Currently in the Eyeholes: Drum Struck

In the 1990’s there was a place you might remember called a “Video Rental Store” where you’d go every Friday after work and browse the racks of “videotapes” so you could select a few to rent over the weekend. On these videotapes were movies, and if you frequented just the right sort of video rental store – they would have some very obscure treats to rent out on the back shelves.

One that I rented out back then was “Tetsuo: The Iron Man“, an artsy, body-horror, very abstract monster film in Japanese. It’s pretty good, really – I was thinking about watching it again soon, but thinking about that reminded me of the *very very* obscure short film that had been included on the VHS version of “Tetsuo”, which I recall frankly blowing my socks off. I watched Tetsuo once that weekend, but I kept rewinding and watching that short film tagged onto the end of the tape, prolly a dozen or more times, but I haven’t seen it since then, and I forgot the name of the film.So, I started looking for a DVD of Tetsuo today, and found that the DVD doesn’t have the bonus short film included. Looking at used VHS copies finally got me the *name* of the film, though – so I looked for that. There were very few accurate hits on Google, as the main thing that comes up is some sort of interactive drum circle group, but there were a couple relevant hits: the IMDB entry and yes, the actual film on Youtube and Vimeo. Finally, I can watch it again. Here is “Drum Struck” – Basically “The Little Drummer Boy” done French New Wave style. You can thank me for pointing this little film out to you in the comments below.

Directed by a guy named Greg Nickson (who as far as I can tell, somehow never did *any* other film, other than a short for his parent’s 38th wedding anniversary) and starring his relatives and friends (ditto) with incredible surf music soundtrack by “Perma-Buzz” (which as far as I can tell became a Chicago-area bar rock band and eventually disbanded). Why this film is practically unknown and why these guys never seem to have done another film is a mystery to me. It is absolutely one of my favorite short films, and almost certainly the coolest film ever funded by The Center for New Television’s Regional Fellowship Program and The Illinois Arts Council. (:
Heh, I’m not the only one who thought this short was kind of the star of the show on its VHS double-billing. Here’s a review that mentions it.

Anthony Bevilacqua as the quiet little drummer boy who perseveres despite having his ears hooked up to a car battery, will remind you of the characters in Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise; the whole 25-minute film will, actually.

Well, Correspondent Gregory S. recommended “Stranger Than Paradise“, so it was already on my watchlist. Very intrigued now! :D