kagablog

photo stan engelbrecht

231

One of the soul’s great tragedies is to execute a work and then realize, once it’s finished, that it’s not any good. The tragedy is especially great when one realizes that the work is the best he could have done. But to write a work, knowing beforehand that it’s bound to be flawed and imperfect; to see while writing it that it’s flawed and imperfect - this is the height of spiritual torture and humiliation. Not only am I dissatisfied with the poems I write now; I also know that I’ll be dissatisfied with the poems I write in the future. I know it philosophically and in my flesh, through a hazy, gladiolated foreglimpse.

So why do I keep writing? Because I still haven’t learned to pracitse completely the renunciation that I preach. I haven’t been able to give up my inclination to poetry and prose. I have to write, as if I were carrying out a punishment. And the greatest punishment is to know that whatever I write will be futile, flawed and uncertain.

I wrote my first poems when I was still a child. Though dreadful, they seemed perfect to me. I’ll never again be able to have the illusory pleasure of producing perfect work. What I write today is much better. It’s even better than what some of the best writers write. But it’s infinitely inferior to what I for some reason feel I could - or perhaps should - write. I weep over those first dreadful poems as over a dead child, a dead son, a last hope that has vanished.

Year: 2009

Genre: Collection / Surrealism / Art House

Language: English / More

Runtime: 101 min

Director: Aryan Kaganof, Karl Lemieux, more

Plot:
Twelve short surrealistic, perverse and dirty art house films collected on one solid DVD. All films are taken from Cinéma Abattoir screenings.

Our thoughts:
Being the third DVD that these guys release, I pretty much knew what to expect from short films. They were gonna be weird as hell, very well made, some would be perverse and some would be impossible to understand. Most of all, I knew that I would yet again be amazed by this collection put together by Pierre-Luc Vaillancourt and Cinéma Abattoir.

Just like both “Incarnation” and “L’Èrotisme”, the DVD cover is just a texture. This one is all in black and white. Cinéma Abattoir are by far the best distributors when it comes to releasing cool collectable DVDs, that’s for sure, because in the veins of how “Incarnation” came in butcher’s paper, this DVD cover was stuffed with chicken wire. I mean, not literally stuffed on top of the disc, but they’ve put in real chicken wire under the plastic on the case. Gives it a really wicked look and it will stand out with all the other DVDs without a doubt.

The DVD starts off with a sexually charged film called “Washing Machine”. I can’t really get a solid grip on this one (but it’s actually the same when it comes to most of these films), but I keep thinking that it has about odd sexualities and rough love. Seeing how the film contains violent sex, shitting and smearing, head shoved down shit-filled water, and so on, I guess “odd sexualities” was obvious, but that is literally the only reason I can find for this one. It’s not a bad one though, and it’s just as bizarre and well shot as it needs to be to become more than scat porn.

“Man Spricht Deutsch” is a distorted experimental 2 minute film where we just see a man talking in a pay phone, while a weird blinging soundtrack is played. The film is very filtered to look really old, and it has a brown / orange color to it. This was probably one of my least favorites on this disc just for the fact that not much happened.

The third short in line was “Sacre-Coeur De Satan”, and this one literally started out with a bang. A heavy soundtrack starts, and a swastika appears. Like “La Fin de Notre Amour” and “Catharsis” from the earlier Cinéma Abattoir releases, this one starts out with being made using still images. Images of a girl with long latex gloves who is messing around with a crucifix, mixed with strange photography of sex and nazism. As the still image technique stops, we see the girl masturbating with the crucifix with an filter effect that resembles the “glowing edges” effect that can be found in programs like Photoshop. The effect, as simple as it is, gives this sacreligious action a very surreal touch and raises the artistic value alot. This film continues in the same way, but towards the end it mostly focuses on demons, Satan, Hitler, Christianity, and the whole film ends with the text “Adolf est ton ami” (”Adolf is your friend”). It’s pretty repeative and could’ve been a few minutes shorter, but I enjoyed it so fuck it.

The next little grainy and distorted film was titled “J”, and it’s a beautiful little film with a much more soothing soundtrack than the rest. It’s hard to tell what we are looking at, but it starts with a person walking down the stairs. We see a man, a girl, some kissing, etc. Some films don’t need to show alot to mean alot, and this is a perfect example of it.

“Yellow Fever” is a industrial noise filled film with random images and scenes of Asian women. The way it’s done makes it seem like the theme is Asian fetishism. Where all the images of teeth and mouths came into that, I don’t know. As the film goes on, we see pictures who slowly rot and developes wounds. A very cool effect. There’s not really much more to say about this one.

I probably should’ve mentioned earlier, but this DVD is split into two parts. I don’t know why, but it just is. The menu has a picture of a tunnel in the middle, and on the left and right side you choose part. Anyway, the reason why I tell you this is because the next film I’m gonna talk about is “Passage”, and it was the last one on the first part. This film was really more of a straight on drama film and it was exactly what this collection needed. It’s the first one with a clear storyline, and as wonderful as the other unexplained and twisted shorts are, they balance eachother nicely. This one has two men and two women in a car doing coke, and they are heading to a motel for one purpose, to screw around with eachother. When they arrive, they all start to fool around, but it doesn’t take long before both men are on the same women, and the other woman feels left out. She tries to get some attention but they clearly ignore her. She goes to the bathroom and tries to fix herself up a bit. She lets her hair down for a new look, but her selfesteem terrorizes her so she walks out the bathroom. While the other three are all naked and in the bed, she leaves and takes off running around on an open field. This had some excellent cinematography, and having it in black and white was a wise move. Overall it was a great drama film. Pointless to some degree, but good nevertheless.

The second part of the DVD starts off with a short called “Hymn To Pan” that’s basicly just a girl who’s dancing in front of a camera man. “Dream Of Samarra” was Usama Alshaibi’s contribution to this collection, and as you know, I loved his shorts on the other DVDs. This one is his weakest so far, and it’s not as perverse. This one has little people walking around in a big tower. Maybe it’s just zoomed out so the people might not be “little people”, but for some reason this reminded me of ants in more than one way, so I let that statement stand.

“Satan Bouche Un Coin” is the oldest film on the disc as it was made 1968, and you can tell it’s older because even though all the films have an older look, this looks genuine. This one reminded me of a circus, and not just because of the eerie but upbeat soundtrack. It’s a very sexual film and there was actually a couple of scenes in here that reminded me of the Z-grade film “Sexandroide”. Wether that’s a good or bad thing, I don’t know.

Next up is the longest one, with a runtime of 25 minutes. “Dead Man II: Return Of The Dead Man” is the title of this strange and filthy film. I think it started out (I say “think” because I wasn’t sure if this part was an intro for the film, or if it was just a short thing that was put between this and “Satan Bouche Un Coin”) with two gay men who are covered in filth and dressed in latex who are sucking balls and puking on each other. Not exactly something you’d call sexy, and I’m not sure what this has to do with the rest of the short. This gross scene ends with one of the men cumming into a pile of puke. All of the sudden we have an old man who sits down at a bar, and a fat lady approaches him only to show her vagina and say “I’m god” in a down-pitched deep voice. Weird enough for you? Well, it gets weirder. As we move on, we see a few memories of the old man, and we have yet another woman who shows her vagina to him. This woman is standing on top of the bar and is pissing (at the end of the film she’s pissing on the old man and it’s the first time we see him happy). That’s not the weird part; the bar has zombies in it. Burned and slowly moving zombies. They aren’t eating people, but I’m pretty sure they are zombies. What is there to say about this one, really? It’s just really challenging and bizarre. Somewhat long and at times a little boring, but it’s still one of the better shorts on the DVD.

The following film is untitled, and it’s just a bunch of images with an abstract look on top of it. Since this was a pretty boring film, I found myself fast-forwarding, and I discovered something cool. This only works if you still hear sound when fast-forwarding, except faster. Well, when I did that, the music becomes really loud with lots of bass. It almost felt like if the film was suppose to be watched that way. I know this is the way I’ll watch it atleast. It was almost spooky.

Now to my absolute favorite on this disc, “The Other American Dream”. This was pure madness. It’s a highly realistic film that’s filmed with one camera that stays on the same spot, and all 10 minutes are in one shot (unless I missed some cutting somewhere?). It all takes place in a car where a hooker is talking to the driver. They mention something about her crossing the border for a better life, and eventually they talk drugs. As things move along, he says he’ll let her go if she gives him a blowjob. And she does, but when she spits out his cum out the window, he gets pissed off and starts beating her. He cuffs her, and drives away saying he’s gonna sell her to some fucked up people who has done all kind of weird shit in the past. This was very realistic, and it’s all set in Mexico so it has a very rough feel to it. This is something that’d be perfect for Toetag Pictures’ “Murder Collection”, and it would probably even there be one of the better ones. Pretty much a really brutal and realistic film. No gore though, so don’t expect that.

This was another terrific film compilation by Cinéma Abattoir, even though I’d say it was my least favorite of the three. This one has more solid films than “Incarnation”, but the ones in “Incarnation” that I liked, I thought were alot better than all films on this one. Still a solid collection and I’m happy to have all their DVDs so far. There is some seriously messed up things going on in here, but hey, I love smut and surreal shit, so I’ll be the first in line to buy whatever DVD they release next.

this review first appeared on filmbizarro.com

For those who like their cinema like I like my coffee, strong and dark, look no further than Cinéma Abattoir. This independent company from Quebec has a new DVD release ready that looks to be their strongest yet. Limited to 500 copies and wrapped in chicken wire!!

While the global economy, and certainly DVD sales, are experiencing hard times, fans of transgressive cinema have little to complain about. The German company Camera Obscura just released the notorious “Vase de Noces” on English friendly DVD and Cult Epics has “L’Urlo” coming up at the end of July. The first one had never been released on ANY video format ever before and the last one never with English language options. And here is Cinéma Abattoir with their third DVD release of experimental short films that they also bring to selected cinema’s. This is how they describe the release on their website:

Emanating from the Void, from sexual atomisation
and a Black eternally Blacker than Black

One of the twelve short films included on the disc is Aryan Kaganof’s “Dead Man II - Return of the Dead Man” (made while the director was still called Ian Kerkhof). This is one of the most shocking art-films I have ever seen, at least the first part of the film that features gay emetophilia, so this time that statement is actually not a crypto-recommendation but a real warning. But it is a daring and in some ways even beautiful film based on the writing of Bataille and with an original soundtrack by Merzbow. In a perfect world all cinephiles would want to check this out (after first warming up to it a bit by watching Sweet Movie or Salo). The other shorts promise to be similarly dark and experimental and together must be an impressive mind trip. Also quality wise the Cinéma Abattoir releases are very good, so I do really want to recommend this DVD!

It’s available directly from the company. Hit the first link below also to view details on all the shorts and a nice trailer for the DVD release

peter cornelissen

this review first appeared on twitchfilm.net

* Cinéma Abattoir page for the À rebours DVD

june 2009

first published in migrate: the ego issue, june 2009

THURSDAY 23 JULY 2009

THE COCA-COLA DOME, NORTHGATE, JOHANNESBURG

When you know more, you achieve more!

A one-day conference covering broadcast issues and low budget content creation.

MORNING CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

ARE YOU READY FOR 2010?

07:00 –08:00 Registration and welcome refreshments

08:15 Welcome and introduction to overall programme
Presiding chairman: Lynn Mansfield, Chairman SADIBA & SABC Strategic Adviser to the Group CEO

08:25 Introduction to keynote speaker
Nic Bonthuys, GM SABC Air Time Outside Broadcasts

08:35 KEYNOTE
Richard Waghorn, CTO SABC Technology
He was formerly the BBC’s Controller of Distribution and was responsible for setting strategies for delivering digital switchover and directing the implementation of the BBC’s switchover infrastructure. He is an acknowledged industry expert on digital broadcasting..

09:00 PREPARING FOR 2010
Discussion includes the recent FIFA Confederation Cup, the forerunner event for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup; Communications strategy; Role of technology; Opportunities for the industry.

Overview Gary Shaw, HBS for FIFA Panel discussion: Thami Magazi, Telkom Group Executive : Multi-National Customers; David Swannack Programme Director Siemens; Nic Bonthuys, SABC - Air Time Outside Broadcasts
Panel Convenor: Lynn Mansfield, SADIBA Q&A

10:00 UPDATE ON DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL TV TRIALS AND DELIVERY STRATEGY

The panel will discuss how the trials are proceeding, the definition of digital standards specifications, the management of the technical platform, marketing the concept of digital transition to the public, whether the Set Top Box subsidy system is feasible, and if 2011 is a realistic deadline for the analogue switch-off?
Introduction: Lara Kantor Digital Dzonga chairperson Panel discussion: Dave Hagen, M-Net Digital Dzonga representive; Yusuf Nabee, DTT Project Leader at SABC; Zubair Munshi, e.tv Digital Dzonga representative; Marius du Plessis, SADIBA
Panel Convenor: Johann Koster, NAB Q&A

11:00 Refreshments

11:30 AFRICA READY TO DO BUSINESS
The International Monetary Fund recently forecast a 3% growth for the continent. Even though only six countries have a national GDP of more than $50bn, Africa has a population of more than 900-million potential capital market participants which represents a huge audience for broadcast, Internet and mobile communication. The panel will discuss personal experiences of working in Africa, the possibilities for broadcasters and the crucial areas of training which need to be undertaken if the continent is to develop its full broadcast potential.

Overview & Panel Convenor: Phil Molefe, Acting Head of SABC News; Panel: Dr Melanie Chait, Big Fish School of Digital Filmmaking; GlobeCast Africa, further speakers to be confirmed Q&A

12:30 THE NEW TELEVISION EXPERIENCE
The impact of cheap broadband on broadcasters and how they must adapt and change or face extinction.
Marcos Gonzalez-Flower, Global Head of Media Consulting
Siemens IT Solutions and Services Ltd, UK

13:00 Networking luncheon sponsored by Siemens Southern Africa

AFTERNOON CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

LOW BUDGET PRODUCTION …

13:00 – 13:30 - Registration

13:45 Welcome and introduction to overall programme
Presiding chairman: Prof Christo Doherty, Head of Digital Arts, Wits School of Arts

14:00 KEYNOTE: Industrial Development Corporation - Film funding criteria
In the current economic downturn, it is tougher than ever before for filmmakers to find the money to make a film. There were well over 10 South African feature films made last year and to exceed this number in the next 12 months, traditional government and organisational film funders will need to rethink the financial equation round supporting the development of the industry.

Basil Ford, head of the IDC Media and Motion Picture Division: The rationale behind the IDC’s funding criteria; industry misconceptions and how the IDC views low budget projects.

14:15 SUCCESS ON A SHOESTRING
Hollywood isn’t going to come knocking on your door to get you to direct the next blockbuster film. Truth is you are going to have to do it on your own. Learn how to get your movie made by people who are proof that with a little creativity and a lot of hard work, you can be a success without spending millions.

Panel: UE Ukpong, Nigerian filmmaker: the Nollywood model, and current developments in Nigerian low budget filmmaking; Jann Turner, award winning filmmaker and director of the successful box office low budget feature White Wedding; Charlie Sepadin, writer / producer of Swop! specifically made for DVD release; Aryan Kaganof, award winning filmmaker, who shot SMS Sugar Man, the first full length feature film on a mobile phone camera. Q&A

15:15 Afternoon refreshments

15:35 ARE LOW BUDGET FILMS THE SOLUTION TO CREATING A SUSTAINABLE FILM INDUSTRY?:
Will cost-effective filmmaking become the order of the day for local films and co-productions? The role of government and the funding of low budget films.

Panel discussion – Department of trade & industry (dti); SASFED, IPO, Basil Ford, IDC and Paul Raleigh, Film Finance SA. Q&A

16:30 BROADBAND INTERNET THE NEW OPPORTUNITY?
As broadband penetration and speeds increase, content owners, channels, online video platforms, social networks and mobile networks will have to rethink their business models. Will traditional ways of distributing content via film distributors and cinema or television broadcasters change under the pressure of broadband Internet?
Indra de Lanerolle, independent media and communications consultant;
Jason Probert, General Manager Entertainment: DStv Online. Q&A

17:15 Networking cocktails

first published in migrate: the ego issue, june 2009

first published in migrate: the ego issue, june 2009

Mark this child. She is small and white. She sits within a room within a house of many rooms. Outside sway trees upon the rags of roads and blackened paths beyond nurse yet the putrid fruit of men. Her mother lies in wait upon the fire, though in truth the night sweats foul and sweet. They wait to hear of news of war; their father promised to return. I am small and meek, he thinks, and thereby dares to dodge the concern of larger men. But his skin will betray him.

The girl looks on, already now too thin. She will not see her father again. Her mother is already lost, for the canker within her has begun its work in earnest. Years from now it will cause her to see devils and death upon the faces of her kin, even as her body turns foul and pestilent. As the moths gather, the mother creeps to the window and claps her hands to the frame, over and again a dull beat, her wails rising and circling above their heads. But though the girl crouches on the ground, fists raised against those murderous cries, the sounds of this night will stay with her. They have lost everything. The cool white rooms, the swollen bougainvilleas. Blacks floating through the hallways, hovering in doorways, deferent and silent. Darkness on the edge of their eyes. A raw unspoken agony. A lone man scuttles from shadow to shadow, pursued by the coming night while all hide behind walls under bushes, a terrible fear beating within.

Two year later she is in another land, secured within the vice of the white man. She is taken in by a family of flat blue eyes. They pity her. Her country has failed to sustain the dream of cool white rooms, swollen bougainvilleas, raw unspoken agony. Six months in a room in a courtyard behind the house proper. She comes out once a day to pick at the food they set out for her and unfold a worn note upon the creaking kitchen table. Crooking further the bended line of her shoulders, she sounds nothing save for a high keening. They cannot understand her weird bird speech and she teaches herself painfully in fierce solitude from scraps of writing found places and the gestures of others. In the gathering desk, she binds her breasts, puts a heavy jacket on; dressed as a boy to drink amongst the men. With her flat chest and circumspect ways they take her for a nestling grown old before its years, pitiful and unthreatening. For the girl says little to avoid notice, her speech marked irrevocably by the flutterings of another tongue. She keeps a screwdriver on her and one night sticks it in a man, through the kidneys as he relieves himself, twisting once to make sure it will not be withdrawn. He falls to the floor, blood spreading darkly against the back of his shirt. The girl’s face impassive while she lifts his wallet. The device learnt from hearsaying thieves upon the crowded trains between the townships and the mines.

She stays within the city, moving from room to room. She works as a driver, once as a teacher to children terrified into silence by her minatory hold. A month and she is on the move again. She works for wages and when none is to be found she works the bars, wing-closed and then a composed unfolding of death.

These are the months when the city calls to itself and hears no answering voice save that of the wind, which runs the streets, trapped by the tall buildings. As if it too would run from this place. In the early dark she comes back to that week’s sleeping place, her thin shadow stretched into the night, twisting along the lines cast upon the ground by the telephone poles. As if it sought to bind itself and her to this stead. She cooks herself what meagre stuff she might, and if she may, falls to sleep with the knowledge of the pulsing dreamless sky above.

One of these sightless days finds her in yet another stained room amongst men drinking. This time she is a cleaner off work, thinned by a day spent scrubbing scratched floors, chemicals rising so thick her mind can’t stand straight and she loses hours over a bucket of dirty water.
You ever dream of water?
He asked it like he was asking to spend the night with her. The girl turned to the man who spoke. What are you doing here father? This is no place for old men.
You just might be right. His brown face crinkled. No place for old men or leprous girl-children.
He shifted himself. Slowly reached for his cigarettes. Turned a little and a straggling woman stirred into focus. Me and her, we’re going to find water, clean and blue.
The woman beside him turns, holds herself up. She raises an invisible umbrella, bows her head once, dark eyes for a moment unkennelled.
We’re going home. They came again, this time with their guns and their tanks. They told us it was not safe for us to stay here. Lepers live across the valley. They tore it down and burned it all. To protect us from the lepers, to protect us from ourselves. There’s nothing left, so we’re going back, to the sea. Been dreaming of water so long.
She spits at him. Ammonia clouds her vision and burns her mouth. What do I care father?
You, child, are going to help us. The old woman turns to him, a secret smile on her face. He nods. The girl slides a little. I told you so you could understand why we would do this to you. A privilege.
The old couple get up slowly, the man folding her wallet into himself.
I understand, she sneers. Some kinds dream of dirt, the kind you can let run through your fingers; others dream of far off places, far off people. She can no longer sit straight. But tell me, did water ever dream of us? Fools. Where is home if it doesn’t long for us as much as we long for it? Where is home.

Some take comfort from the faceless dark, profit from the quiet it affords them to act on their heart’s outbeatings. But how dark it was that night, how bright her eyes, how heavy the proof demanded of her.

first published in migrate: the ego issue, june 2009