The following article appeared in yesterday’s Newspaper. (Sunday, 21 November 2010)

The Lover’s … of dreams and demons.
The release of their latest short film has sweetened the lives of all those at BlackMilk Productions, writes Astrid Stark.

When Ronnie and Thomas get together, somebody usually dies. These two independent film-makers have found each other through a mutual fascination with the horror film genre. Ronnie Belcher is an award-winning jewellery designer, photographer and film-maker. Thomas Dorman is an award-winning designer, photographer and film-maker. Their short film Regression recently won the award for “Best Local Short” at the 2010 SA Horrorfest.

“During December, 2008, Ronnie was having a relationship with one of my models, and I wanted to do a shoot in Ronnie’s attic,” says Thomas. Ronnie lives in a semi-detached Victorian house in the back end of Gardens where the street people are too lethargic to beg on a Saturday morning. The street in front of the house is deserted and the area has the ambience of a horror film set. Ronnie’s house, however, is a haven. A wooden staircase leads into a gorgeous wooden-floored kitchen with dark orange walls. The smell of freshly brewed coffee fills the kitchen. Ronnie and Thomas are waiting for me. Leon Visser joins them.

Somehow I expected them to have red-rimmed eyes, pale faces and corks through their ears, but these guys are fresh-faced and clearly focused on their work. “ While I was busy doing the model shoot, Ronnie was filming me shooting the model,” Thomas continues. “He had a rough script he thought could fit some of the resultant footage.”

The two guys instantly gelled and their first short film was born. “We shot KiTTY KiLL on a handycam,” says Ronnie. “It was a two-month project and is still one of our finest films to date.” KiTTY KiLL” won BestArt Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Overall Film at the 2009 South African Auteur Film Festival.

Their unique collaboration has so far led to Emma-O, which won Best Runner-up Local Short Film at SA Horrorfest 2009, and 23 Rue d’Amour, Regression and their most recent work, The Lovers. Ronnie and Thomas co-write and direct their films.

Leon, who is a photographer, editor and producer, joined the team for the making of Regression and The Lovers. “Two weeks before the shooting was to take place I got a Facebook invite for Regression,” says Leon, “I knew I had to be part of it, even if I made coffee.”

Regression is a chilling short film about the darker side of love and what happens when we can’t let go of each other. They call their films horror, but after watching The Lovers, it is obvious their films are powerful works of fine art.

Ronnie and Thomas say their films are less about the issues of the day and more about individual journeys removed from societal influences. “There is never a linear story,” says Ronnie. “We are pedantic about time frames and environment. The Lovers can be best described as a post-apocalyptic 1920s love story. The movie took 56 hours from script to screen,” says Ronnie. In the film, two lovers follow a length of cotton they discover in the woman’s belly button. Their heads are wrapped in cloth as they journey through a Salvador Dali like landscape. There are strong themes of birth, betrayal, love, denial and murder, and hardly a word is spoken.

“We wanted each shot to look like a painting,” says Ronnie. And indeed the film is a visual feast with its rich textures, symmetrical themes and surreal use of colour. “The music we usually finalise when we know what the film looks like,” says Ronnie. The music for example in The Lovers are soundscapes. It is a journey. You don’t hear it as much as you feel it.” The production value of the film is very high. In one of the scenes a poem by Gary Cummiskey, also called The Lovers, is narrated. Then into the kitchen wafts Estè Kira. She is smoking a pipe. Her body is covered in intricate tattoos and a pair of silver goggles roosts in her violently red hair. She has no eyebrows. She’s been working in the film industry for about six years, and is production designer with BlackMilk.

She laughs as she tells me how some of the special effects and props were created. “Once, we needed a scene where a penis is cut in half and cooked. We had to make it believable. The usual visual effects guys couldn’t help us because we had to cook the penis and the thing would just dissolve. So I worked with a food stylist and we created a penis out of steak, salami and chicken skin. I still have one in my fridge.” She is also the head honcho of Miss Demeanour & The Squid Circus which sees her entertaining people with an octopus and several hooks pierced through her back. “Our movies usually start small and then evolve into something gigantic,” says Thomas. “Myself, Ronnie and Estè fund most of the projects in collaboration with production company Sex On Toast, which often helps out. “We hope someone will spot what we can do with a minimal budget and help us realise our potential. We are also thinking of creating a box-set collection of our short films.”

Just before we trundle down the stairs and into the empty street, Estè corners me in the kitchen and insists on reciting a quote from Barend Buitekamer that, to her, defines her work with BlackMilk and Squid Circus: “In this world, an artist must sometimes be his own I-am-what-I-am god. He must visit upon the conforming meatpuppets plague after plague of obscure shock art. He must lead them from their land of milk and honey into a warzone of blood and semen. Once there he must cast them upon burning pyres… and forget about them.”

On November 27, Flymachine Films, BlackMilk Productions and Purple Velvet productions will be screening their films at CULT in Johannesburg. There will be two movies from the US and five from South Africa.

Submachine, Slashdogs, Shots Fired and Ransom Note will provide music. Find the event at CCHQ, corner of Main and Violet on Fisher’s Hill. Entry is R90, doors open at 6pm.

Films at the festival:

BlackMilk Productions: KiTTY KiLL, 23 Rue d’Amour, Regression, The Lovers

Flymachine Films: Kult Without Name

Purple Velvet Productions: Blood Drips; Maven: Instillness I Lie