On DVD: Being Michael Madsen
Actor. Poet. Lousy brother. Murderer? Michael Madsen spoofs his “tough guy” persona in Michael Mongillo‘s mockumentary Being Michael Madsen, which is now available on DVD from Midnight Releasing for sale or rent. (Amazon | Netflix) (Also on Blu-Ray.)
In the film, Madsen is accused by a tabloid magazine for having murdered a young actress and one particularly aggressive paparazzo is determined to prove it. Eventually, the hounded actor decides enough is enough and lays out an elaborate scheme to turn the tables on his pursuer and the tabloid media in general.
Combining faux documentary footage with sit-down interviews with Madsen, his sister Virginia and actors such as Daryl Hannah, David Carradine, Harry Dean Stanton and Lacey Chabert, director Mongillo has created a terrific satire on modern celebrity culture.
Pacific Film Archive: Unseen Cinema: Revolutions In Technique And Form
Sept. 8
7:30 p.m.
Pacific Film Archive
2575 Bancroft Way
Berkeley, CA 94720
Hosted by: Pacific Film Archive
To mark the 10th anniversary of the release of the massive underground and obscure film DVD collection Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film, 1893-1941, curator Bruce Posner presents a night of obscure and rarely publicly screened films, including several classics of the avant-garde.
Included in the program is what is considered the first underground film produced in the U.S.: Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand’s Manhatta. Completed in 1921, Manhatta is a visual poem celebrating the architecture of NYC.
Continue Reading Pacific Film Archive: Unseen Cinema: Revolutions In Technique And Form
Peggy Ahwesh: The Third Body
nd on the eighth day, God created virtual reality. Take a trip to a brave unreal world in Peggy Ahwesh's ode to primitive virtual reality, The Third Body. Combining some sort of minimalist Adam & Eve recreation with promotional footage of people wearing giant VR glasses on their head looking at blocky CGI graphics with awe and wonder, Ahwesh casts humans as the new gods -- and creating a world that looks really, really ugly. (This film isn't quite NSFW, but the partial nudity may cause co-workers to look at you funny.)
On Tour: Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo
Bradley Beesley’s documentary Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo is going on a cross-country screening tour from September to November and will play at theaters, and — most appropriately — actual prisons! Plus, Beesley will go behind bars several of the correctional facilities to talk with the inmates at post-screening Q&A’s.
The film chronicles the 2007 prison rodeo held by the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, an event that was started as an annual tradition back in 1940. In 2006, history was made when, for the first time ever, women were allowed to participate in the rodeo. During Beesley’s filming, women were again involved in the rodeo, getting right out onto the field with the men to face down a bunch of angry bulls.
2008 would then be the last year the penitentiary would hold the rodeo. While you might think women would be opposed to possibly be kicked in the face by a wild animal, the participating female inmates loved the experience as it would be one of the few times they could feel free during an adult lifetime spent behind bars.
