floating in space…

Read this on a blog a while back. Seems that the link is dead, so I’m reproducing it here:

I just got in an amazing box set of all the classic Frankenstein movies, from the 1930’s. All five of the classic, cheesy B&W horrors that started it all.. (Frankenstein, Bride of F, House of F, Son of F, Ghost of F) - along with lots of documentaries and background info.. total cost? $20. (R136 for the whole shebang) Meanwhile back in SA, the shops are still trying to suggest that R120 is a ‘cheap and decent price’ for single crap DVD’s.

Yeah right. Now they’re only making R110 profit. Screw em.

And as for box sets, forget about it locally - what costs $23 overseas strangely turns into R900 - R1200 bux..

And locally, Nu Metro and Ster Kinekor whine desperately about piracy and how they’re making dvd’s so cheap - as well as enjoying the legal stranglehold they have on the local market, which prevents anyone else from bringing in massively cheaper product.

So there’s technically NO competition whatsoever allowed. So Nu Metro/SK can bring in bad german pressings of - for instance O Brother Where Art Thou - probably for a cost of R5 or less per unit, and then sell it local with a local sticker on the case, for ‘just R109!’..

Also, over the last while, I’ve seen them desperately trying to unload the ‘regular’ edition of LOTR 3 in lots of massively expensive TV ad campaigns, and while the rest of the world was paying small change ($10 and up) for it, here the price stayed nice and high..

I’m all for the growing piracy, not because Im criminally-minded (okay, well I am actually :P ) but because its helping to break this legalised stranglehold that two rather sh*tty companies have over Who can bring in What into this country.

Given the over-the-top legal thuggery that Nu Metro/Ster Kinekor bring to bear on any movie-lovers who try to start cult cinema’s, or offer films that are outside the mainstream mall crap - they’re effectively a Mafia-like organisation, who hide behind ‘copyright infringement’ in order to make damn sure that only their adam sandler flix, and their Hollywood mainstream movies, are the only films ‘legally’ allowed.

This is borne out by looking at the mostly sh*t and banal offerings at Ster Kinekor’s supposed ‘discerning films’ outlets - where films are chosen clearly because ‘they’re in a foreign language’ - not ‘because of their artistic worth’.

I dont think the people in Nu Metro or Ster Kinekor could recognize ‘artistic worth’ if it tore their arms off and sodomized them with the wet end.

(Whining about Ken Park for ***s sake, and should it be released on DVD. Grow up, for f*cks sakes - we’ll worry about our own morals thank you, we’re adults.)

Yeah you have to keep an eye on the bottom line, because you’re all about profit. No problem there - but what it means in reality, is that the public only get to see (thanks to the ‘laws’ in place) what YOU decide will make money and be the most popular. Not ‘what are the BEST films’, or which are the DIFFERENT films, or even ‘what are the STRANGEST films’. Just ‘what will make money and be popular.’

Film is an Art Form. Its not just a product. And here in SA, the whore swine ignorant (see, I’m holding back a bit) thugs who control the cinema outlets, are protected and allowed to effectively decide for you and me, what aspects of the Art Form, we can see - based purely on financial considerations.

So naturally its 99% wall to wall mindless Hollywood crap, with a nod to the poseurs who dont know better, by having a few films in a foreign language here and there. (Word has it that subtitled film are being phased out, at the ‘cinema nouveau’ - the dumping ground and sop to the cinema goers who can sense they’re being screwed.

So the company who has the monopoly, has decided that ‘audiences dont like subtitled films’ - so guess what, the tiny opening for folks to see alternative product, is just quietly going to go away.) I went by cinema nouveau a while back, and supposed ‘art’ movies showing, included ‘13′ and ‘Lost in Translation’. While both are good movies (LiT being a better one) - they’re hardly ‘art movies’.

It seems clear that the Mafia-like film distributors decided that their idea of artfilm is ‘films which are too intense, dramatic or which require a higher degree of attention paid to them’. They’d rather focus on well made kids garbage like ‘Shrek 2′ and whatever adolscent bimbo teen flick will appeal to the saturday afternoon kids at the mall.

Again, thats fine. Its about making money, for them. But to do that AND block every attempt in every way, by other film loving folks, to either bring in and sell titles that are off the mainstream, or to show them to the public, is nothing more than thuggery at best, and cultural vandalism at worst. I mean, you arent even allowed to have ‘public showings’ of titles which one of the two companies own the rights to - even if you’re talking about titles from fifty or more years back.

So one geek friend of mine who’s a classic-film nut, is doing an ongoing attempt to try and raise the film goers awareness, by having ‘non public’ showings of classic movies, at - of all places, the Imperial War Museum in JHB. In order to bypass the bullsh*t laws which Nu Metro and Ster Kinekor revel in, he has ’supper evenings’.. (the curent upcoming flick is the Chaplin film ‘City Lights’)

But thanks to the so-called ‘laws’ which keep the dual monopoly in place, even he’s skating on thin ice by doing this, and he cant advertise too widely, otherwise some mindless f*ck at Nu Metro will bring down legal threats and lawsuits at him, for ‘copyright infringement’.

Never mind the fact that you cant see any Chaplin films anywhere else in the malls, the film companies here dont give a sh*t about the ‘art’ side of Film. As in, here’s just a film geek, like me, who loves the Art form, wanting to show the public some of the classic films, in a way that they should be seen - namely - on a BIG SCREEN.

Motive isnt profit, its pretty much altruistic, and - in my book - utterly positive. Instead, he has to sneak around, not advertise too widely, for fear of law suits, and disguise the simple showing of a very old movie, in a ’supper-and-talk non-public showing’ format.

Ster Kinekor and Nu Metro are fighting a losing war, and sure, every few months or so, when they need the PR - they’ll ‘discover’ some video pirate (preferably one who’s tied into other criminal activities) and you’ll see bulldozers crunching pirated DVD copies of new releases.

Shock! Horror! Funny how the film distributors cant seem to ‘find’ the permanent stalls at Randburg waterfront, and Bruma Fleamarket, where all the new DVD’s are for sale (and if titles are crap quality versions, you’ll be told. There’s a fair degree of honesty amidst the sellers, as their customer base is a regular returning market.)

Another thing to point out - as I have friends who run video shops - is that Nu Metro and Ster Kinekor run a barely disguised ‘Protection Racket’. Video shops HAVE to accept a number of SK/NM films every month - and in exchange for the acceptance of anywhere from 4 -9 films at around R400 each - SK/NM look the other way, if that video shop happens to be bringing in legit titles from the UK, for instance.

If however a video shop makes the mistake of telling SK/NM that they’re not interesting in buying this months batch of generally rubbish films - the legal bullyboys SAFACT and others, will ’suddenly’ take an interest in that videoshop - and take legal action because of imported (but legitimate) product on the shelves.

So video shops have to keep effectively paying off Ster Kinekor and Nu Metro, by buying titles they often don’t want - in order to allow them to stock their shelves with imported titles, and not run foul of the law.

You simply do not hear about raids ever happening at video shops which ARE buying SK/NM product - these raids almost always happen at shops that have decided that paying NM/SK each between 2 - 6 thousand rand a month for generally straight-to-video rubbish and one or two ‘big titles’ - is a scam that they’re not interested in anymore.

You think any videoshop - especially those which do stock ‘cult’ or ‘british’ product - will dare risk telling SK/NM that they don’t want to buy whatever arbitrary product is being ‘offered’ in the distributors glossy handouts each month? They dare not.

And further than this. They can’t speak about it either, for fear of triggering a supposedly quite ‘legal’ response from SAFACT, following NM/SK’s orders.

The average price that SK/NM hits videoshops for each of their ‘big’ dvd releases each month is in the area of R400. Never mind the fact that the video shop can often go onto Amazon, and legally buy the title for often as little as R50 or so. But they dare not do this.

(If you run a vid shop - and rent out titles - work out how many times every month a title costing R400 has to go out, BEFORE you see any profit at all.)

Now times that quantity of rentals, by the monthly load of titles you HAVE to rent from SK/NM - in order to avoid them deciding that you’re not paying enough - and calling in their thugs to check your shelves for cheaper, legally bought - but conflicting with local protectionist copyright laws.

So countrywide - video shops are caught in a stranglehold by Nu Metro and Ster Kinekor.

And you wont hear about this in the mass media -and especially not in the newspapers. Why? Each distributor is a major cash cow to the local newspapers, who rely on that advert space detailing ‘whats on at the movies’.

The same applies to radio stations, who are paid goodly annual sums, to advertise the movies. You won’t find Barry Ronge talking about this on his 702 Radio slot - he can’t. The station makes too much money from advertising revenue from the film distributors. He’ll be out of a job rapidly.

(Shopping malls as a matter of interest, arrange quiet no-rental deals initially with the distributors - when starting new malls - because they know that its the movie theatres which bring in the public to the mall..)

Naturally the two film companies in the Telkom-like legally protected comfy seat here, not content with blocking the spread of film geeks showing old classic film, film geeks wanting to show ‘alternative’ cinema, and blatantly over-pricing by up to 80-90% their own DVD releases - express shock and outrage, and attempt to equate ‘dvd piracy’ with criminal acts of violence like mugging, or theft. Yeah, right.

But its also just the shrieking and whining of dumb capitalist f*cks who have a false legal stranglehold over an Art Form, trying to maintain their iron hand over every aspect of it, and thus the public consciousness.

Across the US and the UK, just about every night and weekend, the public can find film geeks showing old classics (hell, cinema’s themselves are dedicated to specific genres)

I mean, havent you ever wished that there was an odd cinema nearby where there were always strange or odd art flix showing? Or a movie place where you know there’s gonna be zombie movie showings at midnight, or old black n white classics.

Something DIFFERENT to the high-gloss 86minute Hollywood teen movies? Old movies, strange and weird movies. Classic films that you’ve always heard about but never seen - whether its Casablanca, The Great Dictator, or Night of the Living Dead. Movies that would be cool to see on a big screen.. Funny how that just doesnt exist here in South Africa.

And its not because ‘the public dont want it’. Its because two stinky mother-effing companies, who thrive on distributing the most profitable titles ONLY, and who maintain a iron hand over who can show films at all, are in total control.

Yes I know that the Labia in CT is - if its still going - is recycling (for a new generation of art-students) the back-catalogue Nu Metro/Ster Kinekor product like Koyansqatsi and The Pillow Book. But (assuming the Labia is still going) its basically an outlet for the aforesaid companies titles which it knows arent worth showing more widely.

You’re still not going to see ‘***** Christ - Vampire Hunter!’ or “Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Alien, Flesh Eating,Hellbound, Zombified Living Dead Part 2: In Shocking 2-D” (yes thats a real film

Thanks to Nu Metro and Ster Kinekor being money grabbing whores who are playing a rigged game where they are the only ‘legal’ players, you’re never going to have the choice of being able to decide from a wealth of Film, what it is you’d like to see.

All you can see, is what Ster Kinekor and Nu Metro ‘allow’ to be seen, or sold.

Contacts I have at CD Warehouse, for instance, have told me that they’d happily bring in tons of containers filled with tens of thousands of much much cheaper DVD’s - if the law and Nu Metro wouldnt blacklist them and sue them.

And this fearful caution occurs across all retailers of DVD’s, just as it does across all film geeks who might otherwise start up a weekly showing in their community, of oddball films. (I mean, I have a vid projector - and if this was any other country, by now I’d have rented the local school hall or rec centre, for one friday night a week, and be showing old B-grade movies - charging some arbitrary amount to cover the cost of hall rental.

The main fun for me would be the sharing of classic fun tacky films, with others who’ve never previously been able to see them. That’s the basic motivation behind every film geek who’d otherwise be showing movies.) But I cant. I’d get sued. So the public never sees the films, never has the choice, never discovers types of Film that they enjoy and find nourishing. Whether its B-grade flicks, or the old classics from the 1930’s onwards - they get to see NOTHING.

Except for what Ster Kinekor and Nu Metro decide to print copies of, advertise on TV and in papers, and then show at the malls - to rake in the most profit.

Thats the only conduit for the public, to see anything of a Medium and Art Form, thats a hundred years old, and has millions of varied titles which wait to be seen. Instead… formula US rubbish like ‘Shrek 2′ ‘Mr & Mrs Smith’ (and whatever else they’ve decided to make money from) - or NOTHING.

So I dont care that piracy is growing. Good. More please.

I hope it impacts massively on Ster Kinekor and Nu Metro’s profits.

Yeah they’re going to whine about criminality. Of course they will.

But they’re the criminals to start with, having been raking in a vast profit for decades now, by hiding behind the protection of the law, in order to stop generations of film geeks from starting their own independent cult cinema’s - and thus providing the public, ultimately, with a huge amount of choice.

I remember the old Ster Kinekor 16mm catalogues of their titles, where they were very happy to list films as being available to be rented ‘to european audiences only’ - just by the way.

Aldo, a mad Italian film geek, spent fortunes fighting the film distributors in order to show titles under ’special license’ - remember the movies at Norwood, Joburg? Things like Last Tango in Paris finally showed on a screen there.. Then there was Byron - another film geek, who fought SK/NM, and brought in Eraserhead and Greenaways ‘Drowning By Numbers’ for a few special showings..

Mini Cine in Hillbrow also did its best and fought endless wars with them, in order to show titles - ranging from Fellini through to Pasolini..

and Hennie (the War MUseum supper evening film geek) is now quietly showing the classics - citizen kane, the chaplin flicks, using a ‘no this isnt a public showing’ legal ruse (but its just a matter of time before someone at Nu Metro decides to attack)

All of these guys and countless other geeks across south africa, share a love for film in all its different forms - and if Ster Kinekor/Nu Metro didnt have the fake protection which they hide behind, all of these geeks (and myself as well, probably) would be running lots of little independent movie houses, and digital cinema’s (like they do in the US, Europe and Australia) and the public in turn, would be getting introduced to a wide range of Cinema (past and present) which they’re completely blocked from having, at the moment..

But ‘piracy is WRONG!’ Hmmmm. In this instance, given the situation, I dont agree. In a normal society where films can be shown and geeks can share their love of cinema, without being sued - then yeah, thats a free system and in that situation, piracy is definitely wrong.

But here, where the choice of viewing for everyone is determined by a handful of brain dead profit-focused corporate whores, in a dark room, I believe that ‘piracy’ per se, is a useful wedge in the monolithic control that these two companies have, over what you and I can see.

So I want Ster Kinekor and Nu Metro to discover the pain of ever falling profits. Their profits come from an artificial situation, anyway. Just like Telkom. A censor board and perhaps 15 or 20 people, in two local film distributorships, decide nationally, what you and I can see.

And archaic ‘Laws’ prevent the armies of geeks nationwide, from showing you anything else.

So bring on the piracy. Let the two companies in charge, find out, as time goes by, that they can’t stop it. By overpricing and controlling what’s available, they’ve made an artificial enviroment, in which they’ve flourished. At our cultural expense.

Now the public have discovered that they can buy their crappy movies for R40 or so, and avoid the cinema altogether. Good. Flood this market.

Bring down and collapse Ster Kinekor and Nu Metro, bite into their profits and let the mall mutiplexes start showing an ever lowering profit.

In time, as the fatcats in charge have less and less money to bribe, kickback and maintain the laws stopping us geeks from showing you movies that WE want to see, and that WE love, the laws will change - and then the two companies in charge, can suck our big fat wet ones.

Naturally, thats going to take a while - hence the increasingly hysterical attempts to link ‘piracy’ to ‘hardcore criminality’.

But that’s just the whimpering of two corporations who’ve noticed their profits are falling, and are attempting to try and persuade the public ‘not to look behind the curtain at that little man there’. (wizard of oz reference :P)

These two companies have a couple of equally valid-yet-bogus ‘anti-piracy’ thug teams who do their bidding, and who provide the occasional PR news item - yet, as I said before, funny how they cant go and find copies of all the new movies at the local fleamarkets.

And before you buy their idea about piracy ‘hurting local whatever’ - there was that Harvard Business School Study done in March last year, which showed no connection whatsoever, to online music piracy versus CD sales.

So the equally growing hysteria over music piracy online locally, is really just about various local distributors in various fields, who’ve also been ‘legally’ protected in their profiteering, from real competition.

Now the chickens are coming home to roost, across all the local bloated protected industries..

but back to film..

If ‘piracy’ is the only way for film geeks (and the public) to get to see films that THEY want to see, WHEN THEY want to see them, then piracy is

a) GOOD. and b) UNSTOPPABLE.

Its really that simple. If you dont provide or allow real competition, or real choice - then the Pirates will win.

Until Nu Metro and Ster Kinekor (or film geek lawyers) see this, and allow the laws to change, to provide more choice for the public, and throw out the Telkom-style monopoly laws locking up most of the films that are available, and handing their rights in perpetuity to the braindead f*cks at SK/NM, to gather dust in their archives - then Ster Kinekor and Nu Metro will continue to sink deeper into the sh*t, in their ever-narrowing playing field.

Good.

Take a step back and get an overview of what has been happening locally. Don’t be fooled into turning into little corporate pimps and cops on behalf of the local film, distributors, who are not only vandals, thugs and whores - they’re trying to make you believe that you should help ‘protect them’ in their massively priviliged monopolistic position.

It’s a lie. Don’t be fooled. You understand clearly that when Telkom talks about how amazing its service is, and how helpful it is - that they’re liars. Your internet experience has shown you this.

However in the case of local film distributors and ‘piracy’ - it’s a lot more difficult to see the big picture - unless you’re one of the film geeks. Otherwise you may well buy into their worldview, and run around hysterically worried on their behalf, about ‘film piracy’.

In the local context, given some of the above listed info - I don’t give a damn about film piracy. Local film distributors bleating like sheep about specifically film piracy - and how its ‘hurting’ them and us - is a sick joke.

That’s like Telkom asking for ‘protection’ against other telecommunication companies. It’s not the whole truth, its a perversion of the actual truth.

Nu Metro and Ster Kinekor maintain this slick PR illusion, amongst the general public, of being the poor ‘victims’ of Piracy - because there are not many film geeks - and even less video shop staff - speaking out and saying ‘er, there’s actually a more complex picture here - which you are wayyy too happy that the public doesn’t know about’.

Hopefully this hella long thing, can widen the debate and add some info to people’s understanding of what is actually unfolding..

-All Power To The Film Geeks