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Director Zebra peddles compassion and hope in WINK: PIFF Feature Film Review

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WINK Movie Poster 1WINK
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Directed by G.D. Zebra | 65 minutes | Premiere screening October 1 at the Park Cinema

It sounds cliché, but it was true: there wasn’t a dry eye in the theatre on the night of October 1.

By the time the credits rolled at the premiere of G.D. Zebra’s amazing new film, WINK, it seemed as though all Park Animals had found it in their hearts to embrace each other for the rest of time.

Of course, we knew it wouldn’t last. And it didn’t. But for one brief shining moment—all right, several, as the film was screened again on October 5—The Park seemed as Jor had meant it to be: open, free of prejudice, and dedicated to providing a peaceful, safe, and prosperous life to all its citizens.

Produced by Kevin Kodkod (of Black Cats Can’t Jump fame), and narrated in parts by Willem Leopard, WINK takes us on the personal journey of a group of striped and spotted Animals who, after suffering a lifetime of prejudice, opt to have their visible differences removed.

One might expect Zebra to have made his mark on the film through his personal perspective, but what makes WINK so powerful is the fact that he steps back and lets the participants tell their own stories. And, in large part, it is the timeline itself that allows us to feel the full effect of those stories.

As we follow the group for a period of three years—before, during, and after their stripe and spot removal procedures—the participants cease to appear to us as a homogeneous group. Rather, we see them as individuals who have experienced similar but distinct reactions to their visible otherness. And in discussing those reactions, they open a window through which we see their suffering and hopes more clearly.

As they introduce us to their families, their friends, and their way of life, their “otherness” seems to disappear. By the time they’ve booked their procedures, we find ourselves wondering why they’ve done it. Unfortunately, that wonder doesn’t last very long.

Indeed, we learn from the film’s title that these Animals have no way of escaping their past experiences which inform their lives forever. The title comes from a statement made by participant Aadhya Leopard, who when asked how it felt to emerge as a solid-coloured Animal, said, “It’s like a wink. It’s like I’m saying I’m just like you, but we both know I’m not.”

Participant Maximilian Appaloosa went even further. “What I discovered is that there is no such thing as an invisible minority. What your ancestors have suffered and the narrative you were raised on determines who you are and how you interact with others. And other Animals can sniff that out even if you look the same as they do. I discovered that all Animals have some kind of radar. It’s not just Bats,” he said.

The film, which lasts just over an hour, includes interviews with popular Park musician and anti-stripe-removalist ZEAL, anti-sortitionist and self-described “naturalist,” director Douglas Cheetah, and SCENTIENT Beings composer and father of Reekabilly music Faramund Stinktier, who announced his transition to being a Zebra last year.

But the film isn’t about the famous, or even about the striped and spotted Animals whose stories it tells. It is really about the rest of us, whose duty it is to confront our own otherness in order for all otherness to disappear.

WINK
The Park Cinema
October 17-31
Showtimes: 11:00; 1:00; 3:00; 5:00; 9:00

Stan the Spitman speaks out about the use and misuse of his product at PIFF

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Park Interspecial Film FestivalLess than a week after the end of the Park Interspecial Film Festival (PIFF), Stan the Spitman is speaking out about the unlawful use of his product at PIFF events.

In an op-ed piece published today in The Burro Beacon, Estanislao “Stan” Gonzalo de Llama condemned in no uncertain terms what some Animals did with his product at the film festival. And he let it be known that he intends to put a stop to it.

“I am proud of what I make and I don’t make it to be used to attack others, particularly others whose species or politics differ from my own,” he wrote in the newspaper.

The second generation SpitMeister (master of the art of spitmaking) was referring to the repeated use of spitballs at the screening of WINK, which opened the festival on October 1. Police charged twenty-one Animals with crimes of a specist nature after they threw spitballs at the director and other attendees as they entered the Park Cinema.

Although Stan has never condoned that sort of behaviour, he expressed a different view about it in Searching for the Spitman: A Journey Through Foam, Froth, and Fun, a film about his life that premiered at PIFF 2015.

In that film, he estimated that ninety per cent of his products go toward humiliating other Animals.

“It’s a fact of life in the profession,” he said. “But it doesn’t keep me up at night.”

In today’s o-ed piece, however, he said he’d changed his mind after witnessing events at this year’s festival.

“I can’t stand by and watch Animals use my product that way anymore,” he wrote. “It needs to stop.”

WINK director to host pre-premiere party tonight at The Feeding Station

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WINK Movie PosterWINK director G.D. Zebra will host a pre-premiere party tonight at Mikko Tikkeri’s The Feeding Station, The Mammalian Daily has learned.

According to our sources, the guests are all A-listers, not only in the film industry, but in the fight against discrimination against Animals of Pattern.

The coveted party invitations were sent out Tuesday night and our sources tell us that it’s a definite “yes” for WINK producer Kevin Kodkod and one of the film’s stars, Willem Leopard. Other invitees are said to include Douglas Cheetah, Mary Margay, Millicent Hayberry, Monique Tigress, Carlos Geraldo Gato de León, director of Noon Nuttiness film I Am Geoffrey’s Cat, Faramund Stinktier, ZEAL, S.L. Pomfret (aka Fish Rap), Zachariah Skunk, Balbina Ko of Holstein Fashion, and Momoko Yamaneko, and Editor-in-Chief of Prionailurus Press.

#PIFFPiffle: Rumour says Tab Tricolore to open Tabby Club to all for PIFF 2016

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The Tabby ClubThe latest out of the PIFF 2016 rumour mill is that celebrity chef Tab Tricolore intends to open up The Tabby Club to all during the five-day film fest.

The pub, which was founded and run by Jor, The Park’s first leader, has always been a “striped-only” establishment. That has caused some controversy in the past and in May, Toro Talk Radio host Yannis Tavros launched his #BullinTheTabbyClub campaign after he was was denied entry to the pub.

But now, those close to him say that the Bad Boy chef has decided throw open the doors of his pub to all. But only for the duration of the festival.

“He wants to do it to celebrate the spirit of ‘full equality of experience,’ which is what WINK, the opening film, is all about,”  says Barry “Béarnaise” Burmilla, the chef’s former saucier.

According to our sources, the celebrity chef and restaurateur was the driving force behind choosing WINK as the festival’s opening night film. WINK explores the experience of a group of Park citizens as they make the transition from being Animals of pattern to living their lives as solid-coloureds. The film’s subject matter is believed to be so dear to Tricolore’s heart that he was among the film’s financial backers.

Tricolore is expected to make an official announcement regarding the opening of The Tabby Club in the next few days.

The Park Interspecial Film Festival (PIFF) runs from 1-5 October 2016.

WINK: Most controversial opening film ever for PIFF 2016

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Park Interspecial Film FestivalIf controversy is a predictor of success, then award-winning director G.D Zebra’s WINK is set to be the most successful opening film ever at The Park Interspecial Film Festival (PIFF).

PIFF Communications President Leola Ocelot announced the opening choice this morning at a press conference outside the Park Cinema. It didn’t take long for the hoots and howls to begin.

Flanked by the film’s director and one of its stars, Willem Leopard, Ocelot fielded questions from Park media while she ducked stones, sticks, and balls of mud. It is not clear whether these were intended for her or for Zebra and Leopard.

The film, which was produced by Kevin Kodkod (of Black Cats Can’t Jump fame), follows a group of striped and spotted Animals for a period of three years—before, during, and after they have their stripes and spots removed. The film records for “posterity and illumination” the group’s experiences, feelings, and fears—both as Animals of pattern and then as solid-coloureds.

Included in the film are interviews with popular Park musician and anti-stripe-removalist ZEAL, anti-sortitionist and self-described “naturalist,” director Douglas Cheetah, and SCENTIENT Beings composer and father of Reekabilly music Faramund Stinktier, who announced his transition to a Zebra last year.

Ocelot said the October 1 gala screening would be the film’s début.

“There be no sneak preview or even a trailer release,” she said.

The Park Interspecial Film Festival (PIFF) runs from 1-5 October 2016.

Introducing PIFF Piffle: relevant irrelevancies about our annual film fest

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Park Interspecial Film FestivalThe Park Interspecial Film Festival (PIFF) is one of our most popular annual events. Yet, very little is known about its inner workings: the behind-the-scenes triumphs and tragedies, the disasters or even near-misses, and the antagonism, jealousy, and pettiness that play a part in The Park’s most cutthroat film industry.

But that is all about to change this year.

As a celebration of the festival’s twelfth year and in recognition of the maturation of the industry over the past decade and the value of film in Park life, The Mammalian Daily has given a new assignment to our official PIFF reporter, Aivis Burunduks. From now until the end of the festival, Burunduks will be reporting from behind the camera, behind the curtain, and behind the press conference. He’ll show you what goes into making a PIFF-worthy film and how that film makes it into the festival. He’ll expose the messy machinations of the industry and introduce you to the fire-breathing producers and the pandering publicists.

So, take a seat while we take you on a whirlwind tour of the second-greatest show in The Park.

PIFF 2016 sneak peek: Noon Nuttiness

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Park Interspecial Film FestivalThe Park Interspecial Film Festival (PIFF) is a little more than a month away and today, we got a sneak peek at what’s going to tickle our funny bones come October.

At a short press conference this morning, PIFF Communications President Leola Ocelot announced two of the films that will screen during the Noon Nuttiness portion of PIFF 2016:

AS I LIVE AND BREED: A NATURAL BUNNY’S HOME VIDEOS
Directed by Ilona Pupu
The Park | 20 minutes | Noon Nuttiness Première

Comedienne Ilona Pupu, who regularly makes fun of the ability of her species to produce what she calls, “three generations, no waiting,” directs and stars in this sendup of the life of a “natural bunny.”

With candid clips from her own life (and birthing) and actors standing in for her relatives and friends, Pupu pokes fun at her species without entirely spearing it. “Education? Who has time!” she declares as she nurses one litter while birthing another. One of the funniest parts of this film shows three of the four seasons go by in the background as Pupu’s niece Veera gives birth. Over and over again.

I AM GEOFFREY’S CAT: MY HILAIREIOUS SEARCH FOR AN INDEPENDENT IDENTITY
Directed by Carlos Geraldo Gato de León
The Park | 22 minutes | Noon Nuttiness Première

How are you supposed to have an independent identity when the Human boy you live with has the same name as your breed?

That is just one of the questions this Noon Nuttiness selection poses. But if that sounds too serious for you, don’t worry: this short film will have you in stitches as you watch the confusion mount. The star, who is also the director’s cousin, has a wicked sense of humour, which he loves to turn on his Human victims.

The title, by the way, invokes the name of the Human, Geoffrey St. Hilaire, after whom the star’s breed is named.

The Park Interspecial Film Festival runs 1-5 October 2016.

Glass shape made of nuts with strawNoon Nuttiness gratefully acknowledges the support of The Nut Bar, the most trusted nut shop in The Park.

Searching for the Spitman: Noon Nuttiness Review

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Park Interspecial Film Festival
Searching for the Spitman: A Journey Through Foam, Froth, and Fun
♥♥♥♥♥♥

Directed by Ernesto Santiago Camello | 23 minutes | Final screening October 5 at the Park Cinema

We’re all familiar with our friend Stan the Spitman’s signature phrase, “Spitballs from Heaven!” Yet how much do we know about the Spitman, himself?[pullquote]I tell my clients it’s an old family recipe, but it’s not. I made it up on the fly and it worked…because the fly stuck to the wall.—Estanislao Gonzalo de Llama, aka Stan the Spitman[/pullquote]

Not a lot, as it turns out. But writer and director Ernesto Santiago Camello has set out to change all that in this alarmingly candid short film about one of The Park’s funniest citizens engaged in one of the world’s oldest professions: spitmaking.

Estanislao “Stan” Gonzalo de Llama is a second generation SpitMeister, a master of the art of spitmaking.

“It’s an honourable profession,” he says with a wry smile, “that makes products used for dishonourable purposes.”

That wasn’t always so, as Camello demonstrates in his short look back at the history of spitmaking. But, these days, Stan estimates that about ninety per cent of his products go toward humiliating other Animals.

“It’s a fact of life in the profession,” he says. “But it doesn’t keep me up at night.”

Camello follows Stan through his day, from rising long before dawn to set a pot on the fire, to the arduous task of mixing, boiling, and stirring the ingredients.

“I tell my clients it’s an old family recipe, but it’s not. I made it up on the fly and it worked…because the fly stuck to the wall,” he jokes.

The film is full of lines like that—jokes that wouldn’t even be funny if they came out of another Animal’s mouth. But Stan gets away with it, largely because he is an honourable Animal. Last year, for instance, when Milton Struts, then head of the Park Finance Office, found himself covered in spitballs at the PIFF Awards ceremony, Stan secretly sent him a gift certificate for a full “do” at The Pluming Room.

“I don’t even know for sure that it was my spit they were using, but I know how it would feel and I didn’t think he deserved that. I’m not sure any Animal does,” he says in one of his more thoughtful moments in the film.

In another of those moments, Stan lets slip that if he hadn’t been pressured into joining the family business, he probably would have become a comedian or even a musician. And just so you don’t dwell on the poignancy of that admission, he quickly offers up another:

“No matter what, I’d have made my way back to spit[making]. It’s in my DNA,” he laughs.

PIFF preview: Herman Stoat: Mon Chemin Compliqué

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Park Interspecial Film FestivalAll PIFF documentaries are good. Some, of course, are better than others. Then, there are those that are spectacular.

And, that adjective is more than appropriate for the much-anticipated Herman Stoat: Mon Chemin Compliqué.

Conceived and produced by Pussyfoot Productions, this film about the life and work of the renowned dancer, choreographer, and founder and artistic director of the eponymous dance company has been in the making for more than four years. Yet, it received its official title only last year, after Stoat and his company’s assistant choreographer Gustav Hermelin created the dance, Le Chemin Compliqué, for the 2014 Celebration of the Winter Solstice.

“That was how we knew we were done,” Stoat said in a PRANCE magazine interview last month. “Somehow, with that dance and that title, we’d come full circle.”

Stoat knows a lot about circles, having danced professionally for years before founding the Herman Stoat Dance Company. And while he’s achieved a level of artistic success that was previously unknown in The Park, that success, which includes being named Choreographer of the Decade by PRANCE Magazine, has come at a cost.

“You might say that I survived success,” Stoat jokes in an early scene in the film. “But you might also say that I didn’t.”

Even Stoat fans who watched the choreographer’s reality series three years ago on Vertebrate Vision TV will be surprised at the physical, mental, and emotional pain this film uncovers and how complicated a road Stoat has travelled.

A Park refugee, both Stoat’s parents died at the hands of Humans.

“They were in their prime but, unfortunately, so were their coats,” he says matter-of-factly.

Left to his own devices, the young Stoat found his way to The Park, where he was taken in by a family and raised, as he says, “with love and care.” But there were problems in the household, jealousies among the family’s natural offspring, and expectations he could not meet.

“Early on, I discovered my natural talent for dancing and it saved me. I could go off on my own, explore my ideas, and set my moves to music,” he says.

It was during that time that he discovered the effect his moves had on others, as well.

“It was almost hypnotic, the effect. I noticed crowds gathering and they were mesmerized by my dancing. Suddenly, I found I couldn’t stop and they didn’t want me to, either.”

Stoat danced himself into Park history, but there came a time when he did have to stop for a while, after the anguish of his early years caught up with him.

“I’d packed it all away and suddenly, after I won a few awards, it all came tumbling out. I needed some time alone and even contemplated retirement,” he says.

Fortunately for Park dance lovers, Stoat finally returned to the stage refreshed and ready to take on new challenges, including teaching, working with artists in other genres, and calling for more diversity of species in dance. And, he reveals in the film, there is even more to come.

“There are days when I wake up and I think, ‘I’ve only just begun,’ ” he says with joy.

Herman Stoat: Mon Chemin Compliqué will screen at the Park Cinema on Friday, October 2 at 2:00 p.m. and on Sunday, October 4 at 4:00 p.m.

Retired novelist’s film to open PIFF 2015

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Park Interspecial Film FestivalThe first film of retired novelist Hentrick Olifant will open the 2015 Park Interspecial Film Festival (PIFF) in October, it was announced today.

At a short press conference this morning, PIFF Communications President Leola Ocelot confirmed the selection.

“We are thrilled to announce that Hentrick Olifant’s first film, Parade, will open our festival this year. As you will see for yourselves, Parade is a wonderful mix of history and autobiography with a futuristic twist. We are grateful to have the chance to screen this film,” she said.

Ocelot said the October 1 gala screening would be the film’s début, but she could not confirm that Olifant would be in attendance.

“Since he retired from writing novels, he’s been a bit of a recluse, but we are going to try our best to coax him out for this,” she said.

Best known for his novel, Grasses, Leaves, Bamboo, Bark, which won the 2006  award for fiction at the Park Annual Literary Awards (now Chitter Radio Literary Awards), Olifant also served as a Park Archon in 2009. He was last in the public eye in April of 2014, when he announced his retirement from writing fiction by auctioning off his unused novel titles (all proceeds went to charity).

Regarded as one of The Park’s most prolific writers, Olifant said at the time of his retirement that should be decide to resume writing, it would most likely be in the form of history or personal memoir. Instead, he combined the two and chose to work in a different medium.

“I find film much more dynamic than the novel these days,” he said in a rare interview last month. “There is more to do and, thus, more scope. Yet, alas, there is less time in which to do it,” he said.

In the opening credits of Parade, Olifant is listed as screenwriter, co-director, and producer.

The Park Interspecial Film Festival (PIFF) runs from 1-5 October 2015.

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