On Screen Manitoba

The following article was originally posted on the Cineflyer website on May 23, 2012.

Hollywood Burn [and other illegally reappropriated footage]
presented by Open City Cinema and Cineflyer
Friday, May 25th, 2012 // Doors at 7:30PM // Show at 8PM
@ RAW: Gallery of Architecture and Design (the basement of 290 McDermot Ave.)

Composed of 100s of stolen video and audio bites, Hollywood Burn is a remixed, narrative foray into a futuristic world of overzealous copyright control. By reappropriating the images that Hollywood has been so staunch in protecting, this work not only creates an incredibly entertaining story of it’s own, but also takes a vocal stance on copyright law in the world today.

The film comes via the Berlin-based filmmaking duo that work under the moniker of Soda_Jerk. They have been honing their found footage filmmaking skills for over a decade, and it shows. This ain’t your grandmother’s found footage, Hollywood Burn is a fully realized narrative film. “Mimicking the hyperbolic rhetoric of today’s copyright cops, this film pits a righteous league of video pirates against the evil tyrant Moses and his copyright commandments. Determined to alter the present by changing the past, the pirates travel back to 1955 to construct the ultimate weapon: an Elvis Presley video-clone,” say Soda_Jerk about their film.

At it’s politicized core, Hollywood Burn is a manifesto against overzealous copyright control, all produced unknowingly by Hollywood itself. At times it’s nearly surprising how blunt the filmmakers make their blow to corporate copyright. For example, the film opens with the Universal studio logo coming swirling around the globe. But as the word “Universal” hits it’s mark, another word “piracy” fades in below it. And it continues from there, with Soda_Jerk reaching not-so-carefully down the toothy throat of the Hollywood beast.

Visit here to read the full article.