"Starsuckers is a feature documentary about the celebrity obsessed media, that uncovers the real reasons behind our addiction to fame and blows the lid on the corporations and individuals who profit from it. Made by the same team behind BAFTA nominated Taking Liberties, it will be released in cinemas on the 30th October - unless Rupert Murdoch shuts us down first. Or Max Clifford. And perhaps Bob Geldof.
Made completely independently over 2 years in secret, the film journeys through the dark underbelly of the modern media. Using a combination of never before seen footage, undercover reporting, stunts and animation, the film reveals the toxic effect the media is having on us all – and especially our children. It shows how truth has become a distant memory in the modern news and climaxes with a shocking and startling revelation of just how bad things can get when we let entertainment reach out into politics and charity.
The first rule of working in the media is - do not critisise the media. Well, we've decided to break this golden rule, and if we ever work in this town again we won't have done our jobs properly. A film so controversial it will never be shown uncut on TV, and will pull the rug underneath a string of untouchables.
"Yeah, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. I told 'em not to touch the alarm - they touched it. If they hadn't done what I told 'em not to do, they'd still be alive".
Died Young, Stayed Pretty is a doc about the faceless artists and personalities responsible for the modern day rock poster and maintaining its relevance as a populist artform. The trailer below ebbs in and around a central theme of the film: this is a subculture that seemingly had very little organization, correspondence, and insider-identity before the web came along. After that, these artists, dare we say normal people, fled to one another and soon began experimenting with bold sexual acts and illegal substances attributed to many of their subjects. Actually, no. It appears they just met inside workshops and at picnic tables to debate the ubiquity of octopi and the color pink in their oft-hipsterized medium. For some reason, the shoegazer-styled trailer makes lowkey human discussion enticing…
The doc is the first for Iranian/Canadian director, Eileen Yaghoobian. In an interesting if obvious tie-in, she had several of the artists featured in the film create DIY posters for it. One of the valid points of the doc is how few of these artists are known, even to music and concert enthusiasts, and we cannot claim to be anywhere near schooled on the subject. A few of the names we do recognize as represented in the film are: Chicago’s Andrew Bird, Tyler Stout (his work at Mondo Tees paints the dreams of our most loyal readers by now), and Tanxxx. It would have been helpful if the trailer inserted the names over subjects as they spoke, allowing curious viewers to search GigPosters afterward. A few reviews thus far have favorably compared the doc to Helevetica; no question this is another niche culture that warrants a doc or more.