Radical Jesters
(2007, 75 minutes)
Monday, May 5 at 7:30pm
A film by Tim Jackson
Pranksters, performers and provocateurs take
to the streets to engage in social critique
through imaginative guerrilla art. Through
media hoaxes, billboard alteration and even
pants-less subway rides, these radical jesters
taunt mainstream media and challenge the increasingly
private use of public space. Behind every
prank is a purpose – to use humor to
make people question a culture where ideas
and values are often fashioned by the media
and through habits of consumption.
Post-film discussion featuring the filmmaker Tim Jackson and local radical jesters David Hyde and Rusty Oliver.
Tim Jackson is an actor, drummer,
teacher, documentary producer and online radical
jester. He studied theater at Ithaca College
in New York and worked as an actor in Boston.
As a drummer he has performed with dozens
of groups, on recordings and on soundtracks.
He has taught at the New England Institute
of Art for twelve years, receiving the college’s
1st Distinguished Faculty Award in 2006. He
directs the annual Naked Eye Student Film
Festival at the Coolidge Corner Theater in
Brookline, Massachusetts, and hosts the online
film discussion show At the Coolidge.
As producer of the film Radical Jesters,
he guided students in two documentary production
classes that were designed around researching
and producing the project. The film was completed
with help from a dedicated group of volunteers
who continued to work - shooting interviews,
gathering b-roll, editing, mixing sound, providing
graphics and designing a website. Jackson
has also directed Chaos and Order: Making
American Theater, which is currently being
distributed by Films for the Humanities. His
next project called “A Women’s
Voice” is about singer/songwriter Robin
Lane.
David Hyde played trombone in the Infernal Noise Brigade from 2000-2006. He’s fond of riding freight trains, hitchhiking, and pirate radio. He was involved with students protesting the WTO in Seattle in 1999 and has traveled the US and the world attending demonstrations and fighting windmills. Currently, he teaches sociology with an emphasis on social movements and activism at South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, WA.
Rusty Oliver is the Proprietor & "Chief Executive Lunatic" of Hazard Factory, a Seattle-based political, metal, machine, & fire arts studio. Among other projects, the studio runs the Power Tool Races and Derby, a fun filled day of racing and destruction.
Radical Jesters Website
This program is made possible in part by
a grant from Humanities Washington, a state-wide
non-profit organization supported by the National
Endowment for the Humanities, the state of
Washington, and contributions from individuals
and foundations.
