Movie Music Magick – June 2014 @ Sameheads, Berlin.

Screening program throughout June 2014 @ “Sameheads” – Richardstraße 10, 12043 Berlin, Germany.

FB event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1444408762482669/

All three of these films are musicals. Two of them feature singing Satans, the other has R Kelly.

*Wednesday 11th June *

The Apple (1980)

Released in 1980 and set in the distant future 1994, the world has evolved into a fascist *disco* dictatorship run by the all-powerful BIM Corporation and its suave devilish leader, Mr Boogalow. Starting in 1994’s ‘Worldvision Song Festival’, we are introduced to Alphie and Bibi, two sweet, naive singers from Moose Jaw, Canada, who enter with their song ‘Love: The Universal Melody’. Although the pair apparently have talent, they are beaten out by the festival favorites Dandi and Pandi, who win thanks to the underhanded tactics of the BIM. Though crestfallen by their loss, Alphie and Bibi are soon delighted to hear that Mr Boogalow has taken an interest in their music and wants to sign them to his label. All is looking up for the two until they begin to discover the dark underside of the glamorous rockstar world.

Warning: this film contains insane amounts of glitter, feathers, and angular shoulder pads; some very bad songs (and some pretty banging ones); disco cops; dancing nuns; and an unbelievable ending.

Viewers may recognize some parts of old West Berlin amongst the glamor and tragedy that is this film.

*Wednesday 18th June*

Forbidden Zone (1980)

Forbidden Zone was made as an attempt to capture the essence of The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo’s live performances on film. Directed and produced by Richard Elfman, who co-wrote the film with fellow Mystic Knights member Matthew Bright, it was the first film scored by his brother Danny Elfman.

The film begins on “Friday, April 17” at 4 pm in Venice, California. Huckleberry P. Jones, local pimp, narcotics peddler and slumlord, enters a vacant house that he owns. While stashing heroin in the basement, he stumbles upon a mysterious door and enters it, falling into the Sixth Dimension, from which he promptly escapes. After retrieving the heroin, he sells the house to the Hercules family. Don’t even try to guess what happens next.

Stars: Hervé Villechaize, Susan Tyrrell, Warhol Superstar Viva, Joe Spinell, The Kipper Kids, and members of the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo including a very young Danny Elfman.

We will be screening the original black and white version rather than the post-release-colorized-George-Lucas-style-shizzle (even if it was what you originally intended, Mr Richard Elfman).

*Wednesday 25th*

Trapped in the Closet (2005-2012)

How can one describe the enigma that is R. Kelly? Simply restating his crown as the “King of R&B” hardly does the man justice, nor does it give credit to the enormous breadth and impact of his work. Soul singer, record producer, professional basketball player, video director, and sex symbol… Mr Kelly could possibly one of the most influential polymaths of our age.

And then there’s “Trapped in the Closet”…

To grossly over-simplify things, “Trapped” is a long-form music video split into 33 ‘chapters’ of around 4 minutes each. But really it’s much more than this. A cryptic melting pot of soap opera, independent filmmaking, and R&B, “Trapped” is one of those rare phenomena that categorically “defies categorization”. Mr Kelly himself invented the term “hip-hopera” in an attempt to describe this labor of his love, but this in itself does not do justice to the unhinged genius of his work. With “Trapped”, Robert Sylvester Kelly did much more than show us that he is a top-level player – he solely created an entire new game.

“Trapped” will be shown in its unfathomable entirety, including the newest chapters 23-33 which were released in 2012. Yes, that’s over two hours of the same song!

ALL FILMS ARE FREE & START 10PM SHARP.

Presented by Big Screen Brutals.

26 June 2014 - Categories: Events, Tags: Berlin, musicals, random weirdness, screening.

Big Screen Brutals – 25 April 2014 @ Liebig12 – ASTEPBACK, BOTBORG

FB event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1410327809235454/

ASTEPBACK – expanded cinema/dance – IT
BOTBORG – audio-visual feedback – AU

Friday 25. April 2014
Doors: 19:30
Concerts: 20:00

“Liebig12”
Address: Liebigstrasse 12, 10247 Berlin-Friedrichshain
Map: https://goo.gl/maps/GWbM7
Transports: U5 + M21 + M10 > Frankfurter Tor

Entry 5 euro.

ASTEPBACK – https://70stepsbackpersecond.wordpress.com/astepback-2-2/

ASTEPBACK are an expanded cinema/dance performance group from Naples, Italy, using multiple Super-8 film projectors and a slide projector to interact with the motion of bodies in space. Visually, their projections are a celebration of tactile film manipulation techniques – scratching, patching, piercing, and drawings with ink and wax are then multiplied onto different walls at different speeds. Complimented by self-made photosensitive sound devices, audio is generated from these different light sources and in turn feeds a feedback loop that interacts and changes with the stage movement. ASTEPBACK will present their performance entitled “AMORFIA chapter1” (dedicated to Carlo Cafiero) in their Berlin debut.

ASTEPBACK are Gaëlle Cavalieri and Andrea Saggiomo. In 2007 they founded their own theater company in Naples and many of their productions have since won awards and been showcased in national and international festivals. Aside from his theatrical performance art works, Andrea Saggiomo performs as the expanded cinema project 70fps and in this guise he has improvised and collaborated with musicians and international artists including Andy Guhl and Seppo Renvall.

BOTBORG – https://botborg.com

Botborg is an Australian audio-visual group that fuses and rewires raw electronic signals to create intensely visceral experiences of sound-color synaesthesia. Using their own complex feedback network known as the ‘Photosonicneurokineasthograph’, Botborg create totally live multi-sensory assaults of interdependent color and rhythm, pushing the limits of technology to invoke the maximum possible stimulation of their audience’s mind and body. Botborg work with a level of experimentation and improvisation that places them in a territory outside traditional musical or cinematic formats, where the boundaries between art, science, and philosophy mutate until they are rendered meaningless. Botborg has hosted live demonstrations at many prestigious music, film, and media festivals throughout Europe, Australia, Japan, and North America.

Disclaimer: Botborg demonstrations often include very loud sound played in combination with very fast flashing/strobe light.

Presented by Big Screen Brutals and Liebig12.
https://halftheory.com/bigscreenbrutals/
https://www.liebig12.net/
https://www.fb.com/Liebig12/

7 April 2014 - Categories: Events, Tags: analog, audio-visual, Berlin, film manipulation, glitch, live performance, noise, psychedelic, Super8, synaesthesia, video art.