Untitled (2011)

UNTITLED (2011) from Craig Murray on Vimeo.

Written by Craig Murray:

I created a medical facility as part of a seven room interactive Installation / Performance in a real World War 2 bunker set in the year 2031…. In the afternoon before the week of shows began I decided to take a model and a camera down to shoot some footage…this is what I got.

ITS NOT A NEW PIECE…..IM JUST PRACTICING MY TECHNIQUE….

My main influence of style whilst shooting was Caravaggio

Location: Dalston, London
Model: Szabina
Shot on: Sony HDV Handycam
Edited on: iMovie 06
Music: Mum

I’m exercising free speech: Fuck you, Egyptian Government.

During the Iran protests of 2009, we covered the plight of its citizens, who just like Egypt, remain under the thumb of its government. Perhaps its presumptuous and arrogant for me to say that they probably don’t like it but it’s a safe bet. Their right to protest its government due to jaw-dropping political corruption is the right of man and is only taken from us when a power decides when it’s a “right” and when it’s not. [I'm not so good at news reporting so go here to read more about what's been going on in Egypt.]

To echo Bill Maher, I’d like to repeat his message to the Tea Party “movement:” We do not live in a tyranny. We have not yet experienced this. Despite the severity of our country’s (no, I’m not naive so forget about listing conspiracies here) issues — both hypocrisy and internal — we do not live in a tyranny. Despite living under Bush’s “reign of terror,” we did not live in a tyranny. We will not ever live in a tyranny simply because of our ideals regarding free speech.

I am not forgetting what happened to Wiki Leaks or the suspension of habeas corpus or the Patriot Act or how the media quashed reports of hundreds of thousands of people protesting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq back in the early years of the wars. I am not forgetting Guantanamo, the overthrow of heads of democratically elected governments in South America, or the imprisonment and desterilization of political dissenters in Puerto Rico. I’m not forgetting so many open mouths wired shut by the US government for practicing democratic ideals. What I’m saying is that we have the right to bitch about it and do something without worrying that our government will shut us down.

Yes, we have some serious problems with our government and its policies but they will not shut me down for telling it to go fuck itself and Egypt has no right or power to tell me that I can’t post this video.

Listen well:

FILM FOR BRIGHTON UK BASED BAND PLAGUE SERMON

3RD GENERATION PROCESS…SHOT ON DIGITAL 8 …THEN FILMED OF THE SCREEN…THEN FILMED OFF THE SCREEN AGAIN….)

SHOT (ON DIGITAL 8), BUILT AND EDITED (ON iMOVIE) BY CRAIG MURRAY

NOT DEINTERLACED

PLAGUE SERMON:THE DOVES FLY NORTH, THE CITY IS FORSAKEN from CRAIG MURRAY on Vimeo.

By Carlos Detres

I’m fond of video. I enjoy watching people who are long dead suddenly come back to life in a discolored, crumpled piece of film strip. It’s like engaging old heroes in dreams, attempting conversation with one of them as he trods along, unaware of his audience. He repeats the same movements and actions over and over again, slumping on a chair, slurring his words, smoking a cigarette or reciting poetry. Ghosts in black and white, drifting across the monitor, silently smiling or brooding. It’s all wonderful.

Here are some videos of dead writers; ghosts on the TV screen. The Native Americans were right — film does capture the soul.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Jack Kerouac

Henry Miller

Anais Nin

JG Ballard

Allen Ginsberg

Hunter S. Thompson

Georges Batailles

Charles Bukowski

Pablo Neruda

Ken Kesey

Homemade film Shot on a Sony handycam between August and October 2009 for the San Francisco band OXBOW(Hydrahead)

Film contains elements of 3rd generation footage:Third generation (shot… then shot off the TV… then shot off the TV again)

…..1st generation footage includes clips from Amalgam dir Craig Murray (2007), Adult webcams (Internet, 2003 – 2006) and Nostalgia dir Andrei Tarkovsky(1983)

Go here for more.

OXBOW: COALKING ( *Caution required* ) from CRAIG MURRAY on Vimeo.

were subjected to occupation, violence, and many other atrocities. The documentary, directed by Georges Franju (Eyes Without a Face), depicts the brutal realities of the Parisian meat industry and does not conceal the grotesque methods used to slaughter and slice these animals. It was neither for nor against carnivorism, however one can make the surrealist connection between these slaughterhouses and the meat-grinding violence committed unto fellow human beings in the recent war.

Franju, while discussing the color format, said, “If it were in colour, it’d be repulsive… the sensation people get would be physical one.”

Forgive the unintended censor but please be warned that this documentary contains graphic scenes.

With a handycam and ingenuity, Murray makes complex films with nearly no budget at all.

“This is the third and final version…cut from 52 minutes down to 33mins…5 extra scenes, no dialogue ( if you listen very carefully you’ll hear me reading Alice in Wonderland’s rabbit hole chapter word for word backwards…i mean very carefully)…more gore and over 400 new sounds from My black cat’s demonic symphony + tracks by Mogwai and Paperchase.

This has shown at festivals around the world …will be released in the not to distant future by a US company.”

Amalgam

AMALGAM (2007) 33 mins from CRAIG MURRAY on Vimeo.

Begotten is a 1991 Experimental/horror film, directed and written by E. Elias Merhige.

The film heavily deals with religion and the biblical story of the Creation. But as Merhige revealed during Q&A sessions, its primary inspiration was a near death experience he had when he was 19, after a car crash. The film features no dialogue, but rather uses harsh and uncompromising images of human pain and suffering to tell its tale.

The film was shot on black and white reversal film, and then every frame was rephotographed for the look that is seen. The only colors are black and white. There are no half-tones. This is intended to add to the eerie atmosphere of the movie, as sometimes the viewer cannot always exactly make out what it is being shown, but can still infer a sense of suffering. The look of the film has been described as “a Rorschach test for the eye”. Merhige said that for each minute of original film, it took up to 10 hours to rephotograph it for the look desired.

Mehrige also revealed in Q&A sessions that he would like this film to be the first of a trilogy. He is experiencing difficulties getting proper funding, and it is unknown if/when the two other films will be made.

Music video “Cryptorchid”, single for Antichrist Superstar by Marilyn Manson, was directed by E. Elias Merhige and includes footage from Begotten.

This film reached its apex of notoriety during its first screening when the audience began to riot. The surrealist film is also known for a provocative sequence in which an eye is bifurcated.  Enjoy.

Part 1

Part 2