CRAIG BALDWIN DOUBLE FEATURE

TRIBULATION 99   1992
Directed by Craig Baldwin
45 minutes
In English, no subtitles

People like talking about fake documentaries, so-called mockumentaries, but actually this film zooms into another galaxy altogether. Craig Baldwin is a 'found footage' maverick, taking material he has discovered—often in garbage cans or garage sales—and re-editing it into bizarre pseudo-documentaries. Viewers have referred to Baldwin's disorientating and psychedelic films as 'culture jamming', since he floods us with weird information and otherworldly narratives. This one at a swift 45 minutes takes us on one hell of a ride, smashing all the boxes of cinema. This 'science-fiction collage' film about aliens hiding underneath the earth's surface is also a snappy critique of America's fear of Latin America. It's full of twisted humor that deals with telepathy, political assassinations, civil wars, and covert operations by the CIA. Where minimalism has been trendy in the art scene for the last decades, Baldwin considers himself not a minimalist but a maximalist.  

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SONIC OUTLAWS   1995
Directed by Craig Baldwin
87 minutes
In English, no subtitles

Directed by the visionary Craig Baldwin, this is a playful documentary about the so-called “electronic folk" culture that emerged at the end of the last century in America. It was a movement of subversive artists who were out to shake things up culturally and socially, especially battling the corporate monopoly on defining 'intellectual property' domains. Although this flick ventures into the clandestine operations of several artist collectives on their mission to disrupt culture—like the Tape-Beatles, and the Barbie Liberation Organization—the main focus is on a music band called Negativland.

When lo-fi sound-collage artists Negativland did a parody record of U2, Island Records instantly sent a slew of lawyers after the group to tear them to pieces. All of their records were removed from the stores, and Island Records bashed them with court bills that destroyed Negativland financially. The group was signed to a small indie label called SST but when the scandal broke out, SST also attacked them and threw them under the bus. A fascinating story about ethics and freedom, and the power of big corporations. But like I said, this documentary also goes into the tactics of several other culture jamming artist-activist groups mostly working on the West Coast. A zero-budget rebel-documentary that explores the ethical issues of 'fair use' and copyright control.