Next month: The Residents, The Third Reich & Roll (1976)

For Dark Carnival Film Festival director Dave Pruett, it is Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark, which he says “still scares me to this day.” Pruett was raised on late-night horror films shown on WTTV, hosted by local personality Sammy Terry.

This love of horror inspired him to create the Dark Carnival Film Festival with fellow horror junkie Arthur Cullipher, which is celebrating its second year in Bloomington this month.

Pruett originally had in mind a local showcase for last year’s festival, but word of mouth spread so fast, it quickly became regional, national and then international. Besides films from all across the United States, the festival’s submissions board received entries from Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, Spain, Italy, New Zealand, Germany and Switzerland.

Unlike other festivals—some are first come, first serve while others go for the most “commercial” ones—Dark Carnival opts for the unique and creative. As the festival site’s FAQ says, “We’d much rather see a really good, tightly edited 7-minute movie, than a mediocre 25-minute movie.”

“Our motivation isn’t profit, it’s our love of film,” Pruett said. At what he calls “a true film festival,” less emphasis is placed on merchandise, though some vendors will have tables at screenings. Horror fan conventions, by contrast, are driven by profit and the vendor tables are in the dozens. Pruett quipped with a laugh, “If anything, we lose money!” For Pruett and horror fans, it’s a dream come true: five straight days of original films, some made on shoestring budgets, others with budgets running into the six-digit range. Much criticism was waged against Hollywood horror, which is too reliant on gimmicky CGI, jump-in-your-seat shock value, and gore for the sake of gore.

Dark Carnival will feature many notable guests. Actor/musician Ari Lehman (Jason Voorhees in the original Friday The 13th) is returning along with his horror-punk band FirstJason. Among the other guests will be John Dugan (Grandpa in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), “reigning scream-queen” Tiffany Shepis, various filmmakers, and the man who indirectly inspired it all, Sammy Terry. In addition, Bloomington favorites Baron Mardi and Dr. Calamari, hosts of the Cinemat’s weekly Atomic Age Cinema series, will serve as the “Monsters of Ceremonies” for the festival’s proceedings.
The festival is set to take place September 16-21. The screenings on September 16 and 17 will take place at the Cinemat. These two nights will be free to the public, featuring films Pruett said were “of merit…more off-beat, a little stranger” than the average Dark Carnival entry. Having received 150 submissions, it was not easy to determine which would be among the batch to be shown during the festival’s run. “We could easily run this thing for a month,” Pruett said regarding the amount of films submitted, noting that the submission committee made a point to watch each and every one.

The first paid event will be on September 18. It will be a night of films at the Starlite Drive-In on the west side of Bloomington, near Highway 37. According to Pruett, the drive-in screening was “where the party started” for the festival last year. In keeping with the “Dark Carnival” motif, Starlite will feature fire-eaters, belly dancers, and snake handlers, as well as live music and fireworks. The festival will then move to the Buskirk-Chumley Theater downtown for the next two days, with the proceedings starting at 2 PM on the 19th and noon the following day. Before the films on the 20th, a panel discussion will be held concerning the changing roles of women in horror cinema. Tiffany Shepis, filmmakers Susan Adriensen and Jennifer Friend and IU Department of Communication and Culture Professor Joan C. Hawkins will participate in the discussion, noting how recent films such as Hard Candy, High Tension, and The Descent all featured empowered women as either heroes or villains. Both days will be divided into three presentations, each featuring shorts and a feature-length film. Adult-only (the website warns these films “aren’t for the faint of heart”) presentations will be held at the end of both nights.

The night of the 20th will include a VIP dinner at the Scholar’s Inn near College and Fourteenth Street. Spots are limited, but it provides a chance for filmgoers to meet both the celebrity guests as well as various directors. The dinner is also an awards ceremony for best feature, best short, best music video, best documentary, best special effects and best cinematography. With only twenty tickets available at $25 a piece, they’re bound to go quickly. Pruett remarked how the collaborative nature of independent artists was sparked at last year’s banquet, as Alan Rowe Kelly, director of last year’s favorite The Blood Shed, was inspired to spearhead work on a remake of an old cult favorite, Don’t Go Into The Basement.

The final day of the festival will feature simultaneous screenings at the Buskirk-Chumley and the John Waldron Arts Center. Also at the Waldron will be seminars on both filmmaking and special effects for low-budget fledgling directors. The screening committee picked its own individual favorites to be screened on the closing day. Pruett discussed how after the festival, there are three months of downtime before the cycle starts all over again and they start viewing submissions and event planning in January for next year’s festival.
Besides the “bigger and better” factor concerning celebrity guests and even more films from abroad, the 2008 Dark Carnival Film Festival differs greatly from last year in that it is being held during the school year, meaning the niche market of 18 to 25 year olds will be coming in droves. Individual screening tickets were unavailable at the time of publishing, but the website boasts greater savings with the purchase of a $25 all-access pass for the entire festival, which is also available at a discounted rate of $19 for students. You can learn more about the festival and purchase tickets at www.darkcarnivalfilmfest.com.

This sounds like heavy material, and it is. Nosko said it was Powell’s stated objective to remain as neutral as possible with his script. No politicians or nations are addressed directly. This was done to give audiences the chance to imagine themselves in the scenarios on either side of the conflict. Director Hannah Moss made it very clear that the most praise should go to the small cast, all of whom come from varying social, political, and economic backgrounds. The players were brought together as they helped to streamline the script, crafting the dialog into a more natural vernacular, but most importantly as they opened up and discussed the topics addressed by Powell’s play. “These actors are very brave people,” Moss declared.

Nosko presented Powell’s hypothesis regarding the play’s title, “If we can declare war on terror, what would happen if we declared ‘peace’ on terror? By showing we aren’t afraid, terror will be rendered impotent.” The main point of the play is to overcome fear, but in order to do that, we must confront our emotions. Moss mentioned the short-lived harmony after 9/11, and how it was quickly displaced into seeking revenge for what had happened. In her words, we have spent “seven years in denial.” Our nation’s grief was transformed into blind anger, first toward Afghanistan, and now Iraq. The other objective is to ask the audience to walk a mile in the other person’s shoes: the fear and vulnerability we felt on 9/11 is something that citizens of other countries endure on a daily basis.

The play can be seen for five dollars at the Waldron Center’s Rose Firebay Theater on August 8th and 9th at 8:00 PM. In addition, a special afternoon staging will be held on the 9th at 2:00 PM. It will also be performed at the Bloomington Playwright’s Project on August 15th and 16th at 8:00 PM, with an afternoon performance on the 17th. After these six performances in Bloomington, Peace On Terror will be presented at the Fringe Festival in Indianapolis, August 22-31. Each performance is set to end with a discussion session between the actors and the audience. With what is bound to be a thought-provoking show meant to enlighten the public, Moss stated, “This is why we don’t do Oklahoma!” with a chuckle.

As the pioneering leaders of modern rock and roll, The Beatles’ catalog contains no less than five albums that are constantly considered among the best ever: Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966), Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), The Beatles or The White Album (1968), and Abbey Road (1969). Unfortunately, their other albums are constantly the subject of debate regarding their quality: a minority of fans enjoys the stripped-down Let It Be (1970), while others defend Beatles For Sale (1964) as the first folk rock album. One album that is constantly panned, neglected, and overlooked is their 1965 album Help!. This album is in dire need of reevaluation: it is just as groundbreaking in its own right as anything else they ever composed.

Help! exists in the same transitional territory as Beatles For Sale, where the Fab Four were intent on moving away from writing pop songs, and instead began to focus on writing songs of real depth and substance. A handful of songs on the latter achieve this goal, but it truly flourishes on Help!. However this has never kept it from being blown off as tritely pop by various journalists, authors and even John Lennon. The great deception of the original compositions on Help! is that the new style of lyrics is still wrapped up in a pop packaging. However, some 43 years after its original release, the catchy music can now be seen as ironic in light of songs that deal with depression, cruel lovers, narrators who are cruel to their lovers, and break-ups. This irony is only augmented by the fact that the first seven tracks were featured in their second feature film, also entitled Help!.

One of the most underrated songs in The Beatles’ canon, “It’s Only Love,” which Lennon himself later damned and disowned – he considered it one of his least favorite songs – is in fact a telling glimpse into his personal life. Paul McCartney is just as solid, and not just in the obvious case of “Yesterday.” His knack for writing strong yet unique melodies and arrangements find a firm foothold on tracks like “The Night Before” and “Tell Me What You See.” George Harrison contributed two original compositions, both of which are strong both musically and lyrically. “I Need You” is also noteworthy for its usage of a volume pedal to create its unique guitar sound. (Harrison’s playing on the introduction of McCartney’s “I’ve Just Seen a Face” is also nothing to sneeze at). Ringo Starr provides some solid work as a percussionist and drummer as well, most notably on “Ticket to Ride” and “Tell Me What You See.”

A slight reprieve comes along with all these tales of broken relationships. With the band’s covers of Buck Owens’ rockabilly tune “Act Naturally” (sung by the lovable Ringo) and Larry Williams’ “Dizzy Miss Lizzie,” which closes the album on a rollicking, upbeat note, Help! marked the end of an era. Never again would The Beatles record proper pop music. They would instead venture into folk, psychedelia and nearly every genre under the sun; a sublime end to a fantastic era.