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Tracking Issues
USA 2015
produced by V.P. Walling, Courtney Fathom Sell for Show Video
directed by Courtney Fathom Sell
starring Andrew Whalen, Michael Bowman, Christopher Podrecca, Dawn Sell, Brad Sell, Mike San Juan, John Menenzes, Brian Tonelli, Adam DiOrio, Chase Wingate, Daniel Blanchard, Dana Sell, John Haverty, Courtney Fathom Sell, Amos Shaw, Caleb Martin, Richard Sylvia, Bill Saunders, John Zajac, Stan McMullen, Mike Whalen, Jeremy Parsons, Joe Booth, Amanda Krueger, Pat Dolen, Evan Britto, Matt Smith, Andy Labos
music by Carl Simmons, Dusty Santamaria, Lawrence Desgalnes, Courtney Fathom Sell
documentary
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Since his pre-teens, director Courtney Fathom Sell and his friends have
made movies, in their backyards, on the less-travelled streets of town, on
the local beach ... well, pretty much everywhere they could, and mostly on
disposable cameras. It was not because they wanted to create the next
masterpiece, rather to recreate the feel of the fare they tended to rent
at their local mom-and-pops video store - and mostly those were genre
movies, so Courtney and friends would frequently run around with
chainsaws, covered in blood, or whatever other gruesomeness they could get
away with based on their limited means. But these kids made these movies
for the pure joy of making movies, sometimes they wouldn't even watch the
results, and if watch then often only show them to a small group of people
if any, it was really the pure magic of filmmaking that kept them going.
But Courtney and company's efforts didn't merely result in a handful of
cheaply made intentionally trashy movies, he also made a rather touching
tribute to his father who had just found out about his terminal cancer,
and the film both made it easier to handle his pain and his family to deal
with grief ... Now what you don't see in Tracking Issues
is the early years and evolution of a master filmmaker in the making -
because that's not what the movie has set out to do, as basically it's
just a loveletter to backyard filmmaking, that's often (as in Courtney's
case) the seeds for a later filmmaking career, and that's also a very
innocent way of making a movie, as it's less about the quality than the
process of just doing it, a certain laissez-faire attitude that gets lost
more and more even in the indies. And weirdly enough, after watching Tracking
Issues, one kinda sorta wants to watch a few of Courtney's very early
films, not for their quality (or relative lack thereof) but for the love
put into them - that's how infectuous this documentary is! Tracking
Issues has been released on limited edition VHS, and if interested, do
click here: http://www.weirdlifeltr.com/tracking-issues
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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