Really frightening film adaptation of Goethe’s Der Erlkönig. Raymond Salvatore Harmon made this film that revels in the dark terror of fairy tales. It’s a densely layered film that conveys the sense of riding through the forest beautifully. Those trees keep going by and the dolls bounce along on their horse. Amazing! I love terrifying fairy tales! A child, held tight in his father’s arms, senses a supernatural being of some sort approaching. You’ve got to pay attention to this one right up to the end!
Category Archives: Movies
All our films and animations!
MOCA Film on Artist Alexis Smith
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles is producing a series of short films about LA artists in their studios. They sort of lean toward the cute clever artist in their oh so picturesquely messy work spaces mentality. But sometimes it’s nice to see a little mess and hear a few comments from an artist. I happen to like this one about Alexis Smith. I like her comments about not knowing where her art is going and how she keeps all this stuff around to make it with. I think what she means is that she just digs around in pile of crap and throws a whole bunch of junk together and suddenly goes ‘Oh wow! There it is!’ Of course, to do that you’ve got to have a really fine pile of junk.
All My Life – Film by Bruce Baillie
I found this 1966 Bruce Baillie film on the Echo Park Film Center‘s Facebook page. It’s just a simple fence and I imagine an ocean behind it every time I watch. The fence is like a track.
A Prayer for Cool – Super 8 Biker Film by Marc Bencivenga
It’s not the bikes that I like so much. It’s the super 8! A perfect little piece of humorous filmmaking that really does somehow capture a kind of coolness and easy rebellion that I thought was long gone. There’s some absolutely gorgeous photography going on here. And who ever sees someone lighting up a cigarette with so much perfection as in this film! You just don’t see that anywhere anymore ever.
Marc Bencivenga made this and he apparently did it with a fifty-year-old super 8 camera.
Art Film: The Offering
A film for artist Wendell Mc Shine’s upcoming show, The Offering. There’s just something about good drawings in a book with crinkly paper.
Sesame Street Bans Boobs
Katy Perry sang this song for Sesame Street and then some nasty parents complained about her showing too much cleavage for the little tot audience and so the piece was banned from the TV show! Oh no! What’s going on with parents? Maybe they’re turning into boobs. Don’t kids like boobs anymore? I did when I was a little guy. It ain’t called the boob tube for nothing. What’s the problem? She just wants to play. I’ll play with her. It’s actually a rather good music video.
Kids, if you have a parent who’s afraid of boobs you’ve got real problems ahead. Beware and seriously consider changing who you hang out with.
Film: Fellini’s Death
Jeff Alu is a photographer making films who I met at the Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago. Cool guy. He’s also made this perfectly dream-like dream sequence that’s a part of his in-production film, 12 Dreams. I look forward to seeing all twelve! We had a brief discussion at the opening night of the film festival about the cameras we use and the filming of dream sequences. I said I thought they were kind of difficult, but Jeff clearly stated that no, I was wrong, they are easy! Well, they are easy for him and I like what he ends up with. The Fellini thing comes through clearly. Alu is onto it somehow. The pillow fight is extraordinary and I think the inclusion of the tabletop city model is brilliant.
During the film festival week in downtown L.A. they played Alu’s film on a video monitor in one of the galleries at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art. I love watching gallery films and Fellini’s Death look great there.
Film: Homeboy
Here’s another great film from Marvin Tiberious in Italy. ‘Nobody really talks about it, but we are moving peoples.’ That’s what he says in the film. It is one of the most beautiful thing’s I’ve ever seen on YouTube. He draws and speaks. The film shows how natural it is for people to move around and to not want to offer up their lives fighting for some spot of land.
Yellow Plastic Raygun Wins Best Experimental Film Award at Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles
Well I’m just very pleased about this. The Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles has given my film, Yellow Plastic Raygun, the award for Best Experimental Film. I was having quite a nice week attending various parties and screenings at the festival. Its use of multiple locations in the heart of downtown Los Angeles gives one a real sense of taking part in the life of the city and being involved with something that’s helping to foster the exploding art and film scene in downtown. Most of the short films were screened in the new Civic Center Theater at the intersection of First and Main Streets, in the shadow of the famous City Hall tower that has appeared in so many crime shows and film noir classics. I attended the screening of my own film this past Saturday evening and was amazed at seeing it large since I had put so much work into it on small monitors. What’s great about the Downtown Film Festival is that it shows a wide range of filmmaking styles, crew sizes and budgets. They show films made with lots of production resources right alongside films made by individual artists working with inexpensive HD cameras and even cell phone cameras. I am very proud to have won this and I look forward to more great festivals in downtown Los Angeles from the people who put this together.
Film: The Beat of New York
A film by Thomas Noesner, Tim Hahne and Toussaint. Some professionals go to New York to film a car commercial and end up making something that’s actually worth watching while they’re on their own free time. Nice colors, movements and lots of sneaky cool people watching!
Film: Spaceman
Jono Schaferkotter wrote and directed this short sci-fi film that places a spaceship crew in love and peril during a mission to find more resources for Earth. But the spaceship is an apartment. It’s a clever mix of perspectives and imaginary circumstances that play out over the course of a short romance. The film was made with no budget but it features some lovely special effects and a very convincing space walk.
Yellow Plastic Raygun Selected for Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles
The Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles has made my latest short film, Yellow Plastic Raygun, part of their official selection! So if you are in Los Angeles on Saturday, September 11, 2010 and you want to see an evening of short films, come by the Civic Center Theater at First and Main Street right across from the City Hall building. The shorts program starts at 10:00 pm. Here’s a link to the festival schedule.
I am very happy about this. I like the idea of a film festival right here at home where I can go and hang around with some other insane filmmakers. It should be an interesting Saturday night.
Kodak Color Film Test from 1922
Sometimes it’s difficult to imagine the far-flung past in anything other than black & white because that’s the kind of image we usually see. But here is one of the oldest color film tests from the Kodak company in 1922. Here’s a link to information about the footage.
Via Neatorama
Film: Electro-Magnetic Flight And You!
A fantastic low-budget retro science fiction military training film for our brave UFO-fighting squads! Electro-Magnetic Flight And You! was made by Angus Lyne in 2006.
Film Noir: The Big Combo
A great old film noir from 1955 starring Cornel Wilde. The Big Combo, directed by Joseph H. Lewis is about a tormented detective, Leonard Diamond, who becomes obsessed with taking down a nasty gangster called Mr. Brown. There’s a woman stuck in the middle and Diamond wants to save her.
The film is loaded with superb noir imagery and maintains a good level of tension all the way through. There are also lots of choice tough-guy lines.