high volume 'bakuon' screenings

[Jasper Sharp]

This rather reminds me of a screening of a Philipino film I caught at Thessaloniki Film Festival last year, The Muzzled Horse Of An Engineer In Search Of Mechanical Saddles. The film was an hour long video piece that had a live accompaniment from the director, Khavn de la Cruz and his  various associates. It was quite a gruelling experience, way too loud for my poor head on a monday evening.

There's more details here, for those interested in comparisons with new punk filmmaking/exhibition practices in other parts of the world:

 

http://kulastalon.multiply.com/video/item/21

 

best

 

Jasper

Midnight Eye: The Latest and Best in Japanese Cinema
www.midnighteye.com

More details about me on http://jaspersharp.com/



 
> Date: Mon, 8 Feb 2010 17:18:50 +0900
> From: proquet at berkeley.edu
> To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Subject: high volume 'bakuon' screenings
> 
> Film and rock music critic Higuchi Yasuhito has been putting on a fairly active series of 'bakuon' (exploding sound) film events since 2006. The first few were one-off screenings paired with live music, but in the past couple years it has expanded into an ongoing series, where individuals can make requests for films they would like to see at high-volume. Most of the shows have been at Baus theater in Kichijoji (where the main theater has big arena-rock style speaker stacks on both sides of the screen), but it seems to be spreading to other theaters in western Tokyo as well.
> 
> In the few bakuon screenings I have (accidentally!) attended, the excess volume did give the live music scenes a visceral realism - for example, the punk shows in Go Shibata's "Osoi hito" felt just right. Pummeling the audience with painfully-loud sound the entire time, however, destroyed whatever loud/soft dynamic the film originally had, and made me wince everytime someone onscreen closed a door or stirred their coffee.
> 
> In part this seems to be one more attempt to get people back into the theater (by giving them something they can't get at home), but it also seems driven by the rise in concert videos and music documentaries the past few years. The bakuon website (www.bakuon-bb.net) claims the festival is unique in the world, but I'm curious what the precedent for this is. Does anyone know of similar screenings elsewhere, or even films mixed to be screened at the kind of volumes that make you wish you had brought earplugs?
> 
> Paul Roquet
 		 	   		  
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