Sunday, September 23, 2007
Saturday, September 22, 2007
otto, or up with dead people
first touch is being used in an upcoming bruce labruce film: otto, or up with dead people
the synopsis from bruce labruce:
"Otto; or, Up with Dead People" is a melancholy zombie movie with political overtones that seeks to extend and elaborate the emerging zombie mythology. A modern fable about the loneliness, emptiness, and alienation that results from rampant consumerism and materialism under advanced capitalism, "Otto; or, Up with Dead People" presents as its central character Otto, a young man who may or may not be a zombie, depending on your point of view. Otto is first seen walking down a deserted stretch of highway, not knowing exactly where he came from or where he's going. He is dressed as a kind of neo-Goth dandy, but his clothes look and smell like they are rotting on his body. After hitching a ride with a clueless elderly couple that drops him off in the city, it quickly becomes apparent that there is something distinctly odd about Otto. He seems to be homeless, taking refuge in an abandoned amusement park, and he never sleeps. He also has an eating disorder: he has an aversion to consuming human flesh. He's a zombie with an identity crisis. He does, however, seem to have to eat some sort of flesh to survive, so he resorts to road kill and small parkland creatures like squirrels and pigeons to satiate his desire to consume.Meanwhile, we are introduced to our other principal characters, Medea Yarn, an avant-garde filmmaker whose name is an anagram for Maya Deren, one of her role models, and Fritz Fritze, her main actor. Medea is a classic Goth Goddess in the vein of Diamanda Gallas who frequents graveyards and slaughterhouses with her girlfriend, Hella Bent, a silent movie Vampyra type. With the help of her brother and cameraman, Adolf, Medea is trying to complete her epic film project, "Up with Dead People", the story of a future wave of gay zombies which rises up against a corrupt, corporatized, and soulless consumerist society. Medea and the actor Fritz Fritze, the star of "Up with Dead People", are both devout followers of the SPK, the Socialist Patients Collective that emerged in Germany in the seventies, who believed that mental illness - schizophrenia, eating disorders, and other sicknesses of the soul - is a direct result of the cruel and deadening effects of the free market capitalist system. When they finally meet Otto, who responds to one of their casting flyers for Up with Dead People, they are both convinced that Otto is the ultimate embodiment of the SPK, the proverbial one-dimensional man. Medea immediately begins to make a movie called "Otto" specifically about this strange and endearing young man. But is Otto a real zombie, or is it merely his own mental delusion?Vulnerable to the attacks of marauding youths who would seek to bash and annihilate a poor homeless fey zombie, Otto agrees to appear in Medea's movie, believing that it will be the perfect cover for him: people won't think he's a real zombie, he'll just be playing one in the movies. As Medea shoots Otto, and after the undead boy moves in with Fritz, he starts to recover his memories of the time before he was dead. But will this save Otto, or drive him to self-annihilation?"Otto; or, Up with Dead People" is a mash-up of genres and media, a modern fable and picaresque about an alienated youth in an increasingly brutal society. The film is composed of a fractured narrative that includes films-within-the-film, illustrations and text, and even some dance choreography and movement, all coming together to form a layered and textured field of images and ideas. Parts of Medea's films are shown in the movie, including "Duet for Somnabulists" and "Messy in the Afternoon", an affectionate tribute to Maya Deren's "Meshes of the Afternoon." Illustrations in the vein of Charles Addams, Edward Gorey, and Basil Wolverton, combined with stock footage and intertitles, are used to create a new zombie mythology, an allegory for our troubled times.
the movie website:
http://www.ottothezombie.de/
and for more about bruce labruce visit http://brucelabruce.com
the synopsis from bruce labruce:
"Otto; or, Up with Dead People" is a melancholy zombie movie with political overtones that seeks to extend and elaborate the emerging zombie mythology. A modern fable about the loneliness, emptiness, and alienation that results from rampant consumerism and materialism under advanced capitalism, "Otto; or, Up with Dead People" presents as its central character Otto, a young man who may or may not be a zombie, depending on your point of view. Otto is first seen walking down a deserted stretch of highway, not knowing exactly where he came from or where he's going. He is dressed as a kind of neo-Goth dandy, but his clothes look and smell like they are rotting on his body. After hitching a ride with a clueless elderly couple that drops him off in the city, it quickly becomes apparent that there is something distinctly odd about Otto. He seems to be homeless, taking refuge in an abandoned amusement park, and he never sleeps. He also has an eating disorder: he has an aversion to consuming human flesh. He's a zombie with an identity crisis. He does, however, seem to have to eat some sort of flesh to survive, so he resorts to road kill and small parkland creatures like squirrels and pigeons to satiate his desire to consume.Meanwhile, we are introduced to our other principal characters, Medea Yarn, an avant-garde filmmaker whose name is an anagram for Maya Deren, one of her role models, and Fritz Fritze, her main actor. Medea is a classic Goth Goddess in the vein of Diamanda Gallas who frequents graveyards and slaughterhouses with her girlfriend, Hella Bent, a silent movie Vampyra type. With the help of her brother and cameraman, Adolf, Medea is trying to complete her epic film project, "Up with Dead People", the story of a future wave of gay zombies which rises up against a corrupt, corporatized, and soulless consumerist society. Medea and the actor Fritz Fritze, the star of "Up with Dead People", are both devout followers of the SPK, the Socialist Patients Collective that emerged in Germany in the seventies, who believed that mental illness - schizophrenia, eating disorders, and other sicknesses of the soul - is a direct result of the cruel and deadening effects of the free market capitalist system. When they finally meet Otto, who responds to one of their casting flyers for Up with Dead People, they are both convinced that Otto is the ultimate embodiment of the SPK, the proverbial one-dimensional man. Medea immediately begins to make a movie called "Otto" specifically about this strange and endearing young man. But is Otto a real zombie, or is it merely his own mental delusion?Vulnerable to the attacks of marauding youths who would seek to bash and annihilate a poor homeless fey zombie, Otto agrees to appear in Medea's movie, believing that it will be the perfect cover for him: people won't think he's a real zombie, he'll just be playing one in the movies. As Medea shoots Otto, and after the undead boy moves in with Fritz, he starts to recover his memories of the time before he was dead. But will this save Otto, or drive him to self-annihilation?"Otto; or, Up with Dead People" is a mash-up of genres and media, a modern fable and picaresque about an alienated youth in an increasingly brutal society. The film is composed of a fractured narrative that includes films-within-the-film, illustrations and text, and even some dance choreography and movement, all coming together to form a layered and textured field of images and ideas. Parts of Medea's films are shown in the movie, including "Duet for Somnabulists" and "Messy in the Afternoon", an affectionate tribute to Maya Deren's "Meshes of the Afternoon." Illustrations in the vein of Charles Addams, Edward Gorey, and Basil Wolverton, combined with stock footage and intertitles, are used to create a new zombie mythology, an allegory for our troubled times.
the movie website:
http://www.ottothezombie.de/
and for more about bruce labruce visit http://brucelabruce.com
album
Gelding Express is an art collective that creates sound performances, most of the collective members have a background in the visual arts. the collective has an experimental approach which involves using everyday objects and low tech equipment such as tape loops in their performances. gelding express sound productions have been used in video and film soundtracks and the collective is working more towards integrating a sound and video practice.
more information at http://geldingexpress.blogspot.com/
gelding express - gelding express
1. first touch
2. leaves fall
3. while the pig slept
4. practice
5. as the world goes by my window
6. what?!
music samples are available at http://www.myspace.com/geldingexpress and http://www.last.fm/music/gelding+express
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