“Filmmaker” Brian Lonano and Blake Myers take audiences to a not-so-distant dystopian future in his WTF short, Content: The Lo-Fi Man. Our cautionary tale opens with writer/director Brian Lonano paying homage to the cult classic film Shinya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo: The Iron Man. However, as Lonano dives deep into details about the film’s history, a ubiquitous presence expresses its displeasure with the director’s commentary and quickly dispenses with him.
Lonano is soon replaced with a hip, cooler YouTuber version of himself (Clarke Williams). This fast-paced, high-energy persona gets right into the work of Tsukamoto but is instantly sent bursts of shock energy when describing Tetsuo as a “film” instead of “content.”
After intolerable amounts of electricity coursing through his body, Lonano is sent to the content hub boasting the slogan, “Be Content With Content.” Soon Lonano escapes the Content Hub to the surface and is rescued by a gang of guerrilla filmmakers. These former experimental directors and documentarians help Lonano fight a battle to the death against the evil robots known as Content Seekers.
“…instantly sent bursts of shock energy when describing Tetsuo as a ‘film’ instead of ‘content.’”
Whew! I’m exhausted. Content: The Lo-Fi Man is a silly short about a world indie filmmakers fear is just around the corner. I love crazy, and this film has crazy written all over it. Lonano essentially pushes against this current content creation trend at the expense of producing meaningful films as entertainment transforms into mere streaming content for the masses.
The fun of Content: The Lo-Fi Man is the lo-fi, low-budget world writer/director Lonano created primarily in the creation of his evil robots and, ultimately, Lonano’s transformation into the Lo-Fi Man made of yards of film, reels, canisters, and cameras.
Content: The Lo-Fi Man is born from the mind and futuristic vision of its creator Brian Lonano, who continues to champion the art form of indie and guerilla filmmaking, and wage battle on mind-numbing content and its creators. It’s good old harmless fun with a dire message running behind the scenes.
For more information about Content: The Lo-Fi Man, visit director Brian Lonano’s official website.
