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Tuesday, Sep 2, 2008
7:30 PM
Mock Up on Mu
Bay Area kino-renegade Craig Baldwin's newest work is a rapid-fire pulp serial–cum–political tract on California's major industries military, entertainment, and religious. Hitting upon everything from Satanism to Scientology, the Beats to the jets (propulsion, that is), Baldwin revs up his characteristic stock footage reappropriations with some live-action scenes of his own. The film focuses on three seemingly disparate characters: Jack Parsons, inventor of solid rocket fuel, founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Aleister Crowley acolyte; Marjorie Cameron, artist, beatnik, and occultist; and L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction writer turned Scientology founder. Baldwin mashes up their histories with archival footage drawn from his vast collection of educational and governmental films, subverting their original narratives (and intent) to his own purposes. His live-action scenes and audio montages blend with these “seized histories,” creating a bizarre new form of cinema, a collage narrative where the documentary images of yesteryear lend not truth but poetry, paranoia, and fantasy.
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