http://www.md-filmfest.com/film-guide-2011.cfm?id=80

You can always watch it online.

http://www.sundancechannel.com/films/500528893/

http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/culturefeed/short-break-redemptitude-zellner-bros/

A fantastic recap of the program: http://fest11.sffs.org/news/index_04-27.php

Brothers from Another Planet

Festival programmer Sean Uyehara made it all sound so straightforward: He would introduce the Zellner brothers, a pair of Austin-based filmmakers. There would be shorts, a talk, more shorts and a final Q&A. Simple, right? Then a decrepit elderly man wandered to the stage. Resembling Hans Moleman, he read a prepared statement: “Hello there. Welcome. My name is David and Nathan Zellner, but you can call me Bobo. I come from the planet Fluborg, hold for applause.” This was only the first surprise in Sunday night’s From A to Zellner, a live performance and shorts showcase from the Zellner brothers, whose absurd work so often turns expectations on their head. The piece Flotsam/Jetsam emerged from a purely aesthetic desire, according to David. “For a long time I thought it would be fun to be out in the middle of the ocean on a raft made of luggage with a vacuum and a chicken on it.” When exactly that hallucinatory, poetic struggle of a man adrift at sea turned into a hysterical pseudo documentary of a shark attack is just part of the Zellner’s mystique. Throughout the night’s strange variety show, there was no predicting what would come next, with costume changes, additional characters played by their supposed grandfather (a Bay Area native born in 1923 just blocks away in a Fillmore abortion clinic), or that the brothers and elder statesman would end the show with an unplanned rendition of Limahl’s theme from The Neverending Story, complete with a choreographed tap-dancing duet. —RP

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