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November 1994, Week 4

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From:
Nicole Matthews <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Nicole Matthews <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 23 Nov 1994 13:58:24 CST
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----------------------------Original message----------------------------
 
I saw some of the Emergency Broadcast Network videos at Brisbane's Glare
Festival of short and experimental film and video in October '94. The
programme informs me that the video was shown at this year's
Lollapalooza, so the video can't be too hard to locate. You might try
getting in touch with the curator of Glare, Natalie Jeremijenko, through
Brisbane Independent Filmmakers (PO Box 1277 Fortitude Valley Queensland
Australia 4006).
 
I am surprised at the rave Russell gave about the EBN pieces. As the
discussion here about "Natural Born Killers" indicated,
the music video aesthetic of fast montages of borrowed images has
been very widely distributed in mainstream film and television, as well
as experimental film and video; I feel it has become sufficiently
commonplace and recognisable to be banal, particularly to audiences used to
music video. I enjoyed the clips - for the first few minutes - but found
they soon became repetitive and predictable, despite the funky soundtrack.
 
The political outlook of the EBN video was part of what induced this
reaction. Like most parody, they work within the parameters of their
sources - making Dan Quayle or George Bush "speak" against their will has
a certain subversive ring, but is still re-cycling images of rich white
American men on experimental screens! It's interesting that the
techniques of "cut up" mean that inversion is the easiest effect to
achieve - leading to a kind of knee jerk oppositional flavour best
illustrated in another film I saw at GLARE "Behold I Come Quickly" (Bob
Paris, USA) - which has televangelists mouth satanic phrases.
 
 
Nicole Matthews, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

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