On 12 Years a Slave – also a dud.

on 12 years a Slave. This years companion piece to The Butler is 12 Years a Slave, a sort of Django Re-Chained starring a guy whose name is almost impossible to pronounce (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Just as we get two or so big ‘Oscar Worthy’ (snort) WW2 holocaust movies each year from Hollywood, it seems we now get same about African American subjects and oppression, etc, etc. 12 Years a Slave is the latest one – and it’s a rather turgid, dull, painful to watch and pointless experience. Here the nastier aspects of Slavery are gloated over in a, it must be said, rather Sadomasochistic way by English gay film maker Steve McQueen. McQueen uses his video art stylistics to present slavery vignettes and tableaus better suited to kInk.com – that as one now tarnished New York Film Critic noted – reek of ‘Uncle Tomism’ and a sadistic gloating over the nastiness of 19th century Southern slavery. Naturally ‘White Man is The Devil’ in this movie: you get the gentle kind Slaver in Benedict Cumberbatch, you get the chip on his shoulder racist young man in Paul Dano (who get’s a good whipping from the main character in this – that was fun I will admit), you get the whitey opposed to Slavery but who works with Slaves in Brad Pitt and FINALLY you get the Totally Psychotic Slave owner in Micheal Fassbinder. The latter fucks one of the more attractive slave girls and yet beats the skin off just about everybody else in a pointless and nihilistic way to make the point about the heart of ‘evil whitey’ over and over again. You get the idea. The main problem with these type of films from Hollywood is a Nietzshean one. You are being presented with a sympathetic slave morality in these films MADE by people who clearly live by the more morally ambiguous Master Morality. So, in the final analysis this film is at it’s essence deeply inauthentic and hypocritical. You can take that to the bank and as Michael Fassbinder might say in the movie “that’s scripture!”

 

On Ryan Gosling and Nic Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives

Back from Only God Forgives. First Up: The film is not a Drive – sadly. It is ‘interesting’. Which means it’s OK on some levels – but is really not that good. The rumours out of Cannes about it being a bit crap had some legs. Nicholas Winding Refn tries to sort through his Mommy issues in a odd, stilted and strange tale of a revenge cycle taking place in Bangkok. The huge mistake of the film is the use and embrace of an out of place formalism. Bangkok is SO not the place to make a formalist movie – as it’s so hustle and bustle – but Refn tries is darndest. It’s influenced heavily by a little seen film – Soi Cowboy – by Thomas Clay (MUFF 2009) another Euro filmmaker going all formalist in Thailand – it’s almost a copy of that movie. Gosling wanders around silently for most of the film with a look on his face wondering “WTF am I meant to be doing in this shot?”. It has all the ear marks and potential to be a great film. But the rather poor to non existent script and out of place formalism makes it a lesser work in the Refn oeuvre, in my humble opinion. Kristen Scott Thomas brings some life to it in a fairly impressive turn as Gangtser Mom -but she can’t save it and it never really rocks. It’s worth a look of, course. If you are a formalist cinema fan you may like it. It’s well shot and has a certain strange charm, still that gets you thinking about it. Oh and the good news is: I’m in it! – for a blink and you’ll miss it uncredited cameo as Gosling approaches the Sukhumvit Road when he is following Vithaya Pansringarm in a white T-shirt. As Gosling turns on to Sukhumvit I enter frame (top left) for about two seconds looking sleazy. That completely random synchronicity of fate or whatever tells me I’ll work with one of these guys (Gosling or Refn) one day.

MUFF 14 Call for Entries – One Month to Go

The quest for controversy is well underway once again as submissions for the Melbourne Underground Film Festival are open until 28 June.

MUFF are seeking innovative filmmakers to follow the revolutionary path of James Wan and many others to take out a MUFF award at Australia’s wildest independent film festival. If you are a low budget cinematic insurgent then submit your film, long or short, by following instructions available on www.muff.com.au.

MUFF is renowned for showing the type of transgressive, progressive, transcendental and just plain mad productions that will never be screened at Hoyts. We don’t care if you shoot on the latest red camera or an old and banged up PD150. If your original film demonstrates passion, spirit, inventiveness and guts in any genre then we want you to receive the recognition you deserve.

MUFF has been discovering Australia’s most interesting cinematic talent for close to fifteen years so if you’re a creative revolutionary then we want you to get involved.

MUFF will be publicly exposed from 6-14 September. What has been seen can never be unseen.

WWW.MUFF.COM.AU

Me with Guru Shaun Partridge – receiving spiritual guidance for MUFF 14, Feb 2013, Portland, OR.

The Last Days of Joe Blow – New Trailer

The Last Days of Joe Blow Trailer on Vimeo.

We have had to cut it a bit to meet their silly sexuality guidelines.

Trust me the feature is much juicier.

It is at the AFM right now, folks, with the Producer Jason Byrne. So if you’re from a fest playing next year and want to see it – drop Jason a line and meet up/make contact. etc.

Otherwise sit back and enjoy the trailer. http://vimeo.com/52599100

Rough credits:

Director/C0-Producer-Richard Richard Wolstencroft, Producer-Jason Byrne, Co-Producer-Tait Brady, Associate Producer/Editor-Mark Bakaitis. Camera-Mark Mark Savage & Richard Wolstencroft, Music-David Thrussell, Damian Whitty and others. Featuring Michael Tierney as Joe Blow. Also featuring William Margold, Ron Jeremy, Eric John, Missy Woods, Charlie Chase, Jeremy Steele and many others. Special guest commentators Bruce LaBruce and Andrew Richardson.

A few stills below. A couple with raunch.

Jeff Sparrow author of Money Shot and his talk at MFU reviewied and caricatured.

I attended a lecture on the subject of censorship, pornography and free speech at Melbourne Free University (a tiny gallery space in Lygon Street) whose speaker was author Jeff Sparrow, author of Money Shot.

To provide some background: I was banned from MFU three months back for talking on the exactly same topic – due to what they perceived as my political indiscretions that they either wished to silence, side line or shun. Even though I never would have really touched on that topic, of course.This was a rather perverse irony as it was all about free speech (supposedly!) but here were the advocates censoring what THEY didn’t understand. The average leftist liberal is all about diversity and difference on the surface – unless of course you really are diverse or different – then you are a persona non grata. I didn’t raise the banning of me from MFU as I am polite.

Also the entire audience was Anglo Saxon or European apart from ONE half Asian chap. I’m sure there are many Far Right meetings more ethnically diverse. Doubly Hilarious!

Author Jeff Sparrow from Money Shot I had met before. He had asked me for an extended interview 2 years ago on LA Zombie – which I happily and graciously gave him over a long friendly lunch. I thought we had got along fine – but Sparrow hid his thoughts. As a limp wristed Marxist wannabe he objected  (like MFU) to something I had said somewhere in internet land and decided to caricature me a bit in his recently published book Money Shot – on porn and censorship.

Which is fine – I find that kind of thing funny from a perspective of ideology, etc.

But allow me to return the favour a little: Sparrow is a fey, glib, myopic and innocuous twit in a RRR T Shirt and knows little about the topic on which he speaks. He reduces censorship and the whole debate to an under graduate reflection on dialectical materialism – which is how the not so sly devil slips his outdated Marxist crap in to his rather constructed and biased narrative. He was ungracious – not acknowledging me after being in a chapter of his book. He was not generous when I asked politely if I could have a copy of his book – he was selling them there as a chapter was on me – he said no, rather rudely blaming his publisher. I am well aware from many books readings and appearances that a simple word from him would secure a copy for someone featured in the book.etc

When I questioned the poverty of his method of approach – in the question time – relying mainly on the issues of commodification and materialism and ignoring the whole ontological, Libertarian, Libertine and hedonistic aspects of the debate – he stone walled. Other questions were absurd: one women felt ‘pursued by porn’ I wanted to ask her did it chase her down the street or around her apartment? This kind of attitude reveals a repressed desire to indulge in pornographic Libertinage and hedonism. Other questions concerned the ban of porn in Aboriginal settlements in the NT – which is plain patriarchal racism. But as it was implemented or maintained by Labour there was much pussy footing around that issue. When I pointed out that his own left liberal views, as he admitted!, are the views of the current censor regime – making him the the defacto enemy he is supposedly criticizing and investigating – he was gob smacked and moved on quickly.

Again not even willing to engage in any kind of real debate or discussion. This is what he is like and what goes on at these type of events. Nothing is said – everything is omitted. It’s self censorship – of the very worst kind – and an act of cowardice.

Which If I had to caricature Sparrow – that is how I would do so – as a coward. Touche to you Jeff.

And, also allow me to add: fuck you pal for being such a rude, inconsiderate and unappreciative journo pretender.

MUFF 12 Winners

Chosen by jury head Jimmy The Exploder in consultation with The MUFF team.

BEST FILM

A Serbian Film (Srdjan Spasojevic)

BEST ACTOR

Michael Dorman (Needle)

BEST ACTRESS (Tie)

Viva Bianca (Holly Rowe ‘X’)

& Hanna Mangan Lawrence (Shay Ryan ‘X’)

BEST DIRECTOR

Larry Wessel (Iconoclast)

BEST DOCO

Iconoclast (Larry Wessel)

BEST SCREENPLAY

James Harkness (Birthday)

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE

Needle (John V Soto)

BEST GUERILLA FILM (Tie)

Boronia Backpackers (Timothy Spanos)

& Garth Lives in a Van (Gregory Pakis)

BEST SUPORTING ACTOR (Winner)

Richard Wilson (Birthday)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (Winner)

Kestie Morassi (Birthday)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Needle

SHORTS:

BEST SHORT FILM

Good Taste

RUNNER-UP BEST SHORT FILM

Gumby’s New Tit

BEST SHORT FILM DIRECTOR

Michael Adams/Charlotte Squires (Grandma’s Gift)

BEST SHORT FILM ACTOR

Paul Yardley (Don’t Ya Wanna Dance)

BEST SHORT FILM ACTRESS

Deanna Ortuso (A Tale of Obsession)

BEST SHORT SCREENPLAY

Michael Adams/Charlotte Quires (Grandma’s Gift)

BEST POSTER

Needle (Horror Version)

 

 

MUFF 12 Catalogue up and a new blog about MUFF

MUFF 12 catalogue in all its brutal and beautiful glory at: http://www.muff.com.au

New MUFF blog by JJ DeCeglie. http://notesfromundergroundmuff2011.tumblr.com/

Opening night a nice little piece of Eastern European Cinema, A Serbian Film.

The MUFF 12 Press Release:

SourceURL:file:///Macintosh%20HD/Users/richardwolstencroft/Desktop/MUFF%2012/MUFF%2012%20Press%20Release.doc

MUFF 12 is here! The most controversial and confronting film festival, even arts event, this fine country has to offer. Yes, all you screen zombies… we are back in 2011 to: Destroy All Movies!

“Destroy All Movies” can be taken as a query, a question and even a complaint about cinema itself. How often do we question our passion in this kind of ontological sense and depth?  At MUFF 12 we go there.

Australia’s premiere film festival for anything left (or right!) of centre, Indy or underground is back with a vengeance. In 2010 they tried to shut MUFF and renegade film festival director Richard Wolstencroft down, over LA Zombie, with a MUFF Raid and court trail over our Free Speech advocacy and action. But like the proverbial Phoenix MUFF is back in 2011 to cause more mayhem.

Festival dates are: August 19 to 27. We have two ace venues this year: the amazing re-opened art deco cinema venue St Kilda Memo at 88 Acland st St Kilda (behind the RSL) and it’s sister venue Dog’s Bar Art’s Hub just down the road from Memo at 54 Acland Street.

We have four great sections: MUFF Neu – presenting a range of low budget and Indy underground and genre cinema with highlights like Needle, Iconoclast (on Boyd Rice by Larry Wessell), 2012 and Birthday, MINI MUFF – presenting new short films from Australia and abroad, with highlights The Basher, Hooked, 6ft Hick, Payload and Garth Lives in a Van; our themed retrospective DESTROY ALL MOVIES – featuring the anti-aesthetic of Paul Morrissey, Joe Dellasandro and Andy Warhol, and the MUFF ACADEMY is back! At this year’s academy we have the Billy Marshall Stoneking intensive acting seminar and a screening of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Saló” followed by a discussion panel on the film’s merits (or lack thereof) as well as a broader discussion on the sense of censorship.

Plus our notorious gala Opening Night film “A Serbian Film”, one of the most fiendish movies we have ever played at MUFF. And, keeping with our Tribute to Serbia theme for Opening/Closing our Closing Night film is “The Life and Death of a Porno Gang,” followed by the esteemed MUFF 12 awards.

Check out the program online or at any good store or shop in yo’ hood. 24 sessions, over 9 days, all at two venues with a bonus Mystery Screening. What more can you ask? Streamlining is the name of the game.  Check it out and join the local cinema screen revolution.

Best Regards

Richard Wolstencroft

Melbourne Underground Film Festival Director

Full program online now: http://www.muff.com.au/

The 1st Bloodfest Fantastique Film Festival Award Winners

Best Film

 

– The Tunnel (Carlo Ledesma)

 

 

 

Best Director

 

– Chris Sun (Come and Get Me)

– Josh Reed (Primal)

 

 

 

Best Actor

 

– Damian Walshe-Howling (The Reef)

 

 

 

Best Actress

 

– Kelsie McDonald (Come and Get Me)

 

 

 

Best Supporting Actor

 

– Michael Rooker (Penance)

– Steve Davis (The Tunnel)

 

 

 

Best Supporting Actress

 

– Kerry Ann Reid (Family Demons)

 

 

 

Best Screenplay

 

– Ursula Dabrowsky (Family Demons)

 

 

 

Best Editor

 

– Michael Gilbert (Come and Get Me)

 

 

 

Best Cinematography

 

– Shing Fung Cheung, Steve Davis (The Tunnel)

 

 

 

Best Special Effects and Make-Up

 

 

– Chris Sun (Come and Get Me)

 

 

Best Cult Film

 

– Starship Invasions

 

 

 

Best Short Film

 

– Meth to Madness (Chris Mitchell)

 

 

 

Best Short Film Director

 

 

– Chris Mitchell (Meth to Madness)

 

 

Best Short Film Actor

 

– Jeremy Kewley (Shepherd’s Hill)

 

 

 

Best Short Film Actress

 

– Jamie McDowell (Home)

 

 

 

Bloodfest Genre Innovation Award

 

– Someone’s Knocking at the Door (Chad Ferrin)

 

 

 

Special Short Film Jury Prize

 

– Flow (Scott Dale)

 

 

Special Jury Prize

 

– The Reef (Andrew Traucki)

 

 

Best Documentary

 

– Video Nasties (Jake West)

Bloodfest Fantastique Director’s Statement

“I know you alone understand the people I use to help me in these things, understand that they are only elements undergoing change to fuel the radiance of what I am Becoming. Just as the source of light is burning.”
– Francis Dollarhyde – Michael Mann Manhunter / Thomas Harris Red Dragon.

Transformation and metamorphosis. Change and evolution. The transcendence. These themes are at the heart of most horror and science fiction films. We are all just elements undergoing change to fuel the radiance of what we are becoming. And what we are becoming at present is Bloodfest Fantastique!

Welcome to Bloodfest Fantastique, an event we hope will become Australia’s first national festival of horror and science fiction cinema.

After the success of MUFF 11 I decided it would be a kick to start a new spin off festival that specifically dealt with two of my favorite cinema genres, horror and sci-fi. Bloodfest will be focused purely on these two wonderful genres and avoid the local film politics and other issues we deal with at MUFF. It will be a conduit of cinematic wonder and terror aimed at genre fans, cinephiles and movie geeks everywhere.

We will have a theme at Bloodfest as we do at MUFF. Why? Because that kind of thing is not done at Australia’s so-called “quality” film festivals. Most totally lack any personality and curatorial direction and distinction and we like to buck that trend. The theme of Bloodfest is futurism and barbarism. As we move further in to the 21st Century we see a lot of disharmony, discord and violence all around the world. The horror and dystopian science fiction film totally examines this situation and prepares us for what could be a bleak future. Harlan from Videodrome described it thus, “The West is getting soft, patrón, and the rest of the world is getting tough. Very, very tough. We’re entering savage new times and we’re going to have to be pure and direct… and strong… if we’re going to survive them.” It is in the spirit of these words from horror master David Cronenberg that we thematise our first festival. 

We have an amazing program of films that speaks for itself. 21 sessions, over 9 days, at one venue. Streamlining is the name of the game. Just check them out here in our smorgasbord of cinematic mayhem and trouble making to whet even the most depraved genre fan’s appetite. 

Enjoy the festival. I look forward to discussing cinema and existence with any of you during the festival. Just come up and say “hi”.

Best Regards

Richard Wolstencroft

Bloodfest Catalogue Now Online Horror and Sci Fi Fiends!

Check out the Bloodfest Fantastique website.With downloadable catalogue. Full interactive website up this week.

See: http://bloodfest.com.au/

“The Horror, The Horror” – Kurtz once said. All he missed out on was, “The Sci Fi, The sci fi”…

Come to Bloodfest Fantastique 2011 or Micheal Rooker will come and get you !