Product Code Database
Jon Moritsugu (born February 15, 1965) is an American cult-underground film filmmaker and musician. His movies are satiric, protopunk deconstructions of popular genres and formats with scabrous and pointedly garish results. Chin. "One Indie Pioneer to Another." Fandor.com. 17 March 2010. Web. 17 March 2010. The New York Times describes them as "funny, anarchic, provocative and exhilarating". Influenced by the nihilism of Jean-Luc Godard and Guy Debord, Moritsugu's films are often defined by their "lo-fi" aesthetic and were initially shot on 16mm film for a gritty, visceral quality. He states that he often "pay(s) less attention to narrative flow and storyline and put(s) more emphasis on sight, sound and spectacle" to create a movie that is "like a live punk/hardcore show." The works themselves are often absurdism comedies that feature actress, co-writer, stylist, and wife, Amy Davis. Perhaps best known for his cult film Mod Fuck Explosion, Moritsugu's films have been screened at Sundance, Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, Rotterdam, Venice, USA Film Festival, New York Underground, Chicago Underground, MoMA, Guggenheim, Whitney and numerous other festivals and museums. In 2001 he received the Moving Image award from Creative Capital.
Moritsugu immediately started pre-production in 1992 for Mod Fuck Explosion, which starred Amy Davis. This low-budget riff on the teen film loosely revolved around a lonely girl's search for a leather jacket while a turf war between mods and bikers looms. The movie, produced by Henry S. Rosenthal and co-produced by Andrea Sperling, was shot by Todd Verow in 16mm. It featured a dream sequence set in a garden of meat, which was filmed in Rosenthal's garage with 800 pounds of raw, rotting beef. After wrapping, and in the middle of post-production in 1993, Moritsugu received word that he had received a grant from ITVS to create a PBS television show. He says: "I completed (the script) in 42 hours... and it got the green light. So right after shooting Mod Fuck Explosion, I got $360,000 to shoot Terminal USA.
Terminal USA, filmed in Panavision 16mm, was a vicious sitcom parody laying to waste the studious image of the "model minority". The director himself played twins – a drug-dealing son and a repressed and closeted math nerd – in a radically dysfunctional Asian American family. The movie was an extreme challenge for Moritsugu, who again worked with producer Andrea Sperling and director of photography Todd Verow. In addition to complications with insurance, payroll, salaries and a large unionized cast and crew, the production itself was fraught with problems including a major outbreak of scabies on the set. Executive produced by James Schamus (former CEO of Focus Features), Moritsugu stated: "I sort of blew it. I was young, full of myself, no one could help me. I basically spit in his face". When Terminal USA was completed, it caused a firestorm of controversy with the conservative right because it had been funded with taxpayer money. It screened at the Toronto and Rotterdam Film Festivals and was broadcast on television in over 200 cities across America.
After a European promotional tour and American appearances to support Terminal USA, Moritsugu resumed post-production work on Mod Fuck Explosion. "A defiantly rough-hewn return to barely-aboveground roots despite some overlaps with Terminal USA," it was completed in 1994 and won "Best Feature" Award at the New York Underground Film Festival. It played the film fest circuit and received tremendous attention, with Moritsugu saying, "Mod Fuck blew-up in Germany, Scandinavia, and the Benelux countries—they really responded to the angst, death, and Amy as a hot blonde walking on raw meat." In America, the movie opened in a number of cities including a 13-week engagement in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Sunset 5 and sold-out runs in Seattle and Baltimore.> Giant Robot said about the movie: "Jon Moritsugu hit some weird epiphany during the making of this film, which was his first mass-watchable work. Jon's wife Amy Davis plays a performance art girl who's caught in a rumble between a small group of mods and a Japanese motorcycle gang. ... The performances are weird, intentionally screwed up, and dumb, but that's part of the film's brilliance. If you're a fan of strange flicks, you'll start remembering the lines and using them. ... Awesome soundtrack by Unrest and Karyo Tengoku". The movie was picked by the readers of Wired as one of the "Wildest Exploitation Movies," sharing the honor with Eraserhead, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Night of the Living Dead and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.
Moritsugu's next feature was 1997's Fame Whore, which reprised sitcom mockery and absurdism in service of three parallel stories critiquing fame and featuring Amy Davis as a stoner, trust-fund brat. Produced again by Andrea Sperling, the 16mm movie was a recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Award. It received "Best Feature" and "Festival Choice" honors at the New York Underground Film Festival and the Los Angeles Times said of it, " Fame Whore is crude, edgy and energetic, and its stars throw themselves into their roles with welcome gusto."http://jonmoritsugu.com/films/awards.php?film=fame_whore The movie opened theatrically throughout the US and Europe, screening at Lincoln Center in NYC and running for 5 weeks in Los Angeles.http://jonmoritsugu.com/films/reviews.php?film=fame_whore Fame Whore was considered for an Academy Award in 1999, but it was rejected on a technicality because it had opened in Los Angeles in 16 mm, and at the time, all Academy Award considerations had to be shown in 35 mm.
In late 1999 Moritsugu started work on his next feature, Scumrock, produced once again by Andrea Sperling. He stated: "The original plan was for Scumrock to be a $2 million, 35mm picture. I thought it was totally do-able, what with the success of Fame Whore. This budget proved to be elusive so we cut it down to $50,000. And alas, we ended up shooting Scumrock for $5,000 using a $150 camcorder." Starring Amy Davis (who also was co-writer and director of photography), James Duval ("Frank the Bunny" from Donnie Darko), and Kyp Malone (who would later join the band TV on the Radio), the movie was a deadpan comedy capturing the lives of fringe-art rebels dealing with the perils of turning 30 with little to show for their avant-gardness.http://jonmoritsugu.com/films/reviews.php?film=scumrock After receiving a post-production grant from Creative Capital, the movie's footage was decimated and completely degenerated, Moritsugu's intent being to drag it into the gutter and destroy any sheen or aura of a "pristine digital look". Scumrock was edited on a VHS cuts-only system and upon completion in 2002, it won the "Best Feature" Award at the Chicago Underground Film Festival, following that up with a "Best Feature" Award at the 2003 New York Underground Film Festival. It was selected by The Village Voice Film Critics Poll as "Best of 2003" and then opened theatrically in the US and Canada in 2004, receiving rave reviews from the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly and E!.
After Scumrock, Moritsugu took a break from "cinema", focusing on musical and other creative outlets and moving with Davis to Honolulu, Seattle, and finally Santa Fe.
In 2013 Pig Death Machine premiered at the Chicago Underground Film Festival, where Moritsugu and Davis won the "Jack Smith Lifetime Achievement Award." The movie screened at a number of US and international film festivals and also made it onto several "Best Films of 2013" lists including one compiled by critic Jack Sargeant.http://jonmoritsugu.com/films/awards2.php?film=pig_death It then opened theatrically across America and also played with the Moritsugu retrospective of 7 features and 9 shorts in select cities including Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. Pig Death Machine received glowing reviews from the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and LA Weekly.http://jonmoritsugu.com/films/reviews2.php?film=pig_death
In 2015, Anthology Film Archives of New York City completed a two-year restoration project of Moritsugu's 1987 senior thesis film, Der Elvis. With support from the National Film Preservation Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the movie was digitally scanned, remastered, reprinted in 16mm and described as, "one of the most impressive and precocious student films ever made".
Later that year, Moritsugu wrote and directed his first fashion video lookbook. Created for Mishka NYC's fall 2015 collection, the project was co-written and photographed by Davis and featured the music of Low on High.
Also in 2015, James Schamus, former CEO of Focus Features, stated to the New York Times: "Jon is a true cinema original. I'd rather be spit on by Jon than kissed by 95 percent of the directors out there."
In September 2016, an exhibition of seven Moritsugu features opened at the Ramiken Crucible in NYC. Entitled "Semiotics of Sleaze," the movies were projected simultaneous on the gallery's walls for a one-month run. The Village Voice wrote: "Jon Moritsugu's cinema is aggressive, abrasive, and it doesn't stop. His zero-budget movies have spastic editing, disorienting post-sync sound, and bright neon colors; they're a treat for the senses, and poison for the mind... While watching his films, you may feel tired, weak, or nauseous, but you will have had an experience, and a physical one at that – an effect to which many moving images can't lay claim... The gallery is showing these works simultaneously and blasting them at full volume; you'll feel the noise."
In August 2017, Moritsugu wrapped principal photography for his eighth feature, Numbskull Revolution. Shot in New Mexico, the movie aims to "satirize and deconstruct the high art scene in an eyeball-scorching onslaught of mind-blowing narrative madness and honey-laced pathos"." It stars James Duval as artist "Futurecide" and Amy Davis as twin sisters.
Moritsugu landed a book deal in 2018. His memoir titled "SKULLFUCK: The Brutalist Cinema of Jon Moritsugu" was released in January 2022 (2023). 9781885030603, Muae Publishing, Incorporated. ISBN 9781885030603 and was published by Kaya. He is completing post-production for Numbskull Revolution.
Since 2011, he is in a lo-fi indie garage rock band with Amy Davis called, Low on High.
|
|
