Trapped Inside the Machine
You can't walk out during the credits if the movie is YOU. PRESS RELEASE | WATCH a TRAILER
Saturday, August 5th, 2006
8:30 - Live Music by Johnnytwentythree (click for details)
9:00 - Showtime
TRT: 1:37:29
On the lawn of Automotive High School | DIRECTIONS
50 Bedford Ave, between N. 12th and Lorimer, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
In the event of rain the show is indoors at the same location.
Trapped Inside the Machine
Ever feel like you've been here before? Ever have trouble discerning if you're awake or asleep? Ever get the sense that no matter how many times you smash through the walls with a bloody axe that you're still trapped inside some infernal machine? That's the way these filmmakers feel, and this fantastic program of comedy, horror, animation, and surrealism is for you.
THE FILMS: Don't Mouse Around (Jeremy Bailey | Toronto, ON | 2:49) www.jeremybailey.net
After a long day of computer programming, the designer is exhausted. His electronic Lilliputian friends try to rouse him in this comic video.
Buongiorno (Good Morning) (Melo Prino | Padova, Italy | 5:00)
Every morning, you wake up, go to the bathroom, check yourself out in the mirror, and expect to find that you're the same person you were yesterday. Sometimes, you're not.
Game Modding for the '80s (Jon Sasaki | Toronto, ON | 7:34) Courtesy of the Novel Amusements DVD zine, and the unstoppable www.nomediakings.org.
This pitch-perfect peaen to video geekdom posing as public access TV from the past provides a nostalgic look back at the '70s view of the future. "I also found these serviettes. They say, 'We're having a party.' To me, that conveys the right message."
Video Computer System (Golden Shower music video)
(Lobo Animation | Brazil | 4:00)
More game-modding for the '80s, with a 21st century twist, and a great beat. Featuring Pitfall, Enduro and, of course, Pac-Man.
Yoga Deathmatch (Jim Munroe | Toronto, ON | 4:27) Also courtesy of No Media Kings.
And now that you've learned how to modify your pinball game, check out how Jim Munroe rolls out the machinema (animation made using video games) in the 21st century. All good postmodern discussions on reincarnation and anxiety should be peppered with deadly exploding watermelons, as the guys in this video expound on why it's maybe not so bad to be trapped in this particular machine.
Shape Shift (Scott Stark | Seattle, WA | 10:00)
Scott gets trapped between two cameras, and does a freaky little jig for joy.
Kosmos (Thorsten Fleisch | Berlin, Germany | 5:17)
In this gorgeously disorienting experimental film, the viewer is constantly recontextualizing the visual images, seeking to find a foothold amongst the water, pebbles, glass.
The Loneliest Probe (zZalgern0n | Glendale, CA | 2:53)
The machine is trapped inside itself, and "just like all of us, he will be alone forever," in this sad and creepy animation.
Misanthrope (Aaron Hill and the Crimson Guard music video)
(Casimir Nozkowski | Brooklyn, NY | 3:00)
Aaron Hill is literally a ghost in the machine in this romantic and sweet music video, cleverly set in a photo booth and directed by long-time Rooftop veteran Nozkowski.
Still Life (Jon Knautz | Ottawa, ON | 8:00)
Remember the 1987 Andrew McCarthy / Kim Cattrall romantic comedy Mannequin? Here's the nightmare version.
Daylight Hole (Matt Palmer | England | 5:00)
In this brilliantly conceived horror film, a soundman descends into an isolated cave. The eerie hyper-sensitivity provided by his headphones reveals that he might not be alone.
Cinemare (Chrzu (Christopher) Lindstrom | Finland | 9:00)
An animated graffiti goblin finds a mysterious ticket in the cold hands of a brutally murdered beast. Naturally, he wants to gain admission to the nightmare that is the cinemare.
Kinetoscope (Max Goldblatt | Los Angeles, CA | 3:00)
The lights dim. The curtains part. The projector whirs to life. And the movie begins. A horror movie. But behind you, the projectionist has to deal with a different kind of horror.
Uso Justo (Coleman Miller | Minneapolis, MN | 22:00)
Actors in a Mexican melodrama find themselves trapped in an experimental film. Will a story ever emerge? Will narrative structure and physical reality break down? With a mix of Beckett, Brakhage, and Buster Keaton, this insightful and humorous film is both a critique of mainstream and experimental cinema, and also a metaphysical mindfuck.
