A companion to www.nicholasabrahams.com
- Rankin, Jefferson Hack and Me
Recently while throwing lots of old books and magazine out, I came across a copy of a magazine from a dim and distant episode in my life. For a few issues, I was Film Editor of Dazed and Confused. I ended up getting in a row with Jefferson about something really stupid and minor and decided I couldn’t be arsed with them any more. He went on to become rather rich and shag Kate Moss and I didn’t. But I did get to interview an odd selection of people including John Woo, James Ellroy and William Gibson and this one with Chow Yun Fat, so I’m not complaining. Much to my surprise, Mr Chow genuinely was a MASSIVE Ray Cooney fan and talked excitedly of doing a big screen version of one of his plays… I’d still pay good money to see what John Woo could have done with ‘Run for Your Wife’, heroic bloodshed style.
- Meeting Dr Gaz
Time passes so swiftly but it must be about 2 years ago that I ventured down to Brighton with film maker Ben Rivers and archivist William Fowler of the BFI to spend a lovely day interviewing an inspirational figure for all three of us – a filmmaker so underground he has become one of Britain’s best kept secrets.
The video of that interview with the marvelous Jeff Keen is available on a 4 DVD set of his works available from the BFI, and its a lovely release packed with films full of mystery and strangeness. Here’s a clip of one of Jeff’s psychedelic frenzies:
As he pointed out on that day, if he had chosen to leave his hometown of Brighton maybe his work would be better known. Jeff had also spent much of his life as a gardener, and seemed to have little interest in the world of mainstream cinema.
Sitting in his two room apartment, surrounded by all the props, paintings and redundant home movie equipment that has gone into making these movies for over 40 years was just such a thrill. Some of his paintings resembled those of Robert Crumb, but when I asked if he would sell one in particular, Jeff came over all vague. I would love to own an original Keen!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy his films as much as I have over the years, and I’m glad that the BFI are stepping up to put out works such an uncompromising and profoundly influential filmmaker.
- Vid Spilum Endalaust shirts
You can still buy really nice shirts (something to do with the way they’ve been printed) with the image of Jonsi writing on a blackboard from the end titles of the ‘Vid Spilum Endalaust’ film by clicking here.
- The Wizard of Sound
I’ve continued to be amazed and happy about the long life of the Depeche Mode film I co-directed with Jeremy Deller. The record company who own it only allow us to show it occaisionally, but the end of last year was great, with its first showings in Germany and some special shows in the UK, including what for me was the best screening yet, in the presence of Alan Wilder. Here’s a clip of the Q and A we did with Alan after the screening:
It was really amazing that the audience asked questions almost entirely about the film – we were all prepared for fans to bombard Alan with questions about his time with the band, which just didn’t happen. And Alan was a perfect gent, signing autographs and chatting with everyone afterwards in the Clapham Picturehouse Bar. Apparently they practically had to prise him out of the bar at the end of the night.
Alan posing with a very happy fan. While I’m reminded I must lay off the chocolates.
And it was so great to have old friends like Nervous Stephen and superstar producer Arthur Baker playing old school vinyl all night long. Don’t just take my word for it, here’s someone else’s review (and I like that they quite rightly refer the ‘Godlike’ Arthur Baker – I got the impression that most people didn’t know who he was, and those that did were gobsmacked that he was there literally DJing from behind the bar!). Click here for the review.
If you’ve seen the film you will recognise the following reprobate, and if you dont his name is Mark. He spent about 7 year homeless in London, and half of that time he lived under Hammersmith Bridge, until the music of Depeche Mode helped turn his life around.
Next stop, Los Angeles for some screenings at the end of January. Toot toot!
- More Less is More
My video of Dieter Rams at the Design Museum
Recently I visited the Dieter Rams exhibition at the Design Museum in London, and was delighted to find it included a film I made of Dieter in conversation with the Deyan Sudjic head of the Design Museum as one of the exhibits. And for those of you who cant get down there, here’s that film clip:
Dieter Rams in conversation with Deyan Sudjic from Vitsœ on Vimeo.
And I was delighted by the exhibition too! Dieter was head designer at Braun for 30 years and oversaw many innovations, so many forward thinking designs, from electric shavers to radios to furniture. Most importantly to me, he oversaw the design of the Nizo Super 8 camera, an object very close to my heart as it is the camera i shoot with to this day, including much of the last years Sigur Ros film ‘Vid Spilum Endalaust’. Here is a wooden prototype of the Nizo, which is on show in the exhibition:
As you can imagine i was thrilled and had to be held back from trying to steal it! Here’s a clip from ‘Vid Spilum Endalaust’, which was filmed mainly on a Nizo (and also on a Canon, I like my Super 8 cameras!)
I recommend getting yourself down to the Design Museum, some of the objects there will blow you away. RIght at the end of the show are some great pieces by artist Richard Hamilton which were based on some of Dieter’s seminal designs. Here’s one Hamilton image just to whet your appetite:
- Some Great Reward!
photo by masha, who appears in 'the posters came from the walls'
I’ve just been on tour with possibly the best live band around, called Monotonix. Hotfooted it back to London to do a Q & A with the legend that is Alan Wilder , former member of Depeche Mode, to celebrate our screenings of ‘the Posters Came from the Walls’. We are FINALLY getting some heavyweight coverage: for a (very thoughtful) review from Sight and Sound click here… and for one from the Guardian newspaper click here.. and Mute records head honcho Daniel Miller has come out and said that the dvd will come out in 2010 (to read that click here). Just uploading a video my friends Owen Oppenheimer and Matthew Killip kindly shot of the Q&A so that, my dears, is likely to be my next post.
- Snow White’s Coffin, and other stories…
Dieter Rams in conversation with Deyan Sudjic from Vitsœ on Vimeo.
A short clip about key designer Dieter Rams, in conversation with Deyan Sudjic I shot last year and then edited recently, to tie in with the exhibition about Dieter at the Design Museum in London opening on November 18th.
Dieter is a really interesting guy, who changed the way people design objects with a stint as chief designer at Braun for 30 years. I am particularly interested in the relationship between Rams and British godfather of Pop Art Richard Hamilton. Hamilton based several works of art around Braun’s designs, and you can read about one artwork based around Ram’s toaster design here. Dieter and Deyan chatted about Hamilton a bit, so hopefully there will be a clip about the relationship between these two men at a later date.
This record player designed by Dieter was the SK4, known as ‘Snow White’s Coffin’ due to its innovative clear plastic cover. It’s so standard in such designs now, its hard to imagine someone having to come up with such a simple and effective idea.
The video clip was filmed one day while Dieter was visiting Vitsoe, a company who still produce designs he created over 50 years ago. I hope that one day I earn enough that I can afford some of their stylish shelves in my home!
They would make such a good home for my Tiny Tim dolls (one on the right, next to Dr Owl and Existential Bear):
Imagine how good my Richard Allen books would look on them!
- Clips from ‘the Posters Came from the Walls’
For your viewing pleasure, 2 clips from the documentary I co-directed with Jeremy Deller:
- The Evil Cameramen (and Women)
Some years ago, I made a film about No Wave film makers in New York city, it was a fanzine, a work of enthusiasm. And a great learning curve. Its been available to rent from the Video and Film Umbrella for years and now the Lux have streamed it on line so anyone can watch it! hurrah for new technology!
so you can watch my first documentary in all its lo-fi glory by clicking here
They’ve also put up a fairly lengthy reminiscence by me about why and how I ended up making this thing, so if you want to read yet more of my thoughts click here!
It did make it into the London Film Festival and other such places that put up with lo fi films about drug addled film makers! I do associate these films with people making films for the love and excitement of it. It’s not like Nick Zedd was likely to get much public funding for his films. So they were mainly made on miniscule budgets, and with an aesthetic to match.
This was a letter from Nick Zedd to me, written on the back of one of his illustrations (I think he’s a really good graphic artist) from the Underground Film Bulletin (this appears to be of Kembra Pfahler, who was very much on the scene… and whose work I love, and I think its absolutely great that she is finally getting some recognition, mainly in the art world it seems. She even performed at the Whitney Biennale).
If you’ve watched my documentary and want to see more of the films, there are plenty on the web (though probably not the naughtiest ones!). Here’s an old, old Kern film, which is pretty good, but made much better because it stars the amazing David Wojnarowicz, who was himself a truly inspiring/inspired artist and writer:
- Artprojx Screening at the Prince Charles Cinema
We showed ‘The Posters Came from the Walls’ during Frieze week in london, in collaboration with Artprox. It was sold out, and people really seemed to like it! The staff at the Prince Charles Cinema on Leicester Square gamely agreed to our request that ‘OUR HOBBY IS DEPECHE MODE’ be put up on their marquee. It’s a line from the film and it sums things up well.
the two directors in a jubilant mood
We gave a short introduction. I think i might have embarassed Jeremy
Sold out!
The posters literally came from the walls when this chap nicked one of the prints we had put up outside the cinema
If you've seen the film, you will recognise Mark on the right, whose story really gets to people.
Great to meet many Depeche Mode fans who reallllly liked it. So now we have shows in December all across the UK. New post on that soon. And some shows in Germany as well. It’s been such a slog with this film, mainly because it got lost in the cracks when Depeche Mode were renegotiating their contract with their label Mute. But in a weird way that means it now is having an extended birth. My main object now is to get it a DVD release at some future date.(photos 1, 3, 5 and 6 here are by the Sarah Lee, a photographer with magic fingers! photos 2 and 4 are by ace organiser David Gryn, the man behind Artprojx)
