The VCR Decalogue      Tederick Films // written & directed by Matt Brown

A trilogy in ten parts. In the VCR Decalogue, man meets machine, and does not like it.

About The VCR Decalogue

The VCR Decalogue is a series of short experimental video works produced over ten years in ten parts. In The VCR Decalogue, man meets machine, and does not like it.

The VCR Decaloguebegan in 2000 when a spare VCR was used as a prop for an on-the-fly video shoot. The resulting video, VCR, was popular enough that we soon found ourselves the recipients of whatever clutter our friends and neighbours had lying around - two more VCRs, a computer, a guitar, a stage dummy, computer keyboards, a desk lamp, a ukelele, etc., etc. What began as an innocent attempt to exploit this garbage turned into another kind of garbage altogether.

Intended to be viewed as a unit - VCR, VCR2, VCR3, VCR4x, VCR 5.1, VCR6, VCR7, VCR8, VCR: The Ninth Gate and VCR10y - The VCR Decalogue loops back on itself like a snake in an egg, unleashing sound and fury in inverse proportion to narrative unity.

VCR, VCR3, VCR6 and VCR10y are available for viewing online. For a copy of the complete decalogue, please visit the store.

"I hesitate to talk too much about The VCR Decalogue (in the same way that I hesitate to stare into the sun), but it's safe to say that no film festival in its right mind would ever show this. It's too irreverent for the experimental crowd, it's too incomprehensible for the comedy circuit, it's too Lord of the Rings for the video-art galleries, too Jackass for the cinematheques... it's basically too inexplicable for the neurons, and too something for the anything.

"[Director Matt Brown] knows this, and he must have known it when he was making it. It's clear he was following a program -- it's practically symphonic in its structure -- but what that program is for is anybody's guess. We only know that it contains axes and vaginas and smashing smashing and The Price is Right and already I've said too much, but once he set himself on this path (it's clear to me that) it became clear to him that he'd have to follow it to the end."

- Daniel Cockburn in the program notes for A Decade of Not Trying

Screenings

Screened as part of A Decade of Not Trying (Private screening, Toronto, Canada, May 2010)

Production credits

Written & Directed by Matt Brown
VCR3 written by Mark Brown
Starring Mark Brown, Adam Brown, Daniel Cockburn, Matt Brown, Caitlin Brown
and many, many VCRs
Production assistance provided by Craig Henderson, Jeff Szpirglas, Chris MacLean, Trevor Rauhala, Daniel Cockburn, Dave Tebby, Stephen Roque

Technical specifications

Length: 30 minutes
Production format: Mini-DV
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Sound: stereo

Production year

2010