I am 600733, I am awake at 4:30 a.m. I am used to it. It is time to get ready for work. We all have to leave 1 House by 5:00 a.m. If you do not leave promptly you get a ticket; you can get a ticket for anything at North Coast Correctional Treatment Facility. And you never get the benefit of the doubt; they are real petty here. Today is Monday and what I have planned at work will most certainly get me a ticket. Also, I will have to pay for damages. Today I will make 75 cents. So I will have to work for a long time to pay for the damages. But that is the risk I’m going to take because I have invested in a lot of time to pull off this job. And when you’re in prison, you have time. But I won’t go into that point. I think Morgan Freeman taught us all about the prison life in The Shawshank Redemption. “Institutionalized.” I started to get institutionalized in my dreams after about the third week. As I walk with my fellow inmates to the cafeteria I look at the stars in the...
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Yohan Forbes is a filmmaker based in the U.K., best-known for his 2009 film “Project One,” a skateboard journey across the architectural landscape of London, a film that would go on to win “Best Film” at the BFI Future Film Festival, be inducted into the national archives, headline a collection of transport films in Trafalgar square at the 53rd London Film Festival event “London Moves Me,” and be featured in 30 film festivals across the globe. On the heels of that success, Yohan will soon be sharing with the world his second film “I, Everyday.” Set in Shizuoka, Japan, it explores the relationship between two brothers, one of whom suffers from the Japanese phenomenon Hikikomori, a social disorder that causes young people to isolate themselves from their family and the outside world. GUTFIRE! recently posed some probing questions to Yohan, which he, in turn, was kind enough to answer. Artist’s website: www.kumo-kumofilms.blogspot.com GUTFIRE!: Yohan, what is the most bizarre or unusual thing you’ve ever filmed? YOHAN: I was working as a sound recordist at the time and travelled to Berlin for work on a short. Most of the film was shot in a car; cameras placed on the bonnet,...
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With its venerable origins dating back to the earliest days of photography as we know it, the pinhole camera is a storied if not somewhat antiquated device. But in the hands of a master, its former glory is once again rekindled, and photographer Robert Mann is just that. He was generous enough to share some of his work from two series, Orbits (the product of candles artfully left on turntables before an open aperture) and Landscapes, and it is our honor and pleasure to share them with you. Enjoy. Artist’s website: www.thencamenow.com
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Jakarta is a city that doesn’t let one breath. Cars, motorcycles, noise, chaos, mess, dirt, smells, poverty, wealth, luxury, markets, malls and more malls, people, pollution – all mixed in a shaker. The Picnic Kit project is a result of photographer Sebastian Friedman observing and feeling the beat of the city. Completed during a residency program in 2006 in Ruangrupa, Jakarta, Indonesia, it is his attempt to break Jakarta’s brand of absurd logic by focusing on what people might do in their spare time – namely, have picnics – and those places in that urban jungle they might choose for their leisure. Sebastian Friedman lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Artist’s website: www.sebastianfriedman.com
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Photos by Andre Bernet This past May, Yves Rossy, a.k.a Jetman, became the first human to fly over the Grand Canyon in a jetpack. And shortly thereafter, GUTIFRE! became the first online arts and culture magazine with a childhood obsession with jetpacks to interview him. We caught up with Jetman at his home-base, the airstrip at Bex, Switzerland, and there, beneath the cool shadows of alpine ridges and amidst the pleasant droning of prop planes, learned exactly just what it takes to build a jetpack, strap it to your back, and blast through the heavens like a seraphic torpedo. Evidently, a great deal of courage, years of experience, and the unerring perseverance to follow one’s dreams. That, and of course, a really cool jetpack. www.jetman.com GUTFIRE!: So Jetman, when was the moment that you first realized you wanted to fly? JETMAN: When I was a kid – as a kid I was interested, I was ten years old when my father offered to my brother and me a flight in a little airplane. But most kids are interested in flying, and I did like it. Then at an airshow they did a demo, and especially at the end, when...
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