A convention is a convention, whether it belongs to Dentists, Shriners or the Republican Party, and although a convention of Shriners or dentists may prove to have greater historical significance, the Republican National Convention outweighs them by sheer size and the fact that the eyes of the world descend upon our cities for a few brief days.
A bit like the film “Ace in the Hole” about a small new event, that quickly becomes a circus, and becomes a store about the people reporting the news rather then the news itself. For a few brief days, and several millions of dollars The sleepy metropolis of St. Paul gets transformed into Cyber age Tokyo with video screens, art installations, and a variety of other shenanigans; protesters, supporters and miscellaneous circus folk from both sides of the aisle.
Political party conventions are not known for being memorable, except of course when they are. ’68 ring a bell? For four days in September of 2008 the Republicans took over the sleepy city of Saint Paul and it became, in a very real sense, a battleground. Smoke bombs, percussion grenades, pepper spray and journalist arrests bid for attention with Policy, Palin and McCain.
It was a convention unlike any other: The party of the least popular sitting president since Hoover, a hurricane, and a lot of protesters. Another new addition: an army of independent journalists to cover it.
Unconvention is a film about all of this, told through the eyes of the media. Ultra-Conservative, Ultra- Liberal and everything in between; this is an abstract portrait of a very concrete process, remixed into a new linear whole.
The film uses a collective process to tell a collective story, using found footage from dozens of journalists, citizen journalists and just plain citizens. A mash-up of modern media, from HD to cell phone cameras telling the lost story of police, protestors and civil liberties.
Chris Strouth: Director, producer
Chris Strouth has had many parallel career paths: a musician, producer, writer, and filmmaker. He has been a stalwart force in the Mid-West avant-garde scene since the day he graduated from high school and began working at the now legendary Rifle Sport Gallery. He moved from the punk and darkwave scenes and became a part of the early Acid House Rave movement working on projects like Hair Police, House Nation Under A Groove, and Depth Probe, This led to forming his own experimental sound system, “Future Perfect”, which received numerous Jerome Foundation grants, projects with the Walker Art Center, and a multi-year residency with the Fredrick R. Weisman Museum of Art. Future Perfect also released two critically acclaimed records.
His writings have been in America Online, Vita.MN, Request, Cake, and City Pages. He has also written and directed several theater pieces, most notably at the Red Eye collaboration where he curated their music program. He has worked on over 350 records, with artists ranging from the Grammy-nominated to the blink-and-you’ll miss-it variety, and he also was a producer on the Grammy-nominated album “The Clouds”.
As a filmmaker he has produced three features, two with Rick Fuller of Harder Fuller Films: the 2005 Stan Ridgway DVD “Holiday in Dirt”(NewWest), and the soon to be released No-wave concert film“M-80”(MVD). Unconvention is the first feature he has directed. He was a producer and host for the award winning TV program “What. “,directed the Twin/Tone family of record labels as well as the American Composers Forum’s Innova label.
In the six degrees of separation between John Cage and Judas Priest, he is number three.
Joan Sekler: Excutive producer
Joan Sekler is a founder of the Los Angeles Independent Media Center, a worldwide network of independent journalists and videographers who produce media on political and social issues. Ms. Sekler has been an associate producer and/or publicist for numerous political documentaries including the Academy Award winning film, The Panama Deception and Yellow Wasps: Anatomy of a War Crime, about the war in Bosnia.She was the producer of Crashing the Party: The Democratic National Convention 2000. Ms. Sekler is a former board member of the International Documentary Association
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