THE BEST OF THE DRUID UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL
THE DRUID UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL
Musical Guest:
RUMSPRINGA
SATURDAY JUNE 26
9PM sharp
FREE 3D GLASSES
Adults Only!
$10
SHOW CAVE
3501 Eagle Rock Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
90065
The Druid Underground Film Festival acts as a traveling clearinghouse
for the most bizarre and provocative short films on earth. Four years
and 35 screenings later, DUFF is still going strong, going weird and
forging into ever deeper morasses of shocking creativity.
HERE IS THE LINE UP:
3D SHORT FILMS
Aj Gannon
CLOWN TOWN
Michael Park
TREEVENGE
Jason Eisener
CRISPY
Darren Herczeg
TELL-A-VISION
Dave Kidd
VISIONS OF TERROR
Rodney Ascher
HAUNTED HEART
Winona Regan
HANK COCKPIT STORY
John Henry Haseltine
STUMP: A YAHI STORY
Richard Roth
RIDE SHARE
Dave Kidd
burgessministry.com
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DRUID UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL HORROR EDITION AND TALENT SHOW!!!
Doors at 8:30
Show at 9 pm
$5 ONLY!!!
After 30 screenings on the West Coast, the 3 year anniversary of the DRUID UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL has arrived on Humboldt County soil. Shocks, Thrills, Mystery Prizes and a Freaky Intermission Talent Show destined to BLOW YOUR SOCKS OFF!!!
FILM FEST:
We need your loudest, craziest, most demented shorts ASAP to join curator William Burgess’ rapidly growing assault of laughing,
screaming brew haha.
TALENT SHOW:
Please Submit your wacky, weird (non fire, non sharp thing related) talents and become a part of the Druid HALFTIME FREAKSHOW!!! Send your contact information, including name, phone and bizarre talent.
PRIZES!!!
FILM FEST:
1st Place= $25 ATL Card PLUS: Epic Battle Record Collection: 6 Holy Albums vs. 6 Evil hair metal discs engage in the most ultimate duel of all time on your record player!!!
2nd Place= $25 La Dolce Video Gift Certificate!!!
3rd Place= $10 Pacific Paradise Gift Certificate!!!
TALENT SHOW:
1st Place= $25 ATL Card PLUS: Lifetime Supply of (10) SELF HELP BOOKS!!! Designed to un-dement the most fiendish of freaks!!!
2nd Place= $10 Pacific Paradise Gift Certificate!!!
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: OCT. 25
Please send your TALENT SHOW SUBMISSION OR DVD movies (non returnable) to:
The Druid Underground Film Festival
c/o The Arcata Theatre Lounge
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BURGESS HOSTS A HARD BOILED KUNG-FU DOUBLE FEATURE!!!
The Street Fighter & Return Of The Street Fighter Double Feature
Doors 7:30 pm
Saturday Sept. 12
The Street Fighter screens at 8:00 PM
The Street Fighter Returns screens at 9:45
18 and over
“If you’ve got to fight…fight dirty!”
Sonny Chiba flips, kicks, rips and generally whips ass all over the place in this hardcore Fu-Fest chopped up and served raw to the gentle folks of Humboldt County by underground film director William Burgess.
The Street Fighter was the first film released in the US to be given an X rating for violence.
arcatatheater.com
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BURGESS HOSTS THE VERY FIRST ARCATA THEATER FILM SLAM!
Sep 24
Doors 8pm
Slam begins at 9
$3 Adults Only
Hosted by underground filmmaker William Burgess
Get ready for a night of cheap and rowdy fun at the ATL!!!
Got a short, music video, crazy found clip, or hella outrageous
moment? ENTER Arcata Theater’s funny, freaky, fast-paced FILM SLAM!!!
Films will be judged by AUDIENCE REACTION- if the folks boo your flick
we stop it and YOU GOT SLAMMED!!!
PRIZES:
Prizes for winning films (LEAST SLAMMED):
1st prize - $100 Arcata Theatre Lounge gift certificate
2nd prize - $25 gift certificate to La Dolce Video
3rd prize is a MYSTERY PRIZES designed to plunge you into a
Swirling Vortex of Wondrous Delight!!!
SUBMISSION RULES:
Must submit DVD with name and contact.
One submission only- running time not to exceed 5 minutes.
No racism, overt violence and gore.
We reserve the right to stop the movie if deemed offensive, heinous or
downright BORING!!!
DVD’s must be received NO LATER THAN Monday, September 21
Arcata Theatre Lounge
1036 G St.
Arcata, CA 95521
arcatatheater.com
CALLING ALL WEIRD SHORTS!!!
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Start Time:
Saturday, August 1st
10:00pm ’til Midnight
Location:
SKYLIGHT BOOKS
1818 N Vermont Ave
Los Angeles, CA
Phone:
3236601175
FREE SHOW!!!
2 Hours of the weirdest, most wonderful short films from around the world!!!
20 shorts designed to blow your mind!!!
The friendly folks at Skylight Books have invited me to host a special revival screening of the BEST OF THE DRUID UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL.
Stay tuned as we have a summer full of special surprise events lined up (with new program screenings underfoot)!!!
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PAST SHOWS:
THE BEST OF SHOW 2008:
DATES & VENUES:
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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
AUGUST 5: ECHO PARK FILM CENTER 8PM
AUGUST 10: MANDRAKE BAR 9PM
AUGUST 17: ECHO CURIO 9PM
AUGUST 18: PEHRSPACE 930PM
AUGUST 24: MOUNTAIN BAR 8PM
AUGUST 27: 7 DUDLEY CINEMA 8PM
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The Humboldt Tour of the “BEST OF DUFF” transcended all expectations. Folks literally came out of the woodwork for this amazing fest.
Thanks to The Accident Gallery and The Ink People, Placebo.
Mom’s Chocolate Chip Cookies! Only 50 Cents!!!
HERE IS THE “BEST OF” LINE UP:
SKATEBANG
Damon Packard
STEVE IRWIN SONG
Christian Cummings and Lee Lynch
REFLECTIONS OF TERROR AT 5
Cara Elizabeth
JIMMY JEINSEITS
Romeo Grunfelder
DECORATION AND YOU
Trulee Grace Hall
BUG SHOW
Aimee Goguen and Kyle Haefs
LET’S MEAT
Ben Cuevas
I LIVE IN THE WOODS
Max Winston
I’M A BIG GIRL NOW
Margie Schibbe
APRIL’S FOOL
Moises Jimenez
KABIR SONG
Anal Shah
DIGITOPIA
Miwa Matreyek
KEEP-A-KNOCKIN’
JSDB
HALLOWEEN THRILLER
Timothy Dwelle
TV SABOTAGE
Kid Mankowitz
BUFFY DREAMS
John Allee
SON OF SATAN
JJ Villard
HORS-HUMAIN
Yann Minh
FANTASYCORE
Tasman Richardson
FREEDOM FOREVER
William Burgess
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Yann Minh: “Hors-Humain”
Lee Lynch: “The Bee Hive”
V-Atak: “Tsui Atak”
John Allee: “Satanic Reflections”
Max Winston: “Dry Leaf Commercial”
Anon: “It’s Motherfuckin’ Ramadan Charlie Brown!”
Ramzi Abed: “Stained”
Patricia Cunliffe: “Into the Fire”
Kathleen: “Shoe Freak”
Eoin Ryan: “Demon”
Miwa Matreyek: “Grater City”
Aimee Goguen: “Hero”
Dominic Shaw: “Stretch”
Dagie Brundert: “The Cool Bar at the Klondyke River”
La Fraction (France)
Brainhandle (Pennsylvania)
Sin Remedio
Bruise Violet
Pics by Robert at oldhcdude.com
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APRIL EXHIBITION:
JJ Villard: “Son of Satan”
Jon Olsen: “Empty Alcohol Bottle”
V-Atak: “Chicken Rocks”
BC Furtney: “Disposer”
Max Winston: “Luigi’s Burden”
Damon Packard “Armz and Reflections of Evil” Montage
Kid Mankowitz: “TV Sabotage”
John Allee: “Buffy Dreams”
Javier Prato: “Jesus Will Survive”
Craig Mcintyre: “Nutcase”
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DOUBLE FEATURE EXPLOSION!!!
Here is Director Kevin Booth during the Q&A with a lively audience:
Rock and Strangeness was had when Tin Horn Justice took the stage!
THE LAST WHITE HOPE is Director Kevin Booth’s critical and epic tour of America’s War on Drugs. The Last White Hope connects the dots to a lot of mind-blowing material which, in essence, exposes the very root of America’s racist, bloated hypocracy. This documentary feature has won best documentary in several film fests and The Druid Underground Film Festival is proud to honor it with a screening.
In NINJA BACHELOR PARTY, Bill Hicks plays a Korean Karate master who leads a Karate obsessed robitussin addict deep into weird Karate Ninja weirdness. It’s just goddamn awesome.
Half of All proceeds donated to The Bill Hicks Foundation For Wild Life.
Our monthly Free Raffle was a success thanks to generous donations from Sacred Cow Productions and The Echo Park Film Center! Thanks guys, you ROCK!
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THE LONG AWAITED DOCUMENTARY SCREENING OF THE NEW YEAR!
+ Special Guests + Prizes + FREE Booze +
Very Special Thanks to our sponsors who donated generously to our RAFFLE!
Echo Park Film Center
Skylight Books
Y-Que
Against impossible odds, a new film program roars into its fourth month!
This month’s long awaited installment of the Druid Underground Film Festival is focused on the art of the documentary. With formats that vary wildly from heartbreaking video diary (Lee’s “Untitled Letter”) to playful 16mm character sketch (Wilson’s “Mercy Me”), we’ve assembled a program, which at times seems at the brink of disaster. As an audience member, you will be privy to rare reservoirs of emotion. Chaos swells with ease somewhere just outside the quiver of the frame, yet these filmmakers boldly forge a depth of clarity which cinema rarely dares to penetrate. Documentary filmmaker Jem Cohen (“Lost Book Found”) viewed a portion of this program and deemed it “A construction of genius”.
Sunday February 11th
THE DRUID UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL
Documentary Exhibition
930PM
FEBRUARY EXHIBITION:
Anal Shah: “Kabir Song” 5 min.
Michelle Young Lee: “Untitled Letter” 7.5 min.
Cy Kuckenbaker: “The Potato Eater” 22 min.
Sean Wilson: “Mercy Me” 9.5 min.
William Burgess: “A Portrait Miniature of Nitai Cook” 4.5 min.
David Fenster: “Wood” 22 min.
Timothy Dwelle: “Halloween Thriller” 2 min.
Damon Packard: “The Great Packard Lincoln Breakdown” 1.5 min.
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DECEMBER 1st 2006
On December 1st ‘06 we put on an amazing Horror Double Feature Presentation of “Murder-Set-Pieces” & “CHAOS”.
Curator William Burgess led a Panel Discussion with both directors, followed by an Intermission performance by Metal Gods “TheCauterized”.
During the screening of both shocking films, all audience members either barfed, evaporated in bloody smoke or died of fright.
Here is the Documentation:
Intermission Performance by “TheCauterized”
The following is a transcription of the Panel Discussion including:
Nick Palumbo, David DeFalco and Stephen Wozniak
Mediated by Curator William Burgess
William Burgess: We’re here at Il Corral with David DeFalco, director of the film “Chaos”, Nick Palumbo who directed “Murder-Set-Pieces” and Stephen Wozniak, who plays “Frankie”, one of the thugs in “Chaos”. Nick why don’t we start with you since we just saw “Murder-Set-Pieces”; can you talk a little about the controversy surrounding the film?
Nick Palumbo: Sure, MSP was the first film ever to be thrown out of the big 3 film labs for excessive violence.
WB: So right away you knew that you were-
WB & NP: in trouble.
NP: Yeah when Technicolor, DuArt and Deluxe all call you up and chew you out, you know you’re in trouble.
WB: And you made the film for about $2,000,000…
NP: $2,200,000
WB: So even with all that money backing you they still threw you out, it was all about the violent content.
NP: They had a problem with the misogyny against women and children and stuff and some people really thought that we were killing people. They called the FBI on us, which enabled us to hit up Variety, Hollywood Reporter and the New York Times. The FBI actually handcuffed me several times and brought me in.
David DeFalco: Did they charge you?
NP: No, well I showed them the footage, I said; ‘Didn’t you see the slate?’ I gotta give a lot of credit to the effects, they really are groundbreaking.
WB: I know you hit a jackpot when your cinematographer presented you with the footage he shot of 9-11. What made you decide to use the footage in your film and how do you think it effects the general narrative.
NP: It was a tough call. It’s about a five and a half minute film. My DP lives in New York and when the first plane hit the world trade center, he loaded up his film camera, went outside and started shooting. He had a lot of nasty footage that I didn’t use, this is all on 35 mm. He’s the only person in the world to shoot this (event) in 35. So it was a tough call but in the movie the main character is having nightmares, which progressively get worse and finally I wanted to show that terrorism is the final breakdown of our society today.
WB: You’ve compared MSP to Maniac (1980) and both films have a nihilistic and blatantly misogynistic feel that we haven’t seen in movies for a long time. Why do you think it’s important to bring those types of images back into cinema?
NP: Even Maniac didn’t go as far as my film, even though the actor, Joe Spinell wanted to. The director, William Lustig wouldn’t let him. It had been 25 years since a movie like this had been made on film. I wanted to have total creative freedom and in terms of horror it had been many years since I’d seen anything worth spending my 10 dollars. I decided that if I wanted to see a real horror film, I was going to have to go out and make it myself, so I did.
WB: I think it’s an excellent, accomplished piece, that’s why it was chosen to screen tonight. Now moving on to Chaos. Mr. DeFalco, the first thing that people find out about the movie if they look it up on the internet is the fight between you and Roger Ebert.
DD: Well it wasn’t a fight because if I was to fight Roger Ebert we all know what the outcome of that would be. But yeah, basically he did the movie the biggest favor he could have done. Everyone thinks that we don’t like the review he wrote but actually I think he wrote a really good review because; number one, if the movie really is the most brutal film of all time, you’re not going to get people reviewing it saying how wonderful it was, if reviewers are really horrified, like he was. He said that the movie worked, that it strongly affected him. He didn’t like the message of the movie, however and he didn’t like how disturbingly realistic and shocking the movie was, I think it really messed him up in that way and we just wrote him back because what we found was odd about his review is that even though he says the film is well made he gives it a ‘zero star’ rating like it was a crappy movie with bad effects, bad acting, bad everything but he gave it a zero star on the basis that it was too well done for what it was and he didn’t like the message of the movie. That’s why we wrote to him, concerning those points. He just so happened to blow it up even further by publishing our letter as well as responding to it in the Chicago Sun Times and that’s why it got all the attention.
WB: He did the same thing 30 years ago when he bombed I Spit on Your Grave (1978) and made a virtually unknown film into the most notorious rape film of the 1970’s. Now he’s dedicating a chapter to you in his new book isn’t he?
DD: Yeah he’s publishing our correspondence and the controversy surrounding the film.
Palumbo: Also his movie was shot on film, which is really rare for a movie of this type now.
DeFalco: Yeah, we had a great DP and our editor was pretty great. We had a budget of about $1,000,000 but I’ve done a lot of movies in the past, some for $2,000,000 like the action films I’ve done. But for an action movie, you can’t compete with the studios. Every action movie we made did really well, we sold them to HBO, sold them all over the world but there’s no way they’re ever going to see a theatrical release. But for just $1,000,000 I started thinking about what I could sell that the studios can’t so I was thinking “The Most Brutal Movie Ever Made”. But now its road blocked everywhere we go because violence at that level isn’t acceptable.
WB: Do you feel like Chaos is your most personal film? I ask because, compared with the action films, this seems more psychically penetrating. Much like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it’s the audio that’s so grueling. I was reviewing the movie in my living room and there was so much screaming, my roommates came out and told me to turn it off or they were moving out!
DeFalco: There was a woman at my house, we were meeting about distribution for another film and she heard the film in the other room and she was so disturbed that she couldn’t sleep that night. To me it is the greatest film I’ve ever done, got lots of reviews, the film was even compared to the Exorcist by one reviewer, which is a huge compliment. The next film is going to go even deeper. If I hadn’t made Chaos, I wouldn’t have been able to learn what I have about real evil. I actually met a real LA coroner who told me about the murders that go on in the city that the press doesn’t tell you about. He even has a theory, which has inspired me to write another script that has the potential to have as much an impact as The Exorcist and The Omen.
WB: It has to do with methamphetamines, right?
DeFalco: It has to do with methamphetamines, which is the “devil’s doorway”.
WB: You obviously take on the persona of the films you make, which seems very intense.
DeFalco: Well it’s funny because until recently I didn’t look anything like I do now. I used to look like a skinny rock and roll guy with long hair five years ago but the dark side has always followed me ever since I was a kid, it was weird I kind of transformed because when I opened that doorway for real, I was exposed to real evil. It had an effect on my life in every way, shape and form.
WB: So when you say you were exposed to real evil, does that imply that you yourself were on methamphetamines?
DeFalco: Um, I had a bad experience but I mean, I wouldn’t look like this if I was on speed. I haven’t been over taken by real evil because if I had been, nobody in this room would be safe because that’s what real evil is all about and it wants to kill and destroy and create mayhem and it is capable of doing it.
WB: So why do this to yourself? If you’re looking thru the doorway, you’re looking at death.
DeFalco: It’s not something you choose. It’s something that comes to you and it does what it wants to you and whatever happens happens but you can’t control it.
WB: So you’re riding the wave.
DeFalco: Yeah, basically. I’ll see where it goes but I have a feeling that unfortunately I could end up having a huge problems because when you open up the devil’s doorway, you open up the doorway to hell and what a better way then to go out in violence anyway, y’know what I mean? I don’t necessarily want to go out that way but it would be my legacy.
WB: Stephen, when you were on the set of “Chaos” did you feel at any time that you were in the presence of pure evil?
Stephen Wozniak: I was just trying to keep it all together in the woods with the freezing cold temperatures. We shot something like 25 days out there near Angela’s Crest.
DeFalco: You could tell that there was a disturbing energy. Especially when the black girl gets killed, we found this little freezing alcove in the woods but there was heat like it was right over the center of hell, the killer had a glow to him, we blocked off the area with little black flags. The crew was very disturbed. People were crying when we were doing these scenes. Before I shot that I never knew what real evil was. I knew what “Hollywood evil” was, y’know but on that shoot I experienced pure evil. I’ll tell you a quick story- Charles Manson was being interviewed once and they had him coming out of the cell and he’s this little guy all sort of hunched over, very unintimidating and the interviewer is thinking ‘This is the guy who’s supposed to be pure evil? He looks like nothing. He’s an old man’ Charles Manson sat down and just looked at the man and the interviewer though he was going to shit himself, it was like looking into the eyes of hell. He was in the presence of pure evil and I believe it exists because of the things that have happened to me in my life. I’m trying to understand what it wants with me. I had a bad experience once with some of my biker friends. I took speed thinking it was cocaine and I had the worst experience of my life I thought I was going to die, have a heart attack. I just closed my eyes and I could see these figures that to me were like demons. They moved, they chattered, they were like fluorescent colored, scared the shit out of me and I could just feel the evil and at the time I didn’t understand it but when I met the LA County Coroner he explained to me his theory on crystal meth being the number one ‘Devil’s Doorway’, I mean that’s how Satan operates. I was at the LA Coroner’s office and I saw what was really happening. If the public knew what was going on there would be a panic. I was privy to this information and that’s what led me to write this new screenplay. I don’t even really want to do another movie it just feels like I’m called to do it. These films fucked my life up. I led a happier life before I started all this. But I believe these films are important because people learn from it.
WB: Well, I think the people who see Chaos tonight will hope that you do continue with your work and don’t go on a sailing trip anytime soon.
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NOVEMBER 1st 2006
NOVEMBER EXHIBITION:
Max Winston: “Dracula Intro”
Trulee Grace: “Decoration and You”
Mocherz Deluxe: “Drunk Shock”
Ben Cuevas: “Let’s Meat”
Jesper Maintz Andersen “Blank”
Pablo Calvillo “Topializ”
Kid Mankowitz “Kid Mankowitz Buys the Phone Company”
Aaron Johnson “Simply White”
Margie Schnibbe “I’m a Big Girl Now”
Miwa Matreyek “Digitopia”
Lobster Repair: “Keep-A-Knockin’”
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OCTOBER 1st 2006
“Sunday night was the first monthly installment of the Druid Underground Film Festival, a program of avant-weird short subjects. A varied gamut ran from the hilarious snot of “Steve Irwin Song” (by Christian Cummings) to the velvety surrealism of Burton Bush’s “Introduction to Brazilian Gems,” a gorgeous found-footage mashup worked over with designer rips and fissures. The finale, an unsigned music video narrating the gooey post-mortem adventures of a Christian family meeting nuclear incineration titled “20 Minutes to Go,” is the most appallingly funny thing since Sly Stallone’s facelift.”
-Ron Garmon in LA CITY BEAT
OCTOBER EXHIBITION:
Christian Cummings & Lee Lynch: “Steve Irwin Song”
Cara Elizabeth: “Reflections of Terror at 5″
Margie Schnibbe: “Tweak”
Aaron Johnson: “What I Can’t Do”
Max Winston: “Snow, Wonderful Snow”
Burton Bush: “Introduction to Brazilian Gems”
Monster Mark: “Edinboro Meets the Spider”
Sean Carnage: “40 Bands in 80 Minutes” (excerpt)
Aimee Goguen: “Bug Movie”
Romeo Grünfelder: “Jimmy Jenseits”
Found Video: “20 Minutes to Go”
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