FRINGE – The Three Minute Project – Genevieve Brandenburg – Mercury – 5K

In the 1960’s Andy Warhol got potential stars to his Factory to pose, without blinking, into a black and white camera as their screen test.

Local girl Genevieve Brandenburg took that concept last year and expanded upon it, asking, as it turned out over 220 friends, acquaintances and randoms to sit before a colour camera, set rolling by Sam Young, in Hindley Street’s Reading Room and do whatever for three minutes.

The outcome of that social experimentation was revealed last night at the Mercury Cinema. It is extraordinary.

Slice and dice this epic any way you wish but at one level it represents a truly fascinating record of the looks, fashions, issues and concerns of Adelaide’s uni student youth (with others as well) circa 2011. As such it draws you in and increasingly so – is this me, was this me, what would I have done, is this the future of our state and nation, why so much metal work in otherwise attractive faces?

One postulated early on that he assumed all who had come before would have tried to be funny but he wondered whether he would do that as well. As understandable an assumption as that kid made, what presents itself is in fact quite different. Many just sit there, fiddle or stare but say nothing while others recite passages from Blake, Van Gogh and Shakespeare. Some talk about events of note in their life – the death of their father, being Christian and busking, homophobia. Others do attempt to various degress of sucess to be funny.

But as each appears, one can’t help but get drawn into their faces, their expressions, what makes them different and therefore what emerges as Brandenburg says the project does, as ‘a celebration of the individuality, creativity and beauty of the human being.’ (The young guy with the mouse crawling around his neck as he recites a terrific joke about whales deserves a documentary of his own.)

Sure, there are a few things that might have been done or could still be done to improve it – at four hours with an interval it is all absurdly (albeit Warholian) long and the camera work would have benefitted early on with an auto focus – but that does not detract from the fact that amongst all the stand up (so called) comedy dross of the Garden, on its last weekend, the Fringe 2012 has finally struck gold with a five star project to remember.

Kryztoff Rating  5K

See our video interview with Genevieve Brandenburg at Kryztoff\’s Youtube Interview with Genevieve Brandenburg