LOST FILM FESTIVAL in URB Magazine - issue 149
http://www.urb.com/features/313/LandoftheLost.php
Land of the Lost :: Lost Film Festival founder Scott Beibin takes on the Church, the G8, and Skull and Bones
By Ashlea Halpern Photography by Ted Adams
Scott Beibin must make a decision. Either he can hang out in Philly, catch a Manu Chau show and
do this “interview-y thing,” or he can fire up the van, stock it with energy drinks and drive to Atlanta for the U.S. Social Forum. Such are the conundrums of the self-made VJ.
As the curator and host of the Lost Film Festival, Beibin travels the globe preaching the good word about our social and gubernatorial ailments. “Basically, I set up a video projector in the middle of the room and tell stories to contextualize the films,” says Beibin. “It’s all really funny and pranky and smart. It’s trouble.”
Founded in Philadelphia in 1999 and touring since 2000, the Lost Film Fest follows an anything goes credo. It shows flicks such as Scott Calonico’s Mondo Ford, a conspiracy-theory gag picture that suggests Gerald Ford was behind the murder of John F. Kennedy; Richard Pell’s Don’t Call Me Crazy on the 4th of July, a shock-and-awe cut about the CIA’s MK-ULTRA mind-control program; and Norwegian rap group Gatas Parlament’s controversial “Anti-American Dance” video, which puts a bounty on George W. Bush’s head. Past gatherings have attracted Ian MacKaye and Jello Biafra and boasted such diversions as bike jousting and vegan cheesesteak stands. The TV Sheriff and The Yes Men are staples, and there’s never any shortage of anti-capitalist protest footage.
The venues Beibin ambushes are equally guerrilla: rooftops, warehouses, backyards, empty lots and even other film fests (Cannes, Sundance, etc). When the 2005 G8 Summit was held in Scotland, he invited Seattle’s now-defunct Infernal Noise Brigade, a 25-person punk-rock marching band, to join him in the protests. They rented a double-decker bus and set out to rabble-rouse. The demonstration ended in a haze of helicopters, horses, attack dogs and pepper spray. Most notoriously, Beibin used the hallowed exterior of Yale’s Skull and Bones building as a projection surface. When the cops rolled up and asked what he was doing, Beibin shrugged and said, “Showin’ some movies.” The officers chuckled and drove away. That’s not to say everything Beibin does is overtly mutinous. In 2004, he embarked on a swing-states tour by posing as a youth pastor. He booked himself at churches and presented a program called “A Spiritual Approach to Understanding the Election.” The reaction surprised him. “I thought I was gonna be run out of town by people with burning sticks,” says Beibin with a laugh. “But they were really receptive. In fact, the farmers were more familiar with the IMS and World Bank than city liberals.” (They then proceeded to call him naive for worrying about movies when the Rapture was coming; but hey, take it where you can get it.) Nowadays, the 35-year-old also runs a grassroots-marketing agency. Although he’s toying with the idea of reviving the weeklong festival in Philadelphia, which he folded due to rising costs and dwindling attendance, he’s more psyched than ever about the road tours—and the ability to drop everything and drive to Atlanta on a moment’s notice.
“Lost Film Fest is really an extension of the spirit of do-it-yourself punk,” says Beibin. “I want to introduce people to cultures that otherwise they wouldn’t know anything about. I want to tear down those barriers.”
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LOST FILM FESTIVAL on NPR (WAMU 88.5 FM in Washington DC)
interview by David Furst
click to listen: http://wamu.org/audio/mc/05/01/m1050128-7017.ram
The films aren’t really “lost” but they’re not always that easy to find either. Launched in 1999, the Lost Film Festival has been bringing independent films to universities, churches, community centers and warehouses. Billed as a “traveling multimedia spectacle incorporating live performance and video,” the Lost Film Festival has been finding audiences across the country and will be coming to the campus of American University on Thursday, February 3rd. Scott Beibin is the mastermind behind this madness. He joins us to talk about the festival.
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http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,44454,00.html
Lost Films Found on the Road
By Brad King
A traveling digital film festival run by a punk rocker continues to tour the country, harkening to a time when freaks ruled the Internet and major media corporations refused to contemplate a future online.
The Lost Film Festival has been on the road for the last two years, making rounds in Austin, San Francisco, Seattle, and even north of the border, in Ontario, Canada.
Put together by Scott Beiben, the show comes with a heavy dose of activist films with socially conscious themes that are spun together by Beiben himself. Viewers are treated to the visual equivalent of a House DJ spinning records.
“I’ve cut out anything dry,” Beiben said. “I don’t much like that, and it’s God awful to sit through that anyway. So we decided we were going to get the best of the best films and put them up.”
You can’t just head down to the local movie theater to see films like Esther Bell’s GodAss, which stars Fred Schneider of B-52s fame. While the sedate viewer can catch the films at the South By Southwest media conference in Austin, Texas, the film circus will also make a stop at Libertatia, a punk rock show in Northern California.
Maybe show is the wrong way to describe this event. Punk rock kids gather, dressed like pirates, and fight with plastic swords. It’s the Rainbow Gathering for the punk rock set -– with full-on sex, drugs and rock-and-roll around every tree.
Right now, the films aren’t available online, but only because his interns haven’t had time to get everything up. Beiben said he expected most of the features to be online by July.
The Lost Film Festival might have the market cornered are strange, but it certainly isn’t the only traveling show in town.
RESFEST, a digital filmmaker’s showcase and conference, is probably the most well known and starts its international tour in San Francisco on September 6. The event will wind through America before it heads off to England, Korea, and Japan.
Five years after it launched, the festival continues to be a place where updiscovered directors go in search of exposure. Now that the festival is partnered with Sputnik 7, a digital media company that focuses on underground music and art, the festival should continue to push the bounds of modern film making.
“This isn’t just digital films and technology, this is a unique combination of both,” Jonathan Wells, RESFEST festival director. “As more events like Sundance and Caanes are showing films, now we’re more of a lifestyle conference. This is innovative.”
Money is always a problem for underground art. While the RESFEST has gained a certain amount of notoriety and attracted IBM, Adobe, and Levis’s as sponsors, Bieben’s group still struggles.
The traveling film festival is funded with the help of music labels like Sub Pop and Dischord Records, health food companies, and film editing shops. Beiben said the movies weren’t really much on product placements and sponsorships from the corporate world, which is a radical departure from the recent developments online.
Germany’s BMW recently shelled out $9 million to high-profile directors who created five minute shorts featuring the slick car. The series, featuring directors like Guy Ritchie and Ang Lee, has appeared both at BMWFilms.com and on cable television.
Net stalwarts that are pinching pennies have been forced into product sponsorships for other companies.
Meanwhile, AtomShockwave recently dumped 150 employees, 75 percent of its staff. As part of its game development arm however, the company will continue to develop lifestyle games around popular cars and products.
Then there is TheThreshold.com, Larry Kasanoff’s brand-driven entertainment empire.
TheThreshold.com aggregates popular brand names –- video games, literature titles, and even the former World Wrestling Federation wrestler “Sable” -– with the hope of turning those ventures into films, video animation series, and television shows.
To fight the trend of corporate-driven entertainment, Beiben put on his first guerilla festival in Philadelphia in 1999. He enlisted help from bands on his label, Bloodlink, to bring out the crowds.
The festival hit a nerve, attracting more than 1,500 people.
Two years later, Beiben said he now takes his show on the road several times a year. He’s been as far away as Belgium and France — but wherever his staff of interns ends up, he said that he wants to leave the audience challenged.
“We show digital features, shorts, and footage from protests around the world,” Beiben said. “It’s media that’s been censored by the mainstream media.”
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Political views get top billing in Lost Film Festival
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060416/ENT01/604160315/1046/ENT
There are only a few criteria for the films in the Lost Film Festival. Besides being high-quality, they must have a low profile, a fast pace and a global sociopolitical conscience.Political views get top billing in Lost Film Festival
AMANDA PIERRE
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
April 16, 2006
There are only a few criteria for the films in the Lost Film Festival. Besides being high-quality, they must have a low profile, a fast pace and a global sociopolitical conscience.
“Also, they have to be cool. Really cool. And also a lot of fun,” said Scott Beibin, who tours the world with the Lost Film Festival on a laptop computer.
These criteria also could describe the 35-year-old Philadelphian himself. Beibin, director of the film fest, once ran a punk rock record label. He started making and sharing documentaries out of a love for film. He has stashed at least 80 recent films from all over the world on his laptop.
“I do it because these films don’t really get to be seen,” Beibin said. “I see these films as representing the underdog,”
The film festival is now making its second visit to Des Moines.
Beibin spins films, ranging from 30 seconds to 25 minutes long, like a DJ spins records — according to an audience’s tastes.
A favorite right now is “U.S.A. Under Attack” by Nikolaj Vijborg of Denmark, which Beibin calls “a ridiculous look at racism that could only be done from the perspective of somebody from outside the U.S.”
He also likes to show movies by the pranksters known as the Yes Men. These are examples of the films audiences can expect to see this week at the Des Moines Art Center and Drake University.
The Register caught up with Beibin last week on his way back from an immigration rally for an “interrogation” on his subversive film fest.
Q: What are some favorite mainstream films?
A: Raising Arizona,” all films by Terry Gilliam — “Brazil” (1985), Monty Python films (Gilliam is an original member of Monty Python), and sci-fi films such as “Star Wars.
Q: Who are your favorite documentary filmmakers?
A: The Maysles brothers, Albert and David — responsible for the Rolling Stones documentary “Gimme Shelter” (1970), Michael Moore (”Fahrenheit 9/11″ from 2004, “Bowling for Columbine” from 2002 — “his films have been great for the genre,”) Sam Greene (”The Weather Underground” from 2002) Jenny Abel (”Abel Raises Cain” from 2005), the Yes Men, Mark Achbar (”The Corporation” from 2003 and “Manufacturing Consent” from 1992).
Q: If you could make an Oscar acceptance speech, what would you include?
A: I really like what Michael Moore and Marlon Brando did. I wish I could be as clever. Each used the moment to make political statements; Moore spoke against war and President George W. Bush, and Brando sent Sacheen Littlefeather to deliver a message about the condition of Native Americans in America. Brando didn’t even accept his Oscar.
Q: Do you come from a line of protesters/political activists?
A: It all comes from my grandmother, my “Bubbie.” Sometimes it’s not about going to a thousand protests, it’s about the way you live your everyday life. My family — they just treated people fairly; that’s the key.
Q: Will the revolution be televised? Or computerized?
A: The 21st century is giving people the opportunity to democratize the media. Everyone now is on an equal playground.
With MySpace and YouTube you can look at what people are really doing instead of having it dictated to you.
Q:What are some of your current pet causes?
A: “The Green Scare.” Environmental activists who are being targeted by the federal government.
There have been lots of arrests in the past few months of people engaged in earth liberation acts. (For examples, see www.greenscare.org or www.supportpeter.com.)
Beibin also supports the government of Venezuela’s efforts to improve its poor urban areas, and donate oil to poor neighborhoods in the United States
Q: Favorite slogan?
A: “Free Claude Allen,” referring to the high-ranking Republican aide charged with felony theft for running a refund scam.
Q:Last rally attended?
A: An immigration rally. Turning them into legal citizens would be a lot cheaper than (immigration) law enforcement.
Q: Are you are ambivalent on any issues?
A: I like both spicy and plain foods.
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http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,11710,887603,00.html
Escape from Indywood
Forget Sundance, says Duncan Campbell. You’ll find America’s best underground cinema in clubs, coffee bars and an old school bus
Monday February 3, 2003
The Guardian
Over the past week, Utah’s Sundance film festival has been championing the cause of the small-budget independent film. Although it has generally been reckoned to be a good year for the festival, set up by actor and director Robert Redford, lately it is hard not to feel that Sundance is becoming a part of the Hollywood machine, a chance for the big studios and distributors to poach talent and push their smaller films. Beneath the radar of Hollywood and Sundance, however, thousands of films are being made on tiny budgets and screened in dozens of little-known festivals across the US.
Chaya Kornreich of IndieWire, which produces a daily internet newsletter on independent film, says that there has been an enormous growth in interest in films that are outside even the current definition of independent, and a consequent increase in the number of tiny film festivals. IndieWire has 32,000 subscribers to its daily bulletin, not to mention the tens of thousands more who take information from its website.
Article continues
“There are probably around 400 to 500 of these small festivals every year,” says Kornreich. “Ones that may last only a day or two are popping up all over the country. It’s hard to get proper distribution at the moment but you never know who’s attending a festival and may see your film.”
The standard of films shown is uneven. Some are just badly made and derivative, but there are also some original marvels, comic or serious, that give a far broader picture of the state of the nation than the rather narrow view presented by Hollywood or “Indywood”, as the high end of independent film is sometimes called.
Sundance itself, of course, has already spawned many imitators and satellite festivals, some of which take place alongside the main event in Park City, Utah. Slamdance is the best known of these; its discoveries include Christopher Nolan’s Following and Mark Moskowitz’s Stone Reader. Other satellite festivals now running in the area include Slamdunk and Tromadance.
Nothing symbolises the form of low-budget, guerrilla film-making and distribution better, perhaps, than the Lost film festival, which was set up in 1999 and is currently inviting entries to its annual event in west Philadelphia. “A truly independent film festival should feature films not under the control of major distributors, and also a lot more international films,” says its director, Scott Beibin, a 31-year-old New Yorker who had a small part in John Waters’s Cecil B Demented and has also worked in the independent music business. “There are films that people would never otherwise get to see. I’d rather see some crazy experimental Brazilian film than some film that is going to be shown in cinemas. There’s a whole world that is really beyond the view of the festival circuit and the work is often far superior. It’s about breaking the illusions cast by Hollywood and CNN.”
The Lost festival is remarkable in that, apart from its annual bash on its home territory, it takes its films on the road for most of the rest of the year. Beibin tours the country showing a sample of the films in warehouses and clubs, on rooftops and campuses; he introduces the films, takes questions afterwards and then usually ends up crashing on a couch wherever he can before hitting the road again. Early underground favourites that he took along included Godass, Heavy Metal Parking Lot and Kung-Fu Jew.
When the Lost festival visited Venice, California, this year, its venue was an old powerhouse recently acquired by another pioneer in the world of independent film, the LA Filmmakers’ Cooperative. That programme included an account, backed up on video, of how Beibin and three friends appeared on the Jerry Springer show as a quartet of wonderfully dysfunctional, cross-mating room-mates - a performance that may give a clue as to how many of those tales on the Springer show are actually for real.
Beibin specifically aims for films that defy expectations. “It’s a revelation for a lot of people,” he says. “Usually when people think about independent film they think of something very austere and artyish.” What Lost celebrates is using film as subversively as possible. Some of the films lift footage from real television shows, such as the very po-faced local newscasts, and intercut the sort of naughtiness that no television station could show. Europe will get a chance to see some of the Beiben’s work when he comes over in May to visit the Radical film festival in England, as well as travelling around Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Sweden, the Netherlands and Finland.
Back in LA, one of many pioneering alternatives to Hollywood is “Doboys” in South Central, which for the past few years has shown weekly shorts made by local film-makers. The venue is a tiny coffee bar and the films could be anything from a documentary made by a young film student about black women and their hair to a traditional thriller set in the city. Sadly, Eugene “Doboy” Williams, who set the showings up and was an inspirational figure for local film-makers and actors, committed suicide over Christmas, but his work is continuing.
“He wanted to provide an outlet for films that weren’t being shown at the big film festivals,” says Regina Nicole, who is helping to keep Doboys going. She tells of how some features films, like Eve’s Bayou, starring Samuel L Jackson, were first shown in shortened versions at Doboys. A tribute to Williams will be shown at this year’s Pan-African film festival in LA, itself a notable and under-recognised showcase set up in 1992 to promote films by African-Americans, Africans and West Indians.
While Sundance now has Coca-Cola and American Express as “leadership sponsors”, there is little money on the other festival circuit. Ring the Lost film festival and ask if Scott Beibin is there, and you may well receive the reply: “It depends on whether I owe you money or not.” But in a way it is that lack of money that defines independence.
Tao Ruspoli, one of the founders of the LA Filmmakers Cooperative, which moved into its home in Venice after spending most of its life in an old school bus, says that there are many original films being produced on minuscule budgets. “There are some gems and of course some awful ones but no more awful than some of the mainstream films.”
Lafco’s motto is the Jean Cocteau quote: “Film will only become art when its materials are as inexpensive as pen and paper.” All over the US, from Austin to Chicago, new shoestring festivals are being laced up every year. They may be short on red carpets and stretch limos but they are slowly taking up Cocteau’s challenge.
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Video Prank & File
The Lost Film Festival.
by Joshua Mamis
http://newhavenadvocate.com/gbase/N…nt?oid=oid:4389
Guerrilla film guru Scott Beibin.
One of the funniest films I ever saw was an early Michael Moore experiment that consisted of the acclaimed documentarian interviewing a man selling Elvis Presley wall-hangings on a semi-deserted street corner. Using a single camera and crude editing, Moore interviewed the seller and passers-by about the fine art of Elvis-on-velvet.
Moore, of course, went on to use similar techniques to create Roger & Me, and, with a much greater budget, the Academy Award-nominated Bowling for Columbine. He didn’t invent guerrilla filmmaking–he’s just a natural and a master at it.
The folks who contribute to The Lost Film Festival aren’t so much his subversive descendants as they are members of the same army. Take a $1,000 digital camcorder, Final Cut Pro and a desktop computer and make a film. Not just a film. A piece of art. And not just a piece of art, but a slamming work of political exposé, a satire, a slice of history. Part pranksters, part visionaries, the filmmakers whose work will be shown at the Lost Film Fest are high-spirited agitators. Their films–tackling subjects as diverse as the World Trade Organization, mainstream Hollywood, fashion magazines, the war on terrorism and the evening news–are as far from homework as they are from the eye candy peddled by Hollywood for mass consumption.
What’s the difference between what you’ll see at the Lost Film Fest and what you see at the cineplex or via Viacom?
First of all, the films–all shorts–don’t suck.
Second, if nothing else, they spark with kinetic, punk-rock passion. They exist because the filmmakers have something to scream about, not because they were trying to get a three-picture deal with Paramount. It’s a paradox: By not trying to make films solely to entertain, they end up making films that are far more entertaining–not to mention creative and innovative–than the folks who earn millions of dollars behind a camera or in an editing room.
A preview sampler of the films being shown at Dwight Hall include a few that are downright brilliant: : “State of the Union,” a two-minute film in which George W. Bush’s mug is superimposed on the Teletubbies’ baby-in-the-sky. As the bunnies cavort on the too-bright green hillside, our president eyes them and shoots off missiles, slowly converting the pastoral landscape into a wasteland dotted with oil derricks.
: “Terror, Iraq, Weapons,” in which filmmaker Mike Nourse samples images from a presidential speech, like a video DJ, so that Bush is seen uttering the words of the title repeatedly over the course of six minutes.
: “The Fellowship of the Ring of Free Trade,” an inspired six minutes of subversion in which actual footage from The Two Towers is shown with new subtitled “translations” of the dialogue, turning the ring itself into a metaphor for global capitalism. The ring must be destroyed!
: “Piefight ‘69,” built upon recently unearthed footage of an inspired prank by a group of would-be filmmakers crashing the opening of a San Francisco film festival in 1969. Yes, it involves throwing pies in faces, and ends with a whimsical image of a woman in clown makeup waltzing with a broom as she cleans the street.
: “The Manipulators,” two minutes of animated silliness manipulating and disfiguring the images of models in a fashion magazine.
: “Little Brother Gets Busted,” which uses Lego figures to depict police power and the lunacy of this country’s out-of-whack drug sentencing mandates.
: The subject matter of the “Sean Connery Golf Project” gets to the heart of the LFF. Filmmakers Sara Grace Rimensnyder and Rhys Southan strike back at Hollywood for making lousy films by sneaking into Sony’s offices, stealing a script and rewriting it. (As much as they seem to hate commercial film, there’s an unintentionally funny moment when they sneak into James L. Brooks’ office–he of Terms of Endearment!–and pause reverently.) The duo successfully doctors the script and returns it. You can’t help but admire the chutzpah of the pair–not only breaking the law, but filming it. (They’re one step away from “News of the Weird”’s “Least Competent Criminals” section.) Indeed, when word of their documentary got out, Sony hired a private eye to track them down, and the filmmakers face criminal charges.
: “The Horribly Stupid Stunt Which Has Resulted in His Untimely Death,” a project of a group of pranksters collectively known as The Yes Men, who happen to own the domain name GATT.org. GATT is the acronym for the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs, which has evolved into the World Trade Organization. The satiric Web site–designed to look official, with the letters “WTO” spread all around–as recently as last week ran a story announcing the disbanding of the World Trade Organization.
“THSSWHRIHUD” documents the time when an academic in Austria mistakenly invited the Yes Men to speak at a free trade conference. A Yes Man gives a speech advocating, among other things, that corporations increase economic efficiency by skipping the middlemen (politicians, the media) and directly purchasing votes from voters. Amazingly, no one at the conference challenges any of the speaker’s outrageous comments.
: A last-minute addition to the LFF will be exclusive, quickly edited footage of police brutality at the Feb. 15 peace demonstration in New York City. (One LFF organizer was arrested at the rally.)
Lost Film Festival Director Scott Beibin travels the country with the films, playing them in rented warehouses and college campuses like a rock & roll DJ, shifting the playlist spontaneously depending on the mood of the room. The event he is hosting at Yale is a road-show version of an annual event in West Philadelphia that features scores more films, appearances by the filmmakers, workshops and sundry other subversions. (This year’s event takes place April 10-13.) Some of the films can be found on the Web–it’s well worth the trouble downloading them if you have a high-speed connection. Otherwise, save the trip to Philly and head down to Dwight Hall. It might inspire you to use that video camera gathering dust in the closet–or to buy one.
Joshua Mamis can be reached at jmamis@newhavenadvocate.com.
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CRIMSON/ BETTY HO |
The megaphone-clad, unflinching, liberal demonstrator stereotype was embraced by the “Lost Film Festival” Monday night. The festival, organized by Scott Beibin and hosted by the Harvard Social Forum at their 45 Mt. Auburn headquarters, screened liberally-oriented short political films that ranged from raw riot footage to concise pop culture satires.
Beibin, the organizer of many experimental film, music and performance art showings, prefaced the event by noting that some films were the first or only productions of those filmmakers. This served as part-disclaimer, part-mission statement, as Beibin’s purpose is to find the “punk” energy in new, unusual work that might not otherwise find producers and distributors. “I like to call them emergency films,” he explains. “They wouldn’t have been created without a sense of crisis.”
The first “crisis” of the evening appeared in the opening short: a little boy’s squealing, floor-pounding, havoc-wreaking temper tantrum in a crowded supermarket. The advertisement portrayed the young father’s distress and embarrassment at this shrill demonstration, concluding with the advice, “use…condoms.”
The piece serves as a self-aware and necessary comment on the tone that many of the following political diatribes display. To the average film viewer, the piercing political tirades voiced by filmmakers often seemed unjustified. While the shortcomings inherent to amateur creations often undermined their credibility, Beibin is fully committed to the political causes of the work in the name of finding an outlet for genuine protest art.
The random assemblage of work which Beibin chooses—sometimes on impulse during the disorganized festival—lacks the professional refinement of other genres, but he assumes the responsibility of spreading the filmmakers’ messages to new audiences.
The antagonisms between independent and commercial filmmaking is one of Beibin’s main concerns. He attempts to use his film festivals and distribution companies, Evil Twin Booking and Bloodlink Records, to “reach places that independent film doesn’t reach.” Utilizing his “do-it-yourself roots” he attracts a raw clientele and helps distribute their work without the “frustrations” of the impenetrable commercial industry. Beibin claims that this grassroots approach has successfully brought unusual and socially conscious work into the limelight. He has defied the unwritten rules of success in an entertainment industry built on social contacts and favoritism, he says.
Beibin’s film festival experience started as a product of suburban teenage angst, as is typical of the punk scene. In 1999, seventeen-year-olds Skot Beaudoin and Mike Carroll proposed a mix of films and bands in a baseball field in their hometown of Doyleston, Penn. When the mayor denied them a permit, the group relocated the event to West Philadelphia, Beibin’s home, and the Lost Film Festival was born.
Since then, Beibin has taken the teens’ vision to festivals like Sundance and Cannes. A slideshow of his trip to this year’s Sundance Film Festival proved that he, and a core group of fellow punks, can bring their “anti-corporate” cinema to legitimate commercial forums.
In Park City, he and his colleagues built a robot in the image of President Bush and toured him through the streets, repeating words like “terror” in a robotic voice. The robot “accidentally” caught fire.
Movies of Mass Destruction
At Monday night’s festival, President Bush was the target of nearly every film and the artists criticized his politics with varying degrees of intellectual depth and artistic ability. Unfortunately, the conceit largely backfired, as the anti-authoritarian criticisms gradually lost their power with every repetition.
Through a process which Beibin describes as “cultural appropriation,” filmmaker Mike Norris created one of the festival’s more memorable moments, reorganizing a political speech given by President Bush by linking his words into three main familiar themes: terror, Iraq and weapons. His editing techniques highlighted the power and significance that these overused words have assumed, leaving a babbling Bush repeating “terror,” “terrorism,” “tool of torture,” followed by applause from the audience and dozens of repetitions of “Iraq” and “Iraqis” and “weapons.”
The sheer number of times these words appeared in the speech was overwhelming, as the echoed “buzz” words pounded into shape a concise political critique. Its point was clearer than other films at the festival that indiscriminately linked new and old television footage to mock its subjects with a shallow and undeveloped accusatory attitude. Norris notably kept his footage in context and related it to the words that preoccupy today’s political world as a whole.
A liberal warrior’s battle is not only one of rhetoric and words, but one of attention-grabbing action, one of disturbance—one of pie fights. Pie Fight ’69, a film by Chris Bruno and Sam Green, documented the social disruption caused by a group of independent filmmakers at the “mainstream” San Francisco Film Festival’s opening night on October 23, 1969. A group called Grand Central Station arrived in a white van full of pies and hurled them at the star-studded crowd. Afterwards, a mime mockingly swept a broom just above the trail of pie.
It seems that activists will use any means available to undermine corporate America. “I’m Not Stealing” was created by two young activists who attempted to fix the effects of commercial materialism on their own, thus incurring the wrath of the monolithic Wal-mart Corporation. Recode.com featured a barcode generator that allowed clients to re-price commercial goods as they saw fit. After the website’s creators were forced to dismantle their project because of legal action, the response film played on the website. The cartoon’s host, a talking barcode, called the project “an elaborate satire of Priceline.com,” and launched accusations instead at the corporation.
Another informational video advertised further innovation driven by this same use of technology for mobilizing political fervor. One tech company, under the Institute for Applied Autonomy, developed text messaging software designed to send mass text messages to many people at once. The concept is that demonstrators can more quickly organize in an urban setting if they are in contact via text message.
One highlight of the evening was a play on the “Lord of the Rings” film series. As scenes from the film play, subtitles interpret their deeper meaning. Both takeoffs were created by the Stolen Collective and one, entitled “The Fellowship of the Ring of Free Trade,” pitted Noam Chomsky (Gandolf) against NAFTA and the WTO (the Dark Lord and the Ring, respectively). The second, “The Twin Towers,” featured the heroic Anarchist (Aragon) and fearless activists (the hobbits).
Overall, many disorganized montages allowed amateur filmmakers to release their pent up liberal zealousness. While often the films might appear incoherent and poorly edited—one that stood out in particular was a clip of a man in an ambiguous animal costume shouting to visitors at the 2005 presidential inauguration—they were fresh and a clear break from the mainstream. Though the scattered selection eschewed the finesse of commercial filmmaking, the festival nevertheless stood steadfastly by the pure punk spirit of Beibin’s vision.
