Here’s news about two recent k-films produced by grad-students, one in Toronto, the other in London, both of them dealing with particular music scenes, but in very distinct ways. The first one, titled Not Just Boy’s Fun: The Rad Ladies Project (An interactive documentary), is an intriguing work by media maker Cynthia Shulak. It was created while she was studying for her MFA in Documentary Media at Ryerson University in Toronto. Cindy describes her film as “an online documentary project which is attempting to stir up conversation between, and document the personal experiences of, women who were and/or still are involved in the hardcore/punk scene and communities associated with it.” Check out the associated project blog here too. To my mind, Shulak’s k-film is designed to be listened to as much as watched: the stitched-together video diaries suggest a kind of evolving, informed conversation about this particular music scene, by virtue of the piece’s sequential, rather than cloud-like, structure.

The second k-film is a really nicely shot behind-the-scenes “essay documentary” about an English band called the Rocket Dolls, who describe themselves as ‘Alternative Post Grunge Riff Metal’. It was created by Kai Clear, who is, in his own words, “a London-based filmmaker currently studying for my masters degree in documentary film at the London College of Communication.” He describes this project as “an experimental film documenting the recording of The Rocket Dolls ‘Frame’ promo video. This K-film is influenced by the essay documentary style of Chris Marker, the non-linear Korsakow documentaries of Florian Thalhofer and surrealist films of Maya Deren.” The Rocket Dolls k-film ably conveys both the fleeting excitement – and the particular tedium – of shooting a music video. While the music video itself offers few aesthetic surprises, breaking it down into a nonlinear narrative effectively disrupts its flow, producing a viewing experience which is more contemplative than visceral. (A slight frustration for me is that the Main Media widget seems unnecessarily small – a real loss considering how good the cinematography looks!)

Great to see people out there – especially film students – finding interesting ways to use Korsakow in their creative work. Bravo.

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