Degradation #2: Scratch

Made in collaboration with Paul Bishow

(2008, 16mm, 7min, color)

The emulsion of a film loop and its optical soundtrack are scratched nearly completely from its surface by a "modified" record needle, whose sound we hear. This process is followed in progressive steps. While the source material speaks of mining, digging, and drilling, the film emulsion screeches and screams.

MORE ON THE DEGRADATION SERIES/HOW THEY WERE MADE

1, 2, 3, WHITEOUT

aka THE END OF THE LIGHT AGE
(North American title)

Starring Karine Adrover and Lou Castel
(2007, 35mm, color, French and English, 75 min)
USA / France

more

Recycling the Newsreel
with Paul McIsaac

co-directed with Ivora Cusack

(2007, DV, English, 65 minutes)

distribution/production (France)

This documentary examines the film collective The Newsreel (1968-1971) through the works of the group itself and the personal perspectives of media activist and original member Paul McIsaac. Excerpts from The Newsreel films along with recent interviews with McIsaac conducted at various independent media organizations combine to create links between media and resistance movements past and present.

Degradation 1: X-Ray

Part 1: Shroud of Security

(16mm, 3min. 30, color, 2007)

Part 2. Government Radiation

(16mm, 3min. 30, color, 2006)

Shroud deals a radiation blow to virgin film through air travel security, this volume, through US government security checkpoints.

Sound by Violet (aka Jeff Surak)

HOW THEY WERE MADE

Saucisse (4.5 min, video, 2002)

"Wat kun je zien vanuit een worstkraampje?"

Through the thick smoke of sausage stands appears the decrepit image of the extreme right xenophobe Jean-Marie Le Pen. Though he is one step away from the French presidency in May 2002, the clandestinely filmed scenes of this rally foretell his defeat.

Median Strip (9 min., color, 16mm, 1999)

"Through the metaphor of the American freeway and the use of found footage, we sense how mobility and freedom of movement are kept in check by a booming incarceration business." Festival International du Film Indépendant, Brussels, Belgium This final chapter of the Dystopian Trilogy came to be used as an educational tool by the folks at Critical Resistance.

OASIS (10 min., color, 16mm, 1995)

Surreal rendering of a "master-planned" community, Green Valley, in the suburbs of Las Vegas, Nevada - with members of the band Combustible Edison.

 

Faerie-Monition

(8 min, color, 16mm, 1993)

This distilled atmospheric portrait is a glimpse of what was once called a "cultural Chernobyl", Euro- Disney. It was shot soon after the amusement park's opening in 1992, just outside of Paris, France.

click here for more about the Dystopian Trilogy

16mm prints of the Dystopian Trilogy films are available for rental through CANYON CINEMA

A video copy of the Dystopian Trilogy is available in a VHS cassette format with box cover designed by Santiago Cucullu (why VHS is a great format)

Blue is Beautiful (32 min., color, 16mm, 1997)

press clippings

This road movie was made with DC's notorious gospel-punk outfit The Make-Up. The musicians seek "creative asylum" in a subcultural womb. Parisian critic: "C'est comme si Foucault roulait avec les situationistes dans le Scooby-Doo Van" Starring The Make-Up and psychadelica filmmaker Tom Howell.

DVD with Blue is Beautiful and an hour of Make-Up wunder material available through

November, 2006

Contact through site for 16mm print available for rental.

The Staticose Chamber (8 min., color, 16mm, 1997)

Documentation of The Staticose Chamber, a device (work in progress) which uses methodically orchestrated combinations of image and sound to reverse the effects of excessive or incapacitating types of audio-visual abuse. With Dr. Harun Nazir, Paul and Travis Bishow, Lely Constantinople, Peter Hoey, and Dr. Stanley Kaplan. Produced by The Monadic Institute.

This film is visible online at