#so they both have their strengths...like 1 of them has that moral code n stuff but since the other fights dirty he's usually the one to

[milkbreadtoast]

the past few days ive marathoned a show called kyou kara ore wa... it killed my last 2 braincells but man i had a good laugh jkdafhgd

[quarantineroulette]

Seditions of You: An Interview with Filmmaker Joe Wakeman

Joe Wakeman’s second feature, The Shoplifters (not to be confused with the Palme d’Or-winning film of the same title, but hopefully SEOs are none the wiser) is “a series of tableaux depicting the follies of a group of naïve Marxist would-be radicals” striving to be revolutionaries, only to discover that “what they really want is to be seen wearing berets.” 

Although he began work on it a decade ago, The Shoplifters carries some very timely themes about online activism, consumerism, and the shallowness of modern culture as a whole. With fairly little effort, its thought-provoking vignettes resist passive cultural consumption and its stylistic fluidity keeps it visually stimulating as well. Its 70 minutes also offer a lot of seamless humor, from a slightly slapstick dressing room shoplift to a smart, satirical "revolutionary bake sale” in Washington Square Park.

Ahead of The Shoplifters’ appearance at the NewFilmmakers New York Film Festival on February 6, I spoke with Joe via email about collaborations, Maoist propaganda and Communism as fashion statement, among other fun topics. 

1) What ignited your interest in Marxism & Maoism? 

I've been interested in Marxism since I was a teenager, probably about when I was 13 and first encountered the politically inclined punk of The Sex Pistols and The Clash, and Dead Kennedys -- I think it's somewhat common for young suburbans to go through a "Communist" phase. What I didn't realize at the time was that my interest in Marxism was really less about politics, which admittedly I knew precious little about (though I do lean rather strongly to the left) and more about the iconography of Communism: I would go around with sickle and hammer belt buckles and spell "Revolution" with a backwards “R.” That sort of corny thing.

 Later on, when I was 18 or so, I saw Jean Luc Godard's La Chinoise and his Groupe Dziga Vertov films with Jean-Pierre Gorin, all beautifully boring films depicting sexy French Maoists who do very little real revolutionary activity, despite their ability to quote at length from Marxist texts. These films made it apparent to me that what we think of in the US as "Marxist," where Communism has never been a reality, is as much a set of fashion and cultural signifiers as is the uniform of a typical "Goth" or "Emo Kid" -- berets, fists in the air, shabby clothes, shiny boots and cigarettes. 

2) I believe you've mentioned that you started working on -- or had least conceived of -- The Shoplifters about 10 years ago? In what ways has it changed in that time? 

Yes, at that time my friend Taylor Bruck (who plays Che Smith in the film) and I were also sometimes engaged in the "cool crime of shoplifting." There was a certain politically oriented moral code about it, where it was okay to shoplift from big corporations like Barnes & Noble but not right to steal from local businesses. But after seeing the Godard films we talked about how goofy it would be to take those politics further and call ourselves "revolutionaries,” which became the kernel of the absurd story for The Shoplifters that we wrote together.

The original script had a lot more characters and more action, arsons and assassinations and a lengthy courtroom finale at the end, where the Shoplifters are put on trial for sedition and theft. All that sounds exciting, but keep in mind, this was the script of a teenager. It's really rather cringe-worthy to read today. I threw the whole thing out when I reworked the film, though a couple scenes survive: the opening speech and the fitting-room sequence, where we pile on layers of stolen clothes, are both from the original version of the movie. We tried to shoot scenes from that script at that time, when I was 18 years old, with some borrowed equipment from the TV studio I was working for at the time, but we shot on damaged tapes and botched the sound recording. The material was practically unusable so, dejected, I hung up The Shoplifters for awhile and dedicated myself to working on other things and developing more before taking another crack at it. 

3) Do you see The Shoplifters as sharing any similarities with your first feature, They Read By Night? Although stylistically different, they both seem to lovingly mock certain countercultures. I also like that they both have "nested" films within films (the short in They Read by Night and the music video and "Post-Capitalist Potential for Mass Education in the Internet Age" sequence in The Shoplifters).

Definitely. Actually They Read By Night was an attempt, after the first failure of The Shoplifters, to write a similar film on a smaller scale. I swapped out the berets for leather jackets and the characters became greaser-rock ‘n’ roller juvenile delinquents instead of revolutionaries, but the point is essentially the same -- that their so-called rebellion is still a symptom of capitalism, buying into another kind of "outsider" fashion. 

As for the films-within-the-film element, I've always been attached to the idea that a movie does not have to tell one story, or focus on the story, or even just be one type of film. This is the other big element learned from the likes of Godard and other counterculture filmmakers, Dusan Makavejev, Warhol et al. -- that the "plot" of a film is not so important as the ideas which animate it, and to express those ideas more in the form of a lively discussion that, in a movie, can be shown with images rather than just spoken with words. Let's make our characters watch a film together and see how they react, or in The Shoplifters they educate themselves about Mao Zedong by reading about the Cultural Revolution on Wikipedia and from there its a free-flowing association of images culminating in some psuedo-Greek philosophy. It's the kind of methodology that people experimented with in the ‘60s and you see less often today, though occasionally you do see it, in Sion Sono's excellent recent Antiporno. Or, actually, the web-browser screen cap stuff in The Shoplifters is inspired by the 2014 teen horror film Unfriended. It's kind of a limitation of the cinema's potential when a movie just tells you a story one way, unless the story is really good, like Titanic or something. 

  4) Both films also have musical sequences (the fight scene in They Read By Night and "Style Revolutionaries" in The Shoplifters). Given your involvement in the music scene here in Brooklyn (Joe is in the band Toyzanne, who you should definitely check out, and directs music videos as well), would you ever consider doing a musical?

I love musicals! They're a popular illustration of that same idea -- the story stops, and somebody sings a song that comments on it, or sometimes the song continues the story, or presents a separate situation which is analogous to the story. I was raised on musicals and I think they can still be cutting-edge as a genre, even though many might regard them as old-fashioned. I composed a lot of the music for The Shoplifters, together with DP Torey Cates and help from musician friends from the Brooklyn scene: Brendan Winick (also in Toyzanne), Frank Rathbone and Jenna Nelson (of Sic Tic), Kate Mohanty. Holly Overton and Sannety (who also stars in the film) contributed their unique stylings for different sections of the film as well. When I showed my friend John Sansone an early cut of the film, he remarked that he didn't realize that it was a "musical" which surprised me because there's no singing, (except for the Smiths cover and "Style Revolutionary"). But when I considered the role music plays in the film, it's really not too different from a musical in structure and tone, which was something that made me feel very happy about it. I'd like to eventually do a proper musical with lots of songs that plays with the genre in a more direct way, but I also don't think I'm mature enough yet as a filmmaker to attempt that.

5) How did the various collaborations in the film (the score, and the sequences from Oliver David and Preston Spurlock) come about? 

Oliver David had made two music videos, one for my old band Bodega Bay and one for ONWE that had this style of a slow-motion fashion advertisement for the bands. I really enjoyed these videos and wanted Oliver to do something of a "remake" of the same style, this time advertising the revolutionary cadre in the film instead of a rock ‘n’ roll band, making the not-so-subtle commentary even less so. Likewise, when I was preparing to make the film I became close friends with Preston Spurlock, who makes these mind-blowing video collages of old commercials and such that are like wading through cultural toxic waste dumps to tap into some unconscious reflections that can't be put into words. I connected these in my head to stuff like Godard's Histoire(s) du cinema or the work of Adam Curtis (HyperNormalisation, The Century of the Self) and thought they would add a lot to the dialogue of images I was trying to present in the film.

 I think that it's unimportant for an artist to be the "sole author" of a film. It is more interesting when I think, “Oh, Sannety can do things with electronic music that I don't even understand,” or “Oliver and Preston work in video in a completely different style from me which can form a relationship with my style, so why not ask them to contribute and make it a real dialogue rather than a constructed one.” I think collaboration is key in filmmaking -- it keeps the spirit of montage living through and through the work, which if you consider Eisenstein and Vertov, is really "Revolutionary" filmmaking. 6) I liked the criticisms of Internet activism the film presented. In the ego-driven realm of social media, do you feel there is any way for a pure act of protest or activism to thrive or even exist? 

Yes I do think real activism can exist and can even be given a lot of strength through the Internet and social media -- those things have leveled the playing field and given voice to marginalized communities who hadn’t had that kind of visibility before the advent of these networks. Community organizer Candice Fortin, introduced to me through Gwynn Galitzer and Suffragette City Magazine, is another voice present in the movie, in keeping with the collaborations that exist throughout the film. She explains activism in the modern era and what people can do to start enacting change very eloquently midway through the movie, and i don't think I can say it better than the way she did in the film. She is constantly posting about progressive candidates, organizations and other concerns through social media to bring about political change on a grassroots scale. You can follow her @candicefortin for a start, but mainly pay attention! These opportunities to help are all around. 7) Do you have a favorite piece of Maoist propaganda?

Yes! This Maoist ballet from the cultural revolution, encouraging women to form feminist revolutionary cadres: The Red Detachment of Women. You can watch it on Youtube. Footage from it appears in Preston Spurlock's section of the film, I think it's beautiful and absurd, but I think weirdly Old Hollywood despite its anti-Western screed, like An American in Paris or something but cheaper looking. I really get a kick out of it. Perhaps when this one-day musical comes to fruition I’ll dole out some political ballet as a quiet (or more likely, loud) nod.

The Shoplifters is screening as a part of the NewFilmmakers New York Film Festival at Anthology Film Archives on Feb. 6, 2019. RSVP here. 

[thegoddessprose]

Survey Survey Survey

Looks and Personality

What do you look like? >> Pale, brown hair high back, some curve, heart face, brown eyes... Yeah, no, sorry, I’m just going to be vauge How often do you bathe? >> Every other day How do you wear your hair? >> I like to keep it down

What colours do you tend to wear? >> Black, usually, maybe also blue, purple, and pink Do you have any tattoos? What, where and why? >> No, I have not

What kind of clothes do you wear? >> Usually graphic tees, tunics, blazers, slacks, sweats, leggings, crocs, and such What kind of jewellery do you wear? >> Nothing too often, I have a bracelet I love, and a few fandom necklaces Is there anything else you often wear? >> Not really Would you say you had a “look”? >> Yeah, I’d think so When going out, do you dress up or down? >> It would really depend on where I’m going What do you wear to bed at home? >> Sweats and a t shirt What do you wear to bed when your somewhere else? >> The same Is there a place you keep any prized/secret things whilst you’re away? >> If I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret anymore, would it? What’s your favourite food? >> Mashed potatoes in gravy. No skin. No chunks. What’s your favourite drink? >> I like a good strawberry daiquiri  What’s your favourite desert? >> Mint ice cream with oreos What’s your favourite type of food (e.g Mexican)? >> American, as lame as I am Do you have any mental problems? >> Yep... Yay for Anxiety.... Do you have any phobias? What? Why do you think you have this/them? >> Yes, needles (Medical problems at a very young age), dogs (Bad experiences with them, and I don’t like attention or loud noises), thunder (Loud noises) Why might somebody dislike you? >> I guess because I don’t act like everyone else What skill do you possess that you are most proud of? >> I’m a pretty good writer, and I’m not being vain, I’ve had other people tell me this What is your greatest strength (e.g. honest, loyal, brave)? >> I don’t take other people’s BS, I’m not gullible, I know what I want and I don’t let other people influence me too much What’s your greatest shortcoming or flaw (e.g. cowardly, alcoholic)? >> My anxiety makes me reluctant to try things, and I can be a little fussy Who do you most admire? >> It’s hard to pick one person Who do you most love? >> Uh... What three things do you look for most in a partner? >> Open-minded, a gentleman (But not TOO old-fashioned), an individual Do you like crowds? >> NO What are your hobbies? >> Travel, browsing the internet, theater If you can’t get to sleep in the middle of the night, what do you do? >> Read, daydream What is your favourite animal? >> Not really sure at this point What is your favourite colour? >> Hot pink or black If you could ask God (to athiests - IF there was one) one question, what? >> Well, if is there really a heaven or hell is off the table... When he created people, did he know how destructive they were going to be... And is there any way to undo the mob stuff? Rate yourself on these traits from 0 to 10. 0 - do not possess this trait. 10 - you have great amounts of this trait. Calm temper 6 Charm 4 Cheerfulness 2 Confidence 7 Courtesy 6 Curiousity 9 Forgiveness 8 Generosity 5 Greed 3 Helpfulness 5 Honesty 7 Loyalty 8 Optimism 1 Patience 6 Self-sacrafice 1 Wit 9

Background

Where were you born and raised?

>> Maryland

Briefly describe your family.

>> Your run of the mill suburban family. No real toxicity or anything like that.

You must choose one - your childhood was calm/peaceful or tragic/turbulent?

>> Pretty fairly turbulent because I grew up with a chronic illness, but thankfully I have access to pretty good care

Did you have any rolemodels?

>> A few

What is the worst thing that has ever happened to you?

>> When I was 12 I got super sick, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t sit on any hard surfaces, I gained a lot of weight that’s taken me a decade to lose... I got better, but I had to go into the hospital

How did it affect you?

>> Again, I gained a lot of weight that took forever to lose, I still have stretch marks, I’m scared to death of flaring now because of it

Have you ever had any recurring nightmares or themes in nightmares?

>> No, not really

What were they?

>> N/A

Do you currently have a boyfriend/girlfriend? >> No Do you have any close friends? >> Yes Briefly describe your best friend: >> Long distance, but still one of my best friends, we go to each other during both the good and bad, we share our work, she’s like my long lost sister Any enemies? >> Not that I know of Who? What are they like? >> N/A? Would you risk your life for your best friend?(not lover or family member!) >> I don’t... Probably With who was your most important romantic relationship? >> I’ve never exactly... Been in a relationship Of what are you most proud? >> I’m proud of my writing Of what are you most ashamed? >> I can’t always do everything by myself, I don’t like my stretch marks

Alignment, Ethics and Religion

What is your religion?

>> Ah.... Agnostic, I’d say

Where do you stand on abortion?

>> Pro-choice

Where do you stand on the death penalty?

>> No opinion

Where do you stand on wearing fur?

>> Doesn’t matter to me unless it’s an endangered species

Do you have a moral code that you follow? What?

>> Try to do the right thing, even if other people don’t think it is... Is that a moral code? Sure.

Could you kill somebody?

>> I’d say only if my or someone else’s life depended on it. 

For what reason would you kill somebody?

>> See above

Would you SERIOUSLY CONSIDER killing anybody right now?

>> No.

Do you trust easily, or not?

>> Not.

What are your political beliefs (anarchy, communism, democracy etc.)?

>> I don’t really have a set... Well, set. It would really depend on what issues we’re talking about.

What, if anything, WOULD you sacrifice your life for?

>> I can’t really think of anything

Would you ever, for any reason, abandon your friends in an hour of need?

>> Well, I’d do my best not to, but anything can happen.

Motivation

What are your dreams/ambitions/goals? >> Write bestsellers, have good health, live somewhere interesting where I don’t have to drive How do you plan to reach them? >> Uh.....  How would your ideal partner look? >> I’m not too shallow... But tall(ish), dark hair, and bespectacled would do just fine

Do you ever want to have a family someday? With children? >> Children? No way. I can’t deal with being pregnant, and even outside of that, I’m not selfless, conformist, or patient enough. Who would you want to start this family with, or do you not yet know? >> N/A What would stop you from reaching your goals (e.g. death, retirement fund)? >> Needing a warm place to live and good healthcare... And procrastination? What do you see yourself doing next year? >> Don’t ask me What do you see yourself doing in twenty years? >> Hopefully having written a bestseller Would you ever have an affair? >> I guess it would depend. In a perfect world I’d answer no, but that’s not how the world is, and anything can go wrong, so I can’t say it’s impossible. Would you ever have a one night stand? >> No, I’m not that kind of girl What are your greatest fears? >> Failure and death are pretty big, I guess

More information

If you had a month of nothing (no work, no obligations) what would you do?

>> TRAVEL

How do you relax?

>> Internet, solitude

What one thing would you change in this world (free Tibet, abolish Sweden)?

>> Uh... Free healthcare?

Would you ever choose a career or job where your life was at risk?

>> No.

How would you like to be remembered after your death?

>> I’d rather not think about this... I hope well and for a long time as someone talented, I guess.

Random questions

Where you present at any major historical events (e.g. 9/11)?

>> I saw a bunch of Brexit stuff while in London

How did they affect you?

>> I was mainly thinking, “well, at least they’re not rioting”

Do you have any famous relatives?

>> That would require me to reveal my real last name, and that’s not happening

Do you have to try and live up to your family’s expectations?

>> No

Are you a loyal member of any organizations?

>> No.

General Information

Name:

>> Persephone

Age:

>> 21

Date Of Birth:

>> September 1st

Race:

>> White

Height:

>> 5′3

Weight:

>> 120 lbs

Are you happy with this?

>> I would have liked to be taller

Desired weight:

>> This is fine

Sexual orientation:

>> Straight

First language:

>> English.

Second/Third/Fourth etc. languages (if any):

>> French (Not fluent)

Why did you take this survey?

>> I was bored