Alex Munt is a graphic designer turned music video director who also contributes to academia in his role as a lecturer at Macquarie University’s Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies; but more recently this overachieving renaissance man took on the uber hyphenate role of writer-director-producer for his debut feature film LBF.
Based on the novel Living Between Fucks by Cry Bloxsome, LBF tells the story of Paris-based writer Goodchild (Toby Schmitz) who returns to his hometown Sydney for the funeral of his ex-girlfriend (Gracie Otto) and steadily goes off the rails. Charged with this new task and a heady cocktail of booze and drugs, Goodchild lurches between parties interviewing people he encounters along the way. Munt describes his highly-stylised black comedy as a ‘pop art film’, a descriptor that was in part inspired by the locally made tunes he packs into the film’s soundtrack – Boy & Bear, Grand Salvo, Sir, Sparkadia. And a bunch of outfits perform on screen, including Teenagers in Tokyo, Tennis (now Tortoiseshell), Fergus Brown and Kids at Risk.
We caught up with Alex Munt to discuss the film before it previews in front of his local crowd as part of Vivid Creative Sydney. He explains how music influences his work, the experience of premiering LBF at giant Texas conference South By Southwest and what’s next. First, check out the trailer…
Pedestrian: Tell me about the concept of the ‘pop art film’. What does that description or genre mean, and why did you decide to make that sort of film? Alex: The ‘pop-art’ tag was something that came to me towards the end of the film – when I looked at what we actually had. It works in a couple of ways – firstly it alludes to pop-music which is loaded into LBF, as both live-band on screen performances and on the soundtrack.
The narrative of ‘Love, Loss, Desperation’ is like the content of a three minute pop song in the form of cinema. But it also reflects the ‘pop’ aesthetic of the film – approach to character, colour, wardrobe, etc. Pop Art has a strong tradition in the arts, and in film too. One playful thing we did for the film was to insert the wardrobe (pre-production) tests for the actors into the actual film itself in parts, it’s just them filmed on white, partly in character. This makes me think of Warhol’s screen tests in form and style (but I wouldn’t say LBF attempts to link explicitly with say ‘Chelsea Girls’ or his films).
I’m trying to frame LBF by its inclusion of contemporary pop culture elements: music, fashion, art, design. We decided to make LBF in a kind of no-rules approach – a loose script, Cry Bloxsome’s novel in the back pocket and a head full of visual slash musical ideas.
There’s some great music on the soundtrack. Were you conscious to keep it local? How important is the role of music in your movie? Yeah very conscious to keep it local. Like many Sydneysiders this springs, in part, from listening to [Sydney community radio station] FBi a lot which has been great for getting Sydney indie music on air.
Working on a micro-budget, it is also pragmatic – these bands gig in around Oxford Street and Kings Cross so we knew we could capture them live. I would describe LBF as a music film — so it’s central. Part of the ambition with the film was to get new Australian music on screen. If you have a look at how well our bands do now internationally, it’s always seemed a lost opportunity to me. Sep Caton acts in the film – from Kids at Risk, so that was a no-brainer to get him involved in that capacity.
KIDS AT RISK – “Doing the best that we can”
To what extent has your background in music video-making influenced LBF? My background is more in design – so the visual look of LBF, and taking a kind of graphic approach to cinema reflects that. I’m doing more and more music video work lately though, I’m interested in both live music video (shot on the streets guerrilla) and more studio setup stuff. On the weekend I just shot a clip for The Model School ‘We’re All Gonna Die’ (on the LBF soundtrack) in the genre of ‘post-apocalyptic slacker mayhem’ which was a lot of fun.
You went to South By Southwest to premiere LBF. What did you get out of that experience? SXSW was great – and I think the perfect home for LBF as a convergence of film and music. We had 3 x screenings with Q&A sessions and it’s always interesting to see an audience from a different country ‘read’ the film. They liked it and got some really interesting responses to the film. I think it is something different to come out of Australia for an international audience. We hope to land some good European film festivals next.
Now LBF is having a run at Sydney Film Festival in conjunction with the Vivid Creative Sydney program where it has sold out [UPDATE: Vivid Creative Sydney are increasing capacity at the MCA events this June long weekend (10 – 12 June) and as such have more tickets on sale for those who missed out.] Are you stoked that your home town audience is obviously keen to check it out? It will be really interesting to screen at Sydney Film Fest this weekend to full-houses, since I don’t always think the Australian sense of humour translates. And yep we are thrilled. Premiering at the Museum Of Contemporary Art with Creative Sydney and Sydney Film Festival is kind of fun, and even if you missed out on a ticket the bands are open to all afterwards.
So what’s on the horizon for you now? More music videos. A bit of a rest. The next film – I want to scale up the budget, but not too much. Creative freedom is very important for me. I’m a big believer in the capacity to work high production values, small-scale crew with the possibilities of digital cinema.
LBF screening details:
10 June 2011, 7PM – 8:30PM
Museum of Contemporary Art
Plus! Catch Fergus Brown, Kids at Risk and Tortoiseshell performing live after the film – Free tickets are available now from: Foxtix
VIVID Creative Sydney @ MCA events include:
LBF The Music
Debate: Is Sydney pricing creativity out of the picture?
How Does Art Help? Building creative cities around the world
Sydney Music Showcase: Broken Stones Records
FBI Music Open Day
Visit Vivid Creative Sydney website for more.
