Arts Naked
Arts Naked is an Australian based online review magazine conceived and developed by Rana (Ranaberry) and Jason Ensor (Famine) and is published regularly online. Founded in September 2004 as a professional space to review major films with our colleagues, Arts Naked has grown very quickly through the energy and enthusiasm of?the editors and writers listed here, to become a significant space that supports and promotes public intellectual practice critiquing mass media products. We are a not-for-profit endeavour, non-funded endeavour, supported by volunteer work. Our writers and editors come from all over Australia. If you would like to be a part of Arts Naked, please drop us an email here.

 

 
Billie
Of Celtic origin, Billie has an unhealthy obsession with good cheer and large rugby players. As a child, reading fantasy books and being forced to attend the 'Gifted Child Group' at school lead to a certain degree of nerdiness (Ahhh, the repressed memories ...) which no doubt explained the later flirtations with sex, drugs and sleeping in whilst acquiring a degree in Genetics. Proficient in ballroom, Latin American dancing and the art of nipple cripple (what else are older brothers for?), a lifelong appreciation of movies started whilst working in the family run video store. Further interests in photography, art, literature, travelling and a 4-year old daughter have kept Billie a poor woman, her only outlets writing movie reviews and attempting to relieve the local pub of their vodka stocks. Films close to her heart include American Beauty, The English Patient, Groundhog Day, Bladerunner, This is Spinal Tap, The Last Temptation of Christ and Apocalypse Now.

 

 
Brian Funk
Of Chinese descent and born in the culturally diverse Kuala Lumpur, little Brian immigrated to Sydney in 1987 with his family to escape the volatile political climate of Malaysia at the time, eventually settling in Brisbane in 1990 where he developed a keen but introverted interest in the piano. A player at the age of six and encouraged by teachers, parents and friends to pursue his talent, Brian found that he preferred to play for his own sanity than for the pleasure of others. At 16, invited by his music teacher to play for several musical theatre productions, Brian then mixed it with the bohos of the theatre world, charmed the eccentrics and soon made the title of 'musical director' for several productions including The Boyfriend, Something's Afoot and The Wiz. In contrast, Brian never treated film as seriously, regarding the medium as a low form of populist art. To challenge his perceptions, he decided to pursue a degree in Media and Communications (to the disgust of those who thought he should have gone to the Conservatorium), and spent much of this period in darkened lecture theatres watching European, Australian, Asian and Latin American films. He graduated a little more cultured in 2000 and, discarding any previous aspirations of grandness, decided to join the public service and settle down with his boyfriend. Brian has a humanist, multiculturalist and sometimes brusque approach to film, but his favourite flicks are Woody Allen films, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Big Business, Basquiat, I Heart Huckabees, The Mirror Has Two Faces and Little Voice.

 

 
Buddha
(The only Nickname that stuck with me since 1990). Also born in India, I lived in the West Indies (Jamaica and Trinidad) from 19751986, where I was both the only Indian and West Indian who didn't get what Cricket was all about. Exiled in 1987, after bribing a nun (true story), I made my way to Perth (Australia) in the dead of winter, where equatorial weather had made me a wuss of sorts and I immediately succumbed to frostbite. After recovering from my near-death experience of my first winter, I developed the powers of a supergeek and excelled in music and mathematics. After playing some wicked jazz in high school, I became a legend. However after failing english, I was kicked out of school until I proved myself worthy for further studies. Earning a degree in engineering in 2002, I realised almost immediately after graduating that I didn't remember a damn thing I had learnt due to my already engaged interests in basketball and hardcore nudity. I decided to join the only organisation where all those that lose their way go to eventually: The government. After a brief stint working for the police and presently working in cancer research, I'm considering my third career change in under 2 years due to my unequivocal pursuit in finding the perfect job. Perhaps Engineering? My favourite movies are: The Twilight Samurai, The Shawshank Redemption, The Usual Suspects, Zatoichi and [insert foreign movie here].

 

 
Death
Death is a disillusioned baby-boomer who wonders how the hell those who marched against Vietnam are the same people who voted for the 'War on Terror'. In true Orwellian form he has worked across continents doing the worst jobs possible (rarely however by choice) and holds working as a janitor in a torpedo factory as being a particular high point. He once harboured hopes of being an academic and has an intense passion for all things Elizabethan and Jacobean (for proof, click here) but he carefully tempers such obsessions with a healthy interest in superheroes and the comic art form in general. A childhood exposure to banned multi-cultural documentaries has caused him to develop a love of films of non-Hollywood genesis but (sadly) he is a sucker for romantic comedies. His five favourite films are (in no particular order): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Samsara, Monsoon Wedding, The Seven Year Itch and The Fellowship of the Ring.

 

 
Famine
Famine is the mysterious director of ArtsNaked to which all others report. In fact so shrouded is he in mystery that his own bio had to be written by his fellow horsemen. Rumours abound, some swear that he is entirely fictional - little more than the end product of 3.5 billion lines of code, yet witnesses attest to a figure moving through the shadowy world of late-night coffee houses willing to pay any price for a caramel macchiato, quoting lines from his masters thesis on apocaholicism, listening constantly to rare Jerry Goldsmith soundtracks and wishing he could fly. In his spare time, Famine enjoys reminiscing about a previous life with animals and finding new ways to avoid getting his driver's licence. He also has a penchant for horrifying catholic priests with his new sound system and scaring the bejeebers out of unsuspecting passers-by with terrifying yet cute dogs named after chocolate bars. Insiders believe that Famine may be now living in Ranaland, after recently marrying its founder. Sadly, much to the chagrin of the other horsemen, Famine always leaves you wanting more. His five favourite movies are Superman: The Movie, Star Wars Trilogy, Somebody Like You, Jack the Bear and Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. His favourite composers are Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams and James Horner (in that order).

 

 
John Gascoigne
John Gascoigne takes movies much too seriously. He reviews them weekly for the Melbourne Community Voice (www.mcv.com.au). It's been a little hard this year, seeing as the movies have been so uniformly shit. Still, he sees most of them early and for free. John lives in Clifton Hill with a rabbit that has a nasty habit of chewing his DVD cables. He also writes poetry and was included in this year's Best Australian Poems, edited by Les Murray. CHECK out his online journal at www.charlton.diary-x.com. His top five films are: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Station Agent, Swimming Pool, Sunrise and Gillian Armstrong's Little Women.

 

 
Malcolm Burt
Owner of MMMEDIA, a film, television, theatre and advertising agency, Malcolm is creator and producer of the ten-part ABCTV One Small Room TV series and initiative. He is the producer of the 15-part Frocks Off SBS documentary interstitial series and the creator and producer of the ambitious 2005 LaBoite theatre production sex:cubed. Malcolm has discussed film and media on radio, TV and at conferences and is also a lecturer with the Qld School of Film and Television. He has written over 50 articles, published nationally and internationally on film and media subjects. His top 5 films are: 2001, Heavenly Creatures, Out of Africa, Batman Returns, and Matrix 1.

 

 
Olympia Fights
Anachronistic, irrelevant, solipsistic, sardonic, foolish, Olympia is not nearly redeemed by a love of words, a sentimental streak a mile wide, the ability to feel everything 100% to the bottom of her soul, a marginal intellect. She loves her computer, her pets, irony, watching the news and reading the paper (something of personal panacea), looking up her friends of whom she is not worthy, rock, poetry, and whitey angst. A long time ago, Olympia Fights met someone that made words tumble to the page, that made poetry easy, irresistable, an extreme sport, a hit of heroin. The rest of her life since has been an endless echo of that experience, an endless attempt to recapture the love of language ? the way that words and lust blend into one queasy, nauseating experience which rips the top of your head open and makes you happy and suicidal and salacious all at once. Olympia also admits to being a freelance arts writer, researcher and general pixie of arts administration. Her top five and a half movies are Salem's Lot, Rope, Solaris (both Tarkovsky and Soderbergh's versions), Return to Oz, Spirited Away and Prozac Nation.

 

 
Pestilence
Pestilence is the brainchild/alias of a daydreaming university student who uses fiction and subterfuge as a way of getting through his day. Movies, books, comics, music all fall into his delusion as he prepares the world for his eventual rule. Pestilence is very eclectic in his tastes of the moving pictures: buddy pics from the 1950's-60's, musicals, comedies, family movies, teen flicks, good sci-fi and thrillers. A big fan of movie soundtracks, an interest he has in common with Famine, Pestilence will watch a movie several times over if he enjoys the music and will then hunt the soundtrack down. In many cases, Pestilence will hunt a movie down if he has bought a previously unheard soundtrack. Constantly holding his breath for the live action Transformers movie of 2007 and will probably keep doing so for each of its various sequels. Favourite movies include: The Core, Notting Hill, Leaving Las Vegas, Transformers: The Animated movie, Josie and the Pussycats, Oliver: The Musical, The Ten Commandments, Batman Begins, V for Vendetta, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn. In his spare time, Pestilence likes to write his magnum opus, read as many books as he can and watch his two sons learn and grow. All this between watching more movies/TV shows to review. One thing not known by others is that he would dearly love a job where he could wear a suit everyday.

 

 
Ranaberry
Ranaberry is a hopeless romantic, eternal optimist and an actress in her soul. Throughout her life she has experienced many facets of human life. She formed a theatre company when she was 18, has degrees in Postmodern Theatre and in Ethics, worked as a night-club bouncer, lived in Europe and America and has studied Jujitsu and Aikido. What she is most proud of, however, is the creation of Ranaland. Originally a series of parties and events with only two rules: 'bring whatever (or whoever) you need to have a good time and don't mess with anyone else's fun', Ranaland soon developed into an ethos for life. Now that she has found her soul mate, Ranaberry happily dedicates her life to the arts, family, friends, her love and their dog Tobi in her own indubitable Ranaland style. Anyone who knows Rana will understand her inability to limit herself to 5 favourite movies, therefore: Pulp Fiction, Superman, Princess Bride, Shakespeare in Love, Sex, Lies & Videotape, Gross Point Blank, Dancer in the Dark, Star Wars Trilogy, When Night is Fallen, Jesus of Montreal, Fifth Element, Unbreakable and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

 

 
Retro Queer
Brian Funk is ordinary. In a same sex relationship with The Reluctant Journalist for nine years, he is a mortgage paying public servant trying to endure the drabness of living in Brisbane suburbia. Coming out of the closet at the age of 14, garnering homophile support from friends and staff at the Catholic school he attended, and terrorising the priests of the local church, Brian is an insipid queer who has no opinion whatsoever. The Reluctant Journalist, Ranaberry and Famine banded together and devised a plan to alleviate this cultural void and retroQueer was conceived at one in the morning following six bottles of champagne in a Valley pub. The aim of retroQueer is to talk about media products that explore, develop, comment or blatantly depict what may be deemed queer. So why not help Brian find out what makes queerness so intriguing?

 

 
The Reluctant Journalist
The Reluctant Journalist, aka Andrew Gilbert, is a local boy, born in the outback town known as Toowoomba (okay then, not so far outback but more inland then say Brisbane), who has also lived in Darwin, Melbourne and who now resides in Brisbane, more precisely, in the suburb of Kedron, which could be considered almost living in the bush as it is still about a 15 minute trip into the city. Andrew is a University Graduate with a degree in Journalism, but who decided on a whim to join the grand establishment known as the Commonwealth Bank after graduating (hence the term, reluctant journalist). He has since worked there, through the good times and the bad, through staff retrenchments and job relocations, but has still managed to succeed where others have ... well, left actually. Andrew is happily settled with a partner for over 8 years now, and prefers to sit at home to watch the latest DVD bought, rather than go out socialising like his partner. We're still working on that. Though not the social centre of attention as he once was (ah ... the nineties were great years), Andrew does enjoy more 'intimate' gatherings among friends, and certainly would not say no to a glass of champagne, or better yet, to a bottle. Amongst Andrew's favourite films would have to be the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the original Star Wars trilogy, the Star Trek movies, and for something different, The Life Aquatic, The Birdcage, The First Wives Club and Fright Night to name only a few.

 

 
Tramp
Precocious baby-boomer of Irish, Zulu and European lineage. Born Geneva, educated Belgium, Texas, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and Australia. Poet, writer, sculpture and martial artist. Red belt in Tae Kwon Do and Yau Hawk Tao. Inhabits the shadow worlds that move on the underbelly of urban Australia. Often found slip-streaming the sweaty edge of populist culture. Endlessly seeking the elusive fountain of youth which tragically is seldom found in after-hours flesh clubs, gin joints and dragons? spoor. Sometimes disguised as a mild-mannered retired public servant, raconteur, lunchist, father, brother, uncle and frequent flyer. Tramp's top 5 movies: Falling into Night, The Story of O, Peter Pan, Pulp Fiction, and All That Jazz.

 

 
Troy Gurr
Born and raised in Perth, and with a Bachelor of Arts in English, Troy has written for such diverse publications as the international Blue and Black & White, DNA, Men's Health and Ralph Magazines, as well as for the Australian Film Commission, SBS and Home & Away. He's also been a teacher, barman, and was once fired from a shoe store because he 'wasn't passionate enough about selling shoes.' Currently the editor of Melbourne's queer street-press MCV, his first novel Olive Juice: The Things I Don't Tell You is a comedy-horror based on his love-life, written, he claims, 'because I couldn't afford therapy.' He currently lives in Melbourne with his cat, Max, who is way more popular than he is. He's a Pisces who likes eating Thai food and dancing shirtless on podiums, though rarely at the same time. Troy's top 5 movies: Star Wars trilogy (well, duh), The Lion King, Scream, Lawn Dogs (the greatest movie never seen), and Running on Empty