Featuring a post screening Q&A with THE TARGET SHOOTS FIRST director Chris Wilcha and HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT director Jeff Krulik
THE TARGET SHOOTS FIRST
“Christopher Wilcha’s fascinating feature-length video reminds us how seldom we’re allowed to see certain businesses operating from the inside. Wilcha, a 22-year-old college graduate and alternative-rock enthusiast, was hired by the Columbia Record and Tape Club—apparently as a fluke—to help launch a whole new niche-marketing division, which brought him face-to-face with the contradictory meanings of the term ‘alternative’ once it’s been embraced by the mass market. He brought his video camera to work every day, and what emerge are selective glimpses of—and thoughtful reflections on—his extended stint with the company.”
Dir. Chris Wilcha, 70min, 1999 USA
HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT
"When aspiring filmmakers Jeff Krulik and John Heyn descended upon the Capital Centre parking lot on May 31, 1986, they had little more in mind than to document a fan scene at full peak. The result was ""Heavy Metal Parking Lot"", a 16-minute film featuring local heavy metal fans expressing their enthusiasm for Judas Priest before the band performed in concert later that night. The film's subsequent nearly 40-year journey into popular culture - which started from bootleg copies passed among fans and video collectors, and grew into multi-generation dubs on an underground tape-trading network - has earned it an international fan base all its own. Filmmakers, musicians, actors, artists, music fans and scholars have embraced it as both an iconic representation of a unique subculture and a valuable primary source worthy of anthropological study. Having screened at the 1st annual Sound Unseen back in 1999, we're thrilled to bring back this absolute pitch-perfect short documentary, which almost 40 years later still resonates with old and new audiences alike."
Dir. John Heyn, Jeff Krulik, 16min, 1986, USA