Have you seen Ryan Sullivan's Island?

[curiousboy86]

I actually got physically sick from watching it. It is odd that after doing the documentary he went to work for TIM to shoot porn. In my opinion it made Paul Morris out to be a sadist. There's the emphasis on horror part, the auditions for a secret project where the actor dies the day after being casted, the auditions for killing and talking about murdering boys while they are under the influence. Oh and then the big kicker. The guy doing the documentary realizes that his brother who he has not seen in years is auditioning. He is allowed to watch the audition tape where he is told that his brother does not wish to see him ever again. Then Paul arranges for the brother to film the other brother while he is blindfolded so he cant see who is there. At the end of the shoot the brother gives him a kiss and the one blind folded not know who it is wants more. I feel like Paul Morris is that guy that would be behind "A Serbian Film" if that was a true story... which I am pretty sure Paul has already done something like that

[spike-the-cat]

curiousboy: I haven't seen the assembled Ryan Sullivan's Island--though I have watched many of the clips that went into it on the blog and website. My reaction is 180 degrees from yours. To me it shows a young man slowly making sense of the world after the fucked up family life that had driven his brother away and had done its best to burden both boys with shame about who they were and what they wanted. I found the clips about the brothers' interactions both heartbreaking and touching. Both brothers carry a lot of baggage from their upbringing, and this seems to be Ryan's attempt to shed some of his.

The "Rhetoric of Sex" episode on the Sullivan's Island site makes it very clear why Ryan would be interested in working there, as do Ryan's entries exploring the differences in the ways he and Paul shoot still photos. Ryan comes across as an intuitive photographer/filmmaker drawn to someone who has a very clear articulated philosophy on how and why he shoots what and how he does. If you can't see the fascination of that then you aren't looking very hard.

Edited June 27, 2012 by spike-the-cat