Cinevegas day two: the bleeding edge of fringe filmmaking

While most moviegoers this weekend were watching HULK 2 or (shudder) INDIANA JONES 4, I was sitting in a theatre experiencing some of the most outrageously original and unusual filmmaking happening in America today. The late show in Vegas consisted of 2 short films and a feature. First up was this short by Tom Barndt and Samara St. Croix:

They were commissioned by Cinevegas to create that film as part of an online viral video campaign to celebrate Cinevegas’s 10th anniversary. Next up was another short by Tom and Samara, THE CLAY HEAD; these filmmakers were at AFI FEST 2007 with the hilarious and insane film THE MARK. As difficult as it might seem they have possibly surpassed that film with this latest venture, which depicts the aftermath of human contact with a supernatural totem.

Then came the feature presentation, SCHOOF. This is the latest work by filmmaker Giuseppe Andrews, a 29 year old filmmaker who lives in a trailer park in Ventura CA and has completed 23 feature films to date. As with all his other films, SCHOOF is populated with his neighbors and shot in his own backyard. The story is basically that a wave of madness is sweeping the world. This loose story framework serves to prop up an increasing outrageous series of scenes and characters. It’s truly difficult to describe this cinematic experience and do it justice. Just realize that psychosis is just a jumping off point that leads to necrophilia, giant hamsters, and the oversexed elderly. Somehow, despite it’s complete absence of production value, the film remains compelling for the total duration. There is no way to predict what will turn up next in the film, and that is more than I can say for what’s in the multiplex today. Unfortunately while every town in America is offering the other cinematic plague of madness known as THE HAPPENING right now, there is no other place in the world now other than Vegas to experience the singular SCHOOF. However, with the hyped sexuality of Vegas contrasted with its doughy tourist reality this actually seems like the perfect place to experience SCHOOF.