Issue 59: Fake Documentaries


Punishment Park

Theme: Fake Documentaries
Punishment Park
I’m Still Here
AFR
Ghostwatch
The Curse
Troll Hunter

Interview
Monte Hellman

Film Reviews
L’atalante
Shame
Tatsumi
Margin Call
Cross of Love

DVD Review
Two-Lane Blacktop

Features
Everybody Dies
George Hardy by Dan Sartain

Comic Strip Review
The Blair Witch Project

Reel Sounds
Alternative 3

Short Cuts
London Short Film Festival Preview

Alter Ego
Tom Benn

Film Jukebox
Barry Adamson

Podcast
Cult Animation

Fake Documentaries: Political satire, media manipulation, horror trickery

We start off the year with the real truths behind fake documentaries to mark the Blu-ray release of Peter Watkins’s incendiary Punishment Park. We also have articles on the Joaquin Phoenix hoax I’m Still Here, Danish political satire AFR, the infamous BBC live ghost-hunting show simulation Ghostwatch, Kôji Shiraishi’s pseudo-documentary on supernatural phenomena The Curse, and a comic strip on The Blair Witch Project, plus Norwegian monster mockumentary Troll Hunter is out on DVD. Our Reel Sounds column is on Brian Eno’s soundtrack for SF hoax Alternative 3.

At the cinema, we review Jean Vigo’s poetic gem L’atalante, Steve McQueen’s much anticipated study of sex addiction Shame, Tatsumi, an animated film on the life and work of the eponymous manga artist, and financial thriller Margin Call.

In the DVDs we look at legendary road movie Two-Lane Blacktop and we have an interview with director Monte Hellman about his latest film, Road to Nowhere.

We also review Teuvo Tulio’s flamboyant melodrama Cross of Love, and we have a feature on films in which everybody dies and guitar-slinger Dan Sartain interviews George Hardy, star of Troll 2. In Short Cuts we preview the London Short Film Festival. Musician Barry Adamson of Magazine and the Bad Seeds fame picks his favourites in the Film Jukebox while writer Tom Benn is Blade Runner‘s Roy Batty in Alter Ego.

PODCAST:
Cult Animation: Alex Fitch talks to a pair of directors of innovative short animated films: Oscar-winner (2011 co-director Short Animated Film) Shaun Tan about the adaptation of his acclaimed picture book The Lost Thing and web animator Jonti Picking about his cult animated series Weebl and Bob as well as his adverts for Cadbury’s Creme Eggs (is it that time of year already?) and Anchor Butter.