There’s a mini film festival going on at the Broadway Metroplex (1000 SW Broadway) in Portland. A few of my favorites are in the schedule, including these three weeks in a row:
I’ll be in there with my eyes taped to the goddamn screen for all these beautiful films. I’m bringing a group. If you’re gonna be in Portland and want to go to any of these, drop me a line.
Somewhere in between all the nonsense teenage-boy videoblogs, duck vs. goat, and girl fights on youtube, you can actually find something genuinely sexy. B-17 is the story of Sarah and Yumi who are secret sex slaves, kept in a basement cell. It’s a collection of 11 videos that form the full short film. i-cubed productions managed to make something that has a ring of dark fantasy without taking itself so seriously that it becomes ridiculous or contrived.
A heavy fetish theme, an extremely cute main character, a meticulously constructed trash-art set, and a neat original “lo-fi” electronic score, among other things puts b-17 on my all time list of internet awesome. And, well, it’s fucking hot.
In addition to the 11 videos that form the main part of the series, there are bonus clips and behind the scenes materials on the youtube account. Here, for your consideration, is the second part.
The i^3 people also have some interesting and progressive ideas about filmmaking and creative process. Trying out things like “interstitial” media, and encouraging other artists to do so. According to their Hyper-Cinema Manifesto, their aim is:
“A cinema that bypasses the socioeconomic and administrative movie making machine, a gauntlet that turns many a film into just another watered down and unsuspecting vehicle for the “big message.”
I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for their future projects.
For some weird reason, that could only be explained by the mysterious pulsing of my subconscious, while chugging down $1 pbr at The Lex, a film that I saw last year popped into my head.
Koyaanisqatsi is, mostly, a collection of time lapsed images put to frenetic music. The word, coming to us from the Hopi language, means “life out of balance” or “a state of life that calls for another way of living.” The film shows us how much our world is really some kind of fucked up factory. We’re all hot dogs, dude.
As unsettling as it is, and as difficult and anxiety inducing it was to sit through, it remains one of the most profound viewing experiences of my entire life.
I twittered to see who else had seen the film and I got a couple responses:
I also got a message from Orinz about it, but he DM’d me so I’m not going to put a screen shot here, but he put forth a film called Baraka as having the same concept but expressing it better. I’ll have to check it out
My ex, Nikol Hasler, also sent word that she’d seen the film and loved it, but I suspect her love for it has less to do with the actual film than the fact that the score composer just happens to be a cousin of this guy.
In any case. Watch it. Just try drinking chamomile instead of coffee beforehand.
There’s a mini film festival going on at the Broadway Metroplex (1000 SW Broadway) in Portland. A few of my favorites are in the schedule, including these three weeks in a row: 
