MOVIE News: THE DEATH PARADE - THE UNHOLY SMOKE OF 'LOON'

Fabrizio Federico (filmmaker)

Death & cinema has always been a powerful union, people are fascinated by serial killers, car crashes and violence in general, but in art-house films ambiguity & uneasiness is much more involved on a personal level. ''My maxim has always been create in the dark, shine in the light'' says Loon's director Fabrizio Federico.

''I call it Mistakeology, it's best to stamp on the eggshells of Neoism. This is my darkest film yet!''
  
The lo-fi experimentalism is a big plus from the filmmakers point of view, in that he has completed the movie he dreamed of making, and since it was on zero-budget, if the film bombs financially it doesn't matter.
It's a long list of filmmakers living the cinema dream this way, film outlaws such as 
Abel Ferrara, Jim Jarmusch, Larry Clark, John Cassevetes, Todd Haynes, Alex Holdridge and all the way to the present day. 
Loon is an irrational movie, and a natural extension to this cannon of filmmaking.

''I don't want to smooth out my rough edges, like using a script or being linear, it's probably never gonna fucking happen I enjoy being spontaneous and childlike too much. Being avant-garde is normal to me, it's like a spider's web.'' 

When a director decides to use as the soundtrack to his new film, an album recorded at the cursed Boleskine house in Scotland, previously owned by the notorious magician Aleister Crowley and then Led Zeppelin's virtuoso guitarist Jimmy Page, you know that you're about to enter into Grimm's fairy tale's. But not everybody's gonna understand this film's purpose I can guarantee that. This is the cinema for the future, but the speed of the attention span of this movie is diabolical.

   ''I don't think my true fans have been born yet.''

Films such as Natural Born Killers and We Need To Talk About Kevin have addressed the issue that goes into the making of a murderer. The beauty of Loon is that it takes the primal experimental side Oliver Stone's Killers and the poetic stillness of Lynne Ramsay Kevin and transfuses them together. 

In LOON you witness the family environment, including how the NHS is responsible for encouraging the parents to judge their children and label them under the umbrella of a medical condition. But mix it with delusions of grandeur, drum lessons, a Folie à deux relationship and a lunatic streak, what you get is a ticking time bomb.

The main character Charlie brings to mind lone killers who one day snap and go on an uncontrollable rampage, such as Charles Whitman, Mark Chapman, and Jodie Foster's stalker John Hinckley Jr. A person can change his home, religion and passion but not his family. What this film understands is the root of what creates a serial killer. 
The invisible puppet master from your past trauma, pulling the strings that creates new tragedy.

''I just want people to find the movie, it's been a complete DIY operation filmed on a CCTV camera, and is only gonna be available in digital form (it's on YouTube), I've got the passion and commitment to do it all myself but to keep it simple, without going through the headache of having a team... I should treat myself to an ice cream.''

http://fabriziofederico.co.uk/

HERE COMES EVERYBODY! (The Insane Experimental Cable TV show) - INTERVIEW with host BILL TURK

A monthly experimental cable access show in sunny Los Angeles California is what the world has been waiting for. There is an incredible energy that lives on American Cable TV, it's the place where creativity never sleeps and where sleep never exists and no one understands that better then Here Comes Everybody's host Bill Turk.

Where did the idea for the show come about?
Well... I was walking around downtown Los Angeles, near the LA river... I'd borrowed my wife's car to go to a screening at an art gallery and I'd forgotten where I parked it. As I was walking around I was thinking about how I wished I had my own gallery to curate work it..
And then I thought.. Shit, I'll just do another cable access show!

What got you into DIY No-Budge films?
As for how I got into DIY film... I was going to the Evergreen State College in Olympia Washington.. And I was studying poetry... And somehow ended up in the experimental Film/Documentary class

Can people also watch the cable access show online all across the world?
Yes they can, you can find all the episodes at HCETV.ORG
HCE runs on multiple cable access stations simultaneously, We're running episodes in Los Angeles CA, Berkeley CA, Portland OR, Olympia WA, Seattle WA, North Liberty IA, & Waukegan IL

what do you want viewers to experience when they tune into Here Comes Everybody?
I like the idea of showing Avant Garde work on Television... It works as a trap. The viewer is in their home, flipping through the channels.. expecting normal things that they would find on TV. Then they hit something like HCE, and it's a full assault!
It seems to be getting bigger everyday!

February 2018 will be this years next episode, I think it's going to become a cult TV show that will influence future generations of filmmakers
Thats the plan. I'm about to roll out box sets to send to Universities, so that kids can check the episodes out from the library. Well.. I should add that anyone who wants to get involved should email me at hcetv22@gmail.com

*GONZO CINEMA* THE STORY OF 'LOON' - ''IT'S A GLORIOUS UNMADE BED''

Independent films are the life blood of the film industry, they have the wildest ideas and set the trends. The auteurs; independent because they cannot stand to make the films they truly want within a system they despise. 
They live by their own vision and are stubborn, driven, talented, crafty, observant and tender all at the same time.

Taking risks and inventing new characters that are from the margins of society has never been Hollywood's main cultural demographic. Budget limitations mean nothing to filmmakers like Fabrizio Federico, hoodwinking is part of the game, and they are driven to tell their negative pick-up fables, ''I was stabbed with a fork while filming but I was so in the zone that I didnt feel a thing''.

Fabrizio has a desirable decadence mixed with an artistic atmosphere. His hippie, freaky teenage upbringing of moving countries, which impacted his gift of the gab and a sense of adventurousness. ''When I was a kid I would get all my village friends to pretend to be the Ex-President bank robbers from the movie Point Break, I was Ronald Reagan. That's when I became a filmmaker''.
Federico appears to have two quite distinct personalities co-existing (the dysfunctional filmmaker and the blissed-out stoner) his bohemian lifestyle puts him at odd's with authority figures ''I watched a lot of surfer movies and street films as a teenager like Midnight Cowboy, Panic In Needle Nose Park, Another Day in Paradise and I always rooted for the bad guys''.

Some big themes come up in Federico's work such as injustice, soul sacrifice, addiction and strangelove.  He see's underground and experimental cinema as a force to be appreciated by a bigger international mainstream audience. ''I like the idea of treating the audience to a chaotic, compelling aesthetic, to scramble their brains. I want to show them an uncomfortable time, I feel they can take it. They are not as innocent as they look.''

Loon has a random mix of stoned, catatonic moments, mixed with subliminal Kubrick messages, which then switch to troubled intimate teenage situations in bedrooms, somewhere their parents cant hear them, ''the film is just a glorious unmade bed.''
Most importantly the film is fun and trashy but intriguing in a deeper way, full of nonlinear narlyness. At the centre lies the films Dismaland pop-culture, main character Charlie Sheen is a petty thief, tied in a folie a deux relationship with his sinister older cousin Georgia. Suddenly his chaotic life style reaches a climax, ''this movie will make you take your mom to court''. 

Authenticity of expression is a non-actors main virtuosity, meaning they are in the NOW, you can call it Zen filmmaking, they dont care about pretending to be someone else, there's no strings attached and they definitely dont give a fuck about the directors vision. But they are self-serving to express themselves, knowing that this is the only movie they will ever be in. Sometimes they use real drugs on camera to get in touch with their anxieties and phobias, and the effect is so voyeuristic it's uncomfortable viewing. 
Loon is his 3rd feature film in a body of work that is strangely cohesive and definite for such a new artist. His identity is so embossed boldly onto each film that it feels less like something he created and more like an extension of himself.

In art-house films, ambiguity and uneasiness is much more involved on a personal level, 
The big plus from the filmmakers point of view is that he has completed the movie he dreamed of and since it was zero-budget if the film bombs financially it doesn't matter.
It's a long list of filmmakers living the cinema dream this way, film outlaws such as Jim Jarmusch, Larry Clark, John Cassevetes, Todd Haynes, Abel Ferrara, Alex Holdridge and all the way to the present day. 
Loon is an irrational movie, and a natural extension to this cannon of filmmaking.

LOON - Released on Halloween 2017
OFFICIAL WEBSITE

INTERVIEW with Filmmaker Jason Wright

*You've been very productive this past year, what give's you the drive on your projects? I have always been a huge fan of horror. I am luckily to have such a dedicated team of creative people that help drive my ideas and vision.

*Tell us where the inspiration for Torture came from? Torture has been in the making for over 4 years and is like Hostel vs Saw. We have had a few scriptwriters involved in this project to refine and make this a great film. As all of our films, it started out as a story not more than 30 pages and then with the help of the team we developed it into a feature film.

*Who was the first filmmaker to blow your mind? That is a great question and I would have to say George A. Romero as his delivery of zombie films are some of the best of all time. When I watched them as a young man, they always seemed to have that eerie effect so making the experience more immersive.

*What was the production like on both films? Torture was filmed over 3 years so as our first feature film it took a long of time and planning but will so much help and support it is now in post-production and we are looking forward to releasing a trailer soon. Acid Pit Stop was out second feature film, which was filming under 4 weeks so completely different in its setup and production process. Both productions have their pros and cons in terms of how they were completed but at the end of the day, they are both great films so watch out for them being released soon.

*Where did you find your cast, did anyone get hurt during the making? We have a few casting crew including myself so each role was carefully thought about before we selective cast. As we are a great believer in health and safety, no one got hurt on either film set.

*How have audiences been reacting toward Torture? As this is not released this would be very hard to answer. What I can say it that we did release an essence trailer a while ago and we have had lots of great comments and emails about that and wanting to know when the film is being released J So all positive J

*When will Acid Pit be released and what’s the premise? We are looking to get ACID PIT STOP released in 2018 so fingers crossed on that. APS is a zombie comedy that has a unique twist to it J So I don’t want to spoil the fun so you will have to wait for the trailer to be released.

*What real life serial killer is the villain in Torture based on? It is not based on any real life killer as such but it is a great film that should keet you guessing.

*Whats the weirdest story you can tell us from your career as a filmmaker? As a filmmaker you always have lots of weird stories come across your desk so to speak but the we have just finished a NEW novel called Blood Harvest which I believe is for sure the weirdest and most goriest project we have been involved in so far J

*What was the first horror film you saw as a kid? That is easy as the first horror film I saw, as a young man was The Evil Dead J

*Where was Torture filmed? Torture has taken a long time to film as is has many locations in the film. We did a lot of filming on a friend’s farm in West Sussex and some of the key news scenes in Southend on Sea.

*Did any of your cast freak out during filming? You will always get one or two cast or crew that find the filming hard on extreme films like Torture. At the end of the day it is just a film and not real so everyone takes it for what it is but is doesn’t stop a few screaming J More details on this kind of thing will be revealed when the film is released and we are at the film festivals J

*What was the editing process like? Both films are currently in post-production which is a long process but where the magic happens. All I can say is that it is going well and we are on track J

*Whats next for you in 2018? Well we have a few things we can announce and confirm. We are filming next month on ZOMBIE WARS, which is a great anthology feature film and a must for zombie fans. We are in pre-production for another feature film called Mannequin, which is due to start filming this year, and we can announce that ZOMBIKINI is currently in script but will be in pre-production either 2018 or 2019.

 

For another information visit www.silent-studios.co.uk and other links are

 

https://www.facebook.com/silentstudiosproductions/

 

https://www.facebook.com/torturefilm/

 

https://www.facebook.com/acidpitstop/

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3112286/

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7166170/

FILMMAKER OF THE MONTH - FABRIZIO FEDERICO