Cucalorus 2021 x Racer Trash

Racer Trash presents Bus to Lumberton at the 27th Cucalorus Film Festival

David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986) was shot in Wilmington, NC where Cucalorus–the energetic, independent, artist-focused film festival–pays homage to the local cult classic. Each year Cucalorus tributes Blue Velvet by inviting a visual artist to come and create an IRL art installation at their Jengo’s Playhouse theatre, which has a theatre, a bar, and enormous backyard perfect for weird art and chill parties.

Racer Trash was invited to be that artist this year. We were lucky enough to both be the installation artist, as well as screen a completely new remixed version of Blue Velvet, #000FF Velvet (a reference to the hex code for blue, aka how editors see colors).

The festival was so fun. We designed, built, and displayed our installation in the backyard, but not before our show (and gear) was rained on. The folks at Cucalorus are so down to earth and fun, that no one minded when we pushed our show to the next night (and in the end every other night of the festival).

We got to screen our feature remix at the historic Thalian Hall, a triple decker turn-of-the-century theatre. Racer Trash watched from the balcony, where we also did the filmmaker Q&A.

All in all, one of the best festival experiences of my life. Even my MacBook Pro getting destroyed in the rain could dampen the good times. I can’t wait to go back.

Check out some photos from our art installation below or a link to my (& Chloe’s) seg in #000FF Velvet.


Press

This year, Cucalorus commissioned a film to be made and screened especially for the festival. The commissioned film was created by the radical editing collective Racer Trash, known for taking Hollywood classics and turning them into something unrecognizable. They've proudly "blasphemed" such films as Jumanji, Speed Racer, and over 30 others. The group of editors made quite the splash at the Toronto Film Festival and have gained a remarkably large following the short year-and-a-half since they first organized. Aaron Hillis, curator of the "Convulsions" program introduced the film (Convulsions is the late-night, adult-only series that highlights the horrific, the sexy, and the bizarre). Hillis joked that with this commissioned film, Racer Trash was going to "attack and dethrone cinema." The audience clapped and cheered, eager to participate in "defaming" the art they love so much. 

The commissioned piece, Bus to Lumberton, took David Lynch's art-house classic Blue Velvet (1986) and transformed it into a wildly trippy and divisive gem; a significant portion of the audience left the auditorium only minutes into the film. Off to the side of the main screen (where the film played), there was a secondary screen that broadcasted a live-stream chat. The audience at Thalian Hall was invited to participate in the chat during the movie – it was the first time I've heard a theater encourage viewers to use their phones. The film was simultaneously live-streamed on the popular app Twitch, so there was an additional online audience who could chime into the chat from their remote locations. Those who stuck around, physically and virtually, were mesmerized and swept away by what they saw!

After the film, there was a Q&A with members of Racer Trash, which was equally "sacrilegious" (by any other festival's standards). Rather than coming to the stage, as is the common practice, Racer Trash fielded questions from their seats in the third-tier balcony of the theater. The whole evening reminded the audience that movies are supposed to be fun and that we ought not to take them too seriously. And that sentiment sums up Cucalorus pretty darn well: this festival is a whole lot of fun.



 

Check out Racer Trash at TIFF.

Read more about Racer Trash here.

 
Ted Marsden