Fabrizio Federico - Aug 27th review

''Whether Fabrizio Federico is toying with the people in his films or they are toying with him is hard to decipher. Perhaps that's what it is about, voyeurism in a modern world. Black Biscuit is a feature that anyone could make, but very few will. He describes the people in his films as "misfit outsiders" but who is the misfit, who is the outsider? Fabrizio works with mobile phones and finds people through the internet, today's tools for introspection. But are we looking at ourselves or each other? Pregnant is his latest feature. Is this a pregnant pause in society's development as it is stifled by new technology or is it something amazing that is being incubated? In his own words “past manifesto Pink8 swindled the punk DIY ethic of it best being a flamboyant failure instead of a benign success’’.

Carolyn Bayliss

 

Fabrizio Federico interview on BBC Radio

Fabrizio Federico BBC Radio interview 2014
Discussing the new film Pregnant.
http://pregnantmovie.moonfruit.com/
http://fabriziofederico.moonfruit.com/
http://blackbiscuit101.moonfruit.com/

Fabrizio Federico art

Pagan Hate

Fabrizio Federico director of Pregnant

Pregnant - International Trailer

 

Dive into a ‘Pop Symphony for Film’.

Composed of movements depicting a trip through a VHS tape into the banks of 21st century Mondo digital technology addiction, and the pregnant pause of the character's existence which leads to their inner stagnation.

 

With each scene depicting a personal quest for salvation, we follow a DJ shaman intent on oblivion through clubland, a desert drifter get's in touch with a purer world after escaping a violent cult.   An actor reminiscing about his deceased child’s stillbirth, and a nymphomaniac developing pregnancy addiction, these counteract segments involving lazy, disillusioned anarchists -  the homicidal preacher facing an existential crisis and a transfigured philosopher who’s descended into the madness of a demon psyche.

 

All are a springboard into hysteria by means of going through your private hell and making it to the other side reborn after witnessing a psycho-sexual ceremony involving ritual. 

 

Fabrizio Federico - Babylon London interview

     Interview by  Amelida Hasani 

       As an independent filmmaker how important is the accessibility of digital distribution for you? And what are the advantages of platforms such as Raindance Releasing who hold your feature, Black Biscuit? 

It’s the highest thing that a film director could wish for,  if only we prayed for it sooner, the flood gates have been opened up and cinema is turning into a mad house, filmmakers can make any type of film they want. I’ll never make mainstream films that are tailored for boring cinema chains like Showcase. Raindance embraces alternative cinema more than a lot of other film festivals. Its what Sundance should have become, everything doesn’t have to be professional or even cohesive to make sense and they understand that. The advantages are you get to lease your film out to distributors and keep things simple, I have a 2 year fair and honest licensing deal with Raindance, it’s not even about the money anymore because if your film becomes a hit in the mainstream market everyone involved in the films production is going to get ripped off anyway, also filmmakers get to focus on a pure aesthetic without having to make cuts for the censors.

2.      I am aware that your feature is also available for free viewing via youtube, why did you opt to put it online in this way? 

It was free on YouTube for a few years and from there it built up an audience and now I want to experience the support of like minded people, before I had more time to concentrate on doing everything. I had filmmakers like Lars von Trier, Jonathan Caouette, Bruce LaBruce and Nick Zedd support the film and it developed this DIY Punk audience, the idea that anyone can make a feature film out of everyday life, scripts are such a drain you miss out on so much spontaneity, Im free spirited, I’ll improvise entire films based around different years. For my next feature called Pregnant Im going to concentrate having the film shown in South Korea, Im surprised the internet hasn’t been banned sometimes. Put your work online for a worldwide audience and lets put corporations who monopolize the film industry out of business.

    

3.      With the growth of VOD platforms as well as digital distribution the advantage has been that more filmmakers are able to showcase their work to a wider audience, but in relation to this there seems to be the worry that traditional cinema viewing will go in decline. Do you think that is a possibility? 

Yes and it’s about time I don’t see it as a worry, films should be shown everywhere, the group Exploding Cinema screen films under bridges and others have been screened in insane asylums and homeless shelters. People are going to want to get together, it’s a long story. A lot of peoples TV screens are almost as big as a movie theatre screen anyway these days, people will just have to get up and organize their own events instead of sitting around if they miss the old movie experience so much, I wish there were more car drive-in movie theatres, they were a good idea, and it’s smoother to get off with your date in a car.

4.      For independent filmmakers as yourself what is the aim when distributing a film, is having your feature on a big screen the mission or has that changed? 

It hasn’t changed for everybody because some people still really want to see their film on a big screen, which is for some filmmakers, my movies work better in small groups, either with tiger blood or poetic misfits looking to see the world scrambled. For me the occasion or happening is more important that just showing my films on any generic big screen. At the moment Im organizing Black Biscuit to be screened at my Psychedelic Pussycat club night in Nottingham on April 25th at the Chameleon. My aim is to turn on and tune in every country through the black market door especially in places like Iran.

5.      Finally, who are the audiences you aim to attract to your work? 

People with an open mind who are looking for movies that challenge them, movies such as Performance, The Brown Bunny, Trash Humpers, Being John Malkovich, or Alps. I see cinema as alchemy. Something where you should walk away after a screening feeling melted and altered.

http://blackbiscuit101.moonfruit.com/ 

Pregnant directed by Fabrizio Federico

The 2nd feature film Pregnant by Fabrizio Federico is nearing completion. 

While recently discussing the film he talked to us about ''tackling the subject of living with death as an immediate danger, to divorce oneself from society, to exist without roots, and to set out on that uncharted journey with the imperatives of self''.

Pregnant is about finding salvation by whatever means necessary (insanity, spiritualism, addiction, fun, death) and reflecting on the stagnation of society's spiritual growth in the 21th century, and on the growing concern towards people's addiction to technology.

He is calling it a 'Pop Art Symphony for Film'. This sensibility of mixing topics such as Sensory Perception, Shamanic medicine dancing, different states of consciousness, and the lack of tribal initiation in modern society culminates in a movie showcasing enlightened anarchy.

Official Facebook 

 

Black Biscuit - Full movie at Raindance VOD

Raindance Film Festival - premiere collection
Black Biscuit (watch full movie)
Pink8 manifesto

http://raindancereleasing.com/films/black-biscuit/

Interview with filmmaker Laura Grace Robles

Making several videos and films you have made over the years like the deconstructed mock documentary films you have unearthed as fake mockumentary, what are you currently working on? 

There’s a couple of projects I'll be distracted with until they find resolution and FOXY is a works in progress, FOXY is 16 different videos and short silent films, where I demonstrate and realize mock performance. The final presentation for FOXY would be a video installation where multiple photo booths having each FOXY video or film viewed inside and is interactive.
Also several FOXY videos and short films were submitted to Fabrizio Federico for his foreign feature full-length film Pregnant an experimental adventure that deals with how technology has overturned people’s lives in the 21st century.
The second project that keeps me busy; I'm writing a shooting script for my next feature no budget film that I will organize in due time titled Nigga Booty Nights. I have actually written the first draft for the film but with a budget in mind, presently I'm re -writing the script. 

You call your self an artist and not a film director why is that? 

I just got started making films. 

Do you use scripts to prepare for your films if so how would you describe your style of script writing? 

Yes I have prepared scripts for my films but I have also constructed films without using any scripts rather mock documents. My screen writing is unconventional. The dialogue I write is frequently based upon unusual stretchy and repetitive monologues. I do this so that the rhythm or the metric system of the literature fluctuates unpredictably as its being read or performed by performers. 

How did the nickname Birthday Gurl come about? 

I identified myself as someone who showcased at various art exhibits while screening my silent films at live musical performances. It wasn't until I attended a Ghostland Observatory concert In New Braunfels, Texas when the duo was accompanied by a live video performance that I was mesmerized and decided it was time to challenge myself. I became inspired and passionately motivated to create more video. A year passed, I generated numerous hours of recorded video performance using original visuals that I then edited to distribute thirty-one Ghostland Observatory music videos. That night of the show I was celebrating my birthday. That same year came across a fake plastic tiara with Birthday Girl in pink across the top and I put it on and the name stuck. 


Several Years back you showed a film about a Jewish young man who spent most of his time distracted in odd drama behaving in the nude even in open public situations with accompaniment by The Grass Hopper Lies Heavy. 

That is a silent film titled Jesus Practice, it includes musical recordings of instrumental noise I played as I watched the film that was I then altered. When showcased the audio was not overheard, instead a heavy metal progressive rock band out of San Antonio, Texas performed during its screening at The Ten Eleven aka The Old Warhol right down the street from the San Antonio Museum of Art. 

Can you describe the story behind it? 

There is no story it’s just a series of events that take place in three different settings where a young white Jewish male is wearing female wigs dressed in woman's clothing. The impression is that the only one performer in the film is mocking a transgender and becomes aroused by a female scarecrow dressed to play an electric guitar in Mick Bernin’s front yard. The same female scarecrow he serenades by drumming before her in the nude open to the street Typically he smokes three cigarettes at a time when playing his organ before squirting eggnog down his throat to wash down a banana labeled in lipstick. 

Respond to your characterization of your films in the same sense that you've just described. 

I started by gathering objects that I imagined would have some kind of symbolism in the film. In a matter of hours the same day I shot the film I knew the performer was going to attempt appropriating the same dispersed objects in the order we agreed upon. At this point the objects became props. As the performer reacted to the props his characterization utilized the symbols these props explained to be Androgyny’s duality in prolonged scenes of nudity showing a young man’s penis and buttocks whose hair and face were accessorized to imitate a female. But the idea was to shoot the performer responding to some specific props so that every prop could become a possible cue to build the performer’s imagination, to improvise creating the business that is mock performance or the blurring of lines between performance art and acting. In this case only as long as I allowed the camera to keep rolling the entire show. 

I believe you coined the term Fake Mockumentary? 

Fake mock documentary is still too new to be a film genre. I have written a fake mock-documentary manifesto and what it is trying to say is that mock- documentary should already be an established film genre. 

How would you differentiate yourself as a filmer or a filmmaker?
I’m more like a video artist. 

Did you go to film school? 

I dropped out of school to make films. Eventually I went back to school but I studied painting and majored in Business. I never was convinced that San Antonio was the place to study film… I was interested in studying art.