THEORY of OBSCURITY - a film about The Residents /  by JoFF Rae

Theory of Obscurity: a film about The Residents is a sponsored project of Moving Train, Inc., a non-profit organization that funds documentary films. Contributions to Theory of Obscurity: a film about The Residents must be made payable to Moving Train, Inc. and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.


Short Summary
Hello good people. We are Don, Bart and Josh - the filmmakers behind Theory of Obscurity: a film about The Residents. We've been working on this film for about a year now. We shot a bunch of shows on the 40th Anniversary WoW Tour in the US and Europe and we have interviewed more than 40 people who are connected to The Residents universe...fellow musicians, critics, fans, artists...the whole enchilada. 
Enchilada Ingredients Include:

    •    Les Claypool - Primus
    •    Penn Jillette - Penn & Teller
    •    Matt Groening - The creator of The Simpsons
    •    Jerry Casale - Devo
    •    Chris Cutler - Henry Cow
    •    Jerry Harrison - Talking Heads
    •    Dean Ween - Ween
    •    John Fishman - Phish
    •    Beans
    •    Cheese
    •    Tortillas
    •    And much, much more

We've also earned the trust of The Residents management team at The Cryptic Corporation. The Cryptics have opened up their vaults to us and we've unearthed some real treasures. We're looking forward to sharing them with all of you. 

UNCLEAR HOLOCAUST (2011) /  by JoFF Rae

UNCLEAR HOLOCAUST (2011)
Detourned by The Anti-Banality Union. 65 mins. U.SS.A.
Amerikan with some Arabic.
(Everything is legally protected under the Fair Use Clause of the Copyright Act of 1976.)

Unclear Holocaust is a feature-length autopsy of Hollywood's New York-destruction fantasy, gleaned from over fifty major studio event-movies and detourned into one relentless orgy of representational genocide. It is the unrivaled assembly of the greatest amount of capital and private property heretofore captured in one frame, that, with unfathomable narrative efficacy, suicides itself in an annihilatory flux of fire, water, and aeronautics.

"A Terrorist film collective hijacks the U.S. propaganda apparatus and detonates it over New York. Everything is obliterated and the world celebrates. Through fifty studio event-movies abstracted of all demokratic variation, we see the Cinema as it really is; an unequivocal annihilation, the auto-genocidal mass fantasy of a megalomaniacally depressed First World. Every screen is lifted and bares the obscene underside of all these images. Movements of character and narrative burst into pure and mechanically perfect propulsions of a psychotic camera from which all this violence emanates. The Mise-En-Scene becomes an inventory of the dominant visual-auditory arsenal, enumerating and measuring the power of every weapon available to the Spectacle. Utilizing them all with paradigmatic rigor, the Hollywood-Military complex launches an endless pre-emptive attack on its own shadow, the Terrorist. And, as in all encounters between doubles, the former ends up joyously suiciding itself." -A.B.U. Communique #1

"When I first heard of Unclear Holocaust, the debut project of nebulous situationist art collective The Anti-Banality Union, my initial impression was that these impious troublemakers would fully deserve the inevitable fatwa that will be vexed upon them. However, after viewing part of the work, which reconstitutes scenes from over 50 Hollywood New York City disaster porn films into a more or less coherent narrative, I am pleased to report it is a rather damning yet thoughtful–and dare I say hilarious and enjoyable?–reminder of how bad Hollywood had pushed this scenario. (In cinematic terms, what is 9/11, after all, other than all three* Die Hard movies–exploding tower, exploding airplane, exploding New York City–rolled into one?) “The Spectacle of Terrorism forces the Terrorism of Spectacle upon us…” the ABU wrote me in this mysterious, Frankfurt School-inspired communique. I’m reminded of the remarks Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw shared on 9/11 the other day:

'Perhaps the whole point of 9/11 was that it could never be represented on the cinema screen. The diabolic, situationist genius of the kamikaze attacks was that they were themselves a kind of counter-cinema, a spectacle very possibly inspired by the art-form, but rendering obsolete any comparable fictions it had to offer. The 9/11 attacks smashed Hollywood’s monopoly on myth-making and image production, and inspiring as they did only horror and revenge, aimed a devastating blow at imagination, and maybe for a while enfeebled the reputation of cinema and all the arts.'

Thankfully for the ABU, Hollywood pulled its shit together and made Nicolas Cage apocalypse thriller Knowing, providing Unclear Holocaust about half its runtime." -ScreenSlate.com

-?!

POLICE MORTALITY /  by JoFF Rae

POLICE MORTALITY
Assembled by the Anti-Banality Union, 2013.
66 mins. U.SS.A.
(Everything is legally protected under the Fair Use Clause of the Copyright Act of 1976.)

Do you ever try to imagine the last crime?
Suspect that Robocop is the 99%?
Or wish that the pigs would off themselves, so you don’t have to?

Leave it to Hollywood and the Anti-Banality Union, in POLICE MORTALITY, the vengeful follow-up to last year’s 9/11 bonanza UNCLEAR HOLOCAUST.

Police Mortality is a partisan mashup of over 120 Hollywood popcorn films about, you guessed it, COPS! The result? One feature-length, schizophrenic supercut about police violence and breaking the news, Michael Bay's penchant for property destruction and the filmic unconscious, among other things.

After a veteran detective commits suicide, it is up to the homicide squad to turn it into a murder… Then the uniforms start piling up. Strikes, occupations, and riots ensue, and society begins to crumble… finally! Can the force prevent itself from imploding? Will it be more Rambo than Dirty Harry? Is this movie actually a documentary?

"A Keystone Kops flick for the Christopher Dorner era… Like no cop movie -- and every cop movie -- you've ever seen." -The New Inquiry

"The cop film to end all cop films -- literally." -Vice

Every generation has a defining moment. This is ours. This is war. One hell of a war. Civil War.
This is where the law stops… and Police Mortality starts.
Anything is possible. Nothing is forbidden.
The end is just the beginning.
Welcome to a world without rules.
Just remember -- when the theater goes dark… don't call the cops.

Starring: Will Smith, Bruce Willis, Denzel Washington, Sylvester Stallone, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Samuel L. Jackson, Richard Gere, Kurt Russell, Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt, Paul Newman, Jim Belushi, Mickey Rourke, Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Robert Deniro, Al Pacino, Peter Weller, James Woods, James Gandolfini, Robert Blake, George C. Scott, Tupac Shakur, Charlie Sheen, Reginald Veljohnson, Black Militants, Bill Clinton, The Student Movement, The FBI, The KKK, Lenin, Marx, Michael Bloomberg, Bane, The 99%, and many more.

And watch our first film, Unclear Holocaust, called "the funniest 9/11 movie ever" by the Village Voice, right here:vimeo.com/42724320

-?!

KEEP CALM and CONSOLIDATE /  by JoFF Rae

keep-calm-and-consolidate-39 (2).png

consolidate

kənˈsɒlɪdeɪt/

verb

verb: consolidate; 3rd person present: consolidates; past tense: consolidated; past participle: consolidated; gerund or present participle: consolidating

  1. 1.

    make (something) physically stronger or more solid.

    "the first phase of the project is to consolidate the outside walls"

  2. 2.

    combine (a number of things) into a single more effective or coherent whole.

    "all manufacturing activities have been consolidated in new premises"

    synonyms:combine, unite, merge, integrate, amalgamate, fuse, blend, mingle,marry, synthesize, bring together; More

    • combine (a number of financial accounts or funds) into a single overall account or set of accounts.

      "consolidated accounts"

    • BRIT.

      combine (separate pieces of legislation) into a single legislative act.

      "the Companies Act 1948 and subsequent enactments were consolidated by the Companies Act 1985"

Origin

early 16th cent. (in the sense ‘combine into a whole’): from Latin consolidare, fromcon- ‘together’ + solidare ‘make firm’ (from solidus ‘solid’).

 

 

verb

1 we consolidated our position in the market: strengthen, secure, stabilize, reinforce, fortify; enhance, improve.

2 consolidate the results into an action plan: combine, unite, merge, integrate, amalgamate, fuse, synthesize, bring together, unify.

Have You Heard From Johannesburg: The Bottom Line /  by JoFF Rae

Clarity Films presents "Have You Heard From Johannesburg," a powerful seven-part documentary series by two-time Academy Award nominee Connie Field that shines light on the global citizens movements that took on South Africa's apartheid regime. It reveals how everyday people helped challenge and end one of the greatest injustices the world has ever known. "The Bottom Line" is the story of the first-ever international grassroots campaign to successfully use economic pressure to help bring down a government. Recognizing the apartheid regime’s dependence on its financial connections to the West, citizens all over the world, from employees of Polaroid to a General Motors director, from student account-holders in Barclays Bank to consumers who boycott Shell gas, all refuse to let business with South Africa go on as usual. Boycotts and divestment campaigns bring the anti-apartheid movement into the lives and communities of people around the world, helping everyday people understand and challenge Western economic support for apartheid. Faced with attacks at home and growing chaos in South Africa, international companies pull out in a mass exodus, causing a financial crisis in the now-isolated South Africa and making it clear that the days of the apartheid regime are numbered. For more information about the series, visit www.clarityfilms.org. To get involved in the global engagement campaign around the series, please visit www.activevoice.net/aveyouheard.html

Artist Riusuke Fukahori Paints Three-Dimensional Goldfish Embedded in Layers of Resin /  by JoFF Rae

Japanese artist Riusuke Fukahori paints three-dimensional goldfish using a complex process of poured resin. The fish are painted meticulously, layer by layer, the sandwiched slices revealing slightly more about each creature, similar to the function of a 3D printer. I really enjoy the rich depth of the pieces and the optical illusion aspect, it's such an odd process that results in something that's both a painting and sculptural. Wonderful.

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The ghost of Ayrton Senna, Suzuka 1989 /  by JoFF Rae

Honda has created this incredible a video tribute to Ayrton Senna. They took the actual data from Senna’s 1989 McLaren-Honda to create an audio/visual lap of Suzuka.

Watch Ayrton’s 1989 Japanese GP qualifying lap below...

 

アイルトン・セナが残した走行データから、24年前のエンジン音が甦る■「dots lab by internavi」 http://www.honda.co.jp/internavi-dots/dots-lab/senna1989/ ■メイキングムービー http://youtu.be/RVeSYyYzjhY

The late great Ayrton Senna putting his Mclaren on pole at the Japanese GP in 1989.

 

via motorsportretro.com