Trash City, October, 2012

For the past 15 years, the director has been asking people about their murder fantasies, and giving them the chance to act them out in staged scenarios – with the sole stipulation that they, themeselves, must take part, either as victims or killers. These films are mixed here in to interviews with the participants, who provide their personal perspectives on their fantasies, and also express opinions on other death-related topics, such as capital punishment, and whether they’d be able to take revenge on the perpetrator if someone dear to them was killed. The results are chilling, not least because of the absolute normality of the participants: no criminal records, and the final sequence shows their professions, ranging from farmer to English teacher, and none of them would exactly be the kind you would expect to have such morbid thoughts. Mind you, perhaps I am surprised by them, because I have genuinely never harboured such fantasies myself. Is that because I have seen so many murder-death-kills on the screen over the last two decades or more? Read the rest of this page »

by Celeste Ramos | Projection, Oct 29, 2012

0K: Zero Killed and an interview with director Michal Kosakowski

Don’t worry. No one dies in this article.

Sixteen years in the making, Zero Killed looks at the dark side in all of us — the fascination with killing and death that, more than anything, points to the issues in our waking lives. Director Michal Kosakowski’s work has long revolved around violence and the motivating issues beneath it. “Fortynine”, the video art installation displayed in a mirrored room, was the precursor to the Zero Killed film that exposed people to 49 looping films showing very real-looking murders. From tortures to suicides, psychopathic one-on-one’s to quick-and-clean poisonings. Shootings, “accidents,” war crimes. As much as it sounds like TV news, these are the real fantasies of the main victim or perpetrator in each film, a living dark fantasy now made immortal thanks to the medium of film.

Michal Kosakowski is the prolific director of more than 70 films, a mix of shorts, documentaries, and original fiction. Often critiquing and interpreting the effects of media on the perception of human interactions and violence, his style is intelligent and disturbing. From a chalk outline exhibit to a collection of Hollywood film clips depicting the Twin Towers that “helped” in the public absorption of 9/11, Michal has long kept a close eye on how and why human beings act the way they do in the arena of violence.

Upon watching Zero Killed, I couldn’t help but imagine whether the whole process was traumatic or cathartic, or some shadow in between for them. What does it mean to be murdered, or murder someone else on screen for any and all to see? And what does it mean that people will pay money to see such things? Read the rest of this page »

by Ronny Carlsson | Film Bizarro, Oct 22, 2012

Have you ever thought about killing someone? Of course you have. Will you do it? Most people won’t, but some do. What would push you into ending a person’s life – self-defense, revenge or hate? Is it right to execute a murderer, or is it a case of severe double-nature? If you got the chance to kill someone, or be killed by someone, and it was fiction – what would be your murder of choice? These are the things that “Zero Killed” focus on.

In 1996, random people from all over the world were offered the chance to make their own short films about their murder fantasies. There was only one rule set: they have to act in them as well. Either as the murderer, or the victim. Now, many years later, they meet these people again and question them about their films and the motives behind them, as well as discussing the many sides of murder.

The short films we see differ heavily in style as well as murder of choice. Several of them portray shootings – either just execution by gun, or more along the lines of school shootings. Obviously, a lot of people went the route of torture – probably the most common style to go for. Everyone has imagined themselves torturing some asshole who has done them wrong, and the brutal things they would do to them before ending their lives. But then we have the short films that are either more creative, or just go for a different kind of murder entirely. A woman guiding a hitman through IMs, knowing that she has the power to end a life by just typing. Or the one I felt was the strongest, most effective and intense to watch – a suicide by poisoning. Many of the murders are gory, but this one is completely without blood and is effective because of the matter-of-fact-style, and the acting by the young man on screen. In many of these, you’ll recognize your own fantasies, but some of them also come off as strangely planned out. And that’s because people think about murder, it’s a fact and this documentary proves it. Read the rest of this page »

Episode 86: Human Murder Fantasies: A Talk with Michal Kosakowski

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by Miguel Rodriguez | Monster Island Resort Podcast, Oct 14, 2012

A conversation from around the globe! Michal Kosakowski is a film director based in Germany whose documentary Zero Killed is racking up awards on the film festival circuit. This unique collection of short films and interviews attempts to explore a very taboo and dark topic–the murder fantasies of regular people from all walks of life. The result is fascinating, and Kosakowski has a lot of great things to say about what he learned on his dark journey making the film. This is an episode I am quite proud of–please enjoy it! I am bringing Zero Killed to San Diego! It will be the first documentary screened at the Horrible Imaginings Film Festival.

Midday Movies: Horrible Imaginings – Going Someplace Dark – A Talk with Horrible Imaginings Film Festival Director Miguel Rodriguez and Beth Accomando, KPBS Arts Reporter and Author of the blog Cinema Junkie

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by Beth Accomando, Maureen Cavanaugh and Tracy Stegeman | KPBS Radio, Oct 18, 2012

… This is the third year for the Horrible Imagining’s Art Show and Film Festival , which kicks off next Wednesday at the 10th Avenue Theatre and Arts Centre and continues for three weeks. The festival’s director, Miguel Rodriguez, describes Horrible Imaginings as, “The first film fest in San Diego to showcase macabre cinema and art.” Rodriguez’ mission statement for the festival is to elevate the horror genre, create a conversation about horror, and provide a venue for the artists to achieve the goal of horror as an “expression of a feeling.” …

… The documentary film “Zero Killed,” directed by Michal Kosakowski, is a look at the darker and more murderous side of human nature. The film poses the question “What are your murder fantasies?” to people from all walks of life. Personal interviews, as well as some of those interviewed starring in short films of their own murder fantasies …

by Mike Everleth | Bad Lit, Oct 11, 2012

This might be a total mis-remembrance, but it goes something like this: In an interview, horror filmmaker Wes Craven turned the tables on his interviewer and asked, “How many people have been killed in all the Nightmare on Elm Street movies combined? … None, it’s all make-believe.”

If horror movies are the means by which non-violent people can experience the darkest realms of the human psyche via projected surrogates, then German filmmaker Michael Kosakowski doesn’t let the subjects of his documentary Zero Killed off quite so easily.

The film begins with a title card explaining its unique conceit. For the past ten years, Kosakowsi has been asking a wide swath of people to reveal, on camera, what their most secret murder fantasies are. Then, once they’ve spilled their metaphoric guts, the subjects were asked to act out those fantasies — fictionally, of course — in a short film. Finally, later, Kosakowski interviewed all the participants again about the entire experience. Read the rest of this page »

by Shirley Clemens | Thriller! Chiller! Blog! Oct. 10, 2012

Interview with director Michal Kosakowski on the occassion of Zero Killed’s Michigan Premiere on October 10, 2012 at 4:30pm at the Thriller! Chiller! Film Festival

The film “Zero Killed” is strikingly similar to other documentaries we’ve played at Thriller! Chiller! by the fact that it is so thoughtful of our own experiences as movie watchers. It can be said that watching a movie like this at a film festival dares to ask the viewer: “Why do you watch movies?” It dares to explore what is universal to all human beings who experience the horror/thriller genre and ask them how they deal with their own inappropriate fantasies and thoughts.

1. It was a long haul making this film come together over the course of a decade. Tell us about the emotional impact of these stories on you personally and why you felt the need to tell them?

First of all, the process of doing this project had a very personal approach. Since I was born in Poland and since I grew up during the times of communism, my access to western movies, or, generally speaking, the access to media, was very limited. My first touch with horror was a rare presentation of the music clip of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” when it was aired at late night in the polish television. I was immediately gripped by the “fantastic” and at some point violent theme of this clip. I wanted to do clips like this by myself. But it was only after my family and I moved to Austria in the 80’s, where I discovered a video library that was something completely new to me. I was thrilled to have this huge range of videos that I could select by myself and watch them whenever I wanted to. This was also the time where my father bought his first VHS-C Camcorder, so I immediately felt like using this tool to fulfill my fantasies that I was constantly dreaming of. Read the rest of this page »

Raindance TV interviews Michal Kosakowski about his film Zero Killed at the 20th Raindance Film Festival.

Watch the interview on Raindance.TV
Watch the interview on YouTube

See the interview on youtube.com

Since 1996 Michal Kosakowski has been asking people, from all walks of life, about their murder fantasies, turning their dark confessions into short films on the condition that his subjects act in them, allowing them to live out their fantasies. This film brings those shorts together with interviews from his ‘murderers’ and ‘victims.’

There’s something for everyone in the grim realisations of their homicidal daydreams, some are darkly comic, some brutal and drab, there’s torture, poisoning, assassination, even a philosophical suicide. Kosakowski has succeeded, often eerily so, in creating depictions of murder that teeter perilously between fantasy and snuff. Amongst this the contributions from his participants ruminate on the simple desire to kill, how it can become intermingled with daily frustrations and what would drive someone to perhaps make the fantasy a reality.

Scenarios vary, from a farmer musing about the character required to kill a sheep, something he has to do on a daily basis, to a soldier pondering the justification for their actions, or the seemingly universal desire for murderous revenge if someone harmed your children. Kosakowski tantalisingly keeps his subject’s careers anonymous, leaving the viewer to create their own little fantasies about what they do for a living and how that may have influenced their make-believe murder.

A strangely playful film, this is in turns a riveting, wince-inducing succession of nightmare scenarios and at once an arch, wry look at the cruellest fantasies that ordinary people harbour.

by Ivan Radford | I-Flicks, Sept 30, 2012

I’m gonna kill him! How many times have you said that? What if you went one step further and actually thought about how you’d do it? That’s what director Michal Kosakowski asked people all around the world – on the condition that if they were going to share their murder fantasy, they had to act it out in front of the camera.

The result is a halfway house between social study and snuff movies – a disturbing look at the dark side of human nature. Sound unpleasant? It is. Kosakowski spent 10 years on the project (presumably the Midsomer Murders DVD box set had sold out), getting subjects to reflect on what they did several years down the line.

“The memory is still so fresh…” says one, before we see his short film. It’ll probably stay fresh for some time – even for those in the audience. Each murder is unsettlingly believable, shot with a gritty feel, cutting away as a bell rings to mark the kill. But for all its grimy realism, the bright, sterile vox pops are what really get under the skin.

Some laugh about what they did. Others are less serious. “I’ve always wanted to know what it would be like to push someone into a volcano,” jokes one guy, drily. Meanwhile, almost all of them, it turns out, would gladly kill if it meant revenge for a loved one.

“I believe it has a lot to do with self-esteem,” suggests one woman. “If you respect yourself, how can you not value someone else?”

She’s backed up by the inclusion of a young man’s fake suicide – a quiet moment that’s probably the most harrowing thing in the whole film. Read the rest of this page »

by Spencer Hawken | Socyberty, Sept 29, 2012

A documentary filmmaker asks a group of people how they would like to kill someone, then allows them to live out that fantasy.

In 1996 filmmaker Michael Kosakowski started talking to people from different backgrounds about murder. He asked the people involved about if they were to murder someone, how they would do it? He offered the people involved the opportunity to carry out their wishes (obviously through acting), as long as they were the ones who performed the murders themselves. Ten years after carrying out the project, he returned to see those same people, to look at their murders, and ask them their views on the killings, and how they feel now, about their murders, and the society we live in.

Zero Killed is an intriguing documentary, with a variable sliding scale of depressive scenes and attitudes, to very light hearted moments, and hysterical “deaths”. Of course on a movie that focuses on death however, it is bound to be the more depressive points that dominate the agenda.

Kosakowski makes a very profound, but ultimately very true statement with his film. The movie is a very surreal experience; to hear the people involved discussing murder in the same way you may talk about going to the shops to buy a loaf of bread is a very sobering aspect. Read the rest of this page »