When did you first discover the novel by Sebastian Brant?
Danielle: I was reading the book “Madness and Civilization” by Michel Foucault in 2007 in which he mentions “The Ship Of Fools” quite often – I decided to read it too and was struck by the very first paragraph:
“All lands in Holy Writ abound
And works to save the soul are found,
The bible, Holy Fathers lore
And other such in goodly store,
So many that I feel surprise
To find men growing not more wise
But holding writ and lore in spite.
The whole world lives in darksome night“
I could not believe that a book written in 1494 could be so contemporary and immediately thought it would be perfect for a live show.
Brad Abramson is vice president of original production and programing for US cable network VH1 and the creator of its series VH1 Rock Docs, which will be spotlighted at MOFFOM 2008. He is a special guest at this year’s festival, presenting the VH1 films The Night James Brown Saved Boston, NY77: The Coolest Year in Hell, Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who, The Last Days of Left Eye, Sex: The Revolution and Lords of the Revolution: Andy Warhol. He will also take part in a producer’s workshop on “Music in Film.”This interview was conducted by MusicFilmWeb (www.musicfilmweb.com), a new portal devoted to news, reviews and interviews on music documentary, and is used here with permission. A longer version will be published at MusicFilmWeb when it launches in October.
MOFFOM was pleased to welcome legendary musician and composer Fred Frith as the honored guest of the 2007 festival. In addition to screenings of the acclaimed 1990 portrait film “Step Across the Border” and Thomas Riedelsheimer’s award-winning 2003 documentary “Rivers and Tides” which features an innovative score by Frith, MOFFOM also presented a special moderated screening of the ongoing experimental project “Surface and Time” by visual artist Heike Liss, also with music by Frith, in association with the Audiovisual series at Kino Světozor on 18 October. The 2007 edition of MOFFOM was feature as its main event a concert by Fred Frith on Sunday 21 October in Divadlo Archa.
MOFFOM 2008 presents the new film from 1 Giant Leap "What About Me?" at Planet MOFFOM section. The following interview appeared in Link magazine in 2005. The complete version of the interview http://www.britishcouncil.org/link-01.pdf.When 1 Giant Leap recorded their self-titled debut album and award-winning DVD, Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman were already wellestablished music producers. Catto was a founder member of celebrated electronic act Faithless and director of several of their videos. Bridgeman, meanwhile, had made his name as a producer and remixer for a whole catalogue of top-selling pop acts. Both wanted to do something entirely new, without too much reliance on samples; 1 Giant Leap’s globe-trotting mini-studio was born. They sought out unique musicians across the world, travelling any distance to work with them. As well as their recording equipment, the pair took along a digital video camera, originally to make a short promotional film for the album. The short film soon snowballed, as Catto explains:‘
