Last weekend at Madlab Theatre, local guerilla auteur Steve Anderson (also frontman for the punky trio "I'm With Stupid") enjoyed a packed, world premiere double-screening of his film Ozhio, a rough send-up of The Wizard of Oz, only set in Columbus and featuring a redneck drunkard named "PBR" in place of the Wicked Witch of the West. Shot on a handheld digicam and edited on a desktop PC, there's a certain grainy charm to the piece that complements the gritty urban settings in the film quite nicely. It comes across as very John Waters-esque, only no chickens were harmed in the making of this film, as far as I know...
Anyway, here's a trailer:
For those of you interested in getting an upbeat look into the ethos, aesthetics, and technical skills driving the hacker counterculture (rather than, say, the antisocial caricatures populating our Hollywood products), go listen to Cory Arcangel speak at the Wexner Center tomorrow afternoon and explain why he felt compelled to turn Super Mario game cartridges into short films.
From one Augustan to another, we'll miss you, Godfather.