Danny Plotnick roared into the underground film world in the 1980s. Fueled by his love of punk and alternative culture and infected with d.i.y. spirit, he started making films that captured a similarly snarly attitude. His films were pegged as bawdy, bad-mouthed and beautiful, straddling the line between high-brow and low-brow art. It’s no surprise that his work has screened from the MOMA in NYC to mortuaries in Baltimore to the Independent Film Channel. With little opportunity to screen this type of work in the 80s, Plotnick took to the road, projector and films in trunk, screening in bars, warehouses and cafes. Plotnick trail blazed a path for the underground film world that exploded in the early 90s, a scene that would ultimately champion his work.

Working in the pre-digital age, Plotnick was a fierce advocate for super 8 filmmaking. He took this 1960s home movie medium with limited capabilities and made work that stands tall regardless of format. The special features on this dvd are an important document for students of film, providing a rare glimpse into the world of sound super 8 filmmaking.

The films on this disc include Swingers’ Serenade, a titillating tale of suburban sexual malaise; I, Socky, a rogue sock monkey hits the town on a big day out; Steel Belted Romeos, a turbo-charged tale of California road rage; Skate Witches, a glimpse into the world of a 1980s female skateboard gang; Flip About Flip, a tribute to comic genius Flip Wilson.

All films in a printable format

	Tour Tips: Lesson #14 Beware The Day Off In New Orleans directed by Danny Plotnick, and USA, Animation, 2001, Color, Magnetic Stereo, 00:02:00 People always told me my films had a burlesque quality and progressed like unhinged animations. I was always curious about animation, but never had the patience to animate things in film. Then After Effects... more info
	I, Socky directed by Alison Levy and Danny Plotnick USA, Comedy / Satire, 1998, 00:07:00 This film was made in a day with my wife Alison Levy. Bored and tired, we sat around our breakfast at a local diner trying to figure out what do for the day. I think she suggested we make a film. We snappe... more info
	Swingers’ Serenade directed by Danny Plotnick, and USA, Comedy / Satire, 1999, Magnetic Stereo, 00:24:00 This movie was a blast to make. Finding the perfect apartment to create the period, shooting with 60’s-era technology to help create the look were all part of the equation. But the way the score came togeth... more info
	Death Sled II: Steel Belted Romeos directed by Danny Plotnick, and USA, Comedy / Satire, 1990, Magnetic Stereo, 00:10:00 The shooting of this film was a nightmare. We had no permits to be shooting on the streets of San Francisco, yet I chose to set up shop at a traffic light for two days. To make matters worse, we were under ... more info
	Dumbass From Dundas directed by Danny Plotnick, and USA, Art / Artist, 1988, 00:07:00 Written on the 22 Fillmore bus in approximately 20 inspired minutes. We drove 4 hours to a small town outside of Carson City, Nevada to shoot this one. The camera broke down after the opening shots necessit... more info
	Flip About Flip directed by Danny Plotnick, and USA, Art / Artist, 1990, Magnetic Stereo, 00:04:00 Back before mini dv, making films was a long, arduous, expensive proposition. In reaction to that, I liked making very short films in between longer projects. The idea was that to keep the chops honed, make... more info
	Skate Witches directed by Danny Plotnick, and USA, Political / Social, 1986, Magnetic Stereo, 00:02:00 This film was inspired by the women in the Misfits shirt. She rarely skateboarded because she felt she would constantly be hassled by the male skateboard contingent in town. So we jokingly talked about star... more info
	Pipsqueak Pfollies directed by Danny Plotnick, and USA, Narrative, 1994, 00:24:00 I came up with the idea for this film in 1988 while being terrorized by a couple of 7 year olds in a Laundromat. They started messing with my laundry and sized me up as someone who wouldn’t beat the crap out... more info
	Sugarbutts directed by Danny Plotnick, and USA, Art / Artist, 1987, Magnetic Stereo, 00:03:00 This is what’s referred to as a one-reeler. We shot one roll of film, all the edits were done in camera. The sound was recorded via a 2 track film recording function on my projector. ... more info
	Pillow Talk directed by Danny Plotnick, and USA, Art / Artist, 1991, Magnetic Stereo, 00:18:00 This was a collaboration with Los Angeles-based filmmaker Laura Rosow. We wanted the film to have an institutional, claustrophobic vibe. The Ektachrome stock of the late 80’s fit the bill. Many super 8 film... more info

Upcoming Screenings
Venue/Organization	City	Country	Date

Screening History
Venue/Organization	City	Country	Date
Red Hill Books	San Francisco	USA	2008-03-29	Event Details

Reviews and Other Info:

• Bonus films & trailers
• Director, cast and crew commentary for all films
• Over 60 behind the scenes photos, flyers & posters
• Complete technical specs for all films including fetishistic photos & illustrations of equipment
• 8 page booklet of insights and anecdotes
• Complete filmography

2008-03-12  Metro Times - Detroit's Weekly Alternative By Jason Ferguson In a world of underground cinema defined by the polarity of auteurs vs. retards, it's great to be reminded that there are some filmmakers who manage to be both. San Francico's Danny Plotnick has been mining this middle ground for more than 20 years, applying a punk, DIY aesthetic and an askance sense of humor to his body of work. Well schooled in film formalities, and able to produce exceptional work on Super 8, as well as 16mm and DV, Plotnick has nonetheless made it his life's mission to create out-of-the-ordinary films rich with humor and bizarre perspective. This 100-minute collection of 20 of Plotnick's most notable works has everything from scene-ravaging female skateboarders (and their pet rodents) to dangerous little kids to, yes, sock puppets. The highlight, though, is Plotnick's 1999 tour de force, Swinger's Serenade, which finds him taking a script pulled from the pages of a '60s filmmaking magazine and turning it into an appropriately lurid black-and-white commentary on (barely) repressed sexuality. Throughout Serenade and the rest of the DVD, Plotnick never abandons his devotion to technical experimentation, and makes it abundantly clear that he's well-trained in the rules he's breaking.

2008-03-04  SF360 By Michael Fox My high school physics teacher was a slight, nondescript fellow who hyperactively sparked to life in the classroom. His mantra was “Physics is fun!” and he gave one of the more clever lads an unexpected bonus point for devilishly scribbling it on an exam in place of an elusive correct answer. The reward wasn’t for sucking up, mind you, but for understanding that enthusiasm was more important than the dogged mastery of information. That this long-forgotten anecdote (and life lesson) came rushing back to me after spending some time with “Warts & All: The Films of Danny Plotnick” is neither accidental nor inappropriate. The 10 short comic narratives made between 1986 and 2001 assembled on this wonderful DVD are exemplars of an unpolished, unpretentious school of moviemaking that aims at every moment to be audience-friendly. It’s an attitude embraced today by thousands of adolescents screwing around with camcorders, and by one Seth Rogen. None of them has ever heard of the popular San Francisco filmmaker, I’d wager, but they all inherited his credo: Filmmaking is fun! “Back then,” Plotnick confides on the candid commentary track to his endearing two-minute piece, “Skate Witches” (1986), “I didn’t know what I was doing.” He started out in Ann Arbor working in Super 8mm, an inexpensive but hellishly unforgiving format to which he remained committed until his 1999 16mm masterpiece “Swingers’ Serenade.” Plotnick taught himself to solve and circumvent Super 8’s limitations, but even as he got expert at his craft he never minded the seams showing onscreen. There are countless imperfections, fuckups and scars strewn throughout his movies, which some view as flaws but most people accept as intrinsic to a DIY aesthetic. Now that we’re irreversibly immersed in the digital age, the rough spots are perhaps best appreciated as artifacts of a mechanical, tactile medium. As for the plotlines, Plotnick’s biggest crowd-pleasers, “Dumbass from Dundas” (1988, 7 min.) and “Death Sled II: Steel Belted Romeos” (1990, 10 min.), featured loudmouth, over-the-top characters behaving badly. Ray Wilcox, a beefy presence in both films, received his comeuppance (so to speak) in “Pipsqueak Pfollies” (1994, 24 min.) the epic tale of a longhaired loser getting mugged by a bunch of rug rats in a laundromat at 22nd and Guerrero. Consequently, Plotnick’s films fell into no-man’s land, exhibition-wise; they were the polar opposite of the poetic experimental shorts that defined the alternative film scene but they in no way resembled the sentimental, Oscarbait calling-card films produced by on-the-make grads of USC’s film school. So Plotnick went on the road with his Super 8 projector, in the U.S. and abroad, and screened in cafes and clubs and raw spaces. After Chicago and New York spawned underground film festivals, he wasn’t the trailblazer so much as a popular returning guest. Come to think of it, the only drawback to the lovingly produced “Warts & All” DVD (distributed by Microcinema International — orders@microcinema.com) is that these films were made to be shown to a crowd of boisterous, slightly inebriated or stoned people in a funky room. Try as you might, you and your best friend won’t be able to achieve the desired effect on your couch, although the casually hilarious commentary tracks by Plotnick, actress and composer Alison Faith Levy (also Plotnick’s wife) and Wilcox are probably best savored in a small group. So the recommendation from this corner is to throw a party and invite a dozen or 20 close pals. Tell ‘em upfront that instead of pickup possibilities and political banter, it’ will be a night for serious drinking and movie merriment. Start out with “I, Socky” (1998, 7 min.), which follows a sock monkey enjoying a night on the town (with scenes on the 38 Geary and at Edinburgh Castle), then provide a dose or two of Ray Wilcox. Keep the drinks coming, then cap the evening with the black-and-white classic “Swingers’ Serenade.” Plotnick, whose recent work includes the ongoing Nest of Vipers podcast and a bunch of music videos with Chuck Prophet, took his inspiration from the myriad how-to magazines that accompanied the mass acceptance of home-movie cameras in the ’50s and ’60s. In “Swingers’ Serenade,” he shot a sample script from one such mag to deliciously twisted effect. After hubby Jay Hinman heads off to work, housewife Levy receives traveling salesman Miles Montalbano (director of last year’s “Revolution Summer” which, perhaps coincidentally, featured a cameo by Chuck Prophet) with open, um, arms. Chris Enright as “The Professor” archly introduces the film-within-a-film, pointing us to every morsel of demented suburban irony. As for your party, a bonus point will be awarded to the host who has a camera on hand. Danny Plotnick’s films reminds us not only that filmmaking is fun, but fun is contagious.

2008-03-04  www.curledupdvd.com By Eric Renshaw It's amazing what a guy with a punk attitude and a Super-8 camera can do. The short films of Danny Plotnick are fun, irreverent, and foul. Some are amusing but forgettable like Skate Witches; others stick with you and make you smile later in the day, like "Swingers' Serenade," which suggests that 1950's film magazines encouraged marital infidelities. Excellent on a number of levels, the least of which is murder mystery. Plotnick's "Death Sled II: Steel Belted Romeos" takes a traffic misunderstanding and blows it up to epic proportions. It leaves me wondering what would have happened if the nice driver had hit the lead-footed Guido's car (a line that is repeated in about 50 interesting ways!). "Pipsqueak Pfollies" illustrates the path of a milquetoast prone to being taken (yea, even beaten) by children. His path is shown with different choices after a series of interviews with children who have a beef with adults. I can see that Plotnick's work has paved the way for other filmmakers like Tom Stern and Alex Winter. Great stuff and it leaves me wanting more.

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