Danman Productions was dead. Long live Danman Productions!
[Note: first 7 minutes has a bad echo--fight through it!]
It was three years later when I found myself in a college class called Video Art. If the title doesn't tip you off, it was the kind of class that would enrage any tuition-paying parental unit. Situated in a basement within a decrepit building about three miles off campus, the class was about as underground as education gets in a major state university.
Not many film students knew about Video Art (and the A grades they handed out like candy), so it was mostly populated with performance artists who made blurry videos involving copious nudity and/or menstrual blood and/or feces. Bored to tears one day while watching an "art film" about fisting, I had a revelation: Danman Productions! Mockumentary! Interviews with my old buddies! No fisting! Just fun!
Taking the approach that Danman Productions was "the most controversial, cutting-edge production company in the industry's history," this Behind the Music-style doc traces the studio's rise from avant-garde outsider to household name to tabloid fodder. An uncredited (and English-accented) Matt K serves as the narrator, while nearly every Danman player shows up to take sides on the enigma that was Dan: brilliant visionary or drug-addled despot? (Yes, I make an appearance, too, offering up fatuous proclamations like: "Fear was about Vietnam.")
The ongoing thread detailing the feud between Shad and Joe is pretty funny. Also funny is Mike, supposedly driven to an obsession with monkeys by the lunacy of The Bastard Chicken Clock from Hell
new posts in all blogs
Viewing Post from: Francis Ford Iowa
Hi. My name is Daniel Kraus. I'm a novelist and filmmaker. When I was growing up in Iowa, I made movies with my friends. Many of them were remakes of movies I liked, like MISERY or THE GODFATHER. Others were originals. All of them were awful. Now, to lead up to the publication of my new book, THE MONSTER VARIATIONS, I'm blogging my old movies chronologically for your enjoyment. Let's feel the pain together.
By: DK,
on 3/15/2010
Blog: Francis Ford Iowa (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Add a tag
Blog: Francis Ford Iowa (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Add a tag
0 Comments on Sex, Drugs, & Film: The Rise and Fall of Danman Productions - Part I as of 1/1/1900