DESPISER
Dir. Philip J. Cook, 2001
United States. 104 minutes
In English

THURSDAY OCTOBER 2ND - 7:30PM
TUESDAY OCTOBER 7TH - 10PM
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 15TH -10PM W/Q+A
FRIDAY OCTOBER 24TH - 10PM

In purgatory, there is no salvation. But there are a lot of flipped CG cars. The king of home-spun CGI, Philip J. Cook blessed the world with DESPISER in 2003 , a feature film filled with earnestness, polygons and gunslinging chase scenes. A political advertisement maker by day, Philip Cook found a creative outlet in the world of SFX, bringing to life the big budget sci-fi scripts he had written in the 80s. Phil worked on Don Dohler’s NIGHTBEAST in the 80s, making miniatures and filming SFX shots in his living room. Inspired by Dohler as well as Gerry Anderson (SPACE:1999), Phil set to work making his own films.

Described by Cook as “the story of an artist who travels to purgatory to rescue his wife from despotic forces,” DESPISER is a time capsule of the creativity in an age where at-home access to digital graphics programs was still new. Filmed in 1998 but released in 2003, DESPISER surfed the early wave of capturing performances on blue and green screen to be inserted in totally digital worlds before films like SPY KIDS of SIN CITY popularized the look. This indie gem of pure creativity stands as a testament to what one man can do with a computer and a lot of time.