Film Threat was created as a platform for truly independent and underground filmmakers; a gateway to the island of misfit cinema. This week on the island, you can see the kind of movie we were made for in the form of “The Delicate Art of the Rifle”. The film was produced by the Cambrai Liberation Collective; a group of four filmmakers from North Carolina. I first saw this film two and a half years ago, but it’s more topical than ever and has begun a limited run in Los Angeles.
We follow shy sophomore, Jay (David Grant) as he navigates the Lynchian environment of his college campus and acquaintances. Things change when Jay’s popular roommate, Walt Whitman (Stephen Grant), cracks up, climbs on top of a dorm tower and picks off people on the ground with his sniper rifle. The shooting here is based very loosely on the Charles Whitman shootings at the University of Texas in 1966, though in light of recent events, the film feels rather current. This is a little film that can, and since it made it to the theatre, it’s now your job to check it out. In a week that saw the release of formula Hollywood like “Notting Hill” and “The Thirteenth Floor”, the guys on the outside need our patronage.
