Red

Twitz from Pluto: Graff, Jackass and TV Casualty

June 2022 •English

The story of two teenage extraterrestrial refugees from the planet Pluto, who escape to Earth after their planet is destroyed by the US government, as it was deemed “insignificant.” For many years prior, tensions between the Plutonians and the Earthlings had seen a steady incline, as Pluto held camps where Earthlings were experimented on and tortured. The two aliens make their crash landing, undertake human form and undergo the aliases “Hugh Jainus” and “E. Rection”. In an effort to wage revenge on the nation, with their brainwashed sidekick Potator under their wing, the trio hijack television stations worldwide and broadcast mind-numbingly stupid and ridiculous, yet insane and often violent programs to dumb down and distract the nation’s citizens from their devious plans. The tube tells the story...

The Hollow Coin

June 2016 •English

Frank Heath's "The Hollow Coin" explores roles of authority in public space and the intersection of personal and historical narratives. The video combines documentary footage of New York City's rapidly disappearing network of payphones with audio of a covertly recorded telephone exchange between an actor and an unknowing bystander. In the surreptitiously captured conversation an attempted "information leak" is infused with an absurd story and a historical anecdote. The work's title refers to a Soviet spy who was apprehended in 1953 after mistakenly paying his newspaper delivery boy with a hollow coin that contained a microfilm of an encrypted message. Throughout the video a parallel sequence of events reveals that images from the video itself have been stored on an SD card concealed within a hollow coin and inserted into the payphone from which the call was made.

Ghost World

July 2001 •English

Two quirky, cynical teenaged girls try to figure out what to do with their lives after high school graduation. After they play a prank on an eccentric, middle aged record collector, one of them befriends him, which causes a rift in the girls’ friendship.

Phone

July 1974 •English

A primer on proper phone manners produced for the New Zealand Post Office.

The Jerky Boys

February 1995 •English

When two unemployed telephone pranksters decide to use their vocal "talents" to impersonate a Chicago mob boss and curry favor with organized crime in New York, the trouble begins. It isn't long before Johnny and Kamal (the "Jerky Boys" of crank call fame) are wanted by the local mafia, the police, and their neighbor.

Live From Longmont Potion Castle

January 1998 •English

Live From Longmont Potion Castle is a video by Longmont Potion Castle, originally released on VHS in 1998 and later included on the Longbox Option Package DVD in 2006. It includes prank calls to TV shows, prank phone calls to businesses that were surreptitiously videotaped by an accomplice.

Asymptomatic Carrier

January 2013 •English

Asymptomatic Carrier, created for 2003's Frieze Arts Fair NYC, flies over the abandoned North Brother Island in the East River. Wikipedia says "now a bird sanctuary, the island is currently abandoned and off-limits to the public… …from the 1980s through the early 2000s it supported one of the area’s largest nesting colonies of Black-crowned Night Heron. However as of 2011 this species has abandoned the island for unknown reasons."

I Saw What You Did

July 1965 •English

Teenage friends Kit and Libby make prank phone calls for fun but then find themselves involved in a brutal double murder committed by one of their targets.

Dead Tone

May 2007 •English

As another semester draws to a close at the University of Dreyskill, a simple game dreamt to help students avoid studying becomes a bloody battle for survival.

The Big Sleep

August 1946 •English

Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy General Sternwood regarding a matter involving his youngest daughter Carmen. Before the complex case is over, Marlowe sees murder, blackmail, deception, and what might be love.

I Saw What You Did

May 1988 •English

Two teens, Lisa and Kim, are playing games making prank calls on the phone. But when they call Adrian Lancer who has some mental problems, and say "I saw what you did", they ignite a human time bomb. Adrian has just killed someone and thinks they saw him do it. Now he is trying to find them.

Where In The Hell Is The Lavender House: The Longmont Potion Castle Story

October 2019 •English

Two amateur filmmakers attempt to make a documentary about the legendary underground "phone-work artist" Longmont Potion Castle, who, since 1988, has released sixteen albums of hilariously surreal phone pranks. Despite a semi-successful crowdfunding campaign and the involvement of celebrity fans, the filmmakers succumb to their own infighting and bad luck, abandoning the project. A year later, the unpaid camera operator liberates the raw footage and finishes the film.

Star 67

May 2023 •English

A young man is struck with the reality that he might have made a big mistake when he and his friends become the targets of serious threats through a disturbing phone call.

38 Degrees

September 2003 •Chinese

The story took place in the spring of 2003. The young and beautiful stewardess returned after a small month flight and called a takeaway at home. The postgraduate student of the history department, Zhao Xiaotian, went to work and sent a takeaway. When he came to Xiaoyue’s home, Xiaoyue was shampooing and would not go downstairs, let him send the takeaway. At this time, just happened to encounter the suspected patient of SARS in the building where Xiaoyue lived, so the entire community was quarantined and Xiaotian could not go. A youthful and beautiful, a fascinating, two people who have never met each other suddenly become a room, isolated, a romantic and witty love story, so in this extraordinary period, very place can not be self-explanatory...

Escort Service

October 1993 •

Director: Lin Zixiong. Leading actors: Zeng Yuru/Li Zhongning/Weng Shijie/Lan Yin/Charlie Meng Dingge set up a company to attract customers by package meal.

Oh, My God!

August 2008 •Indonesian

Bone of Contention

January 1962 •Russian

Ilya Rudenko, chairman of the prosperous collective farm, prepared for the solemn welcome of his famous countryman, retired Colonel Koval. Arriving to relax in the Lull, the former colonel was surprised by Ilya's strange approach to collective well-being. And when the chairman began to prepare the entire harvest of the apple orchard for shipment to the North to sell it at exorbitant prices, Koval said his word harshly and unequivocally — and received the same unequivocal support from all residents of the Calm...