Meanwhile, here’s this CALL FOR ENTRIES from the Bike Film Festival:

Bicycle Film Festival | Trailer from casagrafica on Vimeo.

NINTH ANNUAL BICYCLE FILM FESTIVAL
Deadline For Entries Is March 7

http://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com

We are looking for films with a strong theme or character of bicycles. This includes all mediums and styles such as animation, experimental, narrative, documentary and music videos.
The BFF is held in over 17 cities around the world including Tokyo, New York City, Los Angeles, Milan, and London. In 2008 the total BFF attendance was over 110,000 people.

BFF is a celebration through film, art and music. Past BFFs has been have included works from legendary artists such as Jonas Mekas, Michel Gondry, Mike Mills and Jorgen Leth.  The emerging artist is showcased as well.

The Bike Film Fest will be the most fun yet in 2009.

For more information and entry forms, visit the BFF website: http://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com

Thanks
Brendt Barbur

There’s a survey you should check out at the site of this Experimental Media Congress in Toronto, April 2010.

It’s a part of the Images Festival in Toronto, and

“This gathering aims to serve as a continuation of the conversations that
took place at the Fourth Experimental Film Congress held in Toronto in
1989. That massive and contentious event, which is well known to many on
this list, attempted to bring together the broad international film
community for a dialogue on the state of the avant-garde.”

Anyone interested in attending, or who feels confident their time spent answering questions is worthwhile for the ripple effect on the worldwide experimental scene… go check it out.

The congress promises to re-open some debates that have been ongoing for decades, regarding canonization of avante-garde artists and institutionalization of marginalized authorities – if ya know what I mean.

I can only assume Zero for Conduct (i.e. me) will be there, rousing some sort of rabble.

Check out Al Razutis’ articles and manifesto pages that hint at the schism caused by the previous conference in 1989, with prominent filmmakers boycotting and avoiding while others considered the event a big success.

I saw the call on FRAMEWORKS which is an extremely long-lived, wide-ranging and international email discussion group about experimental filmmaking.

It was posted by:

Scott Miller Berry
(on behalf of the local organizing & host committee)

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIMENTAL MEDIA CONGRESS
7 to 10 April, 2010
Toronto, Canada
http://www.experimentalcongress.org

-Flick Harrison

(get it!)

I still need to get a waxer – this issue feels a little too perfect for me, I only did one drawing and the rest was laid out in Indesign.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Interviews with

Reg Harkema on Leslie, My Name is Evil
Jeff Carter on Inside Passage
Tom Scholte on Crime
plus Waiting for Sancho and more!

I created it to try and rekindle some kind of underground film thing in Vancouver that I think is, well, just a bit TOO underground. This year’s Vancouver International Film Festival was the kicker for me, I finally felt like taking part again, having worked on two of the films screening, and a recent visit to a Zine fair / comics show at the Vancouver Art Gallery reminded me that it is really all about just getting it done.

An outsider might not see the connections between these films – but “Waiting For Sancho” was colour-corrected by myself, after “Leslie, My Name is Evil’s” Reg Harkema hooked me up with Mark Peransen. Mark used the same post sound mixer, Mark Benoit, as Tom Scholte used for “Crime”, and Jeff Carter, the sound recordist / designer for “Crime” was the filmmaker of “Inside Passage” – for which I also created a title shot.

This is the kind of intimate network that makes film thrive. And I love hanging around the fest with a bag full of Zero for Conducts, spreading the word on stuff I dig.

Zero for Conduct is available in hardcopy or as a pdf download.

To get the zine harcopy:

location

Canada $2.50 USA $3.00 International $4.00

Here’s some pics from the premiere of Monkey Warfare at Empire cinemas in Vancouver, handed over by Ifny but shot by David Repa. This is Ifny of Pedal Revolutionaries (who has just posted her podcast of the MONKEY WARFARE INTERVIEW), Alan MacInnes of Discorder’s Cinema Aspirant, Reg Harkema, the director, and me, Flick Harrison.

We ended up being ballyhooed (?) by the MC3 chopper gang who tootled around outside the cinema on their amazing custom-chopped bikes.

The screening was marred by an ad for a car (the bike folks jeered) and a rock-video-like ad for the Canadian Armed Forces. Yeesh! Talk about bad product placement.

The MOLOTOV COCKTAIL SCENE seems to have gotten nixed from cinemas, though the Globe and Mail and Vancouver Sun both report having seen it. Go figure. It might have something to do with screening tapes or press viewings at the film festivals, which those folks usually see far in advance, but Katherine Monk in the sun seems to believe it’s actually in the theatres somewhere. Go figure.

Then again, it might have to do with projectionists who aren’t keeping their eyes out for post-credit scenes, and putting the auto-marker tape on the print the moment they see the last credit fade out, instead of reeling ahead to make sure it’s ACTUALLY OVER. Is it really THAT crazy to have a post-credits sequence?

The show was great, and Reg wasn’t on Mushrooms like he was at his Toronto screening (at least as far as I can tell; he is a pretty freaky dude and this pic seems to be mushroom-inspiring, if not inspired).

(BTW, as I type, I wish there was a way to make myspace playslists so I can listen continually without calling up that window and clicking all the darn time).

Anyway, here’s a few pics. This is me with Cathy Falkner, filmmaker David Vaisbord and Sheril Gelmon. Man, his hair is getting fabulous, like some movie star in a cartoon. Notice I took one more kick at the “I fuck the man” / Monkey Warfare t-shirt can.

Alright, moving along, I’m tiring of the blog life, let’s get this over with! Let’s show you just how much FUN this party was. FUN FUN FUN!

This is Suzanne Ward, who assisted with video setup at the opening and closing VIFF galas. She is clearly having too much fun!

That machine was making enough smoke to scare people away. I wish i had got video of the wafting dance that Suzanne and i had to do to spread the smoke around… it was hilarious to us at least. We almost fell over, from the combo of the actual tricky wafting dance itself, with our laughter, plus the free booze.

Alright, it was a great party, the Rocky Mountaineer is a great space (it’s a big cavernous room but there are a few surprising nook and crannies which make a party interesting). I’m glad the VIFF is over, simply so I can get some rest, although I only saw 5 films (and I think two of them were Monkey Warfare, since I was doing Q & A). Dang, it’s hard to watch media while you’re too busy making it.

Le Petit Lieutenant was my favourite film this year. It’s a classic policier, with good character drama, an interesting murder investigation, and procedural shenanigans. I liked it when the rookie cop in homicide walked down to the narcotics office and found them playing with seized AK-47′s, drinking and taking pictures. Jalil Lespert is a new cop, fresh from the provinces, excited to hit the Paris streets, but leaving behind a hot, loving wife who wants to keep her old job instead of following his.

Nathalie Baye is absolutely amazing as the ex-alcoholic commanding officer. Her performance is very subtle, without the cigar-chomping that American cop bosses need to engage in. She takes command of crime scenes simply by her strong presence, and she has a relationship sub-plot that feels very real and intense. Lespert is good in his modern, charming French way, not like a gimmicky Jean-Paul Belmondo cool but smoother and more earnest. I really like his choices; the cocky, drunken bar scene is particularly good in relation to his more serious moments. He’s a versatile dude.

There’s also some politics – the mystery evolves among homeless immigrants, there’s a bar (!) in the police station that cranks up the alcohol issues, and one of Lespert’s co-workers is often singled out for being Muslim (France has like a million muslims). As I’m writing this it sounds maybe like art-film formulaism but it really was a lovely flick. It’s all in the mise-en-scene, the chemistry between the performers, and the shooting / editing choices, all made with an understated realism and style that really made me happy after seeing, for instance, Lenz, the Swiss / German drama which played too heavily on the hand-held-camera / improv / documentary thing, i.e. creative gambling, rather than sticking to a clear vision.

Reg actually intro’d the film by saying that despite all the Toronto references, it is actually an East Van film: that’s where Reg is from.

DJ Hans Lucas had a crisis with the vinyl LP pressings. Apparently, there’s a spanish rap group whose catalogue number is WM 001 but Monkey Warfare’s catalogue number is MW 001 and the result is that the factory made 500 pressings of a spanish rap album instead of the Monkey Warfare soundtrack. Eeps! So there were no soundtracks to give away. Many people accosted us as a result and when the corrected LP’s get here in the fall, which is perhaps when the theatrical release will happen, I’ll be accosted from all sides again.

Above is a shot of the local premiere of Monkey Warfare! L-R it’s Sarah Muff, ex-Cineworks-er and now Canadian Images Coordinator at VIFF, with Reg Harkema (director writer), Cindy Wolfe (actor, props, music and pic clearance), me (assistant editor, actor, graphic designer) – the Vancouver Int’l Film Fest contingent of the Monkey Warfare crew. You can just see Kathy Weinkauf on the side, and beyond Sarah on the other side was Suzanne Ward (art director).

Here’s Reg after the second screening, with Amy Belling who introduced the film.

For this screening I had a chance to watch with my eyes closed. I’ve seen the film enough times, and I synched the rushes (sound to picture) so it was interesting just to listen to the soundtrack instead of watching. You could really feel the texture of the rooms where the characters were, hear the nice touches in the audio mix etc. Notably, I couldn’t hear a single edit in a dialogue scenes; that means good dialogue editing and mixing. After about 20 minutes I got tired of this exercise, and besides, I had to watch the hot-chicks-on-bikes montage, are you kidding me?

One bit of cinematic excitement was the presence at the 2nd screening of David Bordwell. He wrote the textbook “Film Art: an introduction” which both Reg and I read at UBC. He dug the film and took some photos for his blog.

If anyone’s wondering who it was at the Saturday screening that was cackling their ass off, it was Michael V Smith.

Today was the “Meet the Filmmakers” panel at the Vancouver International Film Centre which went well. We were just getting into the groove when the hour ran out. This was the first panel of the series, and it was Monday morning, but the audience was sure into it.

Then I went to the bank and scared the guard ‘cos I had sunglasses on, so I took them off.

PS – due to the confusion, there was no screening of MW clips at the Velofusion party, but there will be in the future. Drat and double drat.

The party was at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Georgia in the main ballroom. This picture is Cathy Falkner with Sandy Buck. Sandy planned the whole event which is an insanely big job. Cathy was helping do the decoration on the night.

In the background you can see my visuals! They were on two giant odd-shaped fabric backdrops on either side of the band, plus one little projection on the escalator outside the ballroom. It was fantabulous, in my opinion.

The worst thing about this gig was having to look at this dog over and over again. Especially when it was blown up twenty feet high at the party. It’s the cover of the 3rd VIFF guide and hoooo boy, it’s as bad aesthetically as Alan Franey’s hair inside the book (thankfully I didn’t have to scan that).

The first VIFF guide, I learned, was actually a RIDGE theatre guide which simply got filled up by the first fest. An odd sight to see. As you can see, by #3 they had added the Vancouver East Cinema and then soon after that added the Hollywood.

The Gala lacked Sushi but I’m sure there’ll be plenty floating around VIFF.

Suzanne Ward helped me install and hang the projectors, which resulted in no Telefilm executives being crushed by falling hot DVD players. My past weeks’ nightmares concerning such scenarios are over.

Here’s Suzanne and Cathy looking fab.

Reg and I did the Critical Mass ride on Friday. It was great fun riding around downtown Vancouver blocking traffic and generally promoting the end of automobiles. There were naked lesbians, as is par for the Critical Mass course, and surprisingly, even when those folks weren’t in sight, the drivers we blocked seemed generally supportive. Maybe they thought it was a parade or something.

We did happen to bike past the Telefilm Party at the Vancouver Film Centre, which was hilarious. We screamed “MONKEY WARFARE!” at Wayne Clarkson, the head of Telefilm Canada. He smiled broadly back at the streaming godless hordes on their anarcho-cycles and easily spotted the gigantic Reg who’d been shouting at him.

Neither Reg nor I made it to the Anza for the likely screening of clips from Monkey Warfare. As of this date I’ve not heard if they actually showed or not; hopefully they weren’t cheesed off that the DVD’s arrived without us.

I tell you this though – I’m gonna do critical mass every month. It was amazingly fun.

Also, there’s a new Monkey Warfare official website. Yay for top-level domain names! The page automatically plays the awesome Weird War song that usually runs through my head about six-seven hours per day now.

And finally, Monkey Warfare got a Special Jury Award at the Toronto International Film Festival 2006!

Apparently the jury didn’t stay through the credits. Heh heh heh. So they missed the best part.

Fromthe interview with Reginald Harkema in the GLOBE AND MAIL:

“Harkema, a B.C. native, said afterwards: “Gee, I guess I’m not gonna buy that huge hunk of hash [hashish] I was dreaming about,” – an echo of director Bruce McDonald’s statement that “$25,000 is going to buy me a chunk of hash,” when his feature Roadkill took the Toronto-City prize in 1989.”

Endquote.

I love that they had to explain that hash is hashish. Really? Ya don’t say!

After my third day of TIFF I finally started getting an understanding of how tickets work. I think. Apparently cast and crew need to use their passes to go and get tickets to their own screenings for themselves, even though they’re free for them, just because that’s how the accounting works or something. I think. I have been treated to a whirlwind bubble not of celebrity, but of Reg and Cindy’s hospitality. I’ve hardly had to think the whole time, so get easily confused the moment I have to think for myself.

[Steve Gravestock introduced Jennifer Jonas, Reg Harkema, Cindy Wolfe, Nadia Litz and Leonard Farlinger]

Anyway, it was a good screening, I like the editing more and more each time. There is one cut especially which reminded me of the best cuts in “Goodfellas.” When Don McKellar lets Nadia Litz buy a certain item at a garage sale, she takes them and then is suddenly moving away on her bike. There’s a bike bell, I believe, that covers the edit, even though it’s not meant to be a diagetic bike bell (Reg’s favourite word is “non-diagetic.” In fact, Reg himself should fix that Wikipedia entry since it’s not only a stub but contains pathetic references).

The bike bell subconsciously paves over the discontinuity, I think, but it also reinforces it. The way Nadia moves and then suddenly reverses direction is a direct cause-and-effect but not a realistic, narratively continuous one. It’s the ultimate example of cutting out excess action and keeping just the bare minimum to convey the story, so concisely that it becomes stylized. Kathy Weinkauf is a rock’n good editor.

The Goodfellas edit it reminds me of is the one where Ray Liotta walks out of the house from screen right, walks over to his car at screen center, grabs the door handle, then there’s a “clunk” and we cut to a different location, just after he’s slammed the door on his way out of the same car. The “clunk” could either be the door opening or closing, or maybe a hybrid of both sounds, but it drives the edit. The second shot is composed so that the car is in the same spot on screen, he is still heading towards screen left, but now he’s apparently passed through the car. His motion from screen right to screen left isn’t interrupted by the tedium of getting in the car, doing his seatbelt, driving to the new place etc. He just reaches for the door handle and then slams it behind him without a moment’s delay; he never stops walking.

Anyway, it’s one of the fanciest edits ever, and Kathy / Reg have done a similarly marvelous one here in Monkey Warfare.

I’m tired now. It’s time to go back to Vancouver.

Next stop for MW is apparently Sudbury, but for me it’ll be VIFF.