Program I: SOCIETY OF MUTANTS.

Or: Mutate If You Don't Want To Be Devoured.
(79' total running time)

Special Report

Bryan Boyce,
4', Beta, 2000, USA

What if TV news wasn't merely horrifying but literally came from horror movies? Bryan Boyce (maker of last year's State of the Union) puts terrifying words in the mouths of America's top-rated merchants of terror.

Bryan Boyce makes short videos that have confused people around the world. Especially in Utah.

Tombola

Ximena Cuevas,
DV, 7', 2001, Mexico

Ximena Cuevas' infiltration of an allegedly hilarious talk show where she is an unlikely and uncooperative guest, hijacking entertainment on behalf of real life.
"Ximena Cuevas is Mexico's video artist extraordinaire: half magician, half mermaid, master of all she surveys." Maria-Christina Villasenor, Guggenheim Museum, NY.

Casa Paco

Ignacio Nacho,
5', 16mm, 2000, Spain

At your disposal is a large room, ideal for celebrating all types of events: weddings, baptisms, communions...

Ignacio Nacho (1972) has been involved in many acclaimed works as both an actor and director in theatre and cinema.

Pleasureland

Bryan Poyser,
19', 16mm, 2001, USA

What if the people in porn videos you rented came to life so you could have sex with them? Pay your late fees, make sure to rewind, and just remember, the slot in your VCR is for tapes...
Bryan Poyser was a co-founder of the Cinematexas Int. Short Film Festival in Austin, Texas. This is Bryan's fourth short film collaboration with Jacob Vaughan, the lead actor and editor of Pleasureland. Bryan is at work on his first feature film, Dear Pillow.

The Nutty Professor

Buck Spoonley,
4', DV, 2001, USA

Ronald Reagan and Jerry Lewis commiserate over the pains of prostate surgery while an inventive lad discovers stimulating new uses for a vacuum cleaner.
Buck Spoonley is an up-and-coming international art star.

Receiver

Jon Leone,
20', DV, 2001, USA

A documentary investigating the unpredictable subculture of Backyard Wrestling, a sport organized by American teenagers in order to alleviate small town boredom. Kurt "The Strangler" Jensen endures and invents extreme tortures for himself to sate the insane desires of his adoring, bloodthirsty public. Real blood. Real violence. Real barbed wire. Real fun?

Jon Leone was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1977. He is a video artist who primarily shoots documentaries and short experimental videos. He graduated in spring 2002 from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago.

Cable Access Awareness Network

Spencer Parsons, 20',
BETA, 2002, USA.
(Video footage from the collections of Jim Fotopoulos and Jeff Krulik. "Cable Access Gibberish" by Jeff Krulik.)

American Cable companies are required by law to devote a frequency to a public-run television station which broadcasts shows produced by ordinary, "non professional" people. But who would have guessed that a combination of obsessive-compulsive psychodrama, technical ineptitude and naive narcissism would make the results nothing short of extraordinary?
Spencer Parsons is a playwright, a film lecturer and the senior programmer of Cinematexas. His recent short film Resolution won the prize for best short film at the Lausanne Underground Film Festival.