Lost Film Festival comes to Sheffield

The Lost Film Fest is a traveling showcase of truly independent (read: anti-corporate) film, presented by Scott Beibin, Festival Director/owner of Bloodlink Records.

The programme features scathing and hilarious social commentary from North America and beyond in the form of narrative shorts, documented pranks, and hot amateur protest footage from around the world appropriately called Riot Porn by the festival organizers.

The unique programme is an action-packed three hours long, and never drags. Festival director Scott Beibin spins the films in the same way a house DJ spins records, and narrates with amusing anecdotes and behind the scenes information about the films. Lost Film Fest, sports a strong guerrilla aesthetic. Its indigenous environs are squats, clubs, warehouses, & rooftops, but regularly appears at theaters and universities as it's gained enormous popularity throughout the years amongst young people. Many of the iconoclastic filmmakers featured in the programme make use of Digital Video and Non-Linear editing, producing low to no-budget masterpieces.

Their films intentionally fly under the radar of the mainstream.

If anyone has access to a photocopier please print a load of posters, fill in the Sheffield date and time and pass them around!

TOUR LINEUP 2003

(You may, or may not see all the films in one evening. We spin these kind of like a DJ spins records...)

Anarchy Carpet | (Siketrike)

A carpet roams the streets of Baltimore convincing the kids that a life of egalitarian co-operation would be more fun than living under consumer capitalism.

Anarchy in LA | (Jino Choi)

A primer on the most misunderstood philosophy of modern history, this piece dispels the common myths and misconceptions about anarchism while pointing out its relevance and influence in the current protest movement. Cameo appearance by the infamous Spock Bloc.

Burning Man [Trailer] | (Gael Firth) 6 min

Timothy "Speed" Levitch (The Cruise, Waking Life) brings us along for a visually stunning exploration of the Burning Man festival. Each year, tens of thousands converge on the barren alkali flat playa in the desert of Nevada. They exist in a commerce-free temporary autonomous community, participants in a grand social experiment, attempting to see the world from a fresh new perspective.

Crowd Bites Wolf | (Guerrillavision) 20 min

Featuring protest footage censored by the mainstream press. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund met in Prague during late September 2000. The bureaucrats were greeted by a colour-coded insurrectionist army, massed to monkeywrench the meeting using a variety of direct action tactics. Despite an unprecedented police mobilization, a united resistance on the streets prevailed.

Eye of the Storm | (Raphael Lyon)

A powerful roughcut of the in-progress documentary. The film covers the rise of argentina.indymedia.org as the popular source of news in that country.

"GET ON THE SIDEWALK!... and if you don't like it, move to Iraq." | (nyc.indymedia.org) 7 min

On February 15, 2003 an estimated 500,000 people took to the streets of New York to protest George W. Bush's war against Iraq. Regardless of the fact that New York City was touched directly by the tragedy of September 11, officials would not issue a permit for a march. The day of the rally, the city gave into pressure from demonstration organizers, and reluctantly allowed people to rally up the street from the United Nations HQ. As thousands of people, young and old braved the bitter cold, police assaulted the peaceful crowds, blocked streets and walkways thus preventing them from joining the rally. A carnival of democratic and artistic expression was greeted by the heavy-handed tactics of law enforcement. Police used pepper spray and mace, trampled individuals with horses, and clubbed people in the head. Protestors were subject to mass arrests though not read their rights. Access to medicine or bathroom facilities were denied as people sat in plastic handcuffs on police buses until the next day. Thousands of people with video cameras documented the abuses. The evening news falsely reported that the day had passed without incident, but the powers that be were in for a wake up call. Working overtime at the New York City Independent Media Center, amateur journalists compiled hours of video footage shot on the streets of police violence. A couple of days later a surprise press conference was held in order to expose to the world what had happened that day. On the web the video was made available and spread virally. This is the actual shocking footage of extreme police brutality on a day when people attempted to march for peace.

Gigi from 9 to 5 | (Joanne Nucho) 8 min

A Post Modern & Situationist inspired musical, Gigi (from 9 to 5) is a story about the perils of the endless cycle of work and consumption. Gigi sings and dances her way through her day, trying to keep up with the show. Features Gina Young and members of Black Dice.

GNN [S-11 (Channel) Surfing the Apocalypse] | (Guerrilla News Network) 12 min

Culled from over 20 hours of television footage recorded over a one month period and across 13 networks, S-11 Redux is a sound-bite blitzkrieg that challenges the messages we have been fed from our mainstream media and the government it serves. Be warned - this video moves quickly and will require at least two viewings to digest its full impact. You may never be able to look at the coverage of S-11 and its post-impact coverage the same way, ever again. Guerilla News Network TV.

G-Sprout | (Mirha-Soleil Ross and Mark Karbusicky) 12 min

A cyberspace encounter turns into a trans-polysexual-vegan-docu-porno featuring urban veggie lovers speaking out on dating, intimacy, and sex in a meat-centred culture. G-Sprout neatly rolls the themes of sex and death into one. Directors Mirha-Soleil Ross and Mark Karbusicky explore the topic of vegans and vegetarians who only date their own kind. The first five minutes of the doc seem like an elaborate joke, as two online vegans with the handles Tofutits and Soyboy meet in a chat room. Over graphic footage of them having sex, the directors superimpose interviews with vegans and vegetarians explaining their preferences. What the veggies have to say fulfills the stereotype of vegans as crunchy, militant types who waffle on about "sensing and feeling desire without words" and "creating a type of magic" with a non-meat-eating partner. (Meat-eaters in the audience may squirm to learn that they apparently have six pounds of dead animal festering in their gut.) However, the tone shifts midway through the film, as the background images change from oral sex to scenes from slaughterhouses. These kinds of images aren't new, but the directors manage to invest them with fresh significance. G-SPrOuT's jokey tone gives way to a meaningful discourse of the level of commitment -- both political and personal it takes to be an animal rights activist.

The Horribly Stupid Stunt Which Has Resulted In His Untimely Death | (The Yes Men) 16 min

An international law conference writes to Gatt.org inviting WTO Director-General Michael Moore to present at their forum in Austria. Big mistake: It turns out the cyber-squatted site is run by the Yes Men, a loose-knit group of anti-capitalist culture jammers who regularly orchestrate pranks against economic and government institutions.

The Manipulators | (Andrew Jeffrey Wright / Clare Rojas) 2 min

Andrew Jeffrey Wright & Clare Rojas (Space 1026) use their animation superpowers to hijack a fashion magazine and manipulate the images used to manipulate us.

Hatching Beauty | (Amy Hicks) 10 min

Hatching Beauty is a humorous and satirical experimental collage that intertwines live action, stop-motion, and found footage to emphasize our ideas about consumerism, working for a living, genetic engineering, and the amount of control (or lack thereof) we have over our lives. Hatching Beauty is a warped view of what tomorrow might be like and the decisions we may have to face as we cease to be mere consumers, but become consumable commodities ourselves.

Lego Trilogy | (Rob Weychert) 12 min

Three Lego tales told by Bredstik Comedy Troupe's Rob Weychert: (SIEGE ON THE CORPORATE IDENTITY PLANT): Militants infiltrate a businessman factory producing homogenized workers, and leave a bomb behind. (HEAT PART 2): New Jersey is threatened with accelerated global warming. The government's solution = Blow up the sun. (TWELVE BUCKS): A scathing examination: what are you really doing for 12 bucks an hour?

Maryland 355 | (Ben Scholle) 6 min

A self-critical and hilarious activist produced narrative in which Anarchists searching for a meaningful approach to improving the social good, decide to adopt a highway. Featuring Eric Hammar (Frail), author Carissa Vandenberk Clark & Scott Beibin (lost film fest)

Nine News | (Andre Hyland) 8 min

Graphics running across the bottom of the screen are altered ("President Bush declares all foreigners evil...") and interview dialogue cut, edited and reshuffled - sometimes in repetitive hip hop fashion - to create an entirely fictional, but seemingly real, newscast which ultimately told a far more compelling truth than the actual broadcasts. In Nine, Cincinnati Police Academy graduates speak of their excitement in going out to "serve the public." These interviews are interspersed with film clips of Cincinnati police officers violently beating citizens in the streets. Hyland cuts back to the newscaster who chuckles and proclaims, "we've certainly seen that before." And while such liberties are obviously taken out of context, one can't help but think of William Blake's assertion that he, "lied to tell a larger truth."

Piefight '69 | (Sam Green/ Christian Bruno) 8 min

Unearthed footage lost since 1969 of the notorious 'pie-fight' incident at the San Francisco Film Festival. Two dozen costumed radicals descend on the fancy black tie & red carpet festival with one fully laden pie truck and six cameras in order to wreak havoc.

Punk Rock Archives: Social Distortion | (CTV) 20 min doc

CNN can only aspire to be as sensationalistic as this piece. In 1988 a Canadian program of "investigative journalism" aired "Social Distortion", a Reefer Madness-style expose that scrutinized the 'threatening lifestyles' of punk rockers. With a straight face, they claim that North American cities are being overtaken by cults of satanic punk street gangs. They attempt to prove their point by interviewing the founder of "Back in Control" (a right-wing religious organization), with counterpoints from a 16-year-old suburban kid with a mohawk named "Razor". There's a laugh every five seconds, as the startling "journalistic" conclusions sound more like the clueless punchlines they are.

State Of The Union | (Bryan Boyce) 2 min

In this clever animation, Brian Boyce combines C-SPAN footage of George W. Bush with clips from The Teletubbies while describing US foreign policy through strong metaphor.

Terror, Iraq, Weapons | (Mike Nourse) 3 min

In the most hilarious way, Mike Nourse deconstructs a broadcast speech by George W. Bush illustrating how simple word repetition is used as propaganda. Watch as the American President alerts the world to the threat of Islam's "Nuclear Holy Warriors" and uses the word "Iraq" as 3 parts of speech in the same sentence. Think Jimmy Stewart meets Josef Goebbels.

Unhappy Meal | (John R / Greg R) 6 min

Unhappy Meal, shot on digital video and film is a multi-media assault that takes a critical and disturbing look at the McDonald's and consumer culture. R room's visual and graphical style come together in one of their wildest videos yet, featuring their very own Evil Ronald. Unhappy Meal is a hard hitting and humorous visual metaphor intertwined with the twisted breakbeats of Patootihed. It explores all evils of the fastfood giant which opens 2000 franchises a year. This is an average of one every five minutes. Your street may be next.