RED BONE GUERRILLAS
Dir. Pierre Bennu, 2003.
USA, 103 min.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 – 7:30PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 – 7:30PM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 – 10:00PM

What starts out like a DIY Christopher Guest send-up of theater culture morphs into something entirely else in Pierre Bennu’s RED BONE GUERRILLAS, the sole feature film by the illustrious Baltimore-based multimedia artist. After being bullied by an overhyped, narcissistic Broadway has-been named Magenta Bergenstein (“You clap for yourself, not for me!”), a troupe of young acting students embark to mix Situationist theater with a revolutionary politic – an “aesthetic towards freedom” – even as their lives can’t help but pull them in other directions. With a startlingly natural pitch, Bennu blends a real theatrical character-building exercise – the dialogue was improvised on-set – with a commentary on collective radicalization that makes for a densely packed, full-throated and furiously honest satire.

It’s a masterful study in forms, cliches and their appearances – their rises and falls within media. Some scenes feel like gripping reality television, some like outdoor performance pieces; the funniest thing about the RBGs is how easy it is for them to get to the top.  Despite Bennu’s knack for the essayist’s approach, the film makes sure to entertain while its story’s final act unravels like a political thriller, tackling the blurring of the private and public self in ways that recall both SUNSET BOULEVARD and any number of unfolding real-time celebrity meltdowns – largely happening in a pre-Internet microcosm. (A cell phone, or suite of computer monitors, signal both distraction and power – a lurch forward in conspicuous consumption.)

Please note: a selection of Bennu’s early short films will play before RED BONE GUERRILLAS.

Pierre Bennu is an award winning filmmaker, writer, artist and performer. He is the principal creative of Exittheapple, an alternative media and arts company specializing in film and digital media, visual arts, gift books, and music.