film

Bugs and Heroes

14 February 2012

Funny to see how some people have compared Petar Pasic‘s upcoming “Bugs & heroes” (O bubicama i herojima) with something as unconnected as Joe’s Appartment (sort of the Alvin and the chipmunks of the 90s with less good-looking “pets”), although we have to admit that cockroaches look the same regardless of their origin.

The Serbian director well (locally) known for his commercials is ready to bring new surreal Serbian cinema to our theaters (those left of course) much like Kusturica did in the 90s. We anticipate it will (at least) have a moderate sucess in France, you now how much they love surreal cinema (Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet…).

Bugs and heroes
Bugs and heroes

 The film, which tells us the story of a group of lonely characters (the wannabe superhero, the orphan, the night guard, the nurse…) and a parallel microcosm of insects is still in post-production so don’t expect it before 2013; but in the meanwhile we have this great trailer courtesy of the people at Doktor Fried. Enjoy!

  share news item

a Robot readable world

9 February 2012

Terminator was very right when looking humans over the shoulder. We are so blind when analyzing our environment, machines can identify frillions of cars within a fraction of a second, can we?

Well, some still can’t differentiate between a van, a lorry and a car but time will tell. Matt Jones (from Berg) joined a growing discussion back in 2007 around creating a RFID-covered world, so instead of teaching machines to relate, identify and gather data based on how humans see reality, facilitate this task by covering reality with markers codes and signs that to us, humans, may not mean anything but for machines is another world.

Robotreadableworld
Robotreadableworld

Regardless of the outcome it’s particularly interesting to see the ever-growing number of sophisticated techniques and algorithms machines use to identify and quantify human life. From the artistic point of view the good people @ Shynola are now immersed in their very own track&trace film “The Red Men Movie” based on the novel by Matthew De Abaitua and produced by warpfilms.

PeopleTracking
PeopleTracking

And while they get it done Norwegian director Timo Arnall (remember his previous “nearness” project with Berg?) has compiled and uploaded this little video up here to give us a hint of how machines currently see us… and make sense of our messy world. Discussion this way.

  share news item

Robot Film Fest 2012 – submissions open

21 January 2012

We were a bit too late last year to warn you about the first worldwide Robot film Festival, but not for this, their second edition.

Submissions for next summers Film Fest competition are now open (pretty much for half a year as the deadline is June 7th and this year’s edition will take place July 13-14th), and just like in 2011 the only big requirement is to feature a robot as one of the main characters as or framing devices of the narrative.

Robot Film Fest 2011 poster
Robot Film Fest 2011 poster

Hopefully we’ll find this year as many film types… animation, comedy, harsh drama, love stories, feature films… all for the sake of Robots, celebrate their incipient superiority and honor them so maybe they forgive our lives in the coming decades when they take over humanity.

As you can see from the couple of videos above anyone can submit a film, you don’t have to be a VFX expert or a master sci-fi writter, but creativity will certainly help you bringing a Botsker back home, just like last years winners.

botsker - the 3D printed robot statuette
botsker - the 3D printed robot statuette designed by Shawn Sims

A $20 fee, an upload to vimeo and you’re pretty much set to participate. Unfortunately there are no monetary prizes (booooooooo, we honestly expected some financial reward for this second edition) but you may be entitled to a ceremony invitation and a botsker. More details to come shortly, precise info on their page.

  share news item

Moonrise Kingdom

13 January 2012

Wes Anderson and some of his talisman actors are back for one of those genuinely American naïve films which only the Texan director can deliver with equal parts of humor, absurdity, irony and love.

Moonrise Kingdom (which won’t be released until next May) brings the story of  a pair of lovers, Sam & Suzy (played by young actors Jared Gilman & Kara Hayward)  two twelve-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore — and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in more ways than anyone can handle.

 Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, the must-haves Bill Murray & Frances McDormand along with Tilda Swinton and Jason Schwartzman will surely make us laugh which was shot in Rhode Island last spring. 4 months to go.

  share news item

‘The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye’ reviewed

2 December 2011

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge’s radical thought and personal fanaticism is matched only by the zeal of (to use a gender neutral pronoun) ‘their‘ hardcore fans. While here @ aqnb wouldn’t call ourselves ‘fans’ so much as ‘fascinated’, we took it upon ourselves to make the trip down to Brighton Film Festival to witness a highly anticipated screening of The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye. Since winning the Teddy Award at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, experimental film maker Marie Losier’s part biography, part work of art follows the similarly motley approach to live art and living of the famous provocateur and his wife Lady Jaye. Their extreme Pandrogyne experiment, was an attempt to create a perfect ‘third being’ through plastic surgery, before Lady Jaye sadly passed away from stomach cancer in 2009.

As the best-known and most controversial artist to spring from the COUM Transmissions collective of the early 70s, as well as industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle, P-Orridge’s relationship with the dominatrix, qualified nurse and musician is, surprisingly, the stuff of fairy tales. ‘Unique’ is beyond an understatement when describing the partnership, begun on the S&M scene in New York City and blooming into a grand romance. In the film it is Genesis who plays narrator for this surrealist love story, as he explains that rather than having children he and Lady Jaye decided to become one in a far more literal manner. Taking the Dadaist ‘exquisite corpse’ concept to new levels by applying it to their very own bodies, the couple went through some extreme body modification, including breast implants and nose jobs, continuing Genesis’ lifelong preoccupation with Brion Gysin and William S. Burrough’s literary cut-up technique most clearly exposited in their 1978 book The Third Mind.

The Ballad… follows a fragmented and dreamlike story line that elucidates the nature of Genesis and Lady Jaye’s relationship as well as their all-consuming art practice. It is a surprisingly personal insight, that is as much Losier’s story –who spent three years following, befriending, comforting her subjects –as it is theirs. That hazy line across media and personal realities extends into clips of Losier’s own footage being projected at Psychic TV performances featured in the film, while the camera’s gaze is a highly privileged one; Losier is taken on tour with the band, a guest at their barbecues. The film covers all the signposts in Genesis’ impressive career, from his introduction to global infamy when labelled “wreckers of civilisation” with the COUM Transmissions collective in the 70s to his first meeting with his personal hero Gysin. The artist always kept a packet of Cadbury Chocolate Fingers at home should Genesis drop by –his favourite.

There’s a warmth and a sense of humour that pervades The Ballad… both stylistically and content-wise; Genesis figures out “what to do with all this shit” as he plays hide-and-seek in his basement archive of a life’s work, he recounts one of his last conversations with Lady Jaye about his aversion to being remembered as “the tampon man” in his obituary. Music in the film is hardly forgotten either, with the sound design –comprising all original music from Genesis and Lady Jaye’s various projects –is the film’s greatest triumph. In an interview Losier says that, with their being 15 layers of sound, including diegetic music, she spent two years editing and constructing the film’s overall sound scape. What she’s ended up with is a spellbinding tribute to one of our most original living artists, as well as an ode to the power of love as all-conquering.

  share news item

Path of Blood animated feature film

8 July 2011

After so many videos, shorts & cut-out orgasms Mr Power is going to give that buzzy fund-raising platform named “Kickstarter” a try. And what is he going to raise funds for?

You probably remember that amazing short “Path Of blood” from 3 months ago, after such a warm welcome and now that Eric considers himself (so do we) a cut paper animation master (just have a look at his previous shorts), he’s thought that PoB deserves to become his  first feature length animated film.

Whereas the short film was mostly silent, the feature film will delve deeply into a large cast of interesting individuals each with their own motivation for walking the path of blood. I am extremely proud of the story I have created, there are tons of surprises in store and plenty of engaging and bloody action. (bloody action yes! that’s what we’re hear for!).

The level of detail the finished film will showcase is going to be staggering. Everything you’ve seen of my cut paper work so far has only been a precursor to what I feel is possible within the medium and I am very excited to put my skills to the test.

In any case… you have to support him, he may just have started his fund-raising campaign… but 25K is a LOT of money, so drop him a dollar or two… hundred. This way.

btw… we only talk about those projects we support ourselves ok?

  share news item

Smalls Short Film Fest 2011

2 June 2011

Aaaaaaand another short film festival for your collection! (and for you to participate in!): the London Small Short Film Fest 2011 which once again will try to showcase the best film directors, producers, writers and animators… so if you consider yourself one, pay attention..

This year’s Call for Entries is now open, and you have 2 & half months (until August 12th) to register & submit your -15min film in two categories: “Best Under 5 Min” and “Best over 5 Min” (up to 15 minutes long); @ 10£ fee and on-line. The prize? £1000 which we’re sure you wouldn’t mind winning right?

(Grant St Shaving Company by Payal Sethi, last year’s over 5min winner)

The winners will then be screened at The Smalls Short Film Fest next autumn and will take place at The Gallery Soho on Charing Cross Rd, London, UK on the 21st and 22nd of September.

You can be student, amateur, alien… or a seasoned pro; and it doesn’t matter neither if you’ve used your mobile phone, your DSLR or using 33mm film … (well… or so they say).

(A Cheeky 20 by Chris Fallen, last year’s under 5min winner)

So there you go, another film contest for your collection!

  share news item

the social network

15 July 2010

He needed attention, he wanted to have control, get noticed… by girls, by clubs…. and when big Internet players like Google, Yahoo or even Msoft failed to buy his company a few years ago he managed to make it profitable. Now everyone is scared of what he could achieve…

Continue reading the social network

  share news item