The Anti-Banality Union's Unclear Holocaust

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/8/12 at 11:08pm

Found this article in the Voice about a Situationist-inspired group of troublemakers calling themselves The Anti-Banality Union. They've unveiled a slightly longer than one hour mash-up of over 50 NYC-centered disaster films, and created what they call a "feature-length autopsy of Hollywood's New York-destruction fantasy ... one relentless orgy of representational genocide."

I found the article really stimulating, the movie itself (link in the Voice article) quite numbing, and now my head's spinning. After watching the movie, I reread the interview. That's how I'd recommend doing it if you take this on (before the movie gets yanked on copyright grounds).




Unclear Holocaust uses deft Situationist slight-of-hand to interrogate the stories we tell ourselves

[SNAFU]

Posted: 10/9/12 at 2:07am

Namo, watched themovie then read the article. My gut reactions in order of appearance;
1) Fasination. Gershwin and the footageof NYC from an arial perspective,always two thumbs up. The set up intiguing, tiresome for a bit. I spent too much time picking out the movies the clips were from. About two thirds of the way through, was finding it hard to catch my breath. Havinging lived on John street 4 blocks away from the WTC on 9/11 it brought back horrible memories! I actually had olfactory hallucinations remembering the smell of that morning, something one is not easily to forget. Then there was anger.
I read the title of the review and actually became quite angry..."The Funniest 9/11 documentory film ever."?
I have always known, well before 9/11 that the destruction of NYC was always prime fodder for the American movie going psychi. Perhaps man's greatest achievement, being laid waste. Many films have used this. The filnal scenes from Fail Safe shown in this film terrified me as a child! Much as the shots of the recreation of the event's of 9-11.
It is funny how films depicting the destruction of LA, never seem to have the same box office. In fact there was one film I remember seeing a trailer of where LA had been hit buy a nuclear assault. The on-line preview showed a man not allowing his wife into the house as ash fell around her. Not sure if that filemmade it to the theatres as it seemed to be trying to be released in 2002 or 2003.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/9/12 at 9:57am

You're right, the Voice headline doesn't really make sense and isn't reflected in anything said by the Anti-Banality Union.

I have a tendency not to see destruction movies, I mostly recognized Independence Day. Before watching "Unclear", I had completely forgotten Oliver Stone had made a 9/11 movie.