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Go here for the complete story:LINK THIS <^>
... If u can't see that, here's the actual text:
SF Indie Fest: Oakland Raiders Parking Lot
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First off, SFist would like to say that while we've been seriously grooving on Indie Fest, we would like to recommend that the people who do the Indie Fest Web site tweak the shopping cart a bit so one can confirm their tickets before finalizing the purchase. While SFist has no problems going to some super divey café in Oakland, that wasn't really what we had planned. Of course, we could have paid more attention to which link we clicked on, but we digress.
Anyhoo, when SFist was younger, we had a boss who wouldn't stop talking about Heavy Metal Parking Lot. When the movie played at SFMOMA, he took half the department with him to see it. During the work day. As much as we liked the idea of going on a field trip, we were also as excited about the movie as he was. After all, who doesn't love laughing at people making fools out of themselves on camera? The idea behind Heavy Metal Parking Lot is one of those "duh" ideas, so brilliant and so obvious that it makes you wonder why nobody else thought of it, most of all, you. When SFist heard about Oakland Raiders Parking Lot, we knew we had to see it. The idea of doing a Heavy Metal Parking Lot type thing about Raiders fans? Brilliant.
And did Oakland Raiders Parking Lot live up to the hype? It was just as awesome as we expected it to be. How often can you that about something? Filmed during the final three home games of the Raiders 2003 season (the post-Super-Bowl-everyone-quit-on-the-coach-season), ORPL is exactly what we thought it would be. The 20 minute short is of the filmmakers going around the parking lot before a Raiders games, interviewing various Raiders fans. In it, we get to see some of the various tail gate parties going on and get to meet several denizens of the infamous Black Hole. We meet a couple who spent several thousand dollars making their uniform, a family of face painters, and that dude they always show, the one who looks like some sort of flunkie from GWAR. Our favorite bit was the band that plays in the parking lot before every game, Raiderhed (hah!), who sing made-up lyrics to classic rock tunes in order to get the crowd psyched (before a Raiders/Viking game, they sang these lyrics to Zep's "The Immigrant Song- "they come from a land of ice and snow, they're O-4 in the Super Bowl").
The filmmakers do bring up the dark side of Raiders fan-dom, that being the occasional bout of violence and rioting. Included in the movie is news footage of rampaging rioters after a few games. They also have fun showing clips of David Letterman goofing on the supposed scariness of Raiders fans, as well as some commercial for a bail bonds company in San Diego using Raiders fans as an example of their necessity. But they intersperse all that with the interviews and footage of the fans and in doing so, do what documentary filmmakers should do- just bring out the cameras and start rolling, letting the audience make their own judgements. As a result, they do a pretty good job making the whole thing look, well, kind of fun. A little twisted and depraved, maybe, but still a lot of fun. When they show an impromptu dance breaking out before the last game of the season, complete with DJ and bootie shaking girls, we couldn't but think that maybe we should go and buy us some Raiders season tickets. And then we remembered that we don't like the Raiders so there went that idea. We do like, however, this movie.
Posted by Jon in Arts+Events , Entertainment , Movies , Sports | Print , Sports | Print
peace out <^> YO <^>
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