Spooky Films, based in Los Angeles, originated in New Orleans as an art collaboration between Tom Richards Murphy, writer and multimedia
artist, and Marta, writer & photographer.
Their early video works were shown at film festivals, galleries, commissioned events and raves.
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WRITING
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Dream Street
Children's Screenplay
Third Prize in the Louisiana National Screenwriting Competition.
Three inner-city kids must find their way home from a scary street filled with magical evil creatures.
To escape they must reject the Dark Gifts of Eternal Beauty, Valor and Wealth.
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VIDEO
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Click Here to see Psychic Skin, a short film by Spooky Films. A medical student dreams of the night his girlfriend died. Music by Nine Inch Nails from Trent's Ghosts film festival project.
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| Entranced by the grainy black & white look
of Fisher Price Pixelvision, Tom and Marta used the cheap toy to shoot
their first three videos, Loose Among The Ruins, The Thunder, and Dualities.
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Loose Among The Ruins
Pixelvision, 12mn 26sec
New Orleans Film Festival, 1991: Best Experimental Video
New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center: Artists Against War
Buffalo, NY, Hallwalls: Sacred Cow Video Show
Venice Beach, CA, Pixel This Festival
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Dualities
Second Prize. Louisiana Film & Video Shorts.
Presents New Orleans Burlesque artist GiO in her Man/Woman performance.
We see GiO's reflection while she does her make-up. Her transformational
performance before a full-length mirror evokes a murky blend of gender identity.
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The Thunder: The Perfect Mind
First Prize. Louisiana Film & Video Shorts.
Inspired by ancient Gnostic text unearthed in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1947.
Spoken-word artist Lydia Lunch narrates. Visuals illustrate the eternal duality
ancients recognized and accepted: Darkness/Light, Fire/Water, Male/Female,
War/Peace.
Photos
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In the early 90's, Tom and Marta directed workshop productions with a troupe of writers, artists and actors exploring dramatic and comedic situations. The process was to never stop writing and recording.
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Disposable Income
Produced with a NOVAC grant.
A death row inmate explains her reason for the murders.
Film Critic's Review |
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The Glass Works
Narrative workshop
A young woman moves into a dark warehouse full of secrets and lies.
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Queen of Hearts
Narrative workshop
Breaking up ain't hard to do in a New Orleans neighborhood bar.
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Tom and Marta's documentaries ranged from the underground scene in New Orleans to their strikingly original takes on local and world politics.
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Crash Worship
Documentary
Dionysian rites during Carnival in New Orleans.
A tribal percussion group, well known for pyrotechnics & audience participation,
which merges technology with shamanism.
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Urban Survival
Documentary
Keith and Chelsea, two anarchist squatters, start a free housing
experiment. They publish an underground newspaper, produce the Crash Worship
concert, and begin clean-up of an abandoned ante-bellum house in New Orleans.
Their dreams go awry. When Keith goes to jail on a drug charge, Chelsea disappears.
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Duke's Disciples
A look at Louisiana's reactionary whites who see David Duke as Savior.
In Duke's headquarters on his failed election bid as governor of Louisiana, a bitter drunken evangelist holds up a watch
and cross and preaches: "I spoke to David Duke. I gave him the white stone, for
the Messiah to rise..." Huh?
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Let Me Tell You Why I Do It
First Prize. Louisiana Media Festival.
Commercials mixed with found documentary footage satirize the American Dream
protected by the CIA's expansionism. |
MUSIC
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Tom was composer & sound designer for
CRISUS performance group at the
Dublin Theatre Festival in Ireland and at the Contemporary Art Center in New Orleans
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