Dennis Mair
FOR the next two weeks, Gallery Mau Mau in Cape Town shifts focus from the = ost
entation of the art world to the thrill of B-schlock, exploitation filmogra= phy
and pure horror. Amid projections and popcorn, administrators David L Dei =
and
Craig E Parker describe the ensemble as “a terrorism of the senses that ex=
plo
des our consciousness with an antidote to conventional cinema”.
Interspersed with freak love affairs, nudist films deemed sexually not stim= ula
ting, and Ultravixens running around in one-piece crocheted body suits beca= use
“tits sell”, Mau Mau’s cine-art experience traces film back to a time when=
su
ch celluloid standards were deemed unfit for family viewing.=20
The Projections season makes the lack of change in film content over the la= st=20
50 years apparent. It is mainly attitudes regarding the material that have = alt
ered. Viewed with morbid fascination back then, the pulp cinema content of = our
times has merely moved from the shelf of the fringe to the projector of t=
he=20
mainstream. A marked improvement in technology has resulted in better speci= al=20
effects, a s the subject matter of current films remains constant.
Animation on show from around the world includes Dog Boy, an adaptation of = the
comic series by Charles Burns, and short films by Richard Kern from his De=
ath
Trip series.
Andy Warhol’s aesthetic will also be on show as Frankenstein, companion to = his
famed Dracula. Banned in South Africa, Pier Paulo Pasolini’s Salo: The 120=
Da
ys of Sodom, will have its debut in the exhibition space turned movie hall.= =20
Two Chinese films, Oni Baba and Chinese Ghost Story, explore the Eastern at= tit
ude to fantasy horror and the respectfully daunting manner in which they ha= llo
w the dead.=20
>From the camp appeal of sexual diversity to the sleaze of bodily exploitat= ion
, the thread that links the films on show is that of independence. The movi= es=20
demonstrate exactly how individual viewpoints surface regardless of censors= hip
. The festival further displays how cinema can challenge the moral code of = a p articular time and then slowly mutate it into the acceptable. Parker explai= ns=20
that this=20 demonstrates how challenge to the norm promotes change and stimulates the i= dea
s of a society’s state of mind, resulting in a reviewed system of ethics. H= e m aintains that a reaction to the norm always moves on to become popular cult= ure
.=20
The festival opens on February 10, at 6pm at the Mau Mau. Screenings will t= ake
place from Monday to Thursday at 7pm and 9.30pm; preceded by shorts=20