. . DV8 Physical Theater's production of Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men was inspired by the grisly world of the notorious 80's serial killer Dennis Nilsen. He was responsible for 16 murders in London. The majority of his victims lived on the edge of society and were visitors at his home. . "I was left with an endless search through the soul-destroying pub scene and its resulting one-night stands ...passing faces and bodies, the unfulfilled tokens of an empty life. A house is not a home and sex is not a relationship. We would only lend each other our bodies in a vain search for inner peace." ~ Dennis Nilson.
. . . Around these events, DV8 Physical Theater poses questions on desire and sensuality. Founded upon the conviction that societal homophobia is bound to result in tragic consequences, it gets to grips with the disturbing forces that drove Nilson to kill for company.
DV8's work for four men, explores through non-narrative dance theater the interwoven notions of loneliness, desire and trust. The men enact private rituals which become disturbing in their familiarity. When does the ordinary become extraordinary? Their actions push the boundary of naturalism to the extreme, the space becomes a landscape of loneliness where "nature makes no provision for emotional death" and men are left to resurrect their own lives.
Wild, cruisy sex, that staple of gay male identity, is not what it used to be. The added bonus issue of mortality has made it quirkier, riskier, and more enticingly forbidden. Its inherent dysfunction, however, has never seemed steamier than in this homoerotic, salaciously arty Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men. In this British television version of a dance/performance piece by the London-based DV8 Physical Theatre, anonymous sex is sweat-soaked, serious business with arousing, if somber, consequences. But, like the real thing, getting there is too delicious to do without.
Filmed in starkly lit, anguish- and muscle-enhancing black and white, Dead Dreams looks like a living George Platt Lynes photograph set in a fevered, prison like bar world, pulsating with wordless sexual narratives, twitchy erotic appetites and well-shorn, hunky men. DV8's extremely physical choreography, while at times almost acrobatic, is appropriately rooted in urban sexual realism. Seamlessly woven into the "dance" are universally recognizable cruising rituals, cigarette smoke, boot licking, S&M, jockey short fetishes, and not-so-dry humping.
In the anguished twilight between the meat market of gay clubland and brokenhearted bedsitter land, the fine line between sex and death is all but erased. Harrowing, and bleak, the fierce physical action that has become DV8's trademark is nevertheless shaped into a forceful plea for humanity in a dehumanizing world.
Easily transcending the stigmas of both dance and television with its use of angst-ridden sexual truth, Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men ultimately posits an unlikely, white hot link between performance art and performance anxiety.
Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men is punctuated by 10 "pieces".
01. "I feel love" 02. "Blind" 03. "The Pedestal" 04. "I just want to be with you -- Alone" 05. "Drum and Dance" 06. "Falling down" 07. "Knock over" 08. "Resuscitation" 09. "Bell chimes" 10. "Stay awhile"
. FILM CLIP: 'Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men' ~ 'Drum and Dance'
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. A Raw and Gifted Ensemble Is Guided by the Talent of Director & Writer Tadeo Garcia . . A Voice to Hear . . . . A Talent to Applaud!
Movie audiences are turning more serious attention to small Independent films for quality and meaning in story and in style and in brave confrontation with issues outside the perimeter of the Hollywood style films. . An excellent example is this remarkable film by Tadeo Garcia whose first year in film school produced the outline of this little gem of a movie and whose courageous 'first film' gained the respect of screenwriter Roger B. Domain who helped him transfer the skeletal story into a full length film "On The Downlow', all on a budget of $8,000.! . From the opening scenes we can sense that we are watching a love story, but it is a story of forbidden love: Angel (Michael Cortez) is escaping his Chicago street gang with the help of Isaac (Tony Sancho) and the two warmly human, supportive, sensitive young men flee to the territory of Isaac's low neighborhood where Angel, in order to be with his secret lover Isaac gives up his allegiance to his former gang and pledges to Isaac's gang. The rasty group is led by Reaper (Donato Cruz). Director Garcia reveals to us very gradually that Angel and Isaac are lovers. The union is suddenly shown physically in a surprising and prolonged passionate kiss and lovers embrace in an open night alley, an event which will trigger the force of destiny.
Discovering his gun Isaac's religious mother emotionally pleads with him not to carry the gun, avoid gang alliance and to repent his "ways". By contrast Angel's mother perceptively and lovingly acknowledges and accepts her sons' sexuality if it means his happiness. But life is as it is on the streets of south side Chicago and Angel is accepted into Isaac's gang after first having to undergo the cruel initiation beating that accompanies his joining. Reaper is later informed that Angel is an ex-gang member of the rival gang and Isaac is the one Reaper determines should kill the intruding and offending Angel. Issac desperately tries to arrange for the two lovers to escape Chicago but the inevitable happens and the ending is tragic but with undertones that are subtly captured by director Garcia's eye, mind, camera, and heart: the final confrontation scene ends with our enabled view of evidence that other members of the gang share the same 'on the downlow' as Angel and Isaac.
Michael Cortez and Tony Sancho completely embrace their dichotomous roles with sensitivity and professionalism and effectively animate their respective characters. The entire cast is filled with raw yet gifted talent: Beatriz Jamaica as Angel's mother and Carmen Cenko as Isaac's mother, Donato Cruz as Reaper, Adelina Quinones (a terrific screen presence) as Laura, Felipe Camacho as the Priest, and all the young men who convincingly bring the gang members to life.
Yes, there are evidences of low budget constraints, but the overwhelming success of the story of two young men in love against the backdrop of the hopelessness of gang violence and crime is brilliant evidence that director, writer Tadeo Garcia is a gifted talent to watch.
FILM INFORMATION: 'On The Downlow' . Web: Additional Cast, Details and Bios at IMDb Director: Tadeo Garcia Writers:Roger B. Domian (writer) & Tadeo Garcia (writer) Cast, Crew, & Credits: Full Cast, Crew & Credits Genre: Drama Awards: Numerous US and International awards Runtime: 90 min Spoken Language: English . . FILM CLIP: 'On The Downlow'
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Matthew Swan's script establishes a shadowy world on the fringes of what we call "society," and tells, in a simple but compelling manner, the story of how a particular set of circumstances impacts the lives of a half-dozen of its inhabitants.
Ian McCrudden's direction is spare in style and rich in character development, and the rough-edged production design and cinematography suit the story perfectly.
Most movies that deal with this topic have characters that come off as homophobic straight boys or stereotypically gay, but the character of Bobby is different and this credit goes in part to the young actor and the director/script for giving him a likable disposition and circumstances that traps him into the lifestyle. The characters are complex and credible, as are the top-notch performances of all those portraying them, from the central roles of hustler Bobby played by Alex Feldman and the mysterious Mr. Smith played by Larry Pine to the supporting roles of Shiela played by Jodie Baker and Abe played by J.D.Williams. A great job in showing that no one is either pure innocent or pure evil when you're dealing with prostitution and the resulting lifestyle. FILM INFORMATION: 'Mr. Smith Gets A Hustler'
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. "Raw, Intense, Innovative and Unflinchingly honest . ."
'The Hanging Garden' is a powerful drama of an urbane gay man returning to the provinces to confront the ghosts of his troubled youth and veers wildly between harrowing kitchen-sink realism and surreal fantasy with enough bizarre touches (including the naming of its characters after various herbs and flowers) that this version of the prodigal son parable reinvents the formula.
The film probes the duality of life and death and the way seemingly very different choices in life can lead to similar outcomes while examining incest, parental abuse, suicide, hetero/bi/homo-sexuality, alcoholism, prostitution and the enabling power to keep it all going by not discussing it!
This impressive first feature for Thom Fitzgerald was the 1997 Canadian Film Winner at Toronto. It is one very tight script and one imaginative and raw look at family dynamics with an innovative piece of story telling that blends past and present with incredible ease and expertise.
One unsettling message conveyed by the Canadian film is that no matter how drastically you may overhaul your physical image, beneath your bright and shiny new shell, a wounded, frightened child still lurks. All you have to do to find him is go home again. As the movie skips around in time and shows its grown-up characters observing their younger selves, it suggests that as we grow up we become like redwood trees: all the layers of our lives down to our very cores exist at the same time.
When the film's main character, Sweet William (Chris Leavins), visits his Nova Scotia family for the first time in 10 years, this formerly obese teen-ager is so svelte as to be hardly recognizable. No sooner has he returned for the wedding of his older sister Rosemary (Kerry Fox) than he begins seeing younger versions of himself, including the suicidally inclined 350-pound teenager (played with a sullen poker-faced dignity by Troy Veinotte) that he used to be.
The home to which William returns is a rats' nest of bitterness, illness and domestic violence and the wedding itself a chaotic, drunken affair. The bride, on her way to the ceremony, mutters a stream of angry curses. After the wedding, the groom (Joel S. Keller) on whom the teen-age William had a serious crush, makes a pass at the man who once adored him.
''The Hanging Garden'' is powerfully acted. The wedding is staged as a black comic farce and other scenes drift in a fantasy like the scene in which the teen-age William hangs himself in the backyard. There are many moments when the lines between fantasy and realism, between farce and drama are sublimely hazy.
''The Hanging Garden'' suggests that what's called the bosom of the family is rarely a soft and comforting home in which to nestle. It's much more likely to be a bitter cul de sac in which the best defense is a timely escape. FILM INFORMATION: 'The Hanging Garden'
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. "Unrequited love . . . and who ain't been there! . ."
The poor sound and lighting quality often inherent to low budget Indie's and the tedious plot set up have you just about to reach for the stop button when all of a sudden those low budget flaws become minor distractions when the story suddenly grips you and keeps you involved to the very last frame. And what a compelling story it is. Unrequited love and who ain't been there!
In small-town America, Troy (Lee Rumohr) and Merrick's (Matt Austin) sexual relationship functions on the premise that "as long as we don't kiss, we're not gay." But Troy, having come to terms with his homosexuality, finally realizes he needs more than just sex with Merrick - he needs the intimacy and emotional connection of a mature, honest relationship, a relationship symbolized by the ever elusive kiss.
A more apt name for this film would be 'Denial' for that is the emotional state of Merrick as well as Troy's fellow-jock Fowler, who, in a late night chance encounter with Troy in the school yard waxes with innuendo that he has had a long-term infatuation with Troy then flees in terror after realizing the scope of his revelation when Troy asks whether he feels he might be gay.
Troy, was the high school heart-throb, and has come out of the closet much to the chagrin of his small town circle of friends. Soon after his admittance, Merrick, his life long friend, breaks up with his girlfriend (Sara Kanter), and under the guise of friendship moves into Troys' one bedroom apartment. This new proximity including sharing a bed ignites buried emotions of desire in the two friends, emotions that they can no longer ignore or keep repressed.
A bizarre love triangle ensues, enveloping everyone surrounding Troy. As accusations, late night "sessions", and mixed signals fuel the inferno of self destruction, it becomes very difficult to determine who will survive this downward spiral to end up together, or ultimately be, denied. This was Canadian actor Lee Rumohr's feature film debut. He has since developed a successful career in film, television and voice. His work has included the CBS mini-series "The Hades Factor", as a guest star on WB'S Emmy award winning show "Smallville". He has acted and performed stunt work on "1-800-Missing" with Vivica A. Fox, and had a recurring role on Show Time's "Queer As Folk" as Troy. Lee also made a guest star appearance on "Mutant X" as Lucian, directed by one of his favorite directors, the award winner Stacey S. Curtis and Disney's show "The Famous Jett Jackson". FILM INFORMATION: 'Denied'
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Bravo to the students of USC for this incredibly well done 5 minute short !
The Hustle . . Naivete . . Confusion . .
" Teenage Derik escapes his town for LA in search of something. Lost in the city maze and seduced by a hustler . . . he finds himself"
This was an original short film project at USC (University of Southern California), which required student partners to creatively collaborate in making a non-dialogue short film at exactly 5:30 or under. In order to preserve the spontaneity of the moment essential to this story, the two leads were kept from meeting or rehearsing together until the camera was rolling.
In L.A., Derik discovers the open city lifestyle along with its dark underside. When a hustler seduces Derik, he gets fleeced. But when the pimp blows their cover, Derik desperately searches for his wallet, finds it, and escapes their web. He jumps onto a subway, and discovers that the hustler spared him his cash: he remembers the passionate kiss. Derik returns home with a clearer understanding of his own feelings and the self-confidence of a stronger individual.
FILM INFORMATION: 'Dirty Love'
Director: Michael Tringe Genre: Short | Drama Runtime: 6 min Spoken Language: English
"Sex, drugs & punk rock. Add violence & time travel & you have . . . . Jubilee"
Derek Jarman's 'Jubilee' (1978) is a wildly beautiful film which strikes a precarious, and compelling, balance between sheer anarchy and genuine tenderness. Jubilee begins when Queen Elizabeth I (played with quiet power by Jenny Runacre, who also portrays Bod) has her court alchemist, the historical John Dee, summon Ariel. The sloe-eyed spirit with huge hands (whom Jarman describes as having "a glitter punk scintilla") transports all of them 400 years into the future – just beyond our own time – to a dystopic London, which has become a literal wasteland, overrun with violence and decay.
Let Jarman summarize Jubilee for you in his own words: "Law and order has finally been abolished and do-your-own-thing is the order of the day. The church is a strip club [and Buckingham Palace a recording studio].... Open war between all factions of society. A gang of bike girls centered at H.Q. in Southwark, rape and kill all adversaries, led by the Queen of Punk, Bod [Bodicea].... The music of groups like The Slits, Sex Pistols plays incessantly to rapturous reception. The film is anarchic and very beautiful." "Leave the guy alone, he's better than a vibrator and he's bigger" The film has misleadingly been called a "Punk movie." It is much more than that, although the then-nascent movement informs the film in many ways, from music to casting to tone. Punk's heyday was 1975–80, with its two key albums – The Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks and The Clash's The Clash – both appearing in 1977, the year Jubilee was filmed (coinciding with Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee). Punk provided a clarion voice for alienated teenagers in its mix of hard-driving rock, socially aware but simple lyrics – that crystallized the mood of anger, powerlessness, and rebellion in the face of a severe economic recession – and a confrontational style which extended from the songs to the fashions of its devotees. 'Jubilee' provides a virtual catalog of the Punk Look, from Mad's (Toyah Willcox in a stunning performance) close-cropped hair dyed Day-Glo orange to angsty graffiti which covers almost every wall to the scrawled quotation from 'Psycho' which ends "...wouldn't even harm a fly" which fills the back of the jackets worn by the female biker gang. You may recall Hitchcock's final scene, when the strait-jacketed Norman Bates, "possessed" by his dead mother, tells us how harmless he now is, yeah, right. Even a small detail like this resonates, since the tangled connection between gender identity and violence is one of Jarman's key themes. "Most people would hang up the phone, she's hanging on for dear life." Jarman's brilliance as an artist allows him to meld all of these eclectic sources, and more (including his two wildly diverse stated sources: Punk fan magazines of the day and Frances A. Yates's The Art of Memory (1966), a classic study of how people learned to retain vast stores of knowledge before the invention of the printed page), into a film of consummate originality and power. He also brings beauty and emotional resonance to the film through his characters. He creates a resonance with these eccentric, and sometimes lethal, allegorical people. Jarman is well-known for including friends and lovers in his films. Not only does this provide a cost-effective approach to casting, it also brings a deeply personal connection to his films. Jarman not only published his autobiography in book form, throughout his life he also shot hundreds of hours of Super 8 footage. Some of those "home movies" found their way into his feature films, including the surreal "Jordan's Dance" and Jarman also re-edited and incorporated into Jubilee "Amyl's Dance,".
"I just love a man without its uniform."
Despite its Punk trappings, ultimately the film seems more about Punk than of it. How Jarman uses then-rising star Adam Ant reveals much about the film and filmmaker. When Crabs meets, and instantly tries to pick up, Kid (Adam Ant's character), she coos that he is "gorgeous." With his sweetly boyish persona – made just a bit wild by the black leather and painted-on lower sideburns – it is no wonder that Jarman, as reported by a friend on the DVD's documentary, fell "madly in love with him." But how Jarman uses Kid in the film may reveal at least as much about his sociopolitical insights as his romantic frustration. When Kid is asked what he does, he replies, "Nothing... Music." And throughout he is as passive offstage as he is frenzied onstage. His performance with his group, Adam and the Ants, is one of only two or three full musical numbers in the film; and it strikingly reveals Jarman's gifts as one of the originators of music videos.
But Kid is unable to connect with anyone, including Crabs. He seems content to lie on his stomach while Crabs pulls his t-shirt up and strokes his back, and that only because she has promised to introduce him to Borgia Ginz (played by "Orlando," aka Jack Birkett), the mogul who controls the entire world's media and hence political, and even religious, power structure. (Ginz shares a palatial mansion in Dorset with an aged Adolf Hitler.) Ginz is, of course, taken with Kid and signs him, immediately rechristening him "Scum." Claiming that's commercial. It's all they [the audience] deserve."
"It's like pornography; better than the real thing."
In the "triangle" between the two teasingly incestuous brothers, Sphinx and Angel (who utters the classic line, "I didn't know I was dead till I was fifteen."), and the artist Viv there was real connection and tenderness between all three of them, despite what many people would consider the highly "problematic" nature of their relationship. The brothers read as a gay couple and Jarman describes Viv as a "butch dyke." Yet they go to bed together; although the morning after Sphinx and Angel again seem more interested in each other than in Viv. What makes their relationship so poignant is that Jarman then goes on to show us their day together, which is the most genial sequence in the film. They also introduce us to the most hilarious character, Max – the Bingo king and former pimp, who now has a huge garden entirely of artificial flowers. (Max is played to the hilt by Neil Kennedy, who was a comparable character with the same name in Jarman's previous film, 'Sebastiane'.) You will not soon forget what happens when Max, horrified, spots a caterpillar on one of his plastic plants.
"Scum. That's commercial. It's all they [the audience] deserve."
Perhaps the most haunting, and disturbing, image of Kid is the close-up of Kid kissing his own image on TV and a moment later, he licks the screen lasciviously with his tongue, giving a decidedly postmodern twist to the myth of Narcissus. And on still another level, Jarman was showing his foresight into Punk's future. Just a few years after the release of Jubilee, as the filmmaker wrote in his memoir Dancing Ledge, "the film turned prophetic.... the streets burned in Brixton and Tosteth. Adam [Ant] was on Top of the Pops and signed up with Margaret Thatcher to sing at the Falklands Ball." Jarman concluded the passage by repeating the chilling words he gave Borgia Ginz at the end of 'Jubilee': "They all sign up in one way or another." " . . and cries and cries, clutching herself, rolling . . " The film's most overwhelming moment comes from an unlikely source: Mad. At one point, she and Amyl go off on a vendetta against two of the fascistic police officers. They find one, alone, taking a pee. Mad whips out her knife, as she and Amyl jump him, wrestle him to the ground, kicking and screaming. Then Mad, in a frenzy, castrates him. Although this is not Jubilee's only scene of "ultra violence," the result is unprecedented. Mad breaks down – the only time any character does this in the film – and cries and cries, clutching herself, rolling. Shockingly, this moment feels absolutely real. Significantly for the film, as actress Toyah Willcox (Mad) notes in the documentary on the DVD, Jarman shot a huge amount of film for this project. But this was the only instance where he included the "extended" footage. By implication, Jarman forces us to confront the full human toll taken by life in a completely anarchic world, without any order or social restraint. Although much of the film has depicted an ebullient, even enticing, picture of life in this near-future wasteland, this scene stops us cold. It forces us to reconsider the price of absolute "freedom" – and the deeply complex connections between anarchy and beauty – even as it humanizes the most dehumanized character in the film. It's an extraordinary, raw, literally visceral scene, and one which most will not soon forget.
No one can live in such a world, even in its ultimately commercialized form as 1970s Punk, with mass-produced albums and Punk boutiques. But Jarman ends his film on a much more subtly problematic note. In a hauntingly beautiful coda, we see our Elizabethan time travelers back in their own "Golden Age," as they walk along a placidly beautiful sea coast. But Elizabeth longs for a still earlier, and more pure, time, when she asks, "Oh, John Dee, do you remember those days? The whispered secrets at Oxford, like the sweet sea breeze? Codes and counter-codes." The 'doubleness' of her "codes" remark reminds us of the complexity of her reign: Does Jarman expect us not to know about the Machiavellian (or Borgian) intrigues, and murders, which marked the historical Elizabeth's court? As Mad remarks near the film's beginning, "There are no heroes." – yet Jarman acknowledges how we long for them, for a leader like Elizabeth, whom he describes (in his notes on Jubilee) as "The Virgin Queen, distant yet sympathetic, the paradigm of royalty." And what about John Dee, with his multiple nature, as another possible "hero"? He was a man half in the superstitious past (as an alchemist and magician) and half in the modern world (as one of the first scientists). The film nicely, and again - ironically, circles in on itself. Happiness is swept away with hope to be replaced by despair, all at the doing of the punks who are only acting out of what they feel is justice. Self destruction reigns supreme. Again, Jarman gives us no clear, or simple guides for our own lives. ~ J. Clark FILM INFORMATION: 'Jubilee'
Method 1.) File Self Extraction. (For PC) Download files into the same folder. then click on the 'xxxx.part01.exe' file and the film will self extract. (For Mac) You will need a Command Line Archiver like Rar for Mac OS X'
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Wild, cruisy sex, that staple of gay male identity, is not what it used to be. The added bonus issue of mortality has made it quirkier, riskier, and more enticingly forbidden. Its inherent dysfunction, however, has never seemed steamier than in this homoerotic, salaciously arty Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men. In this British television version of a dance/performance piece by the London-based DV8 Physical Theatre, anonymous sex is sweat-soaked, serious business with arousing, if somber, consequences. But, like the real thing, getting there is too delicious to do without.
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