The Alchemist Of Cinema - Fabrizio Federico

Fabrizio Federico - '21st Century Schizoid Man'

Black Biscuit (2012) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImoHm4gS4RU

Pregnant (2015) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI42DJLdQwk

The Evolution of the Earth Angel (2015) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMdW71D1GRM

Anarchy in the UK (2016) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpNA75b2hCw 

Fabtizio Federico - The Lizard King of Underground Cinema

For anyone wanting to make your own masterpiece check out the PINK8 Manifesto // http://canvas.grolsch.com/film-works/fabrizio-federicos-pregnant-is-an-assault-on-the-senses

{} PREGNANT {} https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI42DJLdQwk

 

Fabrizio Federico - Cinema War

After the recent controversies surrounding the film Pregnant, opinion is rampant on this new style of cinema that originated with the PINK8 manifesto.

Its a call to arms to up and coming filmmakers - pure and simple.

 

Film Exclusive - Fabrizio Federico Interview Feb 2013

Director Fabrizio Federico discussing Cinema and his debut feature film Black Biscuit
Official Website

Black Biscuit (Full Movie)

 

                                                
                                                         Black Biscuit (Full Movie)

 

Fabrizio Federico London Photo Shoot

Cult underground filmmaker Fabrizio Federico atop the roofs of London for the premiere of his feature film Black Biscuit at Raindance Film Festivals 20th anniversary.

Fabrizio Federico Self-Portrait

Self Portrait

Film director Fabrizio Federico in

his own words by his own hand.

September 2012

I describe myself as… Open, illegal, strange, romantic and heavy. I believe in unpredictability and doing things for the need and fun of it. I don’t care about pleasing anyone creatively other than myself but I want to connect the dots with like minded people. My aim is to reach fearlessness.

Cinema changed me………because it introduced me to the bizarre corners of the mind. After I saw Dennis Hopper’s ‘The Last Movie’ I became obsessed with getting free and living the life of a stray cat. Getting into adventures with strangers and bringing a wild dirty aimless poetry to Cinema.

When Im not making films.……I make music under the name Mao, and tumble through art, trees and photography. I get along with pick pocketing and listening to worldly shamblers  ranting and raving and cursing out God, theres a lot to choose from in my neighbourhood, theres beauty in the squalor around here. I like to drive rented cars aimlessly and be chased by farmers after driving through their fields.

My biggest vice is……finding things that send shivers down my spine such as a new song. It’s usually the sad/happy songs that do it to me like Twilight At Carbon Lake by Deerhunter or Light My Fire by The Doors, that immediate feel. I just want to capture a lot of beautiful broken moments and build myself around them. Sentence’s, girls and ice cream.

The last time I was embarrassed was………spilling a bowl of hot soup on somebody’s head in a crowded café. While the lady was screaming I felt the whole place eyeballing me. Im pretty relaxed watching Roadrunner re-runs. Or I’ll feel embarrassed saying good morning in the morning or getting caught singing Loup Dee Lou.

My formal Qualifications are………..I got an Associates of Science degree from a college called Mass Comm in Brookline Village near Boston. It was hands on teaching and I spent most of my time interning and going to Chinese parties. My teachers were either alcoholic musicians or paraplegics; one of them was obsessed with going to see Puppetry of the Penis. They had a great movie section full of weird stuff like Man With A Movie Camera and Performance, which was a revelation to me. I figured that these types of films were way more important than mainstream movies, Id be happy with getting my films into a college video collection. It made me not interested in commerce, and I figured my job is to show the world the world.

The best film I’ve ever seen…. this week it’s Tonight Lets All Make Love In London which is about the swinging 60’s. I want to recreate the energy that existed during that time and recreate it for a new generation. I cant wait to see Alps by Yorgos Lanthimos, so many minds on the cooker these days.

The last time I cried was….. after I got into a fist fight on a bus. I was sitting opposite some guy who was talking and eating and some of his food flew out his mouth and sprayed my face. I went crazy, I threw my apple at his head and we started brawling, the bus smelt like urine, then someone jumped in and stepped on my hand, sweaty food chunks flying everywhere, and when I was cooling down I cried it out.

My most treasured possession is….my ears, or my passport. I never wanted to have too many possessions.  I kind of think the Amish have the right idea, it’s a wobbly existence otherwise.

The best book I’ve read is…. Lilith by J Salamanca. It’s about a schizophrenic girl and how she sees the world in her own unique way.  The book has a magical witch quality that leaves you feeling drunk. The main character offers rapture and beauty to everyone she meets and by the end of the book you start to question reality.

Is the glass half-full or half-empty……Im sipping and spitting it back in the glass.

My greatest regret is…….Burning my parents house down when I was little, ………….hum yes that’s the one.

When we die………everyone to their own devices. Im going to be ghost like Casper and I’ll be happy hanging out with the cats, but I do believe in reincarnation and according to the Orientals I’ve been reincarnated 5 times,   9 is the total amount of times you come back, so I haven’t reached Nirvana yet, I don’t think Jesus is everyone’s imaginary friend ?

I would like to be remembered……….as feeling comfortable in new places.

Fabrizio Federico at Raindance Film Festivals Press Launch

Black Biscuit will be premiering at the Raindance Film Festival on October 2nd at the Apollo Cinema.
Raindance Festival (Official Site)

Fabrizio Federico ''New Photos''

Black Biscuit - Trailer

Director Fabrizio Federico - New Photo Shoot

Black Biscuit (Trailer)

The Future of Cinema - Fabrizio Federico's Black Biscuit

The feature film 'Black Biscuit' directed by Fabrizio Federico is the first film in a long time to create a generation gap in the film industry. Love it or hate it but one thing is for sure you can't possibly ignore it, this is definitely the beginning of a new wave of filmmakers.

The Abortion of Cinema: Essay by Gene Crocker

In a few years he’ll probably go mad.


That’s whats being said about the director of Black Biscuit; Fabrizio Federico aka Mr Bugalloo.
His first feature film is a uniquely draining, frighteningly human, intense experience - Black Biscuit is giving cinema directions to the next century.
It’s a pill that offers a 12 course meal in one dose.


The price is right – the cost of admission is your mind.


Here is a list of the subjects it covers: child death from trip and fall, careering, prostitution, religion, immigration, exorcism, voyeurism, cults, sexism, concert violence, the death of Michael Jackson, benefit fraud, media, drug abuse, mental illness, humiliation, homosexuality, self harm, celebrity & pop culture, S&M, homelessness, and money.


So is this film too dangerous?


What makes it rebellious is that it’s not guided by commercial intent.
Surreal and hauntingly dreamlike, it’s approach is like a cinematic meat grinder. Anti-film at it’s most dissident; and the audio samples that echo through out


the film of cult leaders like Charles Manson and Jim Jones ring chillingly appealing.


Black Biscuit's genius & madness, walking hand in hand approach; added with it’s total commitment to unlearning the rules of cinema; forges a lost and desolate beauty out of the pig iron professionalism that mainstream cinema has become.




It’s like an 8 year old on glue unleashed into the schools film lab.


A 2 hour trip to Nutsville courtesy of Mr Federico; each scene is a universe within it’s own infinity of laws. With rapid fire film collages, quasi stoned conversations, non-actors, mistakist footage, spontaneity, and a multiplex of different visual looks and styles.
Black Biscuit set’s it’s own standards.


This is the work of ragged majesty; Federico has dismantled Jonas Mekas & co


and put them back together upside down.


The film is all about the spirit of freedom, what happens, happens.


Black Biscuit revolves around the idea of society’s modern drifter. These characters live way outside conformist societies straightjacket. They barely know what day it is.
If the idea that ‘youth is wasted on the young’ this film also brings into perspective that you better follow your dreams before your soul gets corrupted.


Social reportage given to you by Syd Barrett with pupils the size of dinner plates. It’s unhinged.
The chaos periodically fades away into pastoral interludes, before lurching back into elated ill structure; both spectral, sorrowful and enlightening.


Despite encompassing bummer elements – it is wholly optimistic and radiant.


It remains unsurpassed in it’s ability to inspire, challenge and baffle.


It’s completely self indulgent – but that is an artists right. A right to create what they feel, and this is what critics and money men have always failed to grasp – the freedom and magic that an artist has at the tip of their fingers is atomic.


But is it jealousy on their part ?


Being an artist means being free to do what ever the hell you want. God forbid an artist creates something vague and you have to ponder it’s meaning longer than 15 minutes. It’s almost considered a criminal offence to be daring and different, but at the same time the public crave diversity – but can they still take it ?


Maybe artists are overestimating the viewer. The publics cries of ‘We want new movies’ ring like hollow lies; what they really want are 1940’s opiate kind of movies, where they don’t have to do a whole lot of thinking – there’s a reason Spielberg, Lucas, and Jackson make billions.


So have today’s modern viewers become lazy and docile, or is the counter culture miles away reality ?


I think today’s biggest problem is that the commercial industries rationalization is ‘If doesn’t sell it’s shit’.


Far from true…………..It makes it holy. 

Fabrizio Federico interview - Gutter Cinema

Did you have much experience in film before you made Black Biscuit ?

Nothing but a love for movies. I’ve always been into underground cinema, stuff like Andy Warhols early Edie Sedgwick films, Tarnation, Julien Donkey Boy, Buffalo 66, The Last Movie by Dennis Hopper which is my favorite film. I wanted to change the rules of cinema. To improvise like Jazz, and to be adventurous.

To get rid of professionalism, actors, plot, story boards, traditions and create a film that stands alone and new.

How did you finance the film ?

I didnt sit down one day and say ‘Im going to get a budget together, then Im gonna find some actors, then locations…’ no, I just did it on the run.

Filming took about 1 year. If I met someone who was interesting, or charismatic I’d ask them if they wanted to be in a movie with me.

Whatever. Some of the cast were people who aspired to be actors but I had them play themselves. We’re surrounded by superstars and we don’t even see it.

I was working as a life model, and I just fed that money into the project. I also went from door to door asking people to donate 1gbp.

The film cost about 500gbp to make. It was shot on my mobile phone, and some childrens cameras. I was going through a Jim Jones cult, vampire, psychedelic 60’s faze when I made it.

It’s a very distinctive film, what gave you the concept ?

I just thought that there were a lot of unwritten laws, rules, and targets that filmmakers subconsciously have tattooed on their brains about cinema.

That cinemas should look and be a certain way.

All this film dogma come’s from critics, film teachers, internet trolls, and some of the film festival submission rules. And for a young filmmaker all that can really kill your style.

I don’t like being told what to do when it comes to being creative, so I made a film that would burn all these misconceptions on how to make a feature film.

You don’t need experience, technology, money, or even a plan to do it, just let the love of being creative take over you on the spot.

Theres a lot of footage ?

There’s a lot of life out there.

What is the plot of the film ?

The film is more about a spirit than a plot, I guess I wanted to capture today’s zeitgeist.

I see a lot of disappointment and isolation. Young kids who cant find direction or work, mass social surveillance with CCTV, celebrity culture, governments you cant trust.

We’re living in an untrusting world, we’ve almost got too much freedom, but no freedom.

This century is going to be a Catch 22 I can feel it.

I chose to look for the most common character of our times. Lost misfits.

People that don’t belong anywhere, a Black Biscuit. They live way, way out on the outskirts of society.

Whether your homeless, or a internet media whore your still missing.

I wanted to show the world these characters, and to get rid of some of the myths that surround’s the lonesome drifter anti-hero. The Film director as the new modern rebel.

The films technique is very diverse, what led you to this style ?

I just work off the cusp, I don’t plan at all. I sit down and follow a path. Some days I’ll feel like Im from the 1920’s, another day I might be choppy or in a cinema-verite mood.

Im constantly changing, shedding my skin, Im like a rolling stone not gathering any moss. I don’t follow trends, I live in my own strange universe.

I guess Im a bit like that character from American Beauty, the one who films the plastic bag….Ricky something.

I see beauty in a lot of trivial things, stuff that gets lost in this fast world we live in.

The types of films I love often get called pretentious, but I feel that’s just from people who don’t have an open mind and are scared of the unknown.

Try something new, and be a creator not a critic.

Fabrizio Federico Interview - Psychiatric Cinema

Do you think artists have a personality complex?
I think artists are the ones who carry a personality complex, but are brave enough to do something about it. To go out and find something to fix their broken half. It's like losing your favorite pillow, I like going back in time and living one week as if it's the 50's or 60's the next week like the 90's, and occasionally today. I guess I’m a film astronaut.
What drives you to create?
Maybe the way to go in life is to find a mission for yourself. Something to keep you busy, whether it's films, or sex, or creating. As long as your not bored. If none of my work achieves what ever the public consciousness considers to be success, then thats even better.           All the great artists die penniless, and Im proud of myself that I never aspired to be president.
 What does your film Black Biscuit mean?
Uhhhhhhhh, forget about all that just absurd it. Film for me is a playful field. I don’t understand all the bitterness and criticism that comes out of the woodworks towards cinema. Such hostile criticism.                       Opinions change with time, and Im the newest lamb to be nailed to the cross. I like my work to span a wide variety of feelings like a tornado; from happy to lonely, to spooky.                                                                I get turned on by witches. Black Biscuit is a gutter circus.

So how did you set a mood for your film?
By giving out impressions...isnt an impression formed within the first 3 seconds of meeting someone. I like to make people feel loose when Im collaborating with them, think of my film set as a brothel. I'll encourage you to pursue your vices. Hopefully you dont let them eat you.

Does cinema still provoke?
Yes it does, but just not as much. I'd like to see less polished, structured films, and more movies about the mundane. That and bizarre real life subjects . My goal is to show people you don’t need to make 20 short films before you get around to making a feature film. The big mainstream films at the moment are just so schmaltzy like syrup. My ideal cinema world would consist of less budget, and planning. Just to be primal. I cant follow 1 style for 120min it's boring to me, so I surf a wide variety of influences.
What’s your philosophy on life ?
My planets will shift but my sun is called personal freedom. I hope I come out smiling in the end, but I’m not out the tunnel yet. Feelings that surround me now will change, but if you go for internal bliss you cant go wrong. Alchemy is a good place to start.

Fabrizio Federico interview (Gold Memories)

By Andrew Farrell, February 26, 2012

The films plot seems to be very thin, is there something I’m missing?

Imagination (laughing)

But some people are really confused by the film and by it’s transgressive style, do you feel the need to explain yourself ?

What is there to explain, I find that people who are confused by art usually have no imagination. I don’t think I’ve ever been confused by a film. I usually love it even more if it throws me and plays with my feelings.

I like to create images that romanticize memories, call them gold memories if you like.

I just want to show brilliant days, shadows, rain, what ever gives someone an infinite feeling.

Why wont you explain what the films about?

That’s not the point, why have audiences become so lazy? It really blows me away – You can only be saved when your lost.

I want to be shot by all the critics, I want to see what my capacity is for a critical backlash, I hope I die broke like Van Gogh, misunderstood, because I don’t need acceptance. Maybe ‘Black Biscuit’ isn’t even a film but an introspective bitch slap.

I wanted to create a yearning feeling in the viewer, and to take them back to a time when they were lost, and stuck out sea with not a fucking clue what to do with their life.

And just to give people blissful ecstatic moments along with hope.

You obviously don’t have a problem with nudity, or sex what are your views on those themes ?

Maybe we’re going backwards, AIDS really fucked up everything and created so much  guilt that’s now attached to sex. Maybe it’s just that I wanted to have a memory to remember what my dick looked like when I was younger. But I just love sex, I envy animals because things are so simple for them, humans have got enough layers on already, and being naked really throws away pretentions. Clothes are the death of mankind.

It looks like the editing played a big part in creating your statement, how do you view the editing phase?

We live in an edited world. My view on life is kind of based on Situationism. A PG film is not going to change anything, but a spectacle on the other hand will push things forward, I think it’s a virtue to have a low attention span, and to not be patient. I want everything now. That goes for life, love, dreams. Im not waiting for no one, especially people to approve of my work, I want to live in summertime forever. The mainstream is like a tall boring castle and they deserve the occasional Jack In The Box lunged at their face. I don’t care about my reputation, why should I. It will just make my hair fall out.

Won’t that make life difficult for you?

No it makes it interesting, because then I’ll always have a challenge, and a desire to hustle. I dread having to slow down because then you’ve been corrupted into behaving.

I’m obviously not doing any of this for the money, this is made for fun and to inspire a mental uprising. Forget about this class bullshit, be classless, like me.

Is this just intentional to create a generation barrier?

It’s not about barriers, it’s about the future of creative freedom and if someone who is however old doesn’t get that then their already obsolete.

Why do you think a barriers going up?

Yes a bit, people either love or hate your work don’t they?

Good that’s how it should be…….people who are on the fence get shot, and art should be a form of shout therapy. My chaos theory is that I don’t want people telling me what to do, I’m being honest, is that so hard to take?

What’s wrong with a bit of mystery and thought attached to life. The thick people and governments are scared of having a liberal youth movement, because they know they’ll be outsmarted. Film distribution is the next thing that’s going to be chicken chocked.

Is Online Distribution something your excited about?

I get wet talking about it, because now artists aren’t going to be cheated anymore, and they don’t have to listen to corporate bullshit. It’s like the dreams come true. I don’t think people have caught onto it yet though. I was expecting parades and celebrations. It’s a lot to take in knowing that you’ve got total creative freedom, and obviously it’s too much for some people.

Where does the Chet character come from is he based on you?

Of course he is, it was a part of me. When your just getting started in the world you depend on everyone else giving you a break, and you become very submissive, and that’s what I wanted to revisit. It’s like being in a room with the lights off, you could go that way, or this, or there in life, but the trick is to get mean and defiant and once that happens you’ll find strength.