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On this shiver-inducing Midwest winter day, we are issuing a \u201cfirst alert\u201d to our dearest readers who may be wondering what might emerge from the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters<\/strong> in 2015! We will not yet go into detail about the core plan, regarding a gradual shift in C-U Confidential<\/strong> perspectives and priorities, but can certainly illustrate by example. Did you notice those neatly garish video boxes positioned above and below these words? (How could you miss<\/em> them?) While not unheralded Champaign-Urbana<\/strong> wonders, they do house comparable productions filled with that indelible MICRO-FILM<\/strong> spirit!<\/p>\n In the end pages of MF 7<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, we ran a teaser block promising not one, not two, but three<\/em> sister projects intended to hit the presses way back in 2006 during C-U Blogfidential<\/strong>\u2019s infancy. We will revisit the topic of MF 8<\/strong> at a later date and focus a bit on the others: Backyard Cinema<\/strong><\/span>, an upgraded edition of the B-movie one-shot issued by<\/span> <\/a>Mike Trippiedi<\/strong> (HEARTSHOT<\/strong>) in the Nineties, and The Video Throne<\/strong>, an essay-based series that would have examined disparate films-on-tape adopted from the sale shelves of That\u2019s Rentertainment<\/strong><\/span><\/a> in Campustown<\/strong>. None made it to pulp fruition, but<\/em>, whoever said old concepts could not bear new fruit? At long last, we\u2019re renewing our membership to club TVT<\/strong>!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Watch for Throne<\/strong>-centric material to track into view between our regular CUBlog<\/strong> posts for a trial run. Early entries will look at underground video culture from yesterday and today, reveling in the true outsider cinema existing as only a shadow in the peripheral vision of the average mainstream consumer. A colorful case in point is our recent discovery of the Web site Bleeding Skull!<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>, a repository for hilariously arch (but refreshingly good-natured) reviews of obscure genre films founded by Austin, Texas<\/strong>, enthusiasts Zack Carlson<\/strong> (co-author, Destroy All Movies!!!<\/strong><\/span>) and Joseph A. Ziemba<\/strong> (programmer, Alamo Drafthouse<\/strong>). In league with Mondo<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, they have spun off their love of the lost as a VHS label, Bleeding Skull! Video<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n Both of their first two releases, CARDS OF DEATH<\/strong> and THE SOULTANGLER<\/strong>, hail from the mid-Eighties and received the sketchiest of worldwide release; Ziemba and Carlson\u2019s old-fashioned detective work has rescued them for a new generation of alt-movie fans. Interestingly, each also has a tenuous C-U thread. DEATH<\/strong> was the first of several made-in-Los Angeles<\/strong> flicks edited or produced by Champaign native Sam Oldham<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, while SOULTANGLER<\/strong> was the first feature from New York<\/strong> micro-filmmaker Pat Bishow<\/strong><\/span><\/a> who would have appeared in Backyard Cinema<\/span>. Even Ziemba himself<\/span><\/a> will be familiar to C-U and Chicago<\/strong> culture mavens, having played in the bands Wolfie<\/strong> and The Like Young<\/strong> on either side of the millennium!<\/p>\n We plan to comb through the fine art of curating highly eclectic movies with Bleeding Skull! in a future featurette. Other potential subjects along these TVT<\/strong> lines include Champaign resident David Gracon<\/strong> and his home-based microcinema, the impending 30th anniversary of Rentertainment, a limited series discussing VHS tapes still available for rental at that very same store, and a box art gallery compiled from legitimate MICRO-FILM Country<\/strong> relics. If you have any ideas for installments, please let us know!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n ~ Jason Pankoke<\/p>\n<\/p>\n