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Truth be told, we have moments when we contemplate why the New Art Film Festival<\/strong><\/a><\/span> and Champaign-Urbana<\/strong> film culture of 2017 does not outwardly resemble or inwardly feel like that which originally stoked our fire in, say, 1997. Times change, people grow, the Twin Cities evolve, and local media tends to reflect its community\u2019s needs, yet we can\u2019t escape the possibility that our own interest level flags. In the thick of NAFF action between mid-summer and the fall, we\u2019re fine; during our down time through the rest of the calendar year, we inevitably self-criticize and question the place or need for our reporting, aggregation, and outreach.<\/p>\n Strangely, it is when we dig deep to bring forth the past that we often feel the most engaged in the present, for we better than most understand the historic groundwork that is the basis for the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond. If nothing else, recalling the early years can only help to reset perspective when our compass du C-U is out of whack. We hope our overall investment is apparent to you, dearest readers, whether we post about the old or the new.<\/p>\n A few months back, we happened to catch a Facebook<\/strong> share by our friend Johnnie May<\/strong> of an early film short he finally digitized and uploaded to stream. Known alternately as CA 1997<\/strong>, CA 1999<\/strong>, and now CA 2017<\/strong>, the stop-motion Super 8 phantasmagoria CASTLE ASSHOLE<\/strong> was designed, animated, and photographed by May and Brian Robertson<\/strong> (MONSTER<\/strong>, NAFF \u201917) in the former\u2019s Urbana basement using a mix of art supplies, found objects, discarded toys, mechanical parts, and recyclables. Modest Mussorgsky<\/strong>\u2019s famous composition \u201cNight on Bald Mountain<\/strong>\u201d accompanies a high-seas adventure as pipe cleaner rogues brave a raging storm to make land and cause mischief in the title structure.<\/p>\n The primitive technique is at once charming in its handmade quality and hallucinatory in its leisurely gait, allowing the viewer to study in real time its clever low-budget camera tricks. We don\u2019t remember if CA 1997\/1999<\/strong> surfaced at the Freaky Film Festival<\/strong> after it was first finished \u2013 other Tabletop Studios<\/strong> inventions<\/a><\/span> like ISOLATION<\/strong> and COMPLETELY DRESDEN<\/strong> did make the Freaky cut \u2013 but it embodies the freewheeling, rough-and-ready underground film aesthetic that once ran rampant in America<\/strong>.<\/p>\n