Honored samurai, ruthless ronin, wayward vagabonds, shadowy ninja and helpless villagers... welcome.
Opening Volley
This weekend, we dive into the short films of Matthias Von Braun, a London-based creative making “dark surreal science fiction films exploring themes of human sexuality and death”. A word of caution, the material is NSFW.
Main Event
An award-winning dark surrealist filmmaker, Von Braun’s short films have been screened at renowned art galleries, and film festivals around the world, including London, Berlin, Seattle, and Cape Town. His’s current list of films — Machine, Devoid, Switch and Decay II — are all shot in black and white, under 4 minutes each, feature haunting soundtracks and stark visuals. Utilizing dance artists and choreographers Melanie Whitehead Smith and Monika Blaszczak, Von Braun is able to move beyond dialog, engaging the audience on a primal level of emotion.
“It started as a creative outlet. I've always been very interested in film and science fiction. I had ideas that I wanted to explore, sometimes they were as simple as wanting to capture certain textures on the human body. As I've progressed my films have become more complex and meaningful.”
“I'm heavily influenced by Japanese Cinema, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Tetsuo II: Body Hammer, Ghost in the Shell, Akira and the Blame! graphic novels by Tsutomu Nihei.”
Those influences are clear, yet not over. Devoid sees the protagonist rising out of a birthing tank, Machine features her plugged in... slaved via massive tubing to the back of her brain, and Decay II gives us writhing tube-entities reminiscent of Tetsuo. Each piece is an original, stand-alone featurette in a gritty, oily, sinister world of emotionally-devoid and uncompromising machinations.
“Machine is a dark surreal nightmare set deep underground in a post-human automated factory where a bio-mechanical android bursts from her artificial fetal sac. She discovers her body and rejects her sexuality.” — Blood Guts UK
“I've just released a short film [Machine] online, I'm shooting a new short film [Imprenatable] this winter [January] and I'm currently writing a feature-length film that I want to shoot next year. The feature film will be as dark, surreal, and nihilistic as my short films but with a more traditional narrative structure.”
I need this film. I need it now. It is the harmonizer to the neon and candy-colored tripe being peddled to adult children with anime high school protagonist fetishes.
Before we part, I would feel remiss in not pointing out that Von Braun has two upcoming workshops on the creative process for beginning and intermediate level filmmaking. If I could be there, I would. Anywhere in Japan, I will be there.
We never meet without parting
Next issue... Hosts in the Shell podcast episode 23 with YOURS TRULY yacking about body horror in Japanese cyberpunk! 30 minutes of complete jibbish! (I promise!)
Until then!
Made in DNA
If I ever start a band, I’m going to name it Biomachine Harbinger.