Can you pick up a camera and make a film?
You can? Good! I knew you could!
Can you pick up a camera and make a film about unemployed Valkyries? Filmed underwater? Featuring a bucket with a happy face painted on it?
You can? Excellent! You're now ready for the Super 8 Filmmakers Challenge, in which Calgary's most adventurous local film artists craft their latest works around four common elements, drawn randomly from a hat. Each participant uses the same randomly selected elements, so the trick is to make your underwater bucket Valkyrie movie different from all of the other entries. That shouldn't be a problem. The event is now in its third year, and history has shown that this kind of wild competition brings out a lot of creativity from its participants.
“Our event has always gone really well,” says local filmmaker and event co-organizer Mike Peterson. “Packed houses and a great underground vibe. It's about the arts in Calgary, and artists that are invested in the local community [trying] to make a cultural mark.”
The event started as a crazy idea cooked up by Peterson and fellow filmmaker James Reckseidler, who both decided to plunge ahead with the project even if their films were the only entries. They needn't have worried. The first Super 8 challenge wound up with 10 entries, and attracted lots of attention. “We packed the Soda to the rafters,” boasts Peterson, referring to the Super 8's original venue, where a capacity crowd made it difficult for attendees to move.
The title of the event comes from Kodak Super 8 millimetre film, an affordable film stock that sparked a surge in interest in home movies when it first became available. These days, digital video recording is becoming the do-it-yourself medium of choice, and the event is relaxing its rules on shooting in Super 8 film, letting the term refer more to the spirit of low budget, homemade filmmaking. The one-day-only event will also feature musical guest Lorrie Matheson performing after the screening.
This year, the randomly selected theme is “The mask is more real than the face.” The other necessary criteria for the entries include a god, split-screen photography and a business card included somewhere in the film. Peterson tells me that his entry, “The Secret Lives of Robots,” features costumes, sets and props that are all made entirely out of cardboard. As a fan of expressionist oddities like Forbidden Zone (1980) and Shock! Shock! Shock! (1987), that's the kind of thing that gets my attention. Sadly, though, there aren't really any movies about underwater Valkyries wearing buckets with smiley faces painted on them. I made that up. Maybe next year.
