EFILMCRITIC.com Victoria Film Festival 2013 Interview – THE SKIN I’M IN director Broderick Fox

Victoria Film Festival 2013 Interview – THE SKIN I’M IN director Broderick Fox

by Jason Whyte

THE SKIN I'M IN producer Lee Biolos, MATERIAL SUCCESS director Jesse Mann, and THE SKIN I'M IN director Broderick Fox at the 2013 Victoria Film Festival Opening Gala. — THE SKIN I’M IN producer Lee Biolos, MATERIAL SUCCESS director Jesse Mann, and THE SKIN I’M IN director Broderick Fox at the 2013 Victoria Film Festival Opening Gala. Photo by Jason Whyte

Please tell me about the technical side of the film; your relation to the film’s cinematographer, what the film was shot on and why it was decided to be photographed this way.

I shot much of the project myself. It also pulls from a lifelong archive of video, film, and photographic imagery I shot growing up. As such it contains a dizzying array of formats including Super 8 film, VHS, Hi-8, Mini DV, SD Video, and HDV. Two wonderful friends from film school shot key materials; Sarah Levy, shot my first trip up to Victoria to meet Rande and also filmed the sit-down interviews with my multiple “selves.” Andrew Groves shot nearly all the tattoo sessions for me, 29 hours of tattooing all told. It was a real gift to have the camera operators in these intimate situations be close friends whom I trust implicitly. In a few additional instances other friends, a former student, and my partner picked up the camera when needed. People have called the project a very big “little film,” and I hope it inspires others to pick up the tools and technologies at their disposal to tell great stories.

Read full interview here

Filmmaker is a Fox with Many Faces: Victoria Times-Colonist Review of THE SKIN I’M IN

“PART OF THIS FILM IS ME TRYING TO LINK MY HEAD BACK UP TO MY BODY,” SAYS FOX.

MICHAEL D. REID

TIMES COLONIST

JANUARY 30, 2013

BOX OFFICE

What: The Skin I’m In

Where: Vic Theatre

When: Saturday, 9:30 p.m.

Rating: Four stars (out of five)

Broderick Fox never imagined he might someday be mistaken for Antonio Banderas.

Online searches for his documentary The Skin I’m In, which makes its Canadian première at the Victoria Film Festival, often yield references to The Skin I Live In. In that twisted thriller directed by Pedro Almodovar, Banderas plays a sinister plastic surgeon who holds a beautiful woman captive to test a synthetic alternative to human skin he’s perfecting.

Fox’s unflinching low-tech reflection on years of bodily shame, addiction and other issues that inspired him to transform his body into a living canvas seems worlds apart from Almodovar’s sleek, creepy meditation on beauty. But a Spanish film scholar who once mentored Fox noted the films resonate in similar ways, he said.

Both, for instance, explore the nature of identity. In Fox’s case, it was the spiritual and sexual ramifications of identity that would unite him with Rande Cook, the Victoria-based First Nations artist who created the full-back tattoo that memorializes Fox’s experiences.

“There are a lot of people who might write the film off as narcissistic,” admits Fox, 38, who worked on his project for six years and titled it early on. Read full article here.

Monday Magazine Previews THE SKIN I’M IN

Victoria Film Festival preview: The Skin I’m In

By Colin Cayer – Monday Magazine
Published: January 30, 2013 4:00 PM

“There’s this fine line. There are native artists that consider everything to be sacred, yet they’ll sell it for a buck,” says Cook who needed to find a way that still felt right to support himself through his art and culture. He was left with one choice. “I had to create a new art form,” Cook says.

Instead of using sacred items representing the spirits of land, sky and ocean, Cook turned to the ancestral stories learned from his grandparents and interpreted their imagery — no desecration required.

This art form is what attracted film professor Broderick Fox. His film, The Skin I’m In, is an official selection at this year’s Victoria Film Fest. Read full article.

Broderick Fox sought out Victoria, BC artist Rande Cook in The Skin I'm In. — Broderick Fox sought out Victoria, BC artist Rande Cook in The Skin I’m In.

TRANSFORM: A PREVIEW OF “THE SKIN I’M IN”

Image of filmmaker Broderick Fox from the trailer of THE SKIN I'M IN

Dec, 5 2012 Written by Laura K. Marsh

We live in an era of self-indulgent storytelling, where anyone with a camera, some editing software, and a soundtrack can post endless streams about themselves. But in the case of “The Skin I’m In” – thank the Kwagiulth spirits for it…

Read full review here.

Film captures intensely personal story

By Adrian Gomez / Asst. Arts Editor, Reel NM on Fri, Sep 28, 2012

Albuquerque Journal Article — Director Broderick Fox works on the final sound mix for his documentary “The Skin I’m In.” The film will screen as part of the Southwest Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

It took a personal low to make a change. And filmmaker Broderick Fox has captured it all on film. “It’s a story that I feel like I needed to tell,” he says during a recent interview. “It’s taken about seven years, but it’s finally all together.” Read Full Article

Film Festival Enters Final Days: Arizona Daily star

The Arizona Daily Star made me an honorary Australian. 🙂 Confusion came from the fact that THE SKIN I’M IN is listed as a U.S./Australian co-production due to fact that exec producer Lee Biolos is Australian as well as the incredible generosity of Australian contributors. I’d be an honorary Australian any day!

The 21st annual Arizona International Film Festival enters the home stretch with more than a dozen features, documentaries and shorts, and a couple of filmmakers from Australia. Read full article

The Film Prof with the Full Back Tattoo

by Richard Horgan

This week, Occidental College film and video teacher Broderick Fox traveled Down Under to the picturesque Byron Bay Film Festival for the world premiere of his feature documentary The Skin I’m In. After a brush with death several years ago, Fox embarked on a journey of personal transformation. Read full article

Fox interviewed on ABC Radio’s CONVERSATIONS WITH RICHARD FIDLER

Broderick Fox interviewed on ABC Radio’s CONVERSATIONS WITH RICHARD FIDLER 3/8/12

While in Australia for the world premiere of THE SKIN I’M IN at the 2012 Byron Bay International Film Festival, director Broderick Fox was a guest on the national ABC radio program CONVERSATIONS WITH RICHARD FIDLER.

Listen to an abridged version of that hour-long program here:

Kicking down the celluloid closet door

As far back as 1997, filmmaker Broderick Fox was receiving substantial recognition and awards for his work. But in 2005 he was found unconscious on the Berlin subway tracks, injured from the fall and with a lethal blood alcohol level of 0.47. Lucky for him, strangers pulled him to safety.

Broderick had been given another chance at life. Forced to acknowledge how empty and unhinged his life had become, Fox made a very big decision. One that took him on a journey of body, mind and spirit. Initiating an unusual collaboration between himself, a Canadian indigenous Kwakwakan artist (Rande), and an African-American tattoo artist (Zulu), Broderick sets himself on the path to turn his life around. Read full article

World Premiere of THE SKIN I’M IN

World Premiere of The Skin I’m In

The Thursday 8^th March evening programme at Byron Bay International Film Festival offers its audience a World Premiere. The Skin I’m In is the latest film from Broderick Fox, an established and award winning US filmmaker. The fact that he’s chosen this World Premiere for Byron is very special. What’s even more impressive is that he’s flying all the way over from Los Angeles to join with ACON in presenting this special first screening. For those of you who don’t know, ACON is the largest community-based gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) health and HIV/AIDS organisation in Australia. They promote the health and wellbeing of the GLBT community, people with HIV, and support for people at risk of or affected by HIV, including sex workers, people who use drugs and the family and/or carers of people with HIV.

Screening with The Skin I’m In are short films Hold on Tight and Simply Rob. An evening full of empowering entertainment focused on the challenges and realities faced by countless people within every community. Read full article