SOV FOREVER: Lovely Jon’s Top 10 Shot on Video Classics
To celebrate our releases of Bill Gunn’s unique 1980 shot-on-video outsider drama Personal Problems and Stillz’s thrillingly shot-on-Betacam debut Barrio Triste, we asked good friend of the show, Lovely Jon to select 10 favourites from the format’s rich, unruly history - an ever-evolving medium shaped by personal vision, experimentation and creative freedom.
Buy the limited edition Barrio Triste VHS
1. Dick and Jane Drop Acid and Die (1991/Director Matt Mitler)
Improvised and shot in a single day by New York enfant terrible collective Surf Reality, this micro budget wonder aping old school public information ‘drug scare’ films could only have been spawned from the underground creative Lower East Side maniacal personnel who had been moonlighting on Troma classics such as certifiable midnight movie video hit Class of Nuke ‘Em High.
It all ends death trip style at a wild happening soundtracked by baked psych punkers A Thousand Tiny Fingers. One of the ultimate new wave pre-Giuliani punk SOV’s - when the legendary Kims video emporiums were at their peak alongside Michael Weldon’s left field counterculture movie bible Psychotronic.
2. The Ibiza Connection (1984/Director Howard Arundel)
An absolute car crash maybe but somewhere amongst the improvised/hung over performances, nonsensical plotting and driftwood pacing something truly magical resonates here.
Put into production by the legendary Cliff ‘GBH’ Twemlow (Manchester’s finest shot on video all-round everyman DIY film icon) - the aim was to produce a micro budget ‘big idea’ glamorous Fellini-esque movie within a movie set in the exotic environs of Ibiza featuring the great Fiona Fullerton (just off filming Roger’s last Bond stand A View To A Kill). However, residing at the debauched Pikes Hotel (infamous celeb hang out and drug palace) turned the production into one big 24-hour sex and coke party resulting in one of Twemlow’s most bizarre endeavors. Approach with no sense of time or meaning and be enveloped by Twemlow’s majestically odd, personalized vision...
3. The Starlost (1973/1974 Director Joseph L Scanlon)
Originally a sprawling 16-episode sci-fi series featuring Kier Dullea (2001’s intellectualized spaceman Dave Bowman), mind-blowing FX from Blade Runner ace Douglas Trumbull alongside proto techno synthetics from Blue Thunder composer Arthur B. Rubinstein, this tripped out shot on video show telling the well-worn trope of a trapped crew inside ‘a set to destruct’ gargantuan space craft was edited down into an equally marathon 3 hour plus epic.
Notably screened in the mid-80s on late night UK television for stoned insomniacs – Starlost’s truly eye-popping visual patina was a welcome trans-missionary diversion amongst all those sleep-inducing yoga programmes that usually filled the post midnight hour schedules.
Check those arresting, impressive sets for starters (including jaw dropping banks of numerical counters – epileptically counting down to the ship’s doomsday – proper smokers paradise visuality for the wee hours).
4. Specter’s Rock (2002/Director Josh Eisenstadt)
Arresting dream state shenanigans from Lynchian disciple Eisenstadt (completed in 2002 but remaining unreleased until this year) featuring a mind melting 2 and a half hour running time, uncredited Michael J. Anderson (Twin Peaks’ iconic backwards moving ‘Man From Another Place’) and enough polarizing hallucinatory state of unconscious imagery to put you in perpetual trance.
Heavily indebted to Montana’s finest it maybe – but this visionary day glo subconscious murder mystery comedy excels in its shot on video weirdness and is a perfect example of mastering SOV’s artistically ‘freeing’ format.
5. Holy Moly (1991/Director Lance Ozanix)
Talking of ‘no rule’ creative freedoms – here's another weird-out late-night SOV gem created and produced by genuine maniacs whose dial to 11 aspirational zeitgeist genuinely clears the floor here.
Director (and frontman for speed punk metallers Skitzo), Ozanix is a tormented priest deep in the possessive grip of malarious demon Vile Lynn – summoning the hapless holy man into a crazed murder frenzy.
Only 30 mins long (41 if you count the extended director's cut) - this one has it all - erratic video glitches, wild prosthetic make up, on camera fubs, plentiful gore and Ozanix’s trademark skill of throwing up on cue.
6. Throbbing Gristle – Live at Oundle School (1980 / ‘Director’ - Stan Bingo)
Recorded in front of a traumatized/boisterous live audience (encompassing school pupils aged 8-18) - this unique live document of the Industrial movement's greatest giants formidably sums up the ‘you are there’ power of SOV productions.
Shot single camera style by TG roadie Stan Bingo and later re-edited with the bands usual visual over dubs (we see the bands cultural anti-hero William S. Boroughs super imposed over the gig) - this is perhaps one of the greatest DIY statements from the Civilized Wreckers that audio visually seeps true forbidden menace (just listen to those kids shouts and screams post gig). A genuine ‘punk’ happening.....
7. The Last Angel of History (1996/Director - John Akomfrah)
Black Audio Film collective co-founder Akomfrah explores the genesis and zeitgeist of ‘Afrofuturism’ via epilepticus edits alongside on-screen interviews with iconic space cadet luminaries such as George Clinton, Juan ‘Model 500’ Atkins and Star Trek’s Nichelle Nichols.
Meanwhile, writer Edward George is the Gibsonian ‘Data Thief’ - travelling across stars and time to unlock the cyberpunk aesthetics of black ‘futurepast’ culture to find his own personalized ‘endgame’.
A fascinating docu/essay/dream state – part meditation part analytical exploration, riffing heavily on the concepts of otherworldly jazz supremo Sun Ra alongside radical black rights broadcaster Darcus Howe.
Even after 30 years from its initial Channel 4 broadcast – students, academics and ravers alike continue to untangle and debate Last Angel’s magical thought-provoking spell...
8. Trash Humpers (2009/Director Harmony Korine)
Given the ‘cinematic limitations’ of shooting on video – it's no wonder that filmmakers utilize this ‘raw form’ application as a ‘punk’ tool. And this punked out statement is brutalized by one of the greatest enfant terrible of them all – Harmony Korine (no stranger to pulverizing all those cultural and societal taboo’s - what would you expect from the co-writer of Larry Clark’s still worrying tome to teenage nihilism Kids).
Here – armed with his weapons of choice (shaky ‘you are there’ camcorder and 2 VHS machines for editing) - Korine and wife Rachel (in creeped out pensioner masks) - scour the scum streets of Nashville looking for sick kicks and beyond. Approach with due caution...
9. The McPherson Tape (1989/Director Dean Alioto)
Pre-dating iconic trailblazer The Blair Witch Project by a good decade, this micro budget eerie 'found footage' alien invasion mockumentary certainly provides those ‘you are there’ creeped out vibes.
As a typical homegrown family celebrates their 5-year-old daughter’s birthday (shot by the little girls' sibling) - the familial unit is stalked by menacing extra-terrestrials hiding in the darkness. At a clipped 63 mins, this is perfect 2am winter night viewing – guaranteed to send you off with a genuine chill.
10. Hawk Jones (1986/Director Richard Lowry)
Never underestimate the power of DIY technology epitomized by a bunch of obsessed 8-12 year olds. Director Lowry’s affectionate all kids cast homage to 80s action giants and 40s noir is an absolute blast (check those comic strip inspired animated gun blasts!).
Badass lollipop obsessed Jones (Valient Duhart – riffing on that John Shaft ‘cool look rain mack style’) is out to get cigar chomping gangland boss Antonio Copolla at all costs whilst protecting his girl Lola from punk rock style heavy The Destroyer.
It all ends with a Rambo kick ass finale with Jones decked out in typical Stallone business as he wipes out the bad guys. Resolutely oddball and leftfield, this is mini micro budget SOV wonderment at its most nostalgically affectionate.
HONOURABLE MENTION
Ghost of Asia (2005/Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul & Christelle Lheureux)
Best known for his award winning ‘circle of life’ fantastical drama Uncle Bonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, this melancholic, eerie art project (shot on video alongside the director's spiritual nature musical Worldly Desires), spotlights three playful children giving orders to an adult ghost along the beautiful Mekong coastline.
Endlessly inventive and mournful (a tribute to all those who lost their lives in the catastrophic 2004 Tsunami), Weerasethakul and fellow co-director Lheureux utilize their video camera in beautiful melancholic paths – soaking up those gorgeous beaches whilst mesmerizing synth patterns short wave the ghostly soundtrack.