special delivery

so i'm sitting facing the film edit which needs to be done in 24 hours for the opening of my group exhibition project gaia retouched with fellow punk monks clare devlin-mahoney & alex papasavvas. event = art riot for the inaugural sydney fringe festival. i suspect the only riot which will occur is my belated reunion with bed shortly after opening. for one reason or another we have been strangely parted in recent times.

pyjamas are de rigeur in this instance ie. editing. i've probably been in the same pose since 08:00 when there's a yell from the door. it's a courier not a debt collector. phew.

yesterday the same thing happened but i wasn't here. i was away in abbotsford laboriously special guest appearance editing another film [feature doco], queer street which has taken over my life the last couple of months before i limped off for a lunch meeting. i left my PJs behind that day. they pined miserably.

then i received a card via mailbox. when offered to the woman who always wants see my ID even though we may as well be lovers because i see her more frequently than any one else who deigns to be, she solemnly handed over a box. it was from canon. my missing 40D finally back, repaired with a new motherboard, six months too late. thank you to my sponsors, you know who you are. but i still want the 5D mark III...

today i get to deal with the nice asian dude with the digi signature handheld box & fluoro vest at the corner shop door. we're having an ongoing secret love affair but neither of us acknowledge it. he secretly admires my pyjamas in all their various incarnations. today recycled bootcamp wear which could have been more fittingly used for its original purpose. 

i unconsciously caress my extra fat folds with increased ambivalence - it's like they appeared overnight. the postal service courier has never seen me dressed in spite of the fact he often arrives midday. that is our reality. this fits well with my age-old desire for a eurasian child. perhaps i should just jump him at the door?

with a startled excited cry [mine] he jumps back, and the opportunity is lost, not forever but till next time. i see who the parcel is from. scream queen viscera herself, the magnanimous ms shannon lark from chainsaw mafia. my wonderful US distributor & lover of things i make horror. it's a viscera film festival award. sadly i couldn't make it personally to receive in downtown LA in july this year but it's a wonderful consolation which after its photo shoot goes straight to the trophy room!

this award also goes out to my wonderful salome's picnic team, the little mobile film shot on the fly in germany has had a wonderful & unexpected shelf life. massive thanks for the original inspiraton from the festivalists at possible worlds canadian film festival for their challlenge invitation to make a one minute silent sex film. i was but one amongst many KINOites who heard their call. the film now does have sound, thanks to michael prechtl's incredible composition skills & ability to understand crazed vision.

other key team players were stephen dunstan who crafted the edit, felix pflieger & chris pur for being with me on the day & going along with the crazy australian chick who they'd only met once at the german horror film festival in their bavarian hometown. i'm so glad i made that late night phone call from my lonely little hotel room.  you were not only gentlemen in the extreme but so wonderfully pliant, creative & pleasurable to work with [LOL] we shall have to try to do it again some more.

in the meantime i may keep this trophy by the door. it's quite a heavy handful & one never knows. its future employment in order to convince the mailman of my picture of our child might be required. i do like a man in fluoro.

art riot
the sydney fringe
upstairs annandale hotel
parramatta road
saturday september 11
opening is 18:00

there will be alcohol
come drink my ration
[i'm on antibiotics]

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.

pink bits

pink bits en masse & one enormous heat wave. this was the glory of tongue in, err, cheek; darryl's hard liquor & porn film festival playing in sydney in conjunction with the festivalists' incredibly successful possible worlds canadian film festival.

over the two nights that darryl took over bobbi's pole dancing studio, the sold-out crowd was treated to the handpicked finest that this infamous fun film festival offers audiences in toronto & montreal where humour and sex are fused into the ultimate light cheese package.

incorporate a bunch of local invited KINO filmmakers [featuring a couple of punk monks, me included] contributing risqué films on a similar theme, throw in some limbre talented performers on superlative search & seduce mode with the crowd in the burlesque tradition utilising steel pole phalli, giant feathered fans, an oversized martini glass, mix with an open bar featuring wine & never-ending bottles of canadian club whisky, DJs something 4porno, pole-dance-offs & you have yourself an evening cocktail which threatens to blast the mercury through the roof.

public enemy #1

sunday just gone was much loved & revered friend, filmmaker, film festival extraordinaire, KINO legend & honorary punk monk; matt ravier's birthday.

some punk monks caught up with the fray post ALGAE RHYTHM working bee & michael mann's latest film public enemies screening to celebrate with the rest of his admiring flock at the cafe lounge.

[pix by punk monk dave cheng]