Brad Beasley's way-cool documentary on The Flaming Lips, The Fearless Freaks, is apparently getting ready for wide release. Brad was kind enough to send me a copy of the 30-minute, early version of this (under the title "The Flaming Lips Have Landed") when I was writing a chapter for Datacloud [80k MS Word file, temp. availability] that used Doug Pray's Scratch [amazon.com link] and The Flaming Lips' "Parking Lot Experiments" (among other things) to talk about new ways of thinking about text in an information-saturated, visually/sonically influenced notion of writing.
If the Flaming Lips have had an accidental career then this documentary is indeed an accident. In 1991, I was simply Wayne's art school neighbor in Norman, Oklahoma with a film camera and some tenacity. They were in need of a willing and somewhat competent cinematographer and I was on a constant hunt for action-packed stories and oddball characters. And thus a relationship built of geographic convenience and a mutual desire to create ourselves. And now, 15-years later, I have thankfully made my filmmaking career through working with the Flaming Lips.
Brief reviews are available from its SXSW showing [or an Austin Chronicle review of that screening], an IMDB page, and The Flaming Lips official discussion board.
Update: You can now pre-order the DVD of The Fearless Freaks at Amazon.com for $17.49. Cool.
Posted by johndan at April 12, 2005 10:52 PM | TrackBack