Stanimir Stoykov is the auteur behind three deliriously enjoyable short movies, the first two of which showed at last year’s festival. This year sees the premiere of his latest, Pussy.
Raven-haired (can it possibly be genuine?) live-wire Stoykov was born in Bulgaria, where he studied fine art. ”I was expelled from art school,” he says, ”and came to South Africa at 16.” Here, at Wits University, he studied fine art, then drama.
His initiation into filmmaking is almost too classic to be believed: ”As a child I saw Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho on television,” he claims, ”and decided then and there that I wanted to make films.” As opposed, presumably, to murdering his mother.
Done with Wits, he launched himself straight into a filmmaking career. ”I had no money, no script, no equipment and a whole lot of enthusiasm.” His first film was the 21-minute Leaps Ahead, shot on home video in one day. Made on a budget of R600, and improvised by director and cast (including Brian Weber of Bent fame), Leaps Ahead is a ”day in the life” mockumentary about a choreographer and his dancers working on a dance piece. It is very funny.
This is a kind of poor filmmaking that, when done with the right sensibility, works extremely well. In Stoykov’s case, it’s the camp, over-the-top sensibility of Andy Warhol movies such as Trash and Flesh.
”I don’t think that top-of- the-range equipment and special effects necessarily produce brilliant work,” says Stoykov. ”So far I have only worked with minimal budgets — between R600 and R5 000. Instead of money I have relied on the talent and support of my friends.”
His next two short movies dive even more deeply into low-cost camp. Here the tutelary deity is John Waters, though Hitchcock still lurks in the background of Thrush, which starred drag queen and cult bartender Sharon Bone in a plot that had something to do with a secret weapon and a plague of deadly birds.
The half-hour-long Pussy develops the trash aesthetic, including alienation effects that would make Brecht blanch. It’s silent (with subtitles) and in black and white. Pussy, says Stoykov, ”tells the bizarre tale of a deranged fag hag who will stop at nothing to get her man. Together with her sidekick friend and slave, Buttfucker, Pussy takes us on a journey of immoral adventures, steeped in shameless deceit, sexual obsession and brutal murder. Buttfucker and Pussy are the psychotic Will and Grace.”
What more do you need to know? A ”fag hag” is a straight woman who’s very close to a gay man. Some may find Pussy offensive, or perhaps just unintelligible. It does not defer to the usual cinematic conventions. It’s not trying to be Hollywood; rather, it’s sending up Hollywood’s nether regions.
”I have always been interested and influenced by B-grade cinema,” says Stoykov. ”I find that mainstream cinema is dishonest, focusing only on certain aspects of our lives, whereas B-grade cinema is more exciting, exploring sex, violence — all the good stuff.” So trash rules.
That and a certain wayward fabulousness. Warhol would have loved him. Stoykov is filled with ideas, and already working on his next project.
”Make me famous,” he pleaded. I’m trying, Stan, I’m trying.