapse of American culture aided by the polluted marketing mindset of how to turn human beings into branded brainwashed useless consumers.

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AMERICAN FILMS new online YT account with their latest films can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/AmericanFilmsDotCom

Older works – http://www.youtube.com/user/cbengine

And the latest masterpiece:

“Get Ready to Shift the Paradigm on Your Corporate Branding and Marketing”

The Lost Decade of Alternative Film and Video – 2000-2010

By Ferguson Ulrich

I recently noticed a new book on Amazon entitled, Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-2000 by Steve Seid. The end of this title spoke volumes – “1945-2000”.

The book is available only for “pre-order”. Meaning it hasn’t even been released yet, which assumes the writing is fairly recent. Thus the glaring absence being: what about the last decade? If you’re going all the way back to ’45, why not bring it in as current as possilbe, say, at least, 1945-2005, making it a full 60 years.

This glaring absence is of particular note due to the obvious non recognition that has occurred in regards to alternative film and video of this last decade. And it is not specific to San Francisco.

The book seems to be compiled of various authors, each contributing a section based on their expertise/experience. Some authors are divided into specific years, i.e “Cecilia Dougherty on video in the 1980s and 1990s”. Yet that’s where it stops for decade coverage.

The cut off date for this book is possibly, if not likely, the result of the following: A lack of not being able to properly define the last decade of alternative cinema.

Up until the late 90’s it was easy. The formula was the same. The establishments were in place. In order to find out who’s (supposedly) relevant you look to see who the festivals are playing, who’s being written about in the usual avant circles, who’s getting the grants, who’s being recommended by who, etc., etc.

But then with the late 90’s into the ’00’s came digital video. The old guard became confused, resistant. Video art was threatened by mounds of new work coming down the pike, many of which blew away what the established video artists had made, were making. The experimental festivals refused to show digital, and contributed to fueling the infamous online “film vs. DV” debate, swearing that this DV thing was just a fad, wouldn’t last, couldn’t hold up to quality issues and so forth.

Of course, they were completely, and embarrassingly, wrong. DV not only lasted, not only produced amazing quality works, but gave birth to the even better HD video. This denial held back many alternative works from being seen and recognized.

The 2000’s then brought another cluster bomb – online video. Now work could be seen online and viewed by hundreds, even thousands, potentially millions, as opposed to the at best 30-100 people an experimental screening would seat. This completely new, incredible shift in alternative film and video art viewing was another confusion for the nostalgic old school avant clans who thought if they just ignored it, it would go away. But again, they needed to state their 2 cents:

“It’s just a fad”. “No one is going to watch films on their computer.” “It’s too slow and the quality is much too low”.

Of course, they were completely, and embarrassingly, wrong. Watching media of all type from computers grew enormously. The speed increased to the point of zero download time. And the quality improved dramatically, with even YouTube now having an HD option.

Many of the already established alternative film and video artists heavily dissed sites like YouTube at the time, refusing to sign up for a free account while acting as if they were somehow “above it all”.

Of course today they all have YouTube accounts, and are posting their work online.

The technology basically blurred everything. The so called avant garde alternatives from all corners were no longer the “ahead of the curve” counter currents they sometimes high browed themselves as being. They were stuck in nostalgia land, unwilling to move forward and redefine the avant garde.

They didn’t know how how to deal with it (and still don’t). Their denial, their fumbling around resistance and refusal held everything back, creating for perhaps the first time in cinema history a blank page for an entire decade in regards to the recongnition of new alternative works.

The best anyone could come up with as far as “a movement” of people working in alternative/avant garde DV cinema in this last decade, was the “mumblecore” movement. Again, that being the best that is being represented speaks volumes on the lack of effort from the alternative corners to discover, push and promote the new amassing works of alternative cinema that was gushing out from the cracks.

There’s differing blame to go around, but a lack of alternative works is certainly not to blame. Such an inevitable excuse will emerge, perhaps from curators claiming their snail mail submissions had dropped, of course having no clue as to why.

It’s been the complete opposite. Avant garde has grown. It’s the old guard AG boredoms who’ve withered away in their nostalgia. Their pomp and film fetish arrogance no longer relevant. Their track record smeared with “wrong, again!“. And their particular blame likely to go down unnoticed, just as the last decade goes down unnoticed; unable to be defined. Unable to find an author to tackle that ’00-’10 period which likely created five times the visual works than the alt cinema of ’45-’99, combined.

Ferguson Ulrich writes for and curates work online at http://AbsurdistVideoArt.com

The new avant garde working in the absurdist video vein is represented at
http://AbsurdistVideoArt.com for more.

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ABSURDIST VIDEO ART

A collective of current underground-absurdist film and video makers