I didn’t know much about the infowars.com ‘Paul Revere Film Festival’ before I met director Luke Shipman. But as it was the motivation behind his locally filmed featurette, Übermensch, I soon realised that it had a specific agenda: Human Liberty.
Told then, through a kind of surreal anti-globalist lens, Luke’s festival entry takes up a fight against an omnipotent world order (The film’s title is a reference to Nietzsche) that is accused of channeling dark forces. These dark forces are represented in Übermensch by Kubrick style bad guys – bullies in fact – who hang out in the woods of Dulwich waiting to tease our protagonist (who in turn is seeking to cleanse himself of their insidious oppression).
Basically, global conspiracy comes to a town near you.
Luke claims to have written, casted, shot and edited his entry for the competition in less than a month. To help him he sought the help of two other locals. Firstly, ex-boxing legend Clinton Mckenzie has a lead acting role.
Mckenzie plays mentor, sharing his wisdom from under the arches of Miguel’s boxing gym in LJ. Dressed in his white suit and bowler, he delivers lines (that may well have come straight from ringside) like, “Bring them into your world” and “Size doesn’t matter. Size is no guarantee for strength”, with a down to earth South London frankness.
The other celeb-locale who worked with Luke is Dave Randall of Abioye and Randall (ex-Faithless guitarist). He wrote the music.
The film is dreamy. It weaves in and out of consciousness, between fantasy and claustrophobic reality. Think scenes doused with crow calls and some bleachy, utopian Brockwell Park shots. There are also some blinding views from Herne Hill House – The Twin Towers if you like.
So, as the reference halfway through Luke’s film suggests, it will appeal to fans of David Icke. And there is also a big helping of airtime for the throaty voice of Alex Jones, the man behind infowars.com. So you’ll be receiving your annual dose of paranoia within a few minutes.
You’ve missed Luke’s recent screening in the Prince Regent. However, you can find his film to watch for free here.
