something's in the air

whilst wrangling servers & fighting virtual hosts to welcome being back in the studio nestled amongst the breadth of exciting projects for the new year, i've been working on the long overdue punk monk web site facelift. the dire juggle is no more & it's finally balancing precariously on the top of the list as the year rapidly gains momentum. the countdown officially on, and that minature counting customized clock is ticking. 

hello there dreamweaver my old nemesis. goodbye lunches.


today also involved throwing a quickie EPK together [for the 3rd annual painted lips & lolly licks sexy film festival in ottowa where an amusing ditty i made back in 2009 with a clutch of sassy lasses on the fly for a 48 hour film challenge for KINO KABARET at adelaide film festival is playing... and sasha grey is judging!


this was the 2nd project made in the 48 hour window on the back of mobile film "jet plane" as part of my inverted mental health narrative. seen at jurassic lounge opening night last week amongst very fine KINO company. before then a hoarde of international film fests. the punk monk orgasmic cine chicks sure do get around. and yes, there's many more to come, right after i finish this website...

vagrant kinoites

 

sydney KINO has lost our fave stomping ground which was fraser studios off broadway. sadly as the urban gentrification hits the dirged street corners which we love & the old adjacent brewery converts to expensive high rise inner city loft apartments, the noise complaints come.

as we desperate filmmakers deign to find a new underground home to accommodate us, a spot of nostalgia led me to a fairly recent soiree which is my last photographic memory of that which was, and the habitat it provided us gutter snipes where dumpsters were worthy of a second investigation when a long drunken walk home seemed unfeasible after one too many free jamesons. in fact it serves as the only memory. such is often the posthumous KINO way.

the worst part of losing fraser studios as a venue is arguably after KINO drinks at the clare. many moons back we lushed after films at the strawberry hotel but like quacking ducks we took to the clare like water & in no time at all there was no place like home. aaah, the bliss of the couches & shabby chic surrounds. the shelves of jagermeister lined up like eager soldiers ready to gun down a surrendering throat & jugs on endless tap... no snapping of red heels required dorothy.

of course at times the alcoholic storm was too much to be weathered & required emergency trips to the bathroom... 

where we would re-meet old unfocusable cherished friends.

 which is really awesome until...

the weight of the universe & excessive evening consumption combined with good times & often films would weigh heavily down upon us. how can life be so sweet?

the next chapter of sydney KINO awaits with the settling in of a new home. follow us there for great film, live performance, food, alcohol... it's a religion for some.

special thanks

thanks for finally turning up to my film night. all those monday's you never bothered before, hindered by last minute excuses. i had stopped inviting you, having come to the slow realisation that i enjoy them more without your controlling presence & inevitable disappointment when you never showed. i was the eternal small child standing atop a stage peering out into a parent-free shadowed audience. you were never there.


and then you came, arriving three hours late. yeah , i still remember what it was like having a job. i stood at the back in my usual place clutching worthless drink vouchers. i gave them away but the bar had already run dry. still not drinking as flu racked my body. the alcohol supply's early demise was not because of me.


my film had not played yet. not that it mattered. it was only a silly ditty poorly crafted on the fly built on an inside joke. we made it for fun on the breath of the wind, a spare five minutes & a pile of confectionery wrappers.


after it played & the evening wrapped, i said my goodbyes while the troops went on as tradition deems, to drink next door. i quietly slipped away; my sanitorium calling from afar.


you stood outside smoking knowing how much i hate it & insisted on chasing the night further sans me [despite your declarations that i am your motivation]. you wanted to drink. your lover which you have always respected more. you'd had a hard week. as usual. 


afterwards when i admonished you for your social negligence, you said that you came because my friend, who is now yours, invited you, rather than me & my permission wasn't required. oh, and you wanted to see me despite my constantly reprimanded childish behavior. 


as the credits roll, i'd like to thank you for your continued support. i should've done it without you.


Sah Kah She Fah Rah from punk monk propaganda on vimeo.

access all areas

a couple of years ago i was introduced to a bunch of physically impaired filmmakers through KINO KABARET. KINO is [as some people already know] my subcultural cinematic religion which became my family... this is the place where for the last two years i've been making films on & off on a monthly basis to showcase with a bunch of other under-resourced filmmakers who are also big on ideas.

together under the philosophical umbrella of "don't think, just shoot" we have risen above the crippling confines of no budget & produced numerous films of varying standard [some international film fest award winners] which are usually happily bolstered by the open jamesons & coopers bar to be savoured by the hundred or so people who regularly turn out to watch them/us.

KABARET is the more intense version of KINO where films are made within a 48 hour timeframe. it's a lot of fun & the environment is wholly coo-operative in an ego-free environment as new and old filmmakers alike come together.

earlier this year, i amongst a handful of others helped a friend, phillip debs, who is profoundly deaf since birth, sign out a short film; all things bright and beautiful as part of the coming together for sydney's only 48hour film marathon [we make a series of 48 hour films for the week with three sessions all up back on back]. it's a humbling opportunity to take stock of the aspects of life i coast through in on auto-pilot mode but conversely also appreciate the other aspects which are introduced when not so reliant on other senses. it helps that i like to wave my arms around...

the people behind KINO in sydney are the festivalists; a non profit company which has such incredible reach producing multiple film festivals throughout sydney & into the expanses of greater sydney. NSW would be such a sadder place without them.

sometimes it's hard to believe it's the work of just three nurturing vision-filled people: matt, marianne and karina aided & abetted by the sea of interns they invariably attract wanting to sit and learn at their generous & all inspiring feet.

one of their labours of love is access all areas film festival which kicked off a few days ago. bringing niche films [mostly locally produced] which are hard enough to see outside of arthouse cinema houses in major cities alone, the festival is touring NSW and taking the mountain to mohammed as it were. the films are travelling throughout wagga wagga, orange, griffith and outer regions within NSW to the people who don't take a trip to the cinema for granted. schools are included too.

issues of mobility, hearing impairment... are all covered where audio descriptions in addition to open ended captioning for all films are transmitted through individual audio receivers which are provided free of charge by the festival. carers are on hand at all venues to help make the less able more comfortable.

don't dis my [or any other's] ability. embrace the differences. reject homogeny.

the honeymoon is over

so my nihilistic perspective on weddings, marriage & femme fatales hit a couple of sore spots in the last few days. it still hurts when i press them.

it all started with the awards night for the punk monk 48HR film project "hybristo honeymoon" i literally broke my back on & ended with the dissolution/disillusion of the marriage of two of my best friends after almost two decades together.

in the beginning of the end some punk monks rocked up to the awards screening at the paddington RSL on friday night with great anticipation having been advised that we'd been nominated for at least one award but not aware which category/ies. there was much nervous anticipation in the air which we quickly tempered with red wine en masse [as you/we do] & witty banter about farm machinery in the hopes of a nomination in the category "best use of a prop". we had a bunch of inappropriate suggestions for additions...

with a couple of nominations in categories [best music, best sound] we walked away with two awards in the end [best sound & most lame director = most extraordinary team]. huge congratulations to our small hardworking cast/crew on set [ky, mischa, felix, michael, andrew, davey & my much luscious muse cat] for the incredible effort, energy and shared vision, raen & kate behind the scenes & to dermot, michael, felix & mischa for sticking it out to the end in post production mode.

mike's super sound design got us over the line & mithra with the lurkers enigmatic banjo sounds fueled from my deliverance dueling banjo obsession/original story inspiration combined with dan's [from meatpig] captivating accordion got us a large percentage of the way there.

it was quite satisfying to feel partially responsible for the honorable minister's [virgina judge] lipsticked nose throughout the night after i went in for the stage pash following obligatory congratulatory handshake. KINO regular, aidan corrigan's crowd pleasing mockumentary "living with EES" won best film. big electrifying clap for his team.

we were a little disappointed with the structure of the awards & felt sorry that some of the other films apart from ours which displayed excellence in particular fields didn't even make the finalist nominations. it does demonstrate that there is no accounting for taste & film festival competition judging is an entirely subjective & political process. our film was always going to be borderline risqué, so we were ecstatic to get the recognition we did in a fairly conservative forum.

apparently "we're all winners", so now it's time for us to harvest the film & send it out to see if anyone else responds positively to our wicked weekend jaunt in the woods. with 50% of marriages ending in divorce, honeymooners often don't last forever. we just managed to dispense with ours a little quicker than most. now we need to see if we can prop it up posthumously long after the wedding cake has been happily consumed. if we can manage a seventeen year long festival life perhaps that's a significant #lovePASS not #FAIL after all.

[photos by punk monk dave cheng]

hybristophiles

a few fab punk monks braved the trek into the wilderness with me on the weekend to make a film in the international 48HR film project [28HRFP]. packed into two cars we disappeared bushward into the night after being assigned a genre, line of dialogue, a character & prop to integrate into a film to be entirely created from friday to sunday within an exact controlled time-frame.

genre = film de femme

object = torch

character = jemma gordon, a writer

line of dialogue = "one of these days you're going to realise i'm right".

kudos to ky, felix, michael, mischa, davey, andrew & cat for coping with the extreme elements which we endured, not least the inconstant weather compounded by dealing with an evil director/producer spiralling between crushed spine pain [a tree fell on me while we were location scouting] resulting in "...several wedge compression fractures with greater than 25% height loss anteriorly in the mid to lower thoracic spine. no definite repulsion of fragments is seen" and an opiate induced other worldly state. good times.

to try to make myself feel better & to ensure everyone suffered for the art, i made sure that everyone else shared the misery [but not the codeine] & tried as best i could to turn the project into another faux snuff movie. sadly it looks like both ky & davey will recover from their hypothermia. cat too didn't seem to mind enduring the tortuous conditions but then she didn't vomit all over herself. this begs the question will they all return for a third film...

the proof as they say is in the pudding. a kind of red-blooded guide to newly weds. a marriage manual of sorts. watch this space for screening news. 48HRFP films will screen at paddo RSL wednesday october 07. also the director's cut film inspired by the 48HRFP will screen at KINO this coming monday.

have dogtag, will SUFF [© @shoes_off]

thursday night. factory theatre. the third sydney underground film festival kicked off with the bang of a free bar & an incredible opening political prankster-saluting feature film [yes men fix the world] supported by tres cool industrial short pochsy & western spaghetti mash-up cattle call.

the pink flamingos & a handful of punk monks [including our new wonderful newly recruited german paparazzi] ran amok amongst the diverse crowd of subversive dogtagged filmmakers & lovers everywhere whilst the endless pizza & wine corks popped.

punk monk propaganda tribe have three short films playing which are the happy result of some collaborative KINO fun:

the sleeper [AUS] - kate taylor [sunday 18:30]

salome's picnic [GER] - victoria waghorn [saturday 18:30]

chick addict [AUS] - victoria waghorn [saturday 18:30]

come see us & support no-frills independent cinema. if not in the theatre we'll undoubtedly be at the bar pimping our wares & excitedly clutching our scratch 'n' sniff card for john waters' delightfully tasteless trangressive cult classic, pink flamingos which screens tonight at 20:30. eggs, eggs, EGGS!!!

[pix by punk monk felix pflieger]

blue mountains blown

last week i headed to the blue mountains on what was a tentative mushroom foraging/KINO filmmaking expedition with my two most favorite recent discoveries - canadian filmmakers: ron mann & darryl gold. we became friends while they were in town in fast furious film festival mode for possible worlds.

the best laid plans of mice and men were thrown out when we ended up dodging the consulate general and standing up tea & scones once we were halfway out of town.

like errant kids playing hooky we stole into the mountains on our slow hill-winding train & enjoyed a lazy day of food, hiking and conversation, where i inadvertantly almost violated my duty of care and killed them both [forcing a vertigo suffering ron, deep into the three sisters stair incline & feeding an allergic darryl nuts cleverly hidden in a flour-free cake]. it could have all ended so differently... *nervous smile*.

these few photos of our time in the blue mountains ironically enough are blown out blue because i'd somehow left my canon camera on a TV auto setting mode for most the day until belatedly discovered and yeah... this is the result.

we look like blue meanie magic mushrooms. quietly animated forest fungi were we. the only ones in sight that day.

zee lovely french girls

on friday night in the throes of 48 hour marathon filmmaking, i had a little cake & wine break to celebrate the combined birthday & imminent departure of two lovely girlfriends [amalia & magali] who both have the most delightful accents ever.

they are part of the reason why i start classes this week at alliance francais so i can at least make some effort to appreciate their first language & subtle sophistocated layers. it seems the french invasion is almost complete. funnily enough like most things - it started with KINO.

about last night

we shot a little film. it will play in a couple of days time for KINO KABARET which is an extreme filmmaking showcase.

all films featured are made in 48 hours. ours will technically be a bit over. due to crew/cast obligations we just couldn't shoot in the timeframe for my hyperreal staged concept which is a derivative nod to lynch in conjunction with the themed KINO screening this coming thursday night: a homage to "the man".

another punk monk, dermot [our lovely DOP] has a haiku screening tonight amongst loads of other intensive short films to see. to make up for blurred lines, i might just make another couple of films. that is, if anyone still wants to work with me...

only one death, five litres of blood-letting & a face-full of blown capillaries. insurance anyone? welcome to guerrilla filmmaking.

if you're in sydney please come to the red rattler theatre to see "the retweeted tale of annabel lee" & enjoy the punk monk propaganda lynch installation. the film screening commences 19:00.