ShangOrama.com presents
MC Shanger's Rushes Trilogy!!!
World Premiere screening + a Q&A with MC Shanger will follow every film.
MC Shanger with his trusty B&H 70DR 16mm camera (shot 90% of Ice Rushes with this sucker). (Photo: Arnaldur Halldorsson, Reykjavik)
In 1996 the Rushes Trilogy was conceived as an homage to my three mentors: the father of the American avant-garde film movement, Stan Brakhage; the father of documentary films, Robert Flaherty; and the auteur extraordinare, Stanley Kubrick. The Rushes Trilogy is also a personal exploration, by trying to understand and perfect my one-to-one in-camera editing style. In each film, I shoot the visuals in a 1:1 shooting ratio: that is, everything that I shoot, in the order that I shoot it in, is the final film. Its all in-camera edited. I then write a sound design script to accompany the visuals, and this sound design is not only recorded in front of a live audience, but all in one take, to mirror dee visual 1:1 filmic stylee. Each narration track is based on my diaries, which I keep during the filming.
Saturday, September 29, 2007 - 10pm-3am-ish @Majlis ( doors open at 9 ) - $5/cover before 1am; PWYC after that.
10:00pm - Rail Rushes: A Railroad Odyssey ( Work-in-Progress (WIP), 36', S-8 blow-up to 35mm [1.36], colour/B&W, stereo, Canada) - train hopping at it's best. NB: jwcurry will co-introduce & co-field Q&A for Rail Rushes' 10pm screening only.
Writer/Director/Producer/Camera/Editor/Sound Designer: Giovanni Sampogna (aka, MC Shanger); co-Narrator: jwcurry; co-Producer: Marteinn Thorsson, Jason Seudath; Funding by: Ontario Arts Council; Music Composer/Music Producer: Subha Dasgupta; Music played by: Dee one-to-one Orchestra: Jeff Renfroe, bass; Dan Sadler, drums; Dylan McLeod, drums; jwcurry, acoustic guitar; Roderick Zalameda, guitar; Blair Purdey, guitar; Ali Bowman, horns; Mae Ling, violin.
Shot in dee summer of 1996, in super-8 and blown up to 35mm in 1998. The film follows your humble narrator hopping a freight train from Toronto to Winnipeg and my odyssey when I get there. Like, being on the set of the film The Arrow (1997) movie starring Dan Aykroyd, which is a Canadian film about the building of the Canadian jet fighter, the AVRO Arrow in the mid-50’s. In dee 1950's it was the most state-of-dee-art as you can get, then mysteriously, at dee behest of dee US, Canada destroyed all eveidence of it's existance. WOW, eh!!! We also see, my friend Bertrand building of a memorial house and garden to his deceased wife, so that he can attempt to deal with her loss. The film is latent with lots of hand-held time lapse sequences. The look of the visuals is one of deterioration and graininess. The look was achieved by ‘fermenting’ the super-8 film for two years. In 1998, I received a grant from the Ontario Arts Council to process the film, blow it up to 35mm and to record most of the sound design script. The music and jwcurry's co-narration tracks have been completed. You will see this mix on this date. The final sound elements of Gio's live narration with final overdub-accompaniment by Rail Rushes composer Subha Dasgupta will all be completed shortly. Y'arrr!!!
Stan Brakhage is at the heart of every American avant-garde film movements since the late fifties. From San Francisco in the late fifties, to New York in the sixties, and Toronto in the seventies. I have met him on numerous occasions. His 1989 film, Faust Film Opera: Part I (60 min), is the best film that I have ever seen. It took him twenty years to complete the film. He always works alone and does everything himself. Most of his films are silent.
11:00pm - Ice Rushes: An Icelandic Odyssey ( WIP, 30', 16mm [1.33], colour, stereo, Iceland/Canada) - about dee spirituality & freedom in Iceland!!!
Writer/Director/Producer/Camera/Editor/Neg Cutter/Sound Designer/Narrator: Giovanni Sampogna; Producer: Fahad Falur Jabali (for Sjonarspil); co-Producer: Eddi Ketilesson, Chris Soos, Martienn Thorsson; Funding by: Icelandic Film Center (fomerly, Icelandic Film Fund); Music Composer/Music Producer: Sigtryggur ‘Siggi’ Baldursson; Music played by: Dee one-to-one Orchestra (Inga Bjorg Gudjonsdottir, Mezzo soprano; Arnar Jonsson, Saga narrator; Oskar Gudjonsson, sax's; Eythor Gunnarsson, keyboards; Sigtryggur ‘Siggi’ Baldursson, percussion); Sound Design producer: Kjartan Kjartansson; Title Design: laZlo; Assistant for Neg Cutting & Title Design: Vyana; Film to video transfer: Eyes Post (Toronto); Video standards conversion: Stancon (Toronto); Dubs: Myndbandavinnslan (Reykjavik); Poster Design: Oskar & Omar (Reykjaivk); Poster Printing: Kristinn "Sputti" Saemundsson (Reykjavik).
Shot over five months from Dec 31, 1999 to May 31, 2000. It is about the spirituality and freedom in Iceland. The heart and soul of Iceland is its fishing. This foundation, has allowed a very rich and unique arts and culture to exist. An example, are the Icelandic Saga’s. They are a ‘historical’ account of the birth and development of this nation over a millennium ago. Filmic history was made here folks on July 29, 2001!!! For dee first time-ever dee whole sound design (music w/opera, sound effects, narration and audience reaction) were recored live in front of an audience, and all in one take.
Robert Flaherty is regarded as the founder of the documentary genre. His 1922 film, Nanook of the North is regarded by many as the first true documentary film ever. It was filmed just north of the arctic circle in Canada. The film was then edited in Toronto. He was Irish, but was born in Minnesota, USA. He made only one film about his native Ireland, Man of Aran (1934). He shot the film in the northern-most point of Ireland, a place called Aran island. His films were always photographed, directed and hand processed the film himself. His editor would be on location with him until he completed the film. He would usually spend one to two years filming and editing, on location, and not leave until the film was done. He is my most-favourite filmmaker ever folks, and dee one that has influenced my films dee most!!! Y'arrr!!!
12:00am - An Angry Black Dog Farts at Midnight ( WIP, 45', S-8mm [1.36), colour, stereo, Norway/Iceland/Canada) - premise: Can two filmmakers make Canadian cross-country 1:1 in-camera edited film with one camera?!?
Writers/Directors/Producers/Cameras/Editors/Sound Designers/Narrators: Giovanni Sampogna & Jeff Renfroe; co-Producer: Marteinn Thorsson; Funding by: Icelandic Film Center, Norwegian Documentary Film Festival (live soundtrack recording in Volda, Norway & with a live hook-up to Winnipeg for Jeff's narration), and The Bio Reykjavik Film Collective (live soundtrack recording in Reykjavik, Iceland); Music Composer/Music Producers: Jeff Renfroe & Sigtryggur ‘Siggi’ Baldursson; Music played by: Dee one-to-one Orchestra (w/Jeff Renfroe, keyboards): David Thor, Jazz piano; Oskar Gudjonsson, sax's; Eythor Gunnarsson, keyboards; Sigtryggur ‘Siggi’ Baldursson, percussion).
Filmed in dee summer of 1999, it began with a simple premise "Can two-filmmaker make a 1:1 in-camera edited with one camera?" The answer after a week into this five-week shoot was, "NO!" So we got a second camera and split-screened dee final results. This film is dee epilogue of my Rushes Trilogy. Jeff Renfroe is one of dee hundreds of film students that regard this humble narrator as their mentor, but Jeff is dee only one that actually has ever said dee words, "Shanger, can I mentor under you?" That said, and even though I told him not to go, he has been livin'n'workin' in Hollywood since 1998, and has two Hollywood films under his belt. Y'arrr Jefro!!!.
1:00 - 3:00am - Repeat programme without Q&A ( might even go until 5:00am --OR-- even until SUNRISE ) - NB - we went until 7am - yeh!!!
Sunrise over Perlan (Reykjavik, Iceland). Photo: Siggi Baldursson.
See you here @MAJLIS: 163 Walnut Ave.
---MAJLIS is between Richmond & Adeliade; 1-bk W. Niagara [2-Little Lights W. Bathurst]---[[[View Map]]]
Remember, our Shanger & Daughter Cafe is just here for some of your shangin' comfort needs. OK? Shang! Shang! Shangers!!!
(L) Ice Rushes sound recording poster (Reykjavik, Iceland: July 29, 2001).
(R) An Black Dog Farts at Midnight sound recording poster (Volda, Norway: April 28, 2002).
Siggi Baldursson's self-portrait (composer of Ice Rushes & ...Black Dog...)
About MC Shanger:
"Gio. Shanger” was born in Australia in 1959. Son of Italian parents, they soon moved to Italy, and eventually settled in Toronto in 1969. A 1986 film studies degree from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto, led to a Sr Motion Picture Technologist position in that department, where he worked until 1996. He left to pursue his full-time experimentations in new ways of approaching documentary filmmaking. As a result, he has made film history with Ice Rushes: An Icelandic Odyssey, an experimental-documentary about the spirituality and freedom in Iceland. For the first time, the visuals have been shot "1:1", that is everything that he shoots, in the order that he shoots it in, is the final film and then wrote a sound design which was recorded in front of a live audience, all in one take, with no overdubs! He permanently moved to Iceland between 2000-04 as a result of making his film Ice Rushes – the second film of his Rushes trilogy, which he conceived of as an exploration into his "1:1" style, by means of a tribute to his three mentors. The first film is Rail Rushes: A Railroad Odyssey (a tribute to Stan Brakhage) and the last is New York Rushes: A Stanley Kubrick Odyssey (both remain unfinished). Ice Rushes is a tribute to my number one filmmaker and the one that has influenced my work the most, Robert Flaherty. An Angry Black Dog Farts at Midnight is the epilogue to the Rushes trilogy. It’s strange stereo filmmaker approach to making a film, It’s premise is simple: can two filmmakers make a 1:1, with one camera. The answer folks is NO! So we used two cameras. Enough said there folks!!!
The Rushes Trilogy is the result of over twenty years of experimentation in his "1:1" style. He has made only eighty S-8 & 16mm films over that time, but has amassed over 700 "films" on video, mostly documenting the live performance arts in Toronto since 1980 until the present-day. Yes folks I have made almost 800 films (please don’t call dee Guinness folks). As a hermit filmmaker, he almost always works alone. Ice Rushes and ...Black Dog... are only his second and third films that he has allowed to tour on the film festival circuit; where he never applied, but rather, was asked by astute programmers. "One hundred years from now, I will be the last filmmaker on earth. Traveling with my film projector and trusty dog, I would be hand-processing the film that I shot that-day, and narrating my films at night to anyone that wants to remember what film was like – since by then we will all have holodecks."
On Oct 11, 2006 he started ShangOrama.com, which is an extension of all the film exhibition experimentations of The Bio Reykjavik Film Collective (Iceland), of which he co-founded in 2002, and was it’s head for its first three years. Hence why ShangOrama.com is dee world’s only Icelandic cinema outside Iceland. Enjoy this evening folks!!! Y’arrr!!! Oh, he authored two books: Kubrick: A Biothon Biography, and dee 36-hr Stanley Kubrick Biothon programme (over 4000 Icelanders showed up for this one, that's 1.5% of dee whole 280,000 Icelandic population folks; "Biothon" means "movie marathon" in Icelandic). For dee last three-years he has been working on a mammoth book on just Frank Zappa dee filmmaker (tentatively) called, Studio Z: dee Frank Zappa filmmaker-filmography!!!
Please note, this next film has yet to be shot:
New York Rushes: A Stanley Kubrick Odyssey ( WIP, 30', hand-processed 16mm (1.25), B&W, stereo, Iceland/Canada)
Writer/Director/Producer/Camera/hand-processing/Editor/Neg Cutter/Sound Designer/Projection: Giovanni Sampogna; co-Producer: Martienn Thorsson; Music Composers/music producers: Sigtryggur ‘Siggi’ Baldursson & Subha Dasgupta; Music played by: Dee one-to-one Orchestra (all dee musicians who played on all dee above three films!!!);
When Stanley Kubrick died in 1999, I read a new biography that listed all the addresses that he lived and worked in the Bronx and in Manhattan. New York is a city that inspires me with its beauty. It shows humanity in all its forms, condensed in a few thousand blocks. The film is an experiment to find the essence of the macrocosm (New York), by pulling at the threads of the microcosm (one mans life, Kubrick’s). My odyssey of knocking on doors and getting them slammed in my face and retracing the first twenty-five years of Kubrick in the Big Apple, will be the result of this one to one theoretical experiment. It was always my attention to shot this film in 3-4 daysduring a New york film festival, hand-process dee 16mm neg, and screen it live in a one-take performance to record the final soundtrack for this film. It was always my intention to reunite dee Rushes trilogys two composers Siggi & Suhba, to co-composer this film, AND, have all 18 musicians play, all to a live and rowdy New York audience, who are soooo much part of dee final sound script!!! One day soon, I will do this. (Thanx Jo!!!). Y'arrr!!!
Stanley Kubrick is a film genius and master film scientist. That combination gave him a reputation of being hard to work with. Like Brakhage and Flaherty, he likes to work alone. He is a hermit when he is planning a film, down to every last detail. He is relentless when he is shooting with a large crew, and could spend over a year in shooting. Eyes Wide Shut (1999) took over 18 months to shoot. Each of his films could take over four to five years to complete. He was one of the few, and certainly the last, auteur to work in Hollywood. I miss him dearly.
Browse our archives:
jwcurry's - "Messagio Galore: a jwcurry quartet #4" (Sat, Oct 6, 2007)
Event #8 - "Kubrick's 2001 Trilogy" (Sat, Sept 15, 2007)
Event #7 - "Death House: dee Class of '93" (Mon, Sept 10, 2007)
Event #6 - "MC Shanger's 'Rushes Trilogy'" (Sat, Sept 29, 2007)
Event #5 - "Dario Argento's Goblin Trilogy" (Sat, Aug 25, 2007)
Event #4 - "a 20-hr Mario Bava mini-me Movie Marathon" (Fri&Sat, Aug 17&18, 2007)
Event #3 - "Remember Our Fallen Filmmakers Night!!!" (Sat, Nov 11, 2006)
Event #2 - "2 Banned Hell-o-ween Films" (Tues, Oct 31, 2006)
Event #1 - "12-hr 'Friday dee 13th' Movie Marathon" (Fri dee 13th of Oct, 2006)
Future events:
"Frederick Wiseman: Master Documenteur" (date TBA soon)
CONTACT & Mailing List additions: shanger@shangorama.com
ShangOrama.com came on-line & was beamed-out from Toronto at precisely: 10:10am (10/11/06)
Can't wait for dee next Halloween - ACO & The Droogs gang rules that night!!! Viddy well Droogies...
© 2007 Gio. Shanger!!!