Eli E. and Kelly B. – Improvisation Collaborations 2012

eliekellybSTILL

eliekellyb

Recently a collaboration took place between two Absurdist Video Artists, Kelly Broich the ringleader of COLLLAPSE productions, and Eli Elliott who’s been traveling around via greyhound bus . He recently made his second visit to Collapse Studios in Boise, Idaho. The last time, a few years ago, a number of shorts were shot, and a feature film was rumored to have been completed (yet never released).

This time around a series of improvisational pieces were performed, filmed and edited.
The “Eli E and Kelly B Sessions” proved to maintain, if not improve upon, the oddity, absurdity, and bizarro visual imagery of their cinematic collaboration history.

Here are the completed sessions:

“You Can’t But We Can” is a sequel of sorts to an earlier performance between Eli E and Kelly B called INCHWORM . This time around “the band” expands a bit while the sounds improve.

Kelly B brings back his character JIMMY for this brief trigger piece. Eli plays Jimmy’s pink colored seizure.

The two turn to brutally subjecting the viewer with an 11 minute aurora of audio “sound healing”. Theta Brain Wave Therapy.

Kelly B. performs a shop-vac solo:

Apparently, Eli E. underwent a “screen test” for an upcoming production slated for 2013.

Some avant garde penis enlargement commercials were also filmed, but were quickly banned from YouTube and 5 other video sharing websites.

“DAISY” A New ANDY HECK BOYD Film

Heck Boyd has released his latest 23 minute featurette called DAISY – a part black and white, part color, trippy, crazy, fecal fetish filled, incest based and drug laced animation done in classic Cinema Boyd style using his unique outsider drawing and much of his own voiceover/soundeffect work, mixed with slits of metal muse interlaced throughout.

DAISY (2012):

New Harmony Korine Film (Free on YT) : THE FOURTH DIMENSION

Korine is one of three directors in this ‘feature trilogy’ which was released on YouTube a few days ago. Watch below.

The début release by Grolsch Film Works and VICE Films brings together an immersive trilogy by Harmony Korine, Alexsei Fedorchenko and Jan Kwiecinski. The three filmmakers have created three unique stories that offer up their vision of this higher plane of existence, the Fourth Dimension. Each filmmaker takes his character on a journey that changes the way they see the world and themselves. And each filmmaker will offer a different perspective on what the Fourth Dimension is.

The Ray Carney Absurdity Pt.2 – PETITION POSTED

Following up on a previous post regarding film professor and independent art film supporter Ray Carney and his hoarding of filmmaker Mark Rappaport’s film prints, a brand new petition emerges which moves the matter even more action orientated forward into the public internet realm, encouraging all to sign who want to show support for an artist who has become the victim of an “inside job”.

from the petition:

This is an appalling situation which we demand Carney rectify by returning to Mark Rappaport all of his materials. This is especially shocking in the so-called “independent” film world in which people struggle for years to make films, with very little if any recompense.

To see and/or sign the petition, go HERE.

FOXFUR – a new DAMON PACKARD film

Damon Packard has a new absurdist film out called FOXFUR, which premiered in late July at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, and is now available on DvD.

Foxfur takes place in current day Los Angeles and features the main character, Foxfur, a young woman seemingly caught in between alternate realities, eventually learning that the world ended in 1982.

But first there’s a manic rush to get to a new age bookstore to find some answers regarding rumors about the fate of real life UFO heavyweight Billy Meier and alien conspiracy theorist Richard Hoagland.

Absurdist conflicts occur as Foxfur’s friend, Khris played excellently by Khris Kaneff, attempts to drive her to the bookstore in his running out of gas van, yet goes through a tension building series of mishaps and missteps along the way.

Packard is best known for his masterpiece REFLECTIONS OF EVIL from 2002. Since then he’s created a vast number of works from short vignettes to longer pieces like the Untitled Star Wars Mockumentary (2003) and Tales of the Valley of the Wind (2009), two very different works.

FOXFUR marks a return to more of a, long awaited, Reflections style film, only this time with a fraction of the budget as the “finished” film reflects.

It’s a botched film as Packard likely recognizes, but as viewers and fans of Damon’s work will recognize going in, it’s a Packard picture, and only Packard can make a botched piece of cinema, actually work and work well.

Foxfur treads those outer boundaries of “working well” as a finished narrative work and I would guess it probably came out to be some bastard cousin of the originally intended script. But there’s a lot of great scenes and a lot of good well performed absurdist acting; it’s still a great watch, it’s still a Packard.

Many of the “mistakes” probably make it for the better as well. The fact that the lead character of Foxfur is played by several different actresses due to not being able to hold on to one actress for extended periods of time (and with no attempt to try and use similar looking actresses) actually works out great and this casting mishap is integrated into the story. Kaneff’s character plays along with absurdist confusion as one scene transitions to the next and a totally different Foxfur appears, “you’re not Foxfur?!” as a three stooges Packard edit assist head shake follows…

The Foxfurs

Reflections of Evil was also fractured and loose, yet hilarious and relevant; probably one of the best Los Angeles films of all time, showing the city raw and the characters everyone in L.A. encounters.

Foxfur also plays up the L.A. scene by featuring “The Boddhi Tree”, a real life new agey bookstore, a spiritual go-to trendy’esque hangout for the classic Los Angles yoga-spiritual wannabe or otherwise crowd. Some scenes are shot inside the Boddhi Tree and Packard has an actor playing David Icke, who works the front counter.

Many will jump the gun and think Packard is making fun of Icke, Meier, the Boddhi and “stupid people”- as I recall one reviewer writing – altogether. But that’s not the case, just as he wasn’t making fun of Spielberg in a Reflections scene, though it may have seemed that way. Through Packard’s lens it’s more of a celebration, recognition, even admiration of these people and our relationship to them whether as followers or forced observers. Packard probably likes Icke. I think it’s more of a recognition that these places, these people exist – not positive nor negative – they’re just here and that’s cool, let’s celebrate, recognize, have fun with it.

Ultimately it seems the budget and passing of time got the best of Packard. He seemed to go as far as he could go with this one, until it was just simply time to stop. Dump what you got into the timeline, manipulate and re-master PackardVision style, slave away at a video and audio edit, and export the motherfucker.

Foxfur ends abruptly with a scene that may have been meant not as an ending, but as an opening sequence. It’s actually a beautiful scene, with yet another new Foxfur actress, and we finally learn more about what the previous hour was supposed to be about, and then we quickly learn that another gladly accepted hour of this movie, is non-existent. You can almost hear the last dime from the Foxfur film budget drop to the ground as suddenly the scene ends, and the credits roll.

You can message Packard on Farcebook to inquire about buying a copy of FoxFur.

“LOVE SPASM” – NICK ZEDD FILM – Seeks Funding


NICK ZEDD appears to be returning to filmmaking with a “historic motion picture” to be shot in Berlin and is seeking the funds to make it happen. This film could bring back a long ago deceased underground film energy/environment, and new recognition for subversive appreciation. He’s done it before by more or less starting the Cinema of Transgression and seems to be prepared to subvert the scene once again with new energy and a well thought out film structure as can be seen in the kickstarter description (link below).

Here’s Jack Sargeant, author of DEATHTRIPPING : THE CINEMA OF TRANSGRESSION


Nick Zedd needs your money to make a film. His role in the world of underground film can’t be underestimated, from launching the Underground Film Bulletin through to the Cinema of Transgression manifesto, he’s left his cultural mark. Add to that some great movies (re-watch War Is Menstrual Envy and tell me its not a visionary piece of cinema, or Police State as a classic of the Cinema of Transgression, plus a dozen other cinematic blasts) and his general and on-going presence as cultural troublemaker, plus he wrote Bleed which is a classic rant that you should all have read. So, try and pledge something, however small…

(Video is not embedding on this site, click the kickstart link below for the vid)

KICKSTARTER – LOVE SPASM

The Ray Carney Absurdity

Pondering an upcoming essay around the theme of why underground film and other movements fail, I encounter the recent drama amidst the so called “indie film” world, this involving Ray Carney who has been a pioneer and vocal stronghold in supporting real cinematic arts versus the assembly line entertainment fluff outputted by Hollywood. And doing so as a professor at Boston University, some saying among the top film prof’s in the country for so strongly advocating Art over Hollywood. Apparently a rarity in academia. And Carney has been faced with hardships within his academic home, BU related to his views.

A taste of Ray:

It is a wholesale failure of the educational system to educate and inspire a generation of students with a vision of the possibilities of art. When colleges and universities show movies “students want to see” or organize courses around popular TV shows or incorporate the trash of the Internet into the curriculum, they are denying students their legacy. It takes a lot of knowledge and effort and learning to be able to grapple with Shakespeare or Mozart — or Cassavetes or Bresson! The students are being denied the opportunity to obtain that learning. The universities are conspiring with the culture of sales and hucksterdom rather than offering a way out of it. That is the story of American education in the arts and humanities. And it’s a tragedy. If the students understood how they are being cheated, they would be picketing in the streets.

So, this recent letter from filmmaker Mark Rappaport, whom Carney has always praised highly, has been riding the intranet waves in recent days, leaving one to wonder if the constant fight has taken a toll, mentally, on Carney to the point of taking absurd actions against the very same films he once cherished and supported.

AN OPEN LETTER FROM MARK RAPPAPORT TO THE INTERNATIONAL FILM COMMUNITY
September 2012

To all filmmakers, film critics, film archivists, film academics, curators, festival directors, and film enthusiasts everywhere—
I am writing to you because something very unforeseen, very unexpected, and most unpleasant recently happened in my life,
When I moved to Paris seven years ago, I had to decide whether or not to take with me copies of my films, video masters, early drafts of scripts, duplicates of reviews and announcements, etc. When I mentioned this to Ray Carney, tenured professor at Boston University and author of several books on John Cassavetes and who also claims he is “generally recognized to be the leading scholarly authority on American narrative art film,” he eagerly offered to hold all of my materials. I accepted his offer, with the understanding that he would return them to me upon request and that they remain at BU. Five years later, in 2010, I requested the return of some of my video masters to make copies of them for various film archives in Europe. Carney duly returned those video masters to me. They were in excellent condition.

Since that time, various companies have expressed interest in streaming my films, and UCLA, in conjunction with The Sundance Institute, have volunteered to archive video masters of Sundance alumni films. In early April, I made several requests to Carney for the return of my materials. I sent Carney several e-mails (to various e-mail addresses), and I called his home and office and left numerous messages. Carney ignored all of my attempts to reach him. As a result, I hired a lawyer and filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts, where a judge issued a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against Carney. The court entered a default against Carney (who had not responded to my complaint) and ordered Carney to return the materials to me, or else be held in contempt of court. After that, Carney hired a lawyer who stated Carney intends to defend his conduct by arguing that I “gave” him the materials outright as “a gift.”

There is much at stake here for me. Without the digital video masters, my films, everything prior to 1990, Casual Relations, Local Color, The Scenic Route, Impostors, Mark Rappaport—The TV Spin-Off, Chain Letters, plus the High-Definition version of Exterior Night, cannot be made available for streaming, commercial DVDs, video-on-demand, or any electronic delivery system down the road. My life as a filmmaker, my past, and even my future reputation as a filmmaker are at stake. I gave Carney no rights to my materials except the right to hold them and return them to me on request. His lawyer has refused to disclose the current location of my materials.

Carney tried to cast doubt on the truthfulness of the inventory I presented. Furthermore, under oath, he stated “some of the items I received I no longer have because I gave them away to third parties. I discarded other items due to the degraded and unusable condition they were in when I received them. Finally, I discarded other items at later dates after they were worn-out by the normal wear and tear of being used.” This is sworn statement from Carney who, earlier, on his website bragged, “Mark is a great friend and gave me almost everything he owned when he left New York for France… So I am now the ‘Mark Rappaport Archive.’ I have the largest collection of material by him in the world: file cabinets and storage bins full of amazing things: production notebooks, film prints, rough drafts, revisions, scripts, film stock, DVDs, tapes, notes, jottings, journals, etc. etc. etc. It’s a dream come true for me and one of the major film collections by one of the world’s greatest artists. All being preserved for posterity at any cost.” http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/aboutrc/letters57.shtml (PLEASE NOTE: If this interests you, go to the website before this entry is removed.)

Elsewhere, he describes me as “a genuine national treasure.”

The judge, at a pre-trial hearing, demanded that Carney supply the court with a full inventory of what he still had, what he gave away, and what he destroyed. Carney subsequently delivered a full inventory—which included absolutely everything I gave him. None of it had been given away or destroyed. Although he clearly had perjured himself, I was ecstatic to learn my materials were intact. After four and a half months of this, Carney got in touch with me to propose a deal, saying, “I sincerely wish you well and I am sorry this issue has come between us.” “I am willing,” he writes, to “ship everything back for a modest consideration, simply to cover my costs and the time and trouble of having stored the material for the past seven-and-a-half years.” In return for my own films, I was to pay him $27,000! Some may call this extortion, I call it merely outrageous. Just to put it in perspective, that would equal 3 years of the monies I get from Social Security. To continue the suit to trial would have cost me about the same amount, in addition to the thousands I had already spent. I couldn’t afford to continue.

Just when I filed for a dismissal of the suit, Carney demanded back, because he claims they were part of “the gift” I gave him, the video masters that he returned to me in 2010—namely From the Journals of Jean Seberg, Postcards, Exterior Night, and John Garfield.

I’ve heard somewhat similar stories from other filmmakers, although none quite as breathtaking as this.
For a variety of reasons, I think this is a cautionary tale you might consider emailing to colleagues, friends, and acquaintances who are interested in the conservation and protection of works by non-mainstream filmmakers, film preservation in general, and archiving not just films but film-related artifacts of the recent past by independent filmmakers. Please feel free email this letter, post this on Facebook pages, and submit it to various blogs.

If you want to write about this situation, I have much more information.
Sincerely,
Mark Rappaport
marrap@noos.fr

 

Prof. Carney has seemed to have gone into hiding after these alleged revelations have surfaced, and some, most notably filmmaker Jon Jost, colleague/friend of Ray, has suggested perhaps a sort of breakdown, mental or otherwise, may have occurred as repeated efforts by Jon to help resolve, buffer, or simply understand the situation, have all gone unanswered.

Glancing at a larger picture, a broader view, I think about the idea of collapse, in particular the “end days of arts”, where eventually everything gets streamlined into one channel – such as a single FM hits only radio station recycling the same song shuffle over and over.

The end of arts single channel system, comes to full fruition, when the margins begin bickering with one another, or begin losing it altogether, sucked into single channel behaviors – behaviors which Ray Carney’s alleged “pay me 27 grand for your rights back” attack , seems to suggest.

 “The margins define the page”. – Hal Hartley.

And when the margins go, guess what you got left. Carney was a significant voice from the margins. Though a few of the artists here on AVA have spoken with Ray casually and personally in the past in positive, enlightening talks, his attention or care towards this margin, AVA, is negligible. But being the said significant voice in the larger picture, makes this an important matter to resolve, and understand, for the sake of everyone swimming around in the sidebars of the last gasp single channel nearing environment.

Links:

Jon Josts open blog post.

Carney internet letter PDF

 

Comment with news, if any.

AWKWARD LOVE by Matthew Topartzer

still from “Awkward Love”

The new season of absurd is here as more new video works from the artists should, hopefully, be rolling out soon and will be posted up as they come. 

The first to come out of the gates is Matthew Topartzer with his feature documentary of sorts, “AWKWARD LOVE”.

If you took about a dozen thrift store or dumpster doven home movie shot VHS tapes, laid them on the ground and stomped on them continuously so they form one small clump, you might end up with Awkward Love. Like his previous film Mustard and Beer, this one is also comprised mostly of found VHS home movie footage. Of course it’s not as easy as a stomp job, as Topartzer went through a likely long and arduous process of selecting sequences, intersplicing them together and then interjecting his own more modern 3-D graphics into the mix.

Some of the manipulated imagery is beautiful, and some, if not a lot, of the found footage sequences are ugly and dull. The found segments go from horrible school video projects to talent shows to a bizarre failed short film called “Meat Hand”… and to everyday dull and awkward life; behind the consumer camera is someone with the belief that these recorded precious dull moments will be lovingly cherished forever. Instead, they get discarded. In some cases they’re found and used years later as part of surreal absurdist video art.

With AWKWARD LOVE, Topartzer doesn’t gimmick the material around with fast edits or clever and too easy attempts for laughs. Rather he let’s the original material roll…and speak for itself. This forces the viewer to sit through the sometimes excrutiating dullness and contemplate the absurdity of the act of filming these events; the haphazard choice of shots and subject the cameraman employs, the reactions of those being filmed, and the actual material itself. The real life moments we love, are often the dullest, most drawn out and uninteresting moments when recorded.

You have to factor in the time piece element to AWKWARD LOVE as well. These are once in a lifetime captured reactions and shooting styles, as video technology was newer at the time, more exciting, more clumsy, more seemingly “important”, whereas now we live in a world where nearly everyone has a video camera in their pocket, as part of their cell phone, and impromptu recording has become robotic, brief, and now delegated straight to instant social media publishing; a sort of one night stand, a sort of cheap love. With old consumer camera recordings, the act of filming was fresh and recorded as part of an intended longer relationship. 

The verbal reactions also make this a period piece as in one segment a young child says to his teacher, “You should put this on pay per view”, unaware that a thing called YouTube would soon trump such reactionary language.

Speaking of YouTube, unlike Topartzer’s past film MUSTARD AND BEER, (in which he was one of the first video artists to put a film on Amazon’s instant video, and charge for it) AWKWARD LOVE can be seen on YouTube for free as Matt chose to use that platform to upload it on.

YouTube is probably the worst place to watch this film. The small screen that most people won’t bother enlarging, the short attention span that YouTube watching has ingrained in most everyone, the buffering problem for some.  For most people Awkward Love is going to be a difficult, frustrating, annoying and long winded viewing experience as is. Using YouTube as a platform makes it even more brutal of a viewing experience. Topartzer probably knows all this, and probably doesn’t care.

Here’s AWKWARD LOVE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

PRECIOUS – A Novel by Collapse’s Kelly Broich

Kelly Broich is mainly known for being the front man for COLLAPSE, the video art/filmmaking/ex-theater group out of Boise, Idaho. But with a new release this week, he unveils another side not involving cameras or actors. Apparently, in between productions, Broich has been laboring away at a literary work of satire. A novel called PRECIOUS.

 I say laboring because PRECIOUS is a book which after reading had me wondering if novel writing will be more of a full-time devotion for Broich. It’s a very well-written book. And if you didn’t know his other side you’d think his main craft was novel writing, rather than, directing, scriptwriting and performing in an avant-garde production company.

 PRECIOUS starts somewhere in suburban America, with a classic suburbanite heavyset woman, a widow named DORIS, who just lost her cat. Tension mounts as Precious the cat fails to surface after the usual calling out and waiting time is employed. Then a grisly discovery is made.

 Soon after, we are introduced to CALEB, Doris’s 42 year old live at home son, who works as an equipment manager for the local minor league hockey team. Caleb learns of his “sisters” fate, and is stung to the core at the loss for many of the usual reasons one loses a pet, but mainly for another reason: a fantasy-based, bordering on perverted, reason, which reveals the Caleb character more fully.

 The loss of Precious requires drastic action to be taken. For reasons of closure and for reasons of revenge. Also, for reasons of a newfound cable television based religion.

 From here the novel sends you on an absurdist fictional journey, which is based on very realistic ingrained human beliefs. The unimagined consequences spiral into a bizarre and chilling climax. An excellent last chapter wraps the story up, and you’re left with a slew of satirical yet true to life issues for the mind to gnaw on over the coming days.

 PRECIOUS is both an American novel and a human novel.

 Broich manages to cover a fair chunk of classic Americana in very short time. Suburbia, sports addiction, American huckster religion, mindless consumerism, and classic overbearing parenting, are all succinctly tackled to impressive depth. They are also dealt with in a unique descriptive and often hilarious style. Caleb’s absurd athletic failings are that which you wouldn’t think. Instead of relying on beauty, Broich goes with chubby. Sex is handled in a rare way; the way it actually is in real life, simple and sloppy.

 The human aspect of the novel centers on a few different themes, one of which is the relationship we have with nature.

 PRECIOUS puts into play the idea of how humans create parameters as to what they accept as worthy animals, to be cuddled and “owned”, and unworthy animals to be shun, and even exterminated. Yet both belong to the same club, with the same instincts; yet exist within these different parameters based on the living situation which humans have established.

 It’s this mix of going from sanitized suburbia, directly into the complexities of  nature, that really make Precious a strong, solid read, with deeper issues to explore.  Intertwining these two in such a seamless satirical manner, had me questioning the absurdity of our living situation and the boundaries that we pretend exist, but in reality are invisible. Caleb physically crosses those boundaries as he takes a few steps out of a manufactured neighborhood and enters into “nature”. And then he invades nature. All because the reverse had happened, and humans believe that somehow both sides should be able to see and respect these imaginary boundaries which they created, which of course is illogical thinking.

 Perhaps it is Caleb’s simpleton nature which summons up a natural sense of overwhelming guilt for realizing he fell for the lie. While ingrained in the life of a sugar eating, living with mommy adult, he hasn’t had the commitments that most adults have had, thus he never developed a sense of ownership into a way of life which rationalizes the above boundaries. There is still some natural animalistic instinct in Caleb, to which he connects with. As we see unfold in the pages of PRECIOUS, this connection with the animal can be a redeeming and reassuring positive. But mixed with the human ego, it can also be a devastating and diabolical negative.

 The theme of the imaginary boundary is satirized in different situations throughout the novel. The idea of  crossing over to the other side and being accepted, the divide of deceased father and the still trying to please son, the boundary crossing of calling your mom a cunt; all explored in gut hilarious fashion. 

 PRECIOUS will have you connecting with the characters, laughing at their situations, and questioning the motives behind the bizarre human connectivity we have with nature and with our own manufactured reality.

author Kelly Broich

PRECIOUS is now available on Amazon. Get it here.

 

UPDATES #7 : Shaye Saint John

As we await new works to be released from many of our artists here, we wrap up our last update on someone who it may seem no update is possible. There are a few things to say though, and hopefully some more insight to follow.

Our own “GodMother of Absurdist Video Art”, Shaye Saint John, remains gone, though her online work, and legacy continues on.

Hard to believe her last upload was 5 years ago, yet recent comments to her online videos are only days/weeks old, with many being: “Is the uploader truly dead?” User ‘BrittanyBearz01’ replies, “Yes, it seriously breaks my heart :(”

But it’s user ‘ADancingRobot’ who sums it up perfectly:

It speaks volumes about the impact Shaye has made with his art when here we are almost 6 years later commenting on the beauty, horror, and intrigue of his videos. RIP you sick, brilliant fuck.

 

Yes.

This speaks towards the new media as well, the new situation in relation to arts, cinema, video arts especially. And that a “one night retrospective” is no longer relevant or needed. The retrospective is a continuous every day event, attracting new admirers all the time, in real time, every time.

In Shaye’s case, we did miss out on a huge behind the scenes aspect, made even larger and more frustratingly curious, by the nature of her, er, HIS work. Shaye, in real life, was that of Eric Fournier, who kept himself distinctly separate from his creation. Though a very nice, albeit brief nugget has surfaced, more on that in a moment.

As far as updates for Shaye go, there had been talk after Eric’s passing, that enough unearthed material had surfaced for a SECOND dvd release to be in the works. This was big news and very exciting. But since then there hasn’t been anything, and after attempted emails to the friend who appeared to be handling Shayes old myspace account and had made the announcement, no reply was ever returned.

My guess is the mountain of editing involved, and perhaps the realization, and now appreciation for the unique style Eric had with his sound design, purposeful cheesy layered effects, and quick cuts that made the task seem too much to take on.

What has surfaced over the past few years is a brief behind the scenes look at Eric’s Los Angeles residence where he lived with a roommate who apparently still lives there now and knew the exact spots where specific scenes were shot. He spoke on Eric’s long editing sessions, with mega render times (this being back in the day and all. )

I attempted contact with the guy who shot the piece, in a further attempt to get contact info for the roommate and possibly get an interview with him for more insight on Eric and his unique creation that continues to haunt, cause hilarity and utter internet confusion to this very day. Someone right now is watching a Shaye Saint John video wondering what in the fuck is going on.

No reply from the video maker as of yet.

Here’s his behind the scene’s piece of the late Shaye’s residence:

And of course, some classic Shaye: