Independent's Day
The Art of Pixelvision/ Indie Corner 2006/ Berkeley In The Sixties
all first appeared in www.filmsinreview.com
The Art of Pixelvision/ Indie Corner 2006/ Berkeley In The Sixties
all first appeared in www.filmsinreview.com
THE ART OF PIXELVISION
Children's toys are mostly simpler, easier to use imitations of adult tools, such as
mini-trucks and remote controlled toy tanks. In 1987, Fisher-Price figured their easy to
use, toy video camera, the PXL-2000, would sell big. "They wanted it to be so simple,
that the kiddie film-maker can concentrate only on his art." explained Gerry Fialka,
founder of the PXL-THIS Festival. The toy camera recorded a black and white image,
with sound onto regular audio cassettes. "Kids didn't go for the camera. They wanted
their toy camera to produce Hollywood color and clarity." The PXL-2000's black and
white image was so faded, it had no real blacks and whites, just shades of dead grey.
The image also had square grains instead of dots, creating a dream-like, moving
mosaic. Kids and parents were scared by the black-and-white "horror film" image it gave,
but adult artists gravitated towards it, giving this new medium a name - Pixelvision. By
Christmas 1989, the PXL-2000 was pulled from the market. Nonetheless, Pixelvision
artists began to crop up. The camera became a garage sale favorite, going for five or
ten dollars. Garage sellers noticed a Pixelvision art movement out there, so PXL-2000s
wound up on eBay for as high as $420. The PXL-2000 wears down considerably every
time you use it. Replacement parts do not exist. "It is the only art form that edges
towards extinction with every use." comments an interviewed PXL artist.
Precious Realm Production's THE ART OF PIXELVISION traces PXL-2000's history, (we
even see Fisher Price's original 1987 commercial for the PXL-2000) The disc set also
showcases short films made by Pixelvision artists. The hypnotic and honestly sad TOY
SOLDIERS, uses these dissipated images to reflect the feelings of a child whose father
is away at war. However, GHOST STORY, starring an out-of-focus narrator yelling out a
freaked out ghost yarn, gets tiring. My favorite was THE LONELY, a beautifully shot
PXL-2000 drama about a male loner and his ethereal female friends. Another moody
Pixelvision short uses (or purloins) Franz Waxman's BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN score
and Bernard Hermann's thunderous MYSTERIOUS ISLAND ballad to accommodate his
soft black and white water-color like images. Not all Pixelvision shorts are gloom and
darkness. ZAP YER ASS is an infomercial filmed like Dreyer's VAMPYR. A barely visible
inventor introduces his new product, a stun gun that zaps people who annoyingly yak
away publicly on cell phones.
We see clips of the PXL-2000 used for feature films. Michael Almareyda's funky urbane
1994 horror film, NADJA uses Pixelvision in scenes depicting a vampire's point of view.
Here the dissipated grey and white images look like an elevator's security cam turned
nasty. In a more fun mode, Richard Linklater used Pixelvision for scenes in SLACKER..
THE ART OF PIXELVISION is an exciting two disc set with the original Fisher-Price
instruction manual, essays about the Pixelvision art movement, a PXL-2000 Modification
Guide, and instructions on how to enter the PXL-THIS Film Festival. As one Pixelvision
artist explains: "I found a toy that became a creative tool."
Children's toys are mostly simpler, easier to use imitations of adult tools, such as
mini-trucks and remote controlled toy tanks. In 1987, Fisher-Price figured their easy to
use, toy video camera, the PXL-2000, would sell big. "They wanted it to be so simple,
that the kiddie film-maker can concentrate only on his art." explained Gerry Fialka,
founder of the PXL-THIS Festival. The toy camera recorded a black and white image,
with sound onto regular audio cassettes. "Kids didn't go for the camera. They wanted
their toy camera to produce Hollywood color and clarity." The PXL-2000's black and
white image was so faded, it had no real blacks and whites, just shades of dead grey.
The image also had square grains instead of dots, creating a dream-like, moving
mosaic. Kids and parents were scared by the black-and-white "horror film" image it gave,
but adult artists gravitated towards it, giving this new medium a name - Pixelvision. By
Christmas 1989, the PXL-2000 was pulled from the market. Nonetheless, Pixelvision
artists began to crop up. The camera became a garage sale favorite, going for five or
ten dollars. Garage sellers noticed a Pixelvision art movement out there, so PXL-2000s
wound up on eBay for as high as $420. The PXL-2000 wears down considerably every
time you use it. Replacement parts do not exist. "It is the only art form that edges
towards extinction with every use." comments an interviewed PXL artist.
Precious Realm Production's THE ART OF PIXELVISION traces PXL-2000's history, (we
even see Fisher Price's original 1987 commercial for the PXL-2000) The disc set also
showcases short films made by Pixelvision artists. The hypnotic and honestly sad TOY
SOLDIERS, uses these dissipated images to reflect the feelings of a child whose father
is away at war. However, GHOST STORY, starring an out-of-focus narrator yelling out a
freaked out ghost yarn, gets tiring. My favorite was THE LONELY, a beautifully shot
PXL-2000 drama about a male loner and his ethereal female friends. Another moody
Pixelvision short uses (or purloins) Franz Waxman's BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN score
and Bernard Hermann's thunderous MYSTERIOUS ISLAND ballad to accommodate his
soft black and white water-color like images. Not all Pixelvision shorts are gloom and
darkness. ZAP YER ASS is an infomercial filmed like Dreyer's VAMPYR. A barely visible
inventor introduces his new product, a stun gun that zaps people who annoyingly yak
away publicly on cell phones.
We see clips of the PXL-2000 used for feature films. Michael Almareyda's funky urbane
1994 horror film, NADJA uses Pixelvision in scenes depicting a vampire's point of view.
Here the dissipated grey and white images look like an elevator's security cam turned
nasty. In a more fun mode, Richard Linklater used Pixelvision for scenes in SLACKER..
THE ART OF PIXELVISION is an exciting two disc set with the original Fisher-Price
instruction manual, essays about the Pixelvision art movement, a PXL-2000 Modification
Guide, and instructions on how to enter the PXL-THIS Film Festival. As one Pixelvision
artist explains: "I found a toy that became a creative tool."
 | |  | |  |
| INDIE CORNER- WINTER 2006 In the 1970’s, every American town had one or two homegrown rock bands, young beginner musicians with various amounts of drive, talent and business savvy. Some, like Metallica, made it to the top, others’ like my sister’s high school sweetheart, quit and became an engineer. Today, the local garage-band has been replaced by the local film-maker. Digital video has placed film-making tools in everyone’s hands. Farming Executive turned Indie Film Producer Mortel Legendre premiered a trailer for his laugh till your heart burst horror comedy THE HORRIBLE MAN. I spoke to Mortel Legendre and he said his film will be shot in Tirana, Albania and Hydra, Greece, where he has a home/horror film studio. The mad-slasher in his film is get this- a roller skating Abraham Lincoln! I can't wait. Matthew Buzzell’s docu-drama, DO YOU MISS ME plays into this garage-band/local film-maker analogy. His feature-length study of, Luna, a New York indie-rock band, made me think of how musicians and film-makers, in comparison, have creative juices flow, along with a degree of drama and the occasional hissy-fit. The unpolished docu look of Buzzell’s film puts you right on the tour bus with the Lunas. Recommended One of the first shot-on-video horror films is Jon McBride’s WOODCHIPPER MASSACRE, lensed back in 1989. This study in family bonding (and grinding up bodies) is enhanced with some wild over-the-top comedy. It’s like watching the Brady Bunch go on an Ed Gien styled killing spree, by accident. McBride shot his film on the only video medium available back then - analog. The colors are harsh, pretty much like one of those home movie clips on AMERICA’S FUNNIEST VIDEOS. Personally, I find some of the clips aired on AFV downright creepy. Maybe that’s why I had so much ghoulish fun with WOODCHIPPER MASSACRE. The film is released by Camp Motion Pictures, a new video distribution firm that showcases slasher films high on gore and twisted visions, visions conventional cinema wishes to side-step. (Just me nit-picking - I don’t agree with the word “camp” here. Pretentious films like THE BLUE BIRD, where Liz Taylor plays a bling-bling fairy Godmother, or BOOM! again, with Miss Liz, become riotous camp classics with their ultra serious sledge- hammer symbolism. You just can’t purposely make a camp classic.) If you want to spend the evening staring at the Boob Tube saying “What The F….?” then WOODCHIPPER MASSACRE is ripe for you. More indie horror slithers our way with Biff Juggernaut’s LOVECRACKED THE MOVIE. Imagine Monty Python directed by Dario Argento, and you have this crazy collection of nine gore/comedy skits. The linking thread for these surreal bloodbaths is a Monty Python-like reporter doing an investigative report of famed horror author H. P Lovecraft. Cameos by famed Troma exec Lloyd Kaufmann and punk rock princess Joanna Angel pepper this savage bit of DVD fun. My only complaint here is that while Juggernaut made a film with a very original look, and format, leaping from dismemberment to giggles, he throws in some rather tired clichés. During the closing credits we see “funny” out-takes off in the corner. Some scenes are pretty much direct repeats of famous Python sketches. Biff, when somebody says, “You know, Biff, how we always see in all those movies where they (insert cliché here.) Well we should do that,” just ignore them, Biff. Anyway, a fun, sick movie. Another good film that uses overused clichés is IRAQ FOR SALE, directed by Robert Greenwald. Greenwald, who made the recent WAL-MART - THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICE, OUTFOXED and UNCOVERED, fascinating documentaries, began his film career with Hollywood crowd-pleasers like SWEETHEARTS DANCE and XANADU. (Going from a roller-blading Gene Kelly to Sadaam… I’m impressed!) IRAQ FOR SALE shows the mismanagement by the key members of the Department of Defense to profit by the war in Iraq. It will surely insult the right-wingers in the audience and surely confirm the paranoia in the leftists. But, that’s what good documentary film- making is all about - stirring debate, and getting people to think. (Fittingly, Greenwald’ s production company is called Brave New Films. Like LOVECRACKED, my complaint is that a few times Greenwald takes the easy road - the cliché. He imitates the famous scene in SUPER SIZE ME where we see Morgan Spurlock on the phone, making many unsuccessful calls to a major Mickey D’s exec. Greenwald has somebody doing the same thing - trying to get through to a profiteer on the phone. Indie films lose their creative punch when they pay too close an homage to their favorite films, or have the need to imitate a technique used in a similar, more famous film. The reason why most people see our indie films is that they want to soak in the kind of unique creativity that the studio moguls dare not put in a summer blockbuster. |
BERKELEY IN THE SIXTIES
First Run Features
The recent anti-Bush/war demonstrations spark deja-vu in those over forty,
anybody who can remember the similar Vietnam era anti-war demonstrations three
decades ago. Mark Kitchell's documentary, BERKELEY IN THE SIXTIES, vividly brings
the 1960's sit-in's, marches and riots home.
There's plenty of archival footage of student demonstrations on California's Berkeley
campus, footage so clear, it seems they were lensed only an hour ago. We begin
with Berkeley students protesting the HUAC witch-hunts, battling with fire-hose
wielding police in 1960, years before marches and sit-ins became commonplace.
We intercut between 1960's demonstration footage and recent interviews with key
demonstrators. The period footage shows mostly affluent white students speaking
out and marching for equal rights for black workers in the early sixties. A few years
pass, and some of the same students are marching against America's Vietnam
involvement. From there, the Berkeley students tackle issues involving Women's
liberation and the environment. One would think the Berkeley campus from 1960 to
1970 housed "Demonstrators, Inc.", students ready to march against whatever came
along.
This documentary will kick-start debates on whether Berkeley demonstrators were
wealthy neglected kids needing to feel they belonged to a cause, or young
intellectuals not afraid to bring a change. We see student demonstrators like Mario
Savio (who has so much footage here, he unknowingly became the film's star) with
total sincerity in his powerful lungs, shout out his leftist beliefs. We also see then
Governor Ronald Reagan, using his Hollywood trained voice, to offer his right-wing
counter-attack.
Memorials and tributes to Mario Savio have multiplied on Berkeley's campus since
his death from heart failure in 1996, six years after this documentary was made. It is
interesting to note that Savio had an outstanding academic record, but his
"trouble-making" speeches, many of which are found here, caused him to be thrown
out of Berkeley.
Bravo to the people who researched and found some fascinating, sometimes
violent visual material, such as demonstrators taking on the Oakland police on
deserted streets circa 1968. The selections of period music is perfect (you would
have to go out of your way to foul up the music department in a sixties docu.) We are
treated to healthy portions of Joan Baez, The Grateful Dead, Country Joe and The
Fish and Jimi Hendrix.
Kitchell doesn't beg you to side with the demonstrators, nor does he condemn
them. His interviews and footage library simply and wisely just observes.
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