Read CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 2: More Tales of Beauty and Strangeness Online
Authors: Mike Allen
CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 2: More Tales of Beauty and Strangeness (29 page)
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To this end, Mr Holborn and I have registered an internet domain and website (kerato-oblation.org), through which we intend to compile, edit and host our next collaborative project, with the help of filmmakers from every country which currently has ISP access (ie, all of them). The structure of this project will be an
exquisite corpse
game applied to the web-based cultural scene as a whole, one that anybody can play (and every participant will “win”).
WHY KERATO-OBLATION?
Kerato-oblation: Physical reshaping of the cornea via scraping or cutting. With our own version — the aforementioned domain — how we plan to “reshape” our audience’s perspectives would be by applying the exquisite corpse game to an experimental feature film assembled from entries filed over the Internet, with absolutely no boundaries set as to content or intent.
WHAT IS AN EXQUISITE CORPSE?
An “exquisite corpse” (
cadavre exquis
, in French) is a method by which a collection of words or images are assembled by many different people working at once alone, and in tandem. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule (e.g. “The
adjective noun adverb verb
the
adjective noun
”) or by being allowed to see, and either elaborate on or depart from, the end of what the previous person contributed. The technique was invented by
Surrealists
in
1925
; the name is derived from a phrase that resulted when the game was first played (“Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau.”/“The exquisite corpse will drink the new wine.”). It is similar to an old parlour game called
Consequences
in which players write in turn on a sheet of paper, fold it to conceal part of the writing, then pass it to the next player for a further contribution.
Later, the game was adapted to
drawing
and
collage
, producing a result similar to classic “mix-and-match” children’s books whose pages are cut into thirds, allowing children to assemble new chimeras from a selection of tripartite animals. It has also been played by mailing a drawing or collage — in progressive stages of completion — from one player to the next; this variation is known as “
mail art.
” Other applications of the game have since included computer graphics, theatrical performance, musical composition, object assembly, even architectural design.
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Earlier experiments in applying the exquisite corpse to film include
Mysterious Object at Noon
, an experimental 2000 Thai feature directed by
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
which was shot on 16 mm over three years in various locations, and
Cadavre Exquis
, Premiè
re Edition
, done for the 2006
Montreal World Film Festival
, in which a group of ten film directors, scriptwriters and professional musicians fused filmmaking and songwriting to produce a musical based loosely on the legend of Faust.
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For your convenience, we’ve attached a PDF form outlining several support options, with recommended donation levels included. Standard non-profit release waivers ensure that all contributors consent to submit their material for credit only, not financial recompense. By funnelling profits in excess of industry-standard salaries for ourselves back into the festival, we qualify for various tax deductions under current Canadian law and can provide charitable receipts for any and all financial donations made. Copies of the relevant paperwork are also attached, as a separate PDF.
For more information, or to discuss other ways of getting involved, either reply to this e-mail or contact us directly at (416)-
[REDACTED]
. We look forward to discussing mutual opportunities.
With best regards,
Soraya Mousch and Maxim Holborn
The Wall of Love Toronto Film Collective
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8/23/08 1847HRS
TRANSCRIPT SUSPECT INTERVIEW 51 DIVISION
CASEFILE #332
PRESIDING OFFICERS D. SUSAN CORREA 156232, D. ERIC VALENS 324820
SUBJECT MAXIM HOLBORN
D.VALENS: All right. So you had this footage for what, better than six weeks—footage apparently showing somebody committing suicide—and you didn’t ever think that maybe you should let the police know?
HOLBORN: People send us stuff like this all the time, man! The collective’s been going since ’98. Most of it’s fake, half of it has a fake ID and half of the rest doesn’t have any ID at all.
D.VALENS: Yeah, that’s awful lucky for you, isn’t it?
D.CORREA: Eric, any chance you could get us some coffee?
HOLBORN: I don’t want coffee.
(D.VALENS LEFT INTERROGATION ROOM AT 1852 HRS)
D.CORREA: Max, I’m only telling you this because I really do think you don’t know shit about this, but you need to do one of two things right now. You need to get yourself a lawyer, or you need to talk to us.
HOLBORN: What the fuck am I going to tell a lawyer that I didn’t already tell you guys? What else do you want me to say?
D.CORREA: Max, you’re our only connection to a dead body. This is not a good place to be. And your lawyer’s going to tell you the same thing: the more you work with us, the better this is going to turn out for everyone.
HOLBORN: Yeah. Because that’s an option.
From:
[email protected]
Date: Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 3:13 AM
Subject: Re: KERATO-OBLATION FILM PROJECT
To Whom It May Concern --
Please accept my apologies for not fully completing your submission form. I think the attached file is suitable enough for your purposes that you will find the missing information unnecessary, and feel comfortable including it in your exhibition nevertheless. I realize this will render it ineligible for competition, but I hope you can show it as part of your line-up all the same.
Thank you.
VIRTUAL CELLULOID (vcelluloid.blogspot.com)
Alec Christian: Pushing Indie Film Forward Since 2004
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July 23, 2008
“Wall of Love” Big Ten Launch Party
Got to hang out with two of my favourite people from the Scene last night at the Bovine Sex Club: Soraya Mousch and Max Holborn, the head honchos behind the Wall of Love collective. The dedication these guys’ve put into keeping their festivals going is nothing short of awesome, and last night’s launch party for the next one was actually their
tenth anniversary
. Most marriages I know don’t last that long these days. (Doubly weird, given Max and Soraya are that rarest of things, totally platonic best opposite-sex straight friends.)
For those who’ve been under a rock re the local artsy-fart scene over each and every one of those ten years, meanwhile, here’s a thumbnail sketch of the Odd Couple. First off, Soraya. Armenian, born in Beirut, World Vision supermodel-type glamorous. Does music videos to pay the bills, but her heart belongs to experimentalism. Thing to remember about Soraya is, she’s not real big on rules: When a York film professor told her she’d have to shift mediums for her final assignment, she ended up shooting it all on her favorite anyways (8mm), then gluing it to 16mm stock for the screening. This is about as crazy as Stan Brakhage gluing actual dead-ass
moths
to the emulsion of his film
Mothlight
. . . and if you don’t know what
that
is either, man, just go screw. I despair of ya.
Then there’s Max: White as a sack of sheets, Canadian as a beaver made out of maple sugar. Meticulous and meta, uber-interpretive. Assembles narratives from found footage, laying in voiceovers to make it all make (a sort of) sense. Also a little OCD in the hands-on department, this dude tie-dyes his own films by swishing them around in food-color while they’re still developing, then “bakes” them by running them through a low-heat dryer cycle, letting the emulsion blister and fragment. The result: Some pretty trippy shit, even if you’re not watching it stoned.
Anyways. With fest season coming up fast, M. and S. are in the middle of assembling this huge film collage made from snippets people posted chain-letter-style. You might think this sounds like kind of a dog’s breakfast, and any other self-proclaimed indie genius you’d be right. But S. took me in the back and showed me some of the files they hadn’t got to yet, and man, there’s some damn raw footage in there, if ya know what I mean; even freaked
her
out. So if you’re looking for something a little less
Saw
and a little more
Chien Andalou
, check it out: October 10, the Speed of Pain . . .
From: Soraya Mousch
[email protected]
Date: Wednesday, June 25, 3:22 PM
To: Max Holborn
[email protected]
Subject: Check this file out!
Max --
Sorry about the size of this file, I’d normally send it to your edit suite but it’s got some kind of weird formatting -- missing some of the normal protocols -- I don’t have time to dick around with your firewalls. Anyway, YOU NEED TO SEE THIS. Get back in touch with me once you have!
From: Soraya Mousch
[email protected]
Wednesday, June 25, 3:24 PM
Max Holborn
[email protected]
Subject: Apology followup
Max: Realized I might’ve come off a little bitchy in that last message, wanted to apologize. I know you’ve got a lot of shit on your plate with Liat (how’d the CAT-scan go, BTW?); last thing I want to do is make your life harder. You know how it goes when the deadline’s coming down.
Seriously, though, the sooner we can turn this one around, like ASAP, the better -- I think this one could really break us wide open. If you could get back to me by five with something, anything, I’d be really grateful. Thanks in advance.
See you Sunday, either way,
Soraya.
From:
Max Holborn
[email protected]
Wednesday, June 25, 4:10 PM
To: Soraya Mousch
[email protected]
Subject: Re: Apology followup
s.--
cat-scan wasn’t so great, tell you bout it later. got your file, i’m about to review. i’ll im you when it’s done.
m.
TRANSCRIPT CHAT LOG
06/25/08 1626-1633
July 26/2009
“BACKGROUND MAN”, Lescroat,
strangerthings.net/media
(cont’d)
“That original clip? Hands down, some of the scariest amateur shit I’ve ever seen in my life,” says local indie critic/promoter Alec Christian, self-proclaimed popularizer of the “Toronto Weird” low-budget horror culture movement. “A little bit of
Blair Witch
to it, obviously, but a lot more of early Nine Inch Nails videos, Jorg Buttgereit and Elias Merhige. That moment when you realize the guy’s body is rotting in front of you? Pure
Der Todesking
reference, and you don’t get those a lot, ’cause most of the people doing real-time horror are total self-taught illiterates about their own history.”
Asked if there’s any way the clip might be genuine, rather than staged, Christian laughs almost wistfully. “Some people still think
Blair Witch
was real; doesn’t make it so,” he points out. “Anyway, think about how hard it would be to shoot this using World War One technology and logistics, at the latest, which is what we’d be looking at if it was real—and if it was filmed later but aged to look older, then everything else could have been engineered as well. Sometimes you just have to go with common sense.”
TRANSCRIPT EVIDENCE EXHIBIT #3 51 DIVISION
CASEFILE #332
RECOVERY LOCATION 42 TRINITY STREET BSMT
DATE 8/20/2008
Item: 89.2 MB .MPG file retrieved from hard drive of laptop SONY VAIO X372 s/n 10352835A, prop. M. Holborn, duration 15m07s.
0:00 – (All images recorded in black-and-white monochrome.) Caucasian male subject (Subject A), 40s, est. 6'1", 165 lbs, dark hair, wearing black or brown suit appearing to be 1920s cut, shown sitting in upright wooden chair looking directly at camera. Room is a single chamber, est. 8' x 10', hardwood floor, one window behind subject, one door in right-hand wall at rear. No painting or other decoration visible on walls. Angle of light from window suggests filming began early morning; light traverses screen in right-to-left direction, suggesting southward facing of window and room. Unknown subject has no discernible expression.