Just as I was dipping my toes into a brief career in the music video industry, Jonathan Wells began organizing these awesome screenings of videos and shorts at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. This was, of course, in addition to his global screening series RESFest that was busy circling the planet. But the LA screenings were a really nice nod to this small corner of the production community who I never thought got enough respect.
We slaved away for the worst kind of clients—vain artists, their assistants who gave an unhealthy amount of creative input, and music labels with no money—but every now and then, visions aligned and we’d come up with a pure creative gem. Which, in a pre-YouTube era, you’d be lucky to catch once during the one hour that MTV actually played videos. There was something pretty powerful about seeing a really good music video with an entire theater of people, and it almost never happened unless Jonathan had something to do with it.
So last night I was feeling a bit nostalgic when I arrived at Flux, the new screening series and global creative community that’s Jonathan’s new endeavor with his wife, partner and collaborator Meg Wells. It seemed like just about everyone had been missing their little gatherings because the place was simply slammed. Literally hundreds and hundreds of people were packed in the courtyard of the Hammer Museum, all spiraling out in concentric rings of lines, trying to get into the hot pink Billy Wilder Theater. Even with an overflow room, not everyone got to see the program, but it didn’t matter. People were content to park themselves in this bamboo grove, waving friends over, wine in hand, at this big family reunion. The next event is May 13 at 7pm, so if you want to see that one I’d say you should start lining up, oh, May 1.
Besides the Eran Creevy-directed video above for Utah Saints that’s impossible not to giggle at, the Gnarls Barkley video for “Run” (I posted it a few weeks ago) was a real crowdpleaser, as was the typically-insane Björk video “Wanderlust,” which was also shown in 3D (shots from the NY premiere show some of the crazy giant latex buffaloes that took up to four people to wrangle). Cat Solen (who’s repped by Partizan for videos) and Larry Friedman’s short “Parental Advisory” about obsolete technology was smart and funny, and they led the crowd in a sing-along of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” instead of doing a Q&A. Luis Cook‘s remarkable animated piece “The Pearce Sisters” should be in a museum, and speaking of, we also got a sneak peek at what Geoff McFetridge has planned for the Seattle Art Museum‘s Olympic Sculpture Park, opening Saturday.
By far the evening’s stars were the adorable boys from Amautalab who were looking to bring together the divergent worlds of cute and porn with their short “The Blindness of the Woods.” Without giving too much away, let’s just say it climaxes with an oh-no-they-didn’t yarn-on-yarn sex scene that puts Team America to shame. I highly recommend that you visit their LA studio this Friday for a Cute Party, where they’ll screen the film again. Just remember to get there early.
