Mark BOSWELL: The subversion agency
Fiction expérimentale | 16mm, super8 | couleur et n&b | 1:12:00 | USA, Cuba | 2003
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(c) photo:
Mark Boswell
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The film revolves around the exploits of an American arms dealer (Pierre Kozlov)
who is invited to the K-Zone, "a communist country somewhere in the Caribbean"
to participate in a winner-take-all golf match against the K-Zone champion. Like
a Christian being thrown to the wolves, Kozlov; a self-confirmed nihilist, quickly
finds himself embedded in the morass of international politics when he finds out
what prize is in store for the loser (and it seems that he is destined to become
one.) The K-Zone Republic, formed circa 1960 during a staged soccer riot in the
K-Zone capital, is awash with two-bit politicians, American black panthers on
the lam, anarcho-pranksters on the underground airwaves, double agent feminists,
and a golf champion formally convicted of "cultural parasitism." "Threatening
the narrative is a Brechtian blitzkrieg of missives that take form in experimental
montage, double jump cuts, over edits, and aural asides that crackle with political
satire and hard boiled sarcasm. The film recontextualizes archival images of Miami
and Cuba; when combined with Boswell's location work they create a fictional landscape
of a netherworld reminiscent of the twilight zone. Nine years in the making (from
1994-2001), "The Subversion Agency" was shot on location in Miami, Florida
and Havana, Cuba. Post-production was completed on July 1, 2003 in the New Genres
Department at the San Francisco Art Institute.
Mark Boswell has previously released ten Dadaist short films: The Mongoloid (1992),
Memory Corporation (1996), Kultkino (1998), Galaxie 500 (1999), Vast Floridas
(1999), Liquidation of The Wild West (2000), U.S.S.A.:Secret Manual of the Soviet
Politburger (2001), Agent Orange (2002) and Deep Blue (2003). He works as the
head of the New Genre Department at the San Francisco Art Institute. The Subversion
Agency is Boswell's first feature film. |
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