Blog

  • PEOPLE WHO DO NOISE &

    notes on breakcore

    people do noise

    *People Who Do Noise* is a film about the experimental music of Portland, Oregon. Extensive interviews and intimate performance footage provide an intense portrait of the motivations, emotions, and ideas that go into this uncompromising, sometimes brutal musical form. Covering a wide range of artists and styles, the film features everything from the absurdist free-improvisations of genre-pioneers Smegma, to the harsh-noise assaults of Oscillating Innards and everything in between. With an unflinching cinematic style, the film defies any trend-setting or commercial representation, opting instead for a stark portrayal of a musical underground at its most genuine and vital. For the subjects of the film, noise music is a way of life; a life in opposition to the tidy, orderly, and vacuous pop-culture experience. directed by Adam Cornelius (2008, 82 min.)

    “*Notes on Breakcore* is a warts-and-all rave-doc about the international breakcore scene starring a lot of badly dressed men with terrible haircuts talking about a style of electronic dance music that, when played at high volume, is the kind of savage racket that’s used to gently coax answers out of inmates at Guantanamo Bay. […] Breakcore is the bastard hate child of jungle, happy hardcore, techno, electronica, acid house, ragga, electro and dub. When it’s done well, by nutjobs like Venetian Snares for instance, it can be the most euphoric music in the world.” (–*VICE* Magazine). (directed by Bertram Koenighofer & David Kleinl, 2006, 30min.)

  • bran(…)pos + Wiggwaum: Sound vs. Image

    bran(...)pos

    For years the SF artist known as bran(…)pos has terrorized audiences worldwide with wildly delirious, butoh-inspired sound/music/noise/face performances. The recent addition of Max/MSP-modulated live video feeds to the infernal exotica cartoon brew takes the already harrowing violence of the artiste’s performative palette to new delirious dimension. In grunge/organic counterpoint, Wiggwaum–the local trio of Douglas Katelus, Loren Means and Randy Lee Sutherland–revive the “lightshow” genre by pairing hand-worked film and vintage psychedelia to their noise rock freakout jams. As if this were not enough, screening between acts will be Ben Russell’s Black and White Trypps Number Three, a trance/ritual transformation featuring the music of Lightning Bolt, and Terence Hannum’s The Badge of Punishment (featuring the sonic squalls of Prurient).

  • Venezuela: Revolution From the Inside Out

    VENEZUELA-PARTY

    ANSWER organizer, Gloria La Riva has traveled to Venezuela several times over the last 4 years, and will introduce the film and take questions. Last month, Gloria was invited to speak at a forum in Caracas about the U.S. elections and the impact on the struggle Latin America.

    This documentary film explores the history and progress of the Bolivarian Revolution through interviews and footage from participants—from academics to farm workers to those living on the margins of Caracas. The films show the successes and shortcomings of this unique process of revolutionary development. 2008, 85 min., English and Spanish subtitles.