Lunchfilms

Lunchfilms is a series of films commissioned by Mike Plante. The concept behind the series is that Plante would buy a filmmaker lunch and then that debt would be repaid with a film for the same cost. A few rules were also agreed upon at each of the lunches, but judging from the results, they were not strictly adhered to.

I'm just going to cover my favorites from the bunch.

Bill Daniel's film was a trailer for a project that I hope he is really working on. It looked like he had discovered some kind of clan of nomadic van people and gained their trust. Their modified vans looked like what the more chilled out folks will have in the Mad Max future.

The rules for Cam Archer's film included "no irony," which I assume was meant to be ironic. Cam conducts a pseudo-academic interview of himself over some experimental footage. Both the questions and answers were hilarious. This was my favorite film of the series.

Ben Coonley is right. We do need to remember how funny cats are in these dark times.

The Zellner Brothers film "Pardon My Downfall" was like Hillbilly Noh Theatre. It was very beautiful and mesmerizing.

"Diamond Dave" by Elizabeth Skadden offered an interesting look into the lifestyle of a 50s recording star who lives in Hollywood on a property that includes a decaying movie set. Dave had the hustler's spirit and did a lot of name dropping, but in a very entertaining way.

I feel like I'm using the wrong verb tense in this post, but I'm very tired and I don't want to correct everything, so hopefully no one will notice.

The last of my favorites was "When the World's On Fire" by James Clauer. This experimental documentary, set in Tennessee, reminded me a lot of my home state of South Carolina. That being the case, I was very impressed by what Clauer did with that setting. He made the deep rural South feel very fresh to me, presenting it in a way I have never seen it before by using some intense psychedelic editing. This film also reminded me a bit of "Gummo," with its focus the weird events in a low-income community.

I wouldn't call this project a total success. Some of the films were unimpressive. However, there were some exceptional films in the bunch that might never have been made without this project. Seeing as how the whole series cost Plante $622.71 in lunches (plus tip) it seems like it was a worthwhile investment.