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yeule Pixel Affection ‘yeule longs for an internet that predates the monocultural conglomeration of social media — an internet of small, niche communities that have been all but decimated by the institutions of Facebook, Twitter, et al. “Pixel Affection” re-imagines the layered, grainy textures of these influences as synth chords pulsing against a 4-on-the-floor kick, bobbing under stray sine waves and vocal chops. “Pour my heart into simulation, digital in reciprocation,” she sings. “I’m trying to remember your name then/ The memory before I awaken is coded to a million fragments.” The track feels like an ode to the internet friend you’ve lost contact with over time, a saved chat log being the only evidence left of your connection.’— Jude Noel
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Thomas Brinkmann Elitex Jet MG. ‘Throughout his career Brinkmann has focussed on the human operating amongst industry alongside rhythms that manifest as a result of technological advancement. With this new release Brinkmann makes a u-turn, looking back to the early industrial age. Comprised of recordings of various looms, Raupenbahn investigates the sonic properties and consequences of the first automatic loom as constructed by Jacques de Vaucanson in 1745. Thomas Brinkmann once again adheres to his tendency for clarity and simplicity whilst further investigating not only the sound and rhythms of the machines (looms) but also what role they serve in society and what consequences they have on the environment.’— Editions Mego
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Maria Chavez La Fabrique Agitée live, 17/01/2019 ‘Maria Chavez approaches the turntables as an instrument of transmission. This Peruvian artist doesn’t opt for just its function of mixing different types of music. Her approach is more primordial, also exploring the turntables’ sound-generating abilities. She could even be considered a necromancer of sorts, giving broken records new life as part of her noise incursions. Like her mentor, the late Pauline Oliveros, Chavez is a unique case study in the practice of focussed listening.’— le guess who
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Xylouris White Ascension ‘George Xylouris is a lute player and singer from the Greek island of Crete. Jim White is the drummer of Australian post-rock heroes the Dirty Three, and he’s also played with people like Cat Power and PJ Harvey. Xylouris and White are the two members of Xylouris White, a duo who make spacey and otherworldly psychedelic folk music.’— Stereogum
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galen tipton tender ‘galen tipton’s fake meat pokes fun at our post-industrial alienation by accelerating reconfiguration via the absolute deconstruction of the soundscape, which is framed as a sonic polymer of samples that one can instrumentalize, rearrange, discard, etc. cut down to their component parts & decontextualized, these sonic motifs melt into a sort of primordial molecular soup whose ingredients are distinct & yet totally alloyed, unnatural & yet somehow familiar — organic & synthetic; real & fake.’— Baldr Eldursson
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First Tone Reaction 1 ‘First Tone unfurl poignant, flickering compositional works that utilize pitch material that is tuned using the system known as Just Intonation (which Pitre has studied for nearly 15 years) in conjunction with various software and a single hardware synth. The result is a collection of music that is both organic and alien. Layers of tone and texture build and dissolve from the ultra minimal to the enormous, on occasion seamlessly blending the two. A wide array of striking timbres patiently wash over one another, at times sounding like organic instruments, at other times sounding completely otherworldly.’— Editions Mego
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Thaiboy Digital Legendary Member ‘Born in Thailand, raised in Sweden, and influenced by American rappers like Soulja Boy and 50 Cent, Thaiboy Digital (real name Thanapat Thaothawong) testifies to rap’s status as a global commodity. He also illustrates the gap separating the life of the music from its makers; Hip-hop might go where it wants, but human beings often have more trouble, and Thaiboy’s had a number of scuffles with Swedish immigration authorities over the years (he was deported back to Thailand for a spell in 2015). Those troubles don’t necessarily manifest in the lyrics of Legendary Member, Thaiboy’s debut album, but they have impacted how the album was made. His deportation to Thailand turned his creative collaboration with Drain Gang, a Swedish collective that includes producers Yung Sherman and Whitearmor and rappers Bladee and Ecco2K, into an entirely digital relationship, a wireless transmission pinging back and forth between different countries and disparate styles.’— Nathan Smith
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ODAE Cascade ‘Beats that whisper, pumping. Fluid structures, never landing. Milky and thick like cement. Slipping through spaces, breathing. ODAE presents tangible motifs out of less suggestive sonic fodder — static, clicks, hums. These motifs never clear the way, emerging just to the top, surface tension molding, revealing their form under a thin viscous layer of that which preceded them. There’s a formal sense of breath here; evenly distributed and regular, it never fully subsides. Living with a light intensity (lighter than that of many of its deconstructed club predecessors, may be less spectacular for it, might be a good thing; peaks are turned down, rests are turned up). It sways and trips, stumbles and moans, purrs its way through a minuscule situation. It creeps out of background ambience. It dips in and falls back, as matter does. It moves and vibrates and sits alongside you. Synths skitter and jump, a fragment here a fragment there, a new mood, dim lighting.’— B. Levinson
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Stefan Fraunberger Elegie ‘This video for Stefan Fraunberger’s ‘Elegie’ was captured at the church in Romania where the Austrian composer performed and recorded his upcoming LP for Rabih Beaini’s Morphine label. Based entirely around Fraunberger’s usage of a 19th Century organ built by K. Einschenk, the album is a third installment of his Quellgeister series, which explores the influence of the “non-human on terrestric organ-machines.”‘— 4:3 Boiler Room
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Gross Net Dust to Dust ‘Gross Net Means Gross Net is the work of Philip Quinn, formerly of Belfast’s solid but often overlooked Girls Names. Quinn’s Gross Net project feels like a completely different animal, however, rooted as deeply in bass-heavy electronic and ambient music as it is in the post-punk of Quinn’s previous group’s latter work. Gross Net revels in blending and blurring these traditions in ways that invigorate and disorientate and confound.’— Bernie Brooks
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Moor Mother Black Flight ‘Delivered with a booming, stentorian confidence, Moor Mother holds the listener’s gaze with frightening conviction of purpose, underlined by the ratchet strength of her Afro-punk-techno-blues-noise backdrops. Alongside guest input from poet/rapper Saul Williams and her fellow Philly native, MC Reef The Lost Cauze, Moor Mother holds darkness to light in a way that edifies and complicates the magick of her art. In its detailed arrangements and penetrative focus, ‘ Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes’ resembles an immersive film sans the visuals, but the range of real and synthetic textures and timbres, coupled with Moor Mother’s central narration bring the music and her ideas to life in a way that visual languages may not fully be able to articulate so fully, while also leaving room for the listener to fill in their own gaps. She’s lost none of the rage that informed her first three albums, but here it feels more tempered and pointed than ever.’— Boomkat
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Carl Stone Jame Jam ‘It takes 35 minutes to reach the summit of Carl Stone’s new Himalaya. To arrive there, you ascend through manically cut up and overlaid Afrobeats, funk and hiphop grooves together with a tasty disco riff that reassembles the very molecules of your being. Then, having hit the apex, Stone throws you into idyllic freefall for the next half hour, into a balmy environment of slow moving and ethereal tones, music that is as voluminous and prayer-like as the opening part is compacted and hedonistic.’— The Wire
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Destroyer Crimson Tide ‘Dan Bejar, the elliptical Canadian bard who records as Destroyer, coolly intones the phrase some 16 times across “Crimson Tide,” the first single from the forthcoming album Have We Met, but per usual, he leaves the meaning open to interpretation. And what a sumptuous puzzle: The spacious synth-rock forms an elegant backdrop for one of his patented absinthe monologues. Our rakish raconteur picks up similes and then self-consciously rejects them, languishes in a hospital, lifts from Kenny Rogers, louchely savors the word “blow,” dismisses “chickenshit singers paying their dues,” and attends an “insane” funeral.’— Marc Hogan
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François J. Bonnet & Stephen O’Malley Erosion always wins ‘Stephen and François deal in those moments and instants that happen after the violence, and the ugliness and the mess. Their music is about chaos being summoned and ordered. It is about the noise that nurtures your ears after a long heartbreaking pain. I have heard the sounds of wars being fought and the noises of hearts being broken, and I have never found a shelter as soothing as this music which makes me think of sunken ships and beauty found in the depths of oceans long forgotten’.— Joseph Ghosn
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p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. As I discovered when making a post about the French actor Gregoire Colin the other day, there’s a film from several years ago about Cocteau’s relationship with Radiguet directed by the wacko French actress Arielle Dombasse called ‘Opium’ that apparently is laughably horrible and barely got released. Thank you for the Ruiz wisdom. ** Bill, Hi, B. Right, I think the Balance tribute book is volume 3? I haven’t read any of them. ** Sypha, Hey. As I’ve said, nothing that anyone has ever said about life on Twitter has made me want to be there, and quite the contrary. Yes, I read ‘Distemper’ long ago, whenever it came out originally. ‘Chinatown’ is a goodie for sure. ** _Black_Acrylic, That’s good to hear about Vicious Coffee, although, yeah, fat lot of good that does for you and me. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Hope all goes smoothly with the voice-over actor. Do you think the right performance by him could assuage your concerns about the film? ** politekid, Ah, gotcha. Cool if I see you at the mysterious thing. There’s some possibility that I might hit the Tate with a couple of friends on Friday afternoon if there’s time, so you might see me then. I’ll do my best to hunt you down. ** rigby, Whoa! Rigby! Holy moly! It’s been … what … ages. So great to ‘see’ you. Yeah, the blog has comment viewing issues for some people. No idea why. I tried to fix that and there seemed to be no way. No, at the Friday event, they pick the film, and I (and everyone) don’t know what it will be until the very moment I’m asked to introduce it. I’m not sure if the thing is to pick a film they know I know and like or a film they know I know and hate or a film I don’t know at all. Curious project. Caught my fancy. T’would be sweet to see on Friday, but no sweat if it doesn’t end up doable for you. Love to you, buddy! ** Okay. I’ve done one of those gigs featuring music I’ve been listening to and into lately, and now you decide if you want to add what’s up there to your own listening realm or not. Tomorrow morning I go to London for an overnight, but I’ll do a rather speedy p.s. before I head off. See you then.
‘Cult filmmaker Damon Packard lives off Kickstarter. The fundraising he does on the site finances his films and pays the rent. He also sells Blu-ray discs of obscure films and does the occasional low-paid editing job to survive. Budget limitations inform Packard’s aesthetic: single characters are played by multiple actors, scenes inexplicably switch locations and bizarre plot points are created to explain away inconsistencies. His films slip between the fantasy and reality of Hollywood, often filtered through a pastiche of iconic 70s and 80s cinema.
‘I met Packard online in 2009, when we corresponded about screening his films in Australia. When I moved to Los Angeles from Melbourne in 2015, he was the only person I knew (apart from my wife). I suggested we meet up for coffee. He agreed. We met two more times, coincidentally at some of LA’s most-frequented diners, where we discussed his films, local history, and the decline of late-night culture in LA.
‘Packard is nocturnal. When I attempt to meet him on an afternoon at 12:30pm, he retorts that 12:30am would be better. Eventually, he concedes. He tells me he can probably be awake by noon, so we confirm lunch. He suggests the Coral Café in Burbank.
‘This is the first time I’ve met Packard in person. Having recently moved to LA from Melbourne, I don’t have a car and am still in the public transport mindset—thinking I can get around LA on the Metro and on foot. After an hour and a half on two buses and the Red Line, I arrive at North Hollywood Station. It takes me another 45 minutes to walk the two miles along Burbank Boulevard to the Coral Café. Packard is already seated when I arrive in his signature fishing hat, jeans, and a t-shirt. True to its name, the Coral Café has a calm, pastel vibe. I introduce myself and sit down. He doesn’t remember me specifically—he has hundreds of friends on Facebook and people contact him all the time to organize screenings of his films.
‘Packard wants to hear about the screenings in Australia. He seems interested in the audience responses. A friend and I screened Packard’s Skatebang (2007) at a gallery in Melbourne along with some other video works. (Packard’s work could be considered a distant cousin to Ryan Trecartin’s, whose work we also planned to screen, until his gallerist revoked permission.) Skatebang features a series of teenage skateboarders thrown from their boards after being shot by hidden snipers, while black helicopters circle and Madonna’s Papa Don’t Preach plays in the background. It humorously exaggerates the media’s paranoid fixation on terrorism during the Bush era. The audience was visibly uncomfortable, occasionally breaking out into nervous laughter. The second screening was at the Electrofringe Festival in Newcastle, this time in a theatre, the audience visibly more relaxed and receptive. People were more relaxed and openly enjoyed themselves. Perhaps there is less pressure in a darkened theatre than in an austere white cube.
‘We both order ice tea. Packard orders the Caesar salad and I ask for a cheese quesadilla. He talks about his current project Fatal Pulse AKA Yuppie Fear Thriller. The film’s plot involves Janet Jackson’s manager, an illuminati conspiracy to stop time in 1991, and a pop locker murder plot. Packard managed to shoot scenes at the Less Than Zero mansion in Bel Air, Lautner’s Sheats-Goldstein Residence and a house in the Hollywood Hills. Due to budget limitations, the rest of the shoot will take place outdoors, though—in true Packard fashion—he hasn’t worked out all the details of the plot yet. “To be honest,” he confesses, “I don’t want to finish the film as I’ll have to stop the crowdfunder campaigns”—he’s worried about covering the rent. “But, the film was sold months ago and I have to send it to Fandor.” …
‘LA’s ‘heyday’ for Packard, was the mid-80s when he was working in cinemas in Westwood. Now he considers it a “deadzone”—the only thing out there is UCLA and a few dwindling businesses. The cinemas, music stores, bookstores and newsstands are all gone.
‘When Packard worked in Westwood in the 80s, there were a number of single-house theatres in an enclosed area. Film premieres would take place, with well-known actors, directors, and cinematographers regularly coming through. In 2015, there are only two cinemas remaining, preserved as “national landmarks” by major studios that only use them for the occasional premiere.
‘“I started working [in Westwood] in about ‘84, I was still in high school. I wanted to be around movies and that was the easiest way to do it. I really wanted to work in a studio. I wanted to be like Spielberg. I wanted to sneak into Universal Studios and take over a little office and work on production. That’s what I wanted to do, but you know, it’s a little more difficult. So working at a movie theatre was the easiest way.” In the early 80s, Packard started making super 8 films, pre-empting Spielberg with a low-budget adaptation of Amazing Stories.
‘Reflections of Evil, Packard’s 2002 epic, is set in LA in the early 2000s. At one point the film shifts into a grainy, 70s flashback sequence where the protagonist’s sister sneaks off a Universal Studios tour into the backlot and witnesses a young Spielberg directing Something Evil. Initially, I thought the footage in the sequence was appropriated from a documentary (at least partially), but Packard assures me it’s all fiction. “I had a decent budget for that one,” he says. Though he does admit that he lifted Spielberg’s voice from the audio tracks of several “Making of…” documentaries including Jaws, Empire of the Sun and Jurassic Park. The sequence shows a young Spielberg trying to manage an older crew and failing, resulting in a slapstick disaster.
‘While Packard has produced several feature (or near feature) length films, he has also explored the movie trailer as art form, creating trailers for logistically or financially impossible films. Movie trailers often misrepresent the film they promote, emphasizing minor sub-plots or even presenting a different film entirely in order to appeal to a particular demographic. Packard’s Early 70s Horror Trailer (1999) and Dawn of an Evil Millennium (1988) tease with the possibility of a yet-to-be-made perfect film—something that will never come to pass. …
‘While we’re talking, Packard points out a guy in a John Carpenter’s The Thing t-shirt. “That’s the third guy I’ve seen in a Thing t-shirt tonight. Where were they in 1982? Nobody cared about it then.” Packard recently finished a short titled John Carpenter’s Corpse about a group of special effects students who dig up Carpenter’s body (the film is set just after his death) and drag it to their graduation party. The film is soon to be released on a VHS compilation by Severin Films. “It’s about commercialized nostalgia,” he argues, “everything is commercialized nostalgia now, there’s nothing original being done. It’s all about reaching back into the past for inspiration.”
‘I ask him if he means film specifically, “I mean with everything. Film… music… fashion. Especially cinema, though. It seems like what I was saying in Foxfur, we’re living in a deadzone now, a sort of empty period where life did really end but we’re just schizm’ed off into some other dimension. We’re just looking at the past from this deadzone.”
‘Packard admits that all his films deal with this strange turn of events in some way. “It’s like the film I’m making now, Yuppie Fear Thriller, it’s set in the early 90s but time has frozen. I don’t see a lot of changes that have taken place since the late 80s. I mean we have cellphone technology and internet but all that stuff was around, it was just in its infancy—but the vibe is the same. Fear, punishment, rules, restrictions.” During the 70s and 80s he argues, there was an era of experimentation, “There were a lot of risks being taken. They didn’t know where the hell it was going, you could do anything.” But as soon as the markets were established, playing-it-safe was the lone strategy. “There was a big hardcore corporate takeover in the late 80s. Suddenly it was all about money and these yuppies and corporations were telling you to join the program or else get left behind. And nothing much has changed since then.”’— Matthew O’Shannessy, Fanzine
DP: Honestly i can’t think of anything specific offhand, I was pretty upset when they threw me out of Universal Studios for unauthorized filming and nearly confiscated my camera/footage.
The dark shadow of authority, big brother and control structures we live under are the most disturbing things. Punishment and fear, rules, restrictions, fines and fee’s, they ruin lives. The fact that freedom can be taken away at any moment just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Law enforcement, courts, judges, prisons, jails, etc, these to me are the most disturbing things, they spoil the fun of life and many of the cold emotionally devoid people who work in these fields are equally disturbing.
My favorite scene from reflections of evil is the part where your character is being harassed by an endless drove of barking dogs. This scene seems to go on forever, always building in its intensity and madness. I can’t even start to tell you how brilliant I find that particular sequence’s use of sound and and editing. What was the inspiration there and are you afraid of animals?
DP: No i love animals, all animals especially dogs & cats.
When I watch Reflections of Evil I can’t help but feel the movie is a sort of insane horror film. To me it gives the impression of how overwhelming and terrifying a large city like Los Angeles can be. Was that your intention?
DP: It was a simple statement about anger, fear, hostility ramped up to exaggerated levels. But it rings true for everyone everywhere, especially large cities full of frustrated angry people who want to kill each other at a moments notice for no reason. It’s like that more than ever now, just as Orson Welles once stated. The dragon is unleashed. Your going to see more of it at alarming numbers including businessmen in suits, people are just ready to flip out and commit murder without any hesitation.
Your films are often a sensory overload of sounds, colors and visual effects. One could describe your work, in particular Reflection of Evil, as feeling like a bad acid trip. Have you had any bad acid trips?
DP: Nope, never done drugs.
You seem to have a love hate relationship with Steven Spielberg. From watching your films its sometimes hard to say if you admire him greatly or you want to kill him.
DP: I want to kill him..just kidding. I’ve stated many times I was greatly inspired by Spielberg in the early days (late 70’s early 80’s) His visual choreography was what really got me into filmmaking
Lately you’ve shown a great deal of interest in Japanese animation, specifically Hayao Miyazaki. Have you always been a fan or did you just recently get into that world.
DP: Been a mega-buff of Miyazaki for many years, going back to the original mid 80’s VHS release of “Nausicaa” (Warriors of the Wind”) He’s amazing in more ways that can be described and his success is well deserved.
What was your worst fear as a child and as an adult?
DP: Going bald and not reaching certain goals by age 22, both of which happened.
I’ve often read that your favorite show is Mash. Can you explain why and do you like the movie?
DP: I’m a MASH-AHOLIC, what more can be said. It’s a great show, great characters, good writing, etc Did you know Larry Gelbart just passed away today?
If you had to pick ten of your favorite films what would they be?
DP:
Our Mothers House (1967)
Night Terror (1977)
Secret Ceremony (1968)
The Innocents (1961)
The Pumpkin Eater (1964)
The Hospital (1971)
Cold Night’s Death (1973)
That Cold Day in the Park (1969)
Lost Horizon (1973)
Night of the Iguana (1967)
What are five films you think that any film student should see?
DP:
All the Kind Strangers (1974)
Home for the Holidays (1972)
Sarah T Portrait of an Alcoholic (1975)
Addio zio Tom (1971)
The Visitor (1978)
What in your opinion is consciousness?
DP: It is contained within Miyazaki films
Do you believe in life after death? Reincarnation?
DP: Yes and life during death as well.
______________ 14 of Damon Packard’s 15 films
_____________ Dawn of an Evil Millennium (1988) ‘An epic, 20-minute, completely fabricated theatrical trailer for a crypto-Vestron Video cheapie (by way of Willow-era Ron Howard)—a supposedly 18-hour movie about a Jeff Daniels lookalike demon sent to destroy the planet (and possibly the universe) with his “Turbo-power!” Olds dragster. There are shades of John Carpenter’s They Live, caffeinated Evil Dead speed-freakery, a cameo by Miles O’Keeffe, and uncanny movie preview clichés, such as sentence prepositions that never reach a resolution: “On an alien planet…the beauty and wisdom of a sorceress….” Sometimes the liner note blurbs speak for themselves: “Damon Packard is to Stephen Spielberg what George Kuchar is to Douglas Sirk.”’— letterboxd
the entirety
___________ Apple (1992) ‘This is Damon Packard’s early Elfquest (!) inspired short film, shot in Hawaii while living in a tent (!!), and while I know next to nothing about Elfquest, and I’m admittedly not a huge fantasy film fan, there’s something about this that totally hooked me. It might be the nostalgic 80’s fantasy film music, it might be those sweeping camera movements, it might be Damon’s signature sound design and innovative editing techniques, hell it’s probably all of those things. This admittedly works much better in it’s edited down trailer form, which is around 9 minutes, and Damon has said he prefers that to the full 27 minutes. Overall if you’re into Elfquest or Damon’s other works, this is on YouTube in three parts (the expanded revamped trailer is there too, watch that first).’ — Justin W.
Trailer
_____________ The Early 70’s Horror Trailer (1999) ‘Groovy short film homage to tripped-out early ’70s horror fare.’— letterboxd
the entirety
_____________ Reflections of Evil (2002) ‘After being caught while filming REFLECTIONS OF EVIL inside Universal Studios, filmmaker Damon Packard was banned for life from the theme park. He made the right choice.
‘One fine day in Los Angeles, Bobby (Damon Packard) materializes. Bobby is a behemoth who looks like a walking Salvation Army, with layers of tattered clothes, a somnambulistic gait, and dozens of broken headphones hanging from his neck. Like a mutated analog of SALESMAN, Bobby wanders the streets and attempts to sell discount watches. He loses his shit every time he misses the bus, makes eye contact with other humans, or encounters a dog. Everyone that Bobby meets is mean and aggressive, including a real-life cop who is disgustingly racist and homophobic — a true reflection of evil. During a flashback, it’s revealed that Julie, Bobby’s sister, ran away and joined a supernatural drug cult. Is Julie alive or undead? And will Bobby ever be able to fill the void of her absence?
‘REFLECTIONS OF EVIL is like seeing an astral projection of someone’s mental breakdown through the prism of low-budget horror aesthetics. Produced and self-distributed by Packard thanks to an unexpected inheritance, this is a highly personal psychedelic collage that utilizes 16mm film, video, and found footage to comment on the hopelessness of society. Packard’s stream-of-consciousness style is built on visual manipulations, breakneck editing, renegade plagiarism, mismatched audio effects, and the juxtaposition of tones. This is true genre anarchy: a rage-filled, 137-minute outsider manifesto that toes the line between artsy triumph and genre pastiche. Imagine Steven Spielberg smoking peyote for the first time while watching Peter Jackson’s BAD TASTE at Kenneth Anger’s house and you’re halfway there.
‘Unsettling, fascinating, sad, and hilarious, REFLECTIONS OF EVIL offers a glimpse into a secret dimension that the vast majority of the world’s population would violently reject. For the rest of us, it’s a dream come true. After watching this movie, you’ll never look at E.T., The Carpenters, or food the same way again.’ — JOSEPH A. ZIEMBA
the entirety
______________ The Untitled Star Wars Mockumentary (2003) ‘Damon Packard attained a level of notoriety for his epic Reflections of Evil, so where was he to go next? Where so many amateur film makers had gone before, not to a galaxy far far away but to one that’s all too familiar, yes, the Star Wars spoof. However, this is no loving tribute, but a savage parody of the franchise, dedicated to Lucas with the dates “1944-1977” added which should give you an idea of where Packard’s allegiances lie. If his previous film skewered Steven Spielberg, then this time it’s the turn of the creator of R2-D2 and Packard pulls no punches. By editing in footage from a variety of sources, not only the Star Wars franchise, a frequently hilarious landscape of a director gone mad with power emerges; whether that’s Lucas or Packard is unclear. It also creates a well-overdue satire of all those tedious featurettes on the DVDs of Hollywood blockbusters, you know the ones where everything is numbingly marvellous and everyone is having a great time and what a cinematic masterpiece they have wrought! Except you haven’t been as impressed as you would have wanted – but they got your money anyway.’— The Spinning Image
the entirety
_____________ Chemtrails: An Investigative Report (2004) ‘A gonzo, surreal mocumentary about chemtrails, conspiracy theories, mass hysteria, HAARP, Art Bell, 9/11, and other sundry bizarro elements.’ — letterboxd
the entirety
______________ Rollerboogie III (2005) ‘Edit-revamp client project. This was an unfinished amateur short film someone brought to me for “re-shaping” back in 2005.’— DP
the entirety
______________ Lost in the Thinking (2005) ‘American underground filmmaker Damon Packard has long been carrying out a pitiless and very funny assault on the movie business, especially in the person of Hollywood’s blockbuster triumvirate: Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. The saga continues in the form of this 2005 short that embraces its own presumed failure in the most expressive and cunning of terms. In the end, the movie industry is a ready foil to explore a larger poverty amid abundance as the formulaic doom clouds of some sci-fi apocalypse give way to a sense of general, slow-moving decay.’— Robert Avila
the entirety
______________ SpaceDisco One (2007) ‘Clocking in at just under 45 minutes, SpaceDisco One is still an epic, weaving together a deliriously entangled thread of sci-fi concepts, plus commentary on the whole nature of filmmaking and the juggernaut that is the Hollywood promotional industry.
‘The film is essentially two separate movies jammed together. Packard has taken two separate ideas, stuffed them into the bodies of crash test dummies, seated them unbuckled into two different automobiles, then set the vehicles at each other at 200 mph so he could film the resulting sculpture of twisted metal and broken glass entwined with plastic dummy limbs.
‘The first movie is a low-budget remake of George Orwell’s 1984, or more accurately I guess Michael Radford and Michael Anderson’s 1984 film adaptations. An emotionally unfulfilled Winston Smith (Robert Myers) aimlessly wanders the hollow shell that is Universal City’s CityWalk — a brilliant use of location on Packard’s part, mimicking those odd “space mall” outdoor spaces you’d see on Galactica and shows of that ilk — until he’s sent in for mental re-conditioning by Arthur Frain (James Mathers).
‘Meanwhile, a movie called “SpaceDisco One” is being filmed that features Stargirl 7 (Amanda Mullins), the daughter of Logan of Logan’s Run (the movie), being pursued by Francis 8 (Donnamarie Recco), the daughter of Logan’s pursuer Francis. The “SpaceDisco One” within the overall SpaceDisco One is presented as a mish-mash of movie clips and behind-the-scenes making-of footage, including incessant whining by the fake director (Patrick Thomas) about how he’s unable to fulfill his vision.’— Mike Everleth
Teaser
Excerpt
_____________ Tales of the Valley of the Wind (2009) ‘Tales of the Valley of the Wind composes an experimental love-letter to the spiritual world of Hayao Miyazaki, re-figuring [Nausicaa] into lush live-action scenes with period costumes, horses, swordplay, and, er…puppets. All on a tiny budget, Packard implements his signature experimental touch to create a very unique fan-film indeed.’ — letterboxd
Trailer
Featurette
___________ Foxfur (2012) ‘Foxfur, Packard’s latest offering, revolves around a heretofore unconfessed obsession of his: UFO conspiracies. Well, who’s to say if it’s an “interest” or an “obsession,” but either way the film is jam-packed with well-known hot button topics and individuals involved in the field. However, one doesn’t need to know any arcane UFO abduction theories to enjoy the film. (This reviewer didn’t and only discovered that many of the names and events referenced in the film actually exist through post-viewing research.)
‘Anyway, trying to explain a Damon Packard film and to describe the enjoyment of it, is quite the difficult task. There are so many side ideas and plotlines sprinkled, stitched into and strewn about Foxfur, it’s a nigh impossible task to document it all. Like his previous films, Foxfur is best thought of as a total sensory overload of unbridled cinematic and narrative creativity.
‘Instead of trying to limit his imagination by his budgetary constraints, instead Packard throws in a little bit of everything he’s got and swirls it around with a steroid-injected soundtrack and blinding special effects. So, when the blonde Foxfur finds herself a brunette in a Robin Hood-eque costume in 1982 being pursued by obese bus drivers and bow-and-arrow slinging fuzz monsters, you either go with the flow or not at your own peril.’— Underground Film Journal
the entirety
______________ Fatal Pulse (2018) ‘Damon Packard’s four-year in the making epic follows the exploits of husband/wife moguls trapped with a deadbeat couch potato brother in a hallucinogenic 1-900 world of 1991. Everyone is plotting the kill everyone else including themselves and ultimately do. Inspired by the corporate take-over era of the late 80s/early 90s and all the dark, atmospheric, neo-noir thrillers that came along with it.’— Pit of Infinite Shadows
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_____________ Tales Beyond Madness (2018) ‘Basically nothing, but even minor Packard has its charms. Damon himself shows up to play Dario Argento for like 10 seconds and in that moment I absolutely lost my mind.’— Evan Pincus
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p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Interesting about ‘A Man Escaped’. It’s up there among my favorite Bressons, for sure. ** Sypha, Hi, James. Yeah, that makes sense. You have a point. Could well be. Happy my suggestions helped, and, yeah, I have to learn to read the books piled up by my computer before grabbing and starting even newer ones. ** Steve Erickson, Ah, now that’s a happy coincidence: your review. Everyone, By sheer coincidence, Mr. Erickson has just reviewed one of the Damon Packard films in the post today, so you can go right here and read his thoughts on one of Packard’s best films, in my opinion anyway: ‘Fatal Pulse’. Lucky us! I basically agree with you about the Eggers, although I thought the cinematography was very academic and throw-back. And the symbolic baggage, I mean … mermaids?! Really?! Anyway, the wool seems to have been pulled, and now onwards and upwards, I hope. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. I would start with Blanchot’s fiction. I did. I think you know his ‘Death Sentence’ in my all-time favorite novel. And it’s short! Wow, that was fast! Cool! Excited to read your piece! Everyone, the mighty Ben ‘_Black_Acrylic’ Robinson has written a no doubt fascinating piece in The Skinny about Scotland’s thriving zine scene, an exciting topic in and of itself, and you can so very easily read it here, and surely do. Have a giant blast at the zine fest today. Wish I could be there to wander through it myself and hang out at your table and bug you, ha ha. ** KeatonEscaped, Hey, bud. Lee said that? He had a way, that’s for sure. Like I’ve no doubt said repeatedly, I’ve only read two King novels — I know, I know — ‘Cujo’ and … I forget the other one. It’s been forever. I’m in the camp that thinks the second Tim Burton ‘Batman’ film is by far the best ‘Batman’, other than the TV series. Danny Elfman will never live down the blight on humanity that was Oingo Boingo for me. Huh, okay, I’m in for ‘Dr. Sleep’. I mean why the hell not? It must be playing here. It might even have the same English title here, although I wouldn’t put it past the French to have retitled it ‘Le Shining, Parte Deux’. Thank you! ** Okay. Do you guys know the films of the maverick, borderline no-budget director Damon Packard, maybe the most one-of-a-kind filmmaker in the USA? If you don’t, now you do. Or now you will, if you take the opportunity. Big fun. Should add a little positive, if not even enlightening, something or other to your weekends. So have at it? And I’ll see you back here on Monday.
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