WHAT THE FUCK

IS THAT.

SANDCASTLES

Here's a new little short film/music video I did for Keegan Dewitt's "Introduction" from his "Islands" album.

COMMON MARKET - ESCAPING ARKHAM

Impromptu music video by the homies Zia, Sabzi and RA Scion while visiting NYC.

Watch it and then buy the new EP on iTunes okay byeeeeeeee

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

You've all seen the trailer already don't need to post it.

But I just wanted to say that it looks amazing.

Okay byeeeeeee

WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE

how much I love this.



I posted it on here long ago but I'll probably re-post it once a year or something.

R.I.P RICHARD AOKI

Back in high school I was reading a lot of civil rights literature, particularly books by and on the Black Panther Party. The last thing I ever expected to learn of was the existence of an Asian American member of the Black Panthers, and not just any member, but a FOUNDING member.

I was stunned and simultaneously inspired by the story of Richard Aoki, a Japanese American man whose family survived the internment camps of World War II. Aoki went on to organize the Black Panther Party with two longtime friends, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, and eventually took the Party position of Field Marshall.

On Sunday, Mr.Aoki passed away at age 71.

VENDREDI SOIR (FRIDAY NIGHT)

Laure is moving out of her apartment in Paris. She is moving in tomorrow with her boyfriend, Francois.

All of her belongings are packed up in boxes, and tonight, she is going to a dinner party. What Laure has forgotten is that a mass transit strike has crippled the city, flooding the streets with cars in dead traffic, going nowhere. It is impossible to get anywhere on this night, and a voice on the radio encourages people to carpool and give rides to strangers in need of transportation.

The traffic jam recalled another infamous traffic jam scene- the one from Godard's WEEKEND. Although handled differently in VENDREDI SOIR, I assumed a similar metaphor was present: stagnancy in life. Non-movement. The ripest circumstance for an erotic and romantic fantasy that may, or may not all just be conjured in the imagination.

Eventually a stranger does ask Laure for a ride, a quiet man named Jean. Sitting in standstill traffic together, we are shown intimate physical details... the way Jean leaves his top two shirt buttons undone, exposing a slice of bare chest. The way he folds his hands in his lap. The way Laure grips the steering wheel, and just barely cracks a smile at the scent of Jean's burning tobacco. From here, Laure and Jean embark on the classic fantasy of a one night romance.

Though this is a film about a one night stand, it could not be any less vulgar or explicit. Jean and Laure's brief entanglement is sexy in only the gentlest, shyest manner. It's much more than acting upon bodily impulses, there is an urgency for experiencing something tangibly passionate and re-connecting to life for these two characters.

Doomed romance is theme here, and as much as I love the way BEFORE SUNRISE handles it, VENDREDI SOIR is something totally different. Unlike the connection Jesse and Celine build through 24 hours of incredible conversation, Claire Denis' film is about feelings and connections you CAN'T verbalize. VENDREDI SOIR is a nearly wordless picture, an absolutely beautifully quiet composition of subtle gestures and whispers.

One of the greatest moments in the film for me, is such a simple action. As Jean sleeps peacefully just a few feet away, Laure tries on his jacket and socks, and goes for a walk around the hotel... soaking in his scent, and the touch of his fabric against her skin, as if to store it in her memory forever. Knowing it'll all be over when morning comes.

A MAN ESCAPED

What took me so long to see this?

Classically Bresson. Sparse and formal, brimming with intelligently conceived tension. I love that you are told in the title how the film will end. Because A MAN ESCAPED is far more interesting in the hands of Bresson than it would have been in so many other director's. While many lesser filmmakers would have given this premise the run of the mill suspense thriller treatment, Bresson instead makes the intricate process of jailbreak the focus. What also strikes me is how perfectly lean A MAN ESCAPED is. Not a single extraneous beat or frame exists in its trim 100 minute running time. It's almost like the film takes on the characteristics of it's prison setting- skeletal, industrial, but drenched in the human blood, dirt and sweat that gives it it's soul.

I love films that document processes. However mundane they are. I could probably watch a dialogue-less feature about factory machines and assembly lines making car parts. The first half of A MAN ESCAPED documents the planning of the escape, and the inventive building of the escape tools in such beautifully rigorous detail. It was almost like an old instructional film in it's thoroughness.

Like AU HASARD BALTHAZAR and DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST, there is an interesting spiritual aspect to A MAN ESCAPED as well. Not simply in the inmates' conversations about God and fate, or even the apparently Biblical secondary title ("THE WIND BLOWETH WHERE IT LISTET"), but the entire premise of a man breaking free from prison seems to say something about the act of working for salvation.

HERE WE GO MAGIC

My favorite song/video/band of the moment.

As if someone ran painted canvas, collage and human nostalgia through a projector...



If you're cool, you'll watch it much higher quality here:
http://superpeking.com/

INTO THE DESERT

Cam and I recently made a little road trip to Las Vegas, to meet up with Carter for his 21st birthday...

MUMBLECORE IN THE NEW YORKER

I try not to even utter the word "Mumblecore", as I have a great disdain for the act of over generalizing, categorizing and therefore blanket simplifying things.

However, I am an enormous supporter of the true independent (D.I.Y) filmmaking movement as a whole, and of the filmmakers lumped under the "Mumblecore" title specifically.

So check out this great article in The New Yorker on the "genre" (puke) known as "Mumblecore"... which also features a dope drawing by one of my favorite illustrators Adrian Tomine. Major love!

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2009/03/16/090316crci_cinema_denby?currentPage=1

MAYA DEREN

"I make my pictures for what Hollywood spends on lipstick."
- Maya Deren

THE MOUNTAIN CRUMBLES TRAILER

I've been quiet about the film on my blog, but now I finally have something to show you!




http://www.myspace.com/themountaincrumbles

http://www.themountaincrumbles.com (under construction)

OH HEY GUYS

WANNA SEE A SHITTY MOVIE?

GO SEE WATCHMEN

BYE!

HUNGER

UM


HOLY


F.





http://www.hungerthemovie.co.uk

VAN SANT x REICHARDT

This is old but I thought I'd post it for anyone who hasn't seen it.

Gus Van Sant interviewing Kelly Reichardt:

http://www.bombsite.com/issues/105/articles/3182