Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Underground filmmaker Jon Moritsugu not only has a mind-blowing new movie out, Pig Death Machine, but he has also been on the receiving end of recent retrospectives in San Francisco and New York City. Coming up on August 9 it’s the City of Angels’ turn at the Downtown Independent. I asked my friend about the honor as well as the flick to get all of you excited about it.
MW: Is this the first time you’ve ever depicted a character with the problem of being too smart?
JM: Yeah, it’s a first. I’ve had characters in other movies who thought they were really smart. F’rinstance, Miles Morgan (played by Kyp Malone from TV on the Radio) in Scumrock and Kazumi in Mod Fuck Explosion. But Cocojoy is the only legit, hands-down, I’m-so-smart-this-sucks character. Amy and I wanted to portray “too smart” as an affliction, a total problemo, like not something you’d ever wish for.
MW: Santa Fe looks amazing, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you show nature like this before in a movie. Can you talk about how your new home base has affected your film making?
JM: New Mexico is totally intense–visually, physically, psychically. I love it. You have the desert (of course), blue-screen colored skies, summer monsoons that bring full-on thunderstorms and torrential rains and then blistering sunshine half an hour later, seven thousand foot altitude and 30 percent less oxygen. Green chili sauce so hot it makes you puke (no joke, the place is Horseman’s Haven). The sweet smell of pinon wood burning in fireplaces at night. Plus, we live in a 200-year-old adobe (!!!) house that looks like a baked potato with holes poked in it for windows. This area is totally weird and cool, foreboding and beautiful all at once. Perfect inspiration for making the movies. Plus Albuquerque is only an hour away for getting rowdy in that Walter White sort of way.
Underground filmmaker Jon Moritsugu not only has a mind-blowing new movie out, Pig Death Machine, but he has also been on the receiving end of recent retrospectives in San Francisco and New York City. Coming up on August 9 it’s the City of Angels’ turn at the Downtown Independent. I asked my friend about the honor as well as the flick to get all of you excited about it.
MW: Is this the first time you’ve ever depicted a character with the problem of being too smart?
JM: Yeah, it’s a first. I’ve had characters in other movies who thought they were really smart. F’rinstance, Miles Morgan (played by Kyp Malone from TV on the Radio) in Scumrock and Kazumi in Mod Fuck Explosion. But Cocojoy is the only legit, hands-down, I’m-so-smart-this-sucks character. Amy and I wanted to portray “too smart” as an affliction, a total problemo, like not something you’d ever wish for.
MW: Santa Fe looks amazing, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you show nature like this before in a movie. Can you talk about how your new home base has affected your film making?
JM: New Mexico is totally intense–visually, physically, psychically. I love it. You have the desert (of course), blue-screen colored skies, summer monsoons that bring full-on thunderstorms and torrential rains and then blistering sunshine half an hour later, seven thousand foot altitude and 30 percent less oxygen. Green chili sauce so hot it makes you puke (no joke, the place is Horseman’s Haven). The sweet smell of pinon wood burning in fireplaces at night. Plus, we live in a 200-year-old adobe (!!!) house that looks like a baked potato with holes poked in it for windows. This area is totally weird and cool, foreboding and beautiful all at once. Perfect inspiration for making the movies. Plus Albuquerque is only an hour away for getting rowdy in that Walter White sort of way.