SHOOT ONLINE 11/8 – 11/15, 00
Crossover: The (Underground) Culture Club

Filmmaker Ned Ambler's DV Feature Hair Burners Takes a Look at Identity.

By Elizabeth Michaelson, SHOOT reporter.

New York-based director Ned Ambler, who recently signed with bicoastal Shelter Films, has directed several a digital video feature, Hair Burners. The film premiered at The Chicago Underground Film Festival in August, and will be shown at MIX 2000: Innovations Festival in New York City this month.

Hair Burners is the story of female ex convicts who open a hair salon in a conservative town. Gender, identity and class are explored in what Ambler describes as "a really retarded comedy."

"It's inspired what I would call the hybridization of culture," Ambler explained. Hair Burners is a comic look at identity and image in an age of mass media. Culturally, "Everyone's a mix of different things, and I think that's really interesting," offered Ambler. "You can see a Korean lesbian punk rock girl with shaved blond hair. You don't really know what anyone is anymore. I think that's very cool."

The film's protagonists are two white women who have assimilated black culture and act like the stereotypical homegirls of popular media. "You know girls who talk like they're from the ghetto, but they're really from Connecticut," Ambler explained. "I had these girls come from the Bronx. They're kind of like lesbian homegirl witches... they move up to the country and stay with an aunt who's into witchcraft."

Hair Burners stars New York underground mainstays: the main characters, Ginger Ray Rogers and Florencia Josephine Minetti, (a.k.a. Flo Jo) are played by members of the long time New York band The Lunachicks. Appropriately enough, in real life, the actresses/musicians are known only by their first names Theo (Flo Jo) and Squid (Ray). Hair Burners was scored by the female rap artist Princess Superstar, which fed Ambler's interest in the "hybridization of culture" and identity.

The set up of Hair Burners is classic caper comedy: Ray and Flo Jo have just been released from jail. Because they fear reprisals from an ex-boyfriend who Ray betrayed in order to secure a shorter sentence, they decide to lie low and head out of town. They visit Ray's Aunt Minnie, who lives in a small, conservative town in upstate New York, and is also a practicing witch.

In their new home (filmed in Auburn, New York), Ray and Flo Jo decide to open a hair salon. Unfortunately, they have some trouble finding clients willing to entrust their hair to the flamboyant ex cons. Luckily, the girls meet former New York party promoter Maria Conchita Consuelo Lopez Feinstein. Maria Conchita (played by "gorgeous Latin transsexual Sophia Lamar," Ambler said) has retired to the country but has a hankering for hair extensions. ... From there things get complicated.

Ambler wrote the 45-minute comedy last summer. "I got the hip hop language down to a T," claimed Ambler. And he owes his mastery of urban American slang to Danish television. "Hip hop is big in Europe, and they don't censor it. They have all the expletives left in," Ambler said. While vacationing in Denmark, he watched a lot of television: "They have a lot of (American) hip hop video and radio shows on TV in Denmark--bizarre--so I wrote the script watching TV and listening to the radio."

"It's very John Waters, I guess,' he explained. "It's a really retarded, fun movie that we shot for zero dollars in a long weekend in at a friend's house."

This is Ambler's first DV feature, though he has directed several films, including the 51 minute Rock Star and several shorts. Ambler is a fan of digital video for several reasons. One is, of course, the fewer costs associated with the format. With digital video, said Ambler, "You have the option of doing it really simply, and with a really small crew." Although for Hair Burners, "We didn't have a crew at all, it was just me with a tiny hand held video camera." However, Ambler is not immune to the luxury higher budgets: "I would love to shoot some commercial spots with DV. There are so many things you can do with it, and I don't think so many people do. I'm really interested in the technology."

Furthermore, the do-it-yourself quality is perfect for emerging directors. As Ambler pointed out, "I could just go home and edit the footage on my computer."

Hair Burners has been shown at film festivals in Chicago; Krakow, Poland; London; Paris; New Delhi; and Bangkok. At first, Ambler was surprised at the film's success outside of the city that is home to his quirky characters. "It feels very New York to me," Ambler admitted. "But then, everything filters out from here."

Hair Burners will be screened Saturday, November 18 at 3pm at MIX 2000 NYC Festival Innovations Features Series at the Pioneer Theater, 155 East 3rd Street.