Chicago Underground Film Festival
Filmmaker Jeff Krulik directed the cult film Heavy Metal Parking Lot, in which he interviews rock fans in a parking lot before a show; this program of shorts includes recently recovered footage from that project as well as Krulik and John Heyn’s Neil Diamond Parking Lot. Heyne and Seth Morris document a mid-80s “yippie smoke-in” in We Need a Staple Gun. The Langley Punks cite the Three Stooges and Hal Roach as inspiration for their 16-millimeter short Hyattsville Holiday. On the same program, The Funny Monkey by Mark Manlove and That Grip by Greg Grieg and Nancy Swenson. (5:30)
Surrender Dorothy
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Canadians Jane Farrow and Allyson Mitchell asked novice filmmakers to each shoot a roll of Super-8 film, edited in camera, to demonstrate his or her own stardom. The concept is intriguing, and the first few segments are lively enough, but this hour-long video compilation includes such tired conceits as dolls copulating and people taking drugs to the Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit,” and most of the films are depressingly similar with their jerky jump cuts and incoherent clowning. These beginners have no idea how to handle a camera, and successful in-camera editing also takes some experience. On the same program: Marco Moscato’s Zined, a video documentary about fanzines. Some of the interviews with publishers are amusing–I hadn’t known of a zine about garbage collecting–but a half hour spent browsing the magazine rack in an alternative bookstore would reveal more than this blandly shot essay. (FC) (9:00)
Penelope Spheeris (The Decline of Western Civilization, The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, Wayne’s World) calls the population defined by this ethnographic study “street punks.” They’re mostly teens who, estranged from their parents, crash in abandoned buildings and spend much of each day drinking and asking strangers for money. They also share tastes in fashion and music–some of which is presented in subtitled performances and discussed in interviews with band members. Spheeris, who asks questions offscreen, evidently sympathizes with her subjects, though this doesn’t stop her from pointing out their hypocrisy. One scene takes place in the apartment of a young man confined to a wheelchair; the many people partying there express their compassion for him, but opportunism is a big part of their motive for hanging around. Spheeris seems to suggest that her subjects’ lifestyle is a form of activism but that they need nurturing anyway–a contradiction many of them acknowledge and embrace. (LA) (9:30)
SATURDAY, AUGUST 15
Battle Sounds
