Long before director Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings blockbusters and even before the moderate success of his cult horror film “Dead Alive”, he created a gleefully twisted take on the Muppets, “Meet the Feebles” (1989). A brief synopsis from IMDB:
Heidi, the star of the “Meet The Feebles Variety Hour” discovers her lover Bletch, The Walrus, is cheating on her, and with all the world waiting for the show the assorted co-stars must contend with their own problems. These include drug addiction, extortion, robbery, disease, Drug dealing, and even murder. While this is happening the love between two of the stars is threatened by the devious Trevor the Rat, who wishes to exploit the young starlet for use in his porno movie business.
“Nothing Lasts Forever” (1984) is the only feature length film directed by Tom Schiller (who was an early writer and director for Saturday Night Live), but it’s a remarkable one. The film takes place in a dystopian world in which the Port Authority controls New York and determines the career paths of citizens based on mandatory tests. After failing an art test, aspiring artist Adam (Zach Galligan) is forced to work as a Holland Tunnel inspector under authoritarian boss Buck (Dan Aykroyd). After getting a brief taste of the art world through an artist he has an affair with, he befriends a homeless man who gives him an opportunity to fulfill his destiny on the moon.
Nothing Lasts Forever could be characterized as a lower budget and more hopeful precursor to “Brazil”. Besides Aykroyd, the film features appearances by comedians such as Bill Murray, Imogene Coca, and legendary stand-up comic (and mentor of Lenny Bruce) Mort Sahl. Due to copyright clearance problems with a number of archive clips used in the film, it has never had an official DVD release.
Grant Morrison is one of the most popular writers in comics, and one of the most controversial. He is the Rock Star of Comics, a philosopher and chaos magician, who has used his comics to change both himself and his audience. He is a man living on the border between FICTION and REALITY, and this is his STORY.
The film was produced in close collaboration with Morrison and features extensive interviews with him, as well as never before seen photos and documents spanning his childhood to the present day.
Complimenting Morrison’s own words are interviews with his closest collaborators and friends, including Frank Quitely, Douglas Rushkoff, Cameron Stewart, Phil Jimenez, Mark Waid, Geoff Johns, Jill Thompson and many more. The film makes extensive use of found and abstract footage to make the documentary feel like a Morrison comic.
“Scratch” (2001) is a well-researched documentary directed by Doug Pray about the origins and culture of the hip-hop DJ scene from the 70s to around 2000. It features performances and interviews with legendary turntablists such as DJs Q-bert, Shadow, Premier, Rob Swift, Krush, Cut Chemist, NuMark and Mix Master Mike, as well as early pioneers such as Afrika Bambaataa and GrandWizard Theodore .
The producer of the soundtrack to Scratch was Bill Laswell, who was also a co-writer and producer of Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit”, one of the first hit singles to feature record scratching as an instrument. Though not as well known as he should be, Laswell continues to be among the most groundbreaking, versatile and prolific living musician/producers. His music draws inspiration from funk, hip-hop, rock, post-punk, jazz, world music, hardcore metal, electronica, ambient, dark ambient, film soundtracks and experimental genres. Artists he has produced or performed with include Afrika Bambaataa, Johnny Rotten, Iggy Pop, Mick Jagger, the Ramones, Yoko Ono, Motörhead, Swans, Whitney Houston, William S. Burroughs, Paul Bowles, Robert Quine, Fred Frith, John Zorn, Brian Eno, David Byrne, Fela Kuti, Ginger Baker, Henry Threadgill, Sonny Sharrock, Sting, Nine Inch Nails, Ozzy Osbourne, Tori Amos, Peter Gabriel, Laurie Anderson, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Medeski Martin & Wood, DJ Krush, the Orb, Mike Patton, Tetsu Inoue, Pete Namlook, and the Master Musicians of Jajouka. In 2006 he and a number of his favorite collaborators including Buckethead, Pharoah Sanders, Foday Musa Suso, Bootsy Collins, Toshinori Kondo, Hamid Drake, Zakir Hussein, Ustad Sultan Khan, DJ Disk, Karsh Kale, and Nils Petter Molvaer among others appeared on the PBS program Soundstage. They performed live sets from some of the various projects Laswell has been a central force behind over the years such as Praxis, Material, and Tabla Beat Science.
After the Crash 