On personal, political, philosophical, and, above all, moral grounds, I make movies using inexpensive consumer film and video products for non-existent budgets.
The idea of the art of filmmaking being intrinsically linked to commerce is a scam and a sham perpetuated by powers afraid of the power of art. They are afraid of no budget, no name, truly independent non corporate affiliated art changing lives and influencing the way people think. They are afraid of losing their position of power, for theirs is linked to the smoke and mirrors game it takes to keep the cash flowing. As we all know, you can’t take it with you.
The fetishized commodification of singular artists who missed the train to success in their lifetimes is destined to eventually resurrect a corpse. The marketing of one’s self to zombie throngs for a fleeting shot at fame and glory is an obscene waste of time. Instead it is more productive focusing on creating bold new cinema.
I make films for critical thinkers. For those who are hungry to be entertained in a different way. For those who don’t want to wallow in shit. I do what I do to balance the violence and fraud rampant commercialism has brought upon the art of filmmaking.
I am here to help the art heal. The soul stirring power of cinema, corrupted by commerce, needs the spirit of invention, experimentation, play, humor, foolishness, and innovation for its vigor and health. I am a volunteer cinematic janitor. A maintanence man for the film arts. I am interested in the welfare of cinema, not my own success as an artist.
My work is informed by the films and books I devoured as a lonely and confused third culture youth; bold, brash Hollywood offerings, cinematic trash of the exploitation/sexploitation, horror/slasher, kung fu mold, the long lost art of the crime drama, sci-fi, high art films from all over the world, soap operas and telenovelas, the Kuchars, Anger, and the wild experiments of avant garde literature, Antonin Artaud, archetypes, myths, Jung, psychology, and the teachings of the spiritual masters. And music.
The films I create are narrative based features and shorts run through a psychic blender of the self. Familiar genres and tropes collide, tear, and reconfigure into a Mobius strip dripping with the very miasmic essences of the creator’s self. My figurative sweat, blood, bile, come, and tears are ingrained in the pixels and film grain. The personal becomes universal. Microcosm becomes macrocosm.
Instead of rejecting art which does not conform to a dictated and predicated standard, the viewer should seek out wild new forms, shapes, and configurations of cinema in order to truly blossom as a human being. Repetition of form is stagnation. The artist has the freedom to experiment, to make mad mistakes, and to grasp at things which seem completely out of reach. It’s beyond language and numbers. It’s not a formula. It’s not math, or money.
The bankers do not own art. We do. Let us revel in that fact, rather than be obscured by those who fear it. I call upon us to plumb the wondrous depths of the self and to ultimately unshackle ourselves from the menacing menacles of commercial conformity. Let’s help each other set ourselves free. Let us not be afraid to seek, see, and truly recognize new, beautiful things.
Bob Moricz - Portland, OR 5/10/13
