Super 8 kicks ass for so many reasons. The colors pop off the screen in hyper-saturated glory, the immediacy of reversal stocks allows one to work quickly, the compactness lets one edit on the kitchen table, the mag stripe sounds so good compared to that funky optical stuff. That said, I like to think my films show a variety of ways that one can push the limits of single system, sync sound, Super 8 filmmaking - that one can passionately hammer out an array of crazed, experimental narratives on a shoestring. These 16mm prints are blow-ups from Super 8, but they still retain their small gauge flavor.
My films have shown as part of the "Big As Life" 8mm retrospective at the MoMA in New York, the Old and New Masters of Super 8 program, the Ann Arbor Super 8+ Film Fest, the USA Super 8 Festival, the Super Super 8 Fest, the Splice This Super 8 Fest and plenty of non-Super 8 specific fests.
"Plotnick's strength lies in his expert capturing of the deadbeat edges of society, plus a wise-ass eye for detail." - Shock Cinema
Originally Super 8. A gang of female Skate Boarders and their pet rats terrorize all the boy skate boarders in town.
Exhibition: Mid-Atlantic Skate & Sound Festival, 1997; Film Arts Festival, 1989; SwitchStance, SF Arts Commission exhibition, 1997.
1986, 16mm, color/so, 3m, $20
Originally Super 8.
A petulant comment on Art Fairs and people's butts.
1987, 16mm, color/so, 3.5m, $20
Originally Super 8.
In the middle of the Nevada desert, two lunkheads get tossed out of separate cars by their so-called friends. One guy is wearing a Twisted Sister T-shirt and one is wearing a Kiss T-shirt. They don't like each other. They have problems. Awards: Honorable Mention, Ann Arbor S8mm Film Festival, 1989
Exhibition: Old & New Masters of Super 8 program, NYC, Germany, Austria and Italy; Australian Revelation Independent Film Festival, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Canberra, Adelaide, Wellington, 1997; Hawaii Underground Film Festival, 1997; Rough & Ruined Festival, Vancouver, 1996; Humboldt Int'l Film Festival, 1991; Athens Int'l Film Festival, 1990; Film Arts Festival, 1989.
1988, 16mm, color/so, 6:40m, $20
Originally Super 8.
Starring: Gary Ahuna, Chris Enright, Alison Levy, Elizabeth Rose and Ray Wilcox; Music: Ray Wilcox. A tale of backwoods blacktop mayhem. Two dim-witted, lead-footed guidos bust through stoplight after stoplight in their turbo-charged, bad-ass, jet-black Pontiac Grand Prix until their mean machine nearly eighty-sixes another hunk of American steel. And that's just the start of it ....
A confrontation, an assault, fists and traffic violations.
"Plotnick's filmic terrain is a world of insult and outrage .... That sense of being trapped in a bummer of surrealistic dimensions gives Plotnick's films STEEL BELTED ROMEOS and PILLOW TALK their 'Life in Hell' brand of black humor." - Heather Mackey, The San Francisco Bay Guardian
Award: Best Experimental Film, Ann Arbor S8mm Festival, 1990; Honorable Mention, USA S8mm Film Festival, 1992. Exhibition: Film Arts Festival, 1990; Athens Film Festival, 1990; Old & New Masters of S8mm program, NYC, 1996; Hawaii Underground Film Festival, 1997; Cinematexas Short Film Festival, 1997; Champaign-Urbana Freaky Film Festival, 1997; Mid-Atlantic Skate & Sound Festival, 1997; Rough & Ruined Festival, Vancouver, 1996; Anti-Film Festival, Miami, 1996; Circle of Confusion Film Festival, Berlin, 1995; NY Underground Film Festival, 1995; Athens Int'l Film Festival, 1991; Film Arts Festival, 1990.
Note: Rental includes 1.5m trailer for the film.
1990, 16mm, color/so, 10m, $30
Originally Super 8.
A loving tribute to comic genius Flip Wilson.
Exhibition: Super Super 8 Film Festival, San Diego, 1996; Film Arts Festival, 1991.
1990, 16mm, color/so, 3.5m, $20
Originally Super 8.
Starring: Yoli Aceves, Chris Enright, Claudia Gastaud, Alison Levy, Laura Rosow and Ray Wilcox; Music: Ray Wilcox. An urban spaces nightmare. They're fighting downstairs, they're fucking next door, they're stealing your clothes in the laundry room and you're no better than the rest. Loquacious, lugubrious and most certainly loutish. Sorta like Jeanne Dielman meets "Laverne and Shirley."
Exhibition: Film Arts Festival, 1991; Montreal Int'l Festival du Jeune Cinema, 1991; Big As Life, Museum of Modern Art, NY, 1998-1999; Champaign-Urbana Freaky Film Festival, 1997; Onion City Film Festival (film trailer only), 1993.
Note: Rental includes 1.5m trailer for the film.
1991, S8mm, color/so, 18m, $55
Originally Super 8.
A twisted tale wherein lots of little kids with metal teeth and bad ideas terrorize an unsuspecting ne'er-do-well.
At first glance, PIPSQUEAK PfOLLIES seems like a standard narrative film. However, as it unfolds, the film does not progress in a conventional linear form. Rather, the film raises certain issues regarding violence in society and children's relations with adults and examines these issues from a number of different perspectives.
Awards and Exhibition: Slamdance Festival, 1996; Banana Slug Award for Surrealism, Humboldt Film Festival, 1995; Third Prize, Marin County Short Film Festival, 1995; Atlanta Arts Festival, 1997; Olympia Film Festival, 1996; Rough & Ruined Festival, 1996; Circle of Confusion Festival, 1995; Athens Film Festival, 1995; NY Underground Film Festival, 1995; Metropolitan Film Festival, 1995; Chicago Underground Festival, 1994; Psychoanalytic Institute, Minneapolis.
1994, 16mm, b&w/color/so, 25m, $30