HERO.'s PUNK Film to Premiere at straight 8 Shootout in Cannes
When HERO. Director Mat Sunderland suggested we shoot our straight 8 shootout film at a punk gig I thought that was perfect, as Super 8 is just so punk rock with all its gritty imperfections and unpredictable results.
Super 8 film rose in popularity during the '70s and '80s with artist filmmakers who existed at the fringes of mainstream cinema. As a Producer I’ve always liked to exist on the edge, and HERO. is the same, we don’t like to conform to the norm, we are an indie advertising production company run by two women with film and broadcast telly backgrounds. We apply our broadcast no-nonsense logic to advertising problems, we like to keep the production process as straightforward as possible, we don’t like faffery and the appeal of making a straight 8 film was immense. One chance at it, shoot blind, no budget, no kerfuffle, as Mat said, “no one to mess with our mojo”.
We filmed at a gig in Brighton with punk legends UK Subs, the fan band formed in 1976 with original front man Charlie Harper, who at 72 is the oldest punk singer still gigging in the UK. In the film Charlie muses on how punk rock is a wild animal, pop music being tame and domesticated.
Ed Sayers, director, and founder of straight 8 says: “We’ve thrown down the gauntlet and said, 'what can you do with no brief, no edit suite and just 50 feet of celluloid film?' It’s going to be a cinematic rollercoaster and not for the faint-hearted.”
PUNK AS FUCK will screen for the first time (first time we’ll be seeing it too!) at Cinema les Arcades in Cannes on Thursday 23 June 2016 during Cannes Lions. The cinema audience will vote the winning film. Tickets for the premiere are available here. All proceeds from ticket sales go to the Fireflies tour for charity Bloodwise.
HERO. proposes to donate their winnings to Centrepoint, the charity supporting homeless young people.
