ANTI-EASTWOOD - The New British Art-House Cinema

Cult Hero, the Lizard King, Enfant Terrible, Mr Voodoo Trick, but what is certain is that filmmaker Fabrizio Federico is helping widen a generation gap in the film industry by doing what isn't expected of a movie director. 

He releases his films for free online, used mobile phones and CCTV cameras, casts street-superstars and doesn't use scripts or relies on funding to create his films; in the process, retaining 100% creative power over his movies. 
He has always insisted on his own talentlessness, presenting it as a challenge to anyone who thinks they could do better. His mystique not only comes from his popstar good looks and outspoken views, but from the fact that his films appeal to the tribal magic that lurks in the shadows of cinemas hidden frames. It's primeval & occult qualities that he and filmmakers such as Kenneth Anger, Dennis Hopper & Gaspar Noe have also embodied. The raw sour milk of human bitterness from these directors of adult fare. It is a very seductive juju charm that the mainstream has long been weary of. 

The manic and rowdy quality of Federico's films stem from his cinema manifesto Pink8 which has spawned an international collective of outsider filmmakers who are seeing the manifesto as a creed for a radical new step for a purer form of cinema. Federico never studied how to make films, learning everything from ground zero with some heartbreaking consequences, ''I lost my 1st film because my computer blew up; damn Dell computers, had to start all over again from scratch.'' 
His film Pregnant focuses on technology addiction in the 21st century. The mass hypnosis of a generation, as we witness each character's inner spiritual stagnation and mass disconnection from society. His debut feature film Black Biscuit is a portrait on wild youth and its lust for sex, drugs and money. His psychedelic editing & rhythm convey a shamanic quality to his films. Disorganised but focused, a slightly awe-struck air, his films are completely improvised. ''What appeals to me is the beauty and terror of particular vibes, from there I streamline each films path.''

Trouble also seems to follow him like a manic flame. Mainstream critics loath his films, to the point where Federico and film critic Chase The Whale have developed a long standing feud regarding critical hack jobs. And during a live radio interview in America, Federico was involved in a on air argument with several film critics after they had failed to watch his film. But his confidence and fearless attitude may originate from the fact that he survived a house fire at the age of five. ''I tasted deaths appetite at an early age, the world has seemed like an illusion ever since.'' There has also been rumours that he has sold his soul to the devil.

Challenging censorship his footage has been confiscated by the police because of his helter skelter commando style shooting tactics. But all this stems from his pure love for cinema. ''To me film is like a myth, a collection of all of the strengths and failings of humanity, magnified for us to figure out.'' 

Federico has currently set up the Straight Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival, he also starred in his first movie Kingdom of Shadows directed by the movie duo Clara Pais & Daniel Fawcett, and has also created a Ziggy Stardust style alter-ego of a film director from Mars, called Jett Hollywood. His new film LOON was released on Halloween 2017.''I enjoy the beauty of life, but Im also turned on by the dark absurdity and surrealism that life has to offer. Its a circus.'' 

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British Voodoo - The Black Art of Cinema

When filmmaker Fabrizio Federico takes to his battered camcorder he is stepping into another world. The British born movie-maker directs with such exuberance it seems as if he and the camera are bound together by a magic spell. 
Call it alchemy, the occult, mysticism - Not every filmmaker is prepared to bewitch the spirits into leading you artistically. 

Here are some examples of filmmaker's who did:

Lucifer Rising (1972)
Lilith (1964)
Pregnant (2016)
Attenberg (2010)
Last Chants For a Slow Dance (1977)
Gummo (1997) 
Performance (1970)
Rosemary's Baby (1966)
The Devils (1971)
The Witches (1966)
Starry Eyes (2014)
The First Power (1990)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Federico moved to Italy when he was five years old after surviving a house fire, after which the gifted child soon took to painting and learning guitar at an early age. By the age of fifteen he had become a teen prodigy at guitar and art, appearing live at many jazz and classical venues including the prestigious Boston Hatch Shell in the USA, where he lived for ten years. Here he discovered underground cinema. This talented and complex artist with a wicked sense of humour has become a symbol for DIY revolt. Driven and self taught Federico is a visual-maestro with a globe trotting streak, having already filmed in Spain, Cuba, Hungary, France, Poland, Germany, Bermuda and Morocco. All his works are self financed by banks instead of producers or film studios. 

His raw style includes the complete disposal of scripts, actors or any other cinema norm. His debut film Black Biscuit (2012) became notorious. Confrontations would erupt at the mere mention of the movie between film fans both rigid and spirited, young and old on internet film forums, or vitriolic reviews, even on radio and at public appearances. Especially over the merits of cult and experimental cinema and its integrity in mainstream cinema's media coverage value, a phenomenon very similar to the French New Wave or Dogme 95 era. 

By the time his next feature Pregnant (2015) was released his reputation for being a possessed talent created problems and controversy in rigid mainstream film institutions. During Pregnant's pre-production arson charge surfaced which coincided with his ill health and isolation around this time. By this time he had created a Ziggy Stardust alter-ego called Jett Hollywood (a filmmaker from Mars) who was responsible for the films The Evolution Of The Earth Angel and later Anarchy In The UK. Jett Hollywood committed cinema suicide.

In 2016 Federico ran the first Straight-Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival, which incorporated experimental filmmakers from across the world. His films have been called psychedelic, nightmarish and angelic, all executed with a Peter Pan sense of wonder. He has even been called ''the devils filmmaker''. His PINK8 film manifesto even caused his films to be banned from universities after it was discovered that film groups were screening his films on campus including his new film Loon (2017) which is about a folie a deux relationship.

Black Biscuit (Full Movie)

 

                                                
                                                         Black Biscuit (Full Movie)