[typed up hastily in an internet cafe, edited for spelling back at nofear hq]
The final screening on friday night, was something entitled "The Audible Picture Show", part of the film festival's shortfusion short film series.
Really, the title for this set of films should have given it away, but I didn't really give it much thought until the lights went down in the auditorium, and we spent the next 75 minutes or so in a darkened cinema listening to a totally aural experience.
Due to the almost complete absence of light there was not much opportunity for note taking. Some of the selections I was a bit confused about which was which, so any director wondering why there are no comments, it is nothing personal, let me listen to your work again! Anyway, a few brief notes made in the bar afterwards:
- Insideoutish - Director: Andrew Kitting (UK)
- Memorable Lane - Director: Simon Richardson (UK)
- A Sense of Place - Director: Tony Hill (UK)
- Blow Up - Director: Lucy Reynolds
- Masks Like These - Director: Zoe Irvine (UK)
- Scores Only - Director: John Parry (UK)
- The Modern Woodsman - Director: Adam Clitheroe (UK)
- C. Stein - Director: Joost Van Veen (Netherlands)
- The Practical Theory of Mr Clay - Director: Mr Clay (Austria)
- Rabies - The Hippies (UK)
- Falkirk Home Win - Director: John Parry (UK)
- A.H. - Erlebnis Mit Automobil - Director: Peter Frengler (Netherlands)
- M. Hulot's Close Encounters - Director: Matt Hulse (UK)
- Testing No.1 -
- Schnick Shnack Schnuck - Director: Zoe Irvine (UK)
- Dragon - Director: The Red Lights (USA)
- What are you Doing - Director: Andrew K�tting
- A Drinking Song - Director: Holger Mohaupt
- The Spectator is a Silkworm - Director: Judith Amicable (France)
- Darkened Cinema - Director: Denise Ondayko
- My Brother Makes the Noises for the Talkies
This work involved the director taking a blind girl to a location previously unknown to her, and the audience was taken on a journey of discovery as she wandered around this location, listening to the sounds and her description of the objects she came across. A cemetary perhaps?
A homage to those short videos seen at the begining of all commercial flights, including that memorable phrase, "Masks Like These", repeated over again.
A treat for those fans of Saturday afternoon football, and indeed those of us who were forced to switch from our regular programming so the eldest brother could listen to the football scores being read out at 5PM. This narrative consisted of the usual scores being read out, but with something blanked out, the names of the teams. Simple but suprisingly effective.
Again a very simple premise, but absolutely marvellous example of the use of sound, with no narrative, to make a complete story. It concerns a woodsman, sawing what we presume may be a small tree, interrupted by his phone ringing. Sadly he never makes it to the phone before it rings off, no matter whether he runs to answer it or if he tries to hold out and ignore it. Still, a happy ending as the caller finally learns to use that marvel of modern technology, the voicemail.
I believe this was the piece with the whirlitzer style organ music (apologies to the director, Joost Van Veen, if I've got this mixed up with a different one). Giving rise to many images of the seaside with it's cheery organ music, and to me at least, a couple of flashbacks to Eraserhead scenes, this was a relaxing and uplifting piece.
Mr Clay, explains his remarkable and to his mind, practical, theory for making a tourist attraction out of a massive lump of clay deposited into the core of a live volcanoe with the help of american military transport planes and some suitable weather. As Mr Clay points out many times, despite the hiccups and the slightly frantic speech, he is not drunk, oh no. Yet another cracking and entertaining work.
The hippies, a preteen punk band singing a song about rabies, that they recorded in a home recording studio in 1979.
The companion piece to Scores Only, but I'm afraid I was distracted through most of this piece by the giggling of my colleagues who thought the audio sounded very much like the sounds coming from one of their colleagues whilst doing his business in the toilets.
The notes in the programme explain "Found audio, casette labelled Testing No.1". If so, that makes this all the more fun. It consists mostly of an old couple who are trying to use their cassette player for recording themselves and various radio programmes of their choosing. Unfortunately the man is having great trouble getting the machine to record, although as he explains to an unknown third party it does so when holding down the record and play buttons, it always seems to stop recording the moment he lifts his fingers off the buttons.
The red lights live at the bowery poetry club in NYC in November 2002, featuring Miss Liz apparently. They seem to "like girls".
An exploration of the short wave bands, with a number of cows and cowbells (of the alpine variety) giving us some background sounds.
The American National Anthem as you've never heard it before (roseanne barr eat your heart out). Sung by the Spencer Family, of Nantucket USA.
A contributor to the film festival does a last minute rant into the microphone before heading to Fedex to send the finished tape off to Cambridge. Amongst the many gems she packs into her diatribe, I learnt that BlockBuster video is owned by a religious rightwing organization, that stocks films only that cater to it's sensibilities and which blockbuster takes upon itself to censor for the film viewing public.
No compilation of this kind could be complete without this song, which I thought was written and published by the Bono Dog Dooh-Dah Band, but it appears it might be an earlier work. An excellent song to finish off a remarkable and unique cinema experience.
Dear Doug
Thank you for your review!
Matt Hulse
The Audible Picture Show
Hello. I don’t have a copy of whatever it was I said for Matt’s Audible Picture Show, so its certainly likely I gave you an incorrect impression in at least one case:
Blockbuster does carry all sorts of films that wouldn’t fall under a born-again led dogma – the larger, offensive films are the ones they edit. The handful of indies and foreign films that slip in are left alone. Examples: The Bad Lieutenant – 4 entire scenes were edited out. That they do this at all is insulting, of course.
I am very impressed with your site and so much of your work. I look forward to exploring it more.
My heart is broken at this dark, dark day with an oath for a second term…. 1/20/05