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A Bitter Message of Hopeless Grief

Jonathan Reiss

1988 00:13:00 United StatesEnglishColor

Description

Performance engineers Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) construct machines that live in their own fictional world, acting out scenarios of perpetual torment, exasperated consumption, and tragic recognition. This film presents a fractured narrative featuring these large anthropomorphic robots and represents Jonathan Reiss and SRL’s collaborative desire to go beyond the restraints of event documentation.

About Jonathan Reiss

Named one of “10 Digital Directors to Watch” by Daily Variety, Jon Reiss is a critically acclaimed filmmaker whose experience releasing his documentary feature, Bomb It with a hybrid strategy was the inspiration for writing Think Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution in the Digital Era, the first step-by-step guide for filmmakers to distribute and market their films. He recently co-wrote Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul.

Bomb It 2 for which Reiss extended his exploration of graffiti and street art to the Middle East, South East Asia and Australia just released on iTunes and Amazon on August 6th, 2013. His previous documentary feature films are Better Living Through Circuitry, a startling, humorous and entertaining glimpse into the exploding rave culture and Cleopatra’s Second Husband, a dark psychological drama. Reiss has also directed videos for Nine Inch Nails, The Black Crowes, Danzig, Slayer, and the Kottonmouth Kings. Reiss’ “Happiness in Slavery” video for Nine Inch Nails won awards at the Chicago and San Francisco film festivals and was voted Top Ten by the Village Voice Critics Poll for Best Music Video. 

Jon Reiss’ early credits also include four hour-long documentaries concerning the notorious performance group Survival Research Laboratories which were included on a compilation 10 Years of Robotic Mayhem. Reiss got his start in filmmaking at Target Video, a San Francisco based alternative video company where he covered much of the West Coast punk explosion. Reiss also contributes to Filmmaker Magazine, Huffington Post, Indiewire, Screen Daily, Moviemaker Magazine and other publications.