Fanny and Johnny on Acid

Year of release: 1990
Original format: U-Matic video (4.3)
Running time: 9 minutes 45 seconds
Screening format: U-Matic video and DVD
Credits: A film by Kayla Parker and Stuart Moore
Distribution and sales: Sundog Media info@sundog.co.uk
Archive U-Matic tape held in Videoteca de la Fundación Provincial de Cultura, Cádiz

Description
In a small suburban house it’s 2am, and Fanny’s in the kitchen preparing fish. But what for? Things aren’t quite as they seem. In this internal aquarium world, time and perceptions distort. Surreal food fantasy in which a series of bizarre rituals with fish call up an aquanaut from the Deep.

Production notes
In the review of the 1990 screening at VIPER the soundtrack was described by the author as being by Test Dept: while it’s greatly flattering to be taken for the legendary industrial noise group, the soundtrack is composed by us. We made location sound recordings on a Sony Walkman and then did a 2 track mix on the 2 machine Lo-band U-Matic edit suite that was locked away in a room on the first floor at Plymouth Arts Centre following the closure of the Plymouth Video Workshop. We let ourselves in, edited the film and made screening copies in secret. We paid £20 to hire an MX10 video mixer for a day from Exeter Film and Video Workshop so we could overlay some of the visuals: I went up to Exeter and back on the bus one day to pick up the mixer, then returned it via the train the next day. The camera was borrowed. Our favourite filming location was under the pier at Phoenix Wharf between the Barbican and Plymouth Hoe, on a rising high tide. All the interiors were shot in the living room at Beaumont Avenue after we’d got back from a night out. The pair of mackerel I juggle and put to bed was bought on the fish stall at Plymouth Pannier Market and the gloves are my own.

Publication and comments
Review of the VIPER screening.

Exhibition selected
1994
Frame by Frame Plymouth Arts Centre, UK
Faint Frontiers Windows Arts Centre, Bath, UK
Underground Happening Plymouth Arts Centre, UK
Bristol Community Festival Ashton Court, UK
Stuff of Dreams Bristol, UK

1993
Ashton Court Festival Creative Video and Electronic Arts Marquee, Bristol Community Festival, Ashton Court, Bristol, UK. The Electronic Arts programme featured six short films by Kayla Parker: Cage of Flame, Fanny and Johnny on Acid, Looks Familiar, Night Sounding, Nuclear Family, and Unknown Woman.“...showcasing the most exciting, creative and innovative new film and video in the South West. Over the weekend the programme will provide wider exposure for a range of rarely-seen experimental works which challenge and shift our perceptions of video art.” (Programme notes) (7 and 8 August 1993)

1991
5emes Rencontres Video Art, Realisateurs Indépendants Anglais programme, which also included George Snow’s Muybridge Revisited, Centre d’Art Contemporain de Basse-Normandie, Herouville Saint-Clair, France (28 November - 1 December 1991)
International Video Festival: International Videoworks Competition programme, Cádiz, Spain (September 1991)
Cidade de Vigo II Festival Internacional de Video, Vigo Spain (22 - 26 January 1991)

1990
WRO 90 Sound Basis Visual Art Festival, Wroclaw, Poland (3 - 9 December 1990)
SCAN+ 5th Australian International Video Festival, Paddington, New South Wales, Australia (2 - 11 November 1990)
13th Tokyo Video Festival Japan (November 1990)
VIPER ’90 International Film und Videotage Luzern, Switzerland (23 - 27 October 1990)
On the Make Watershed Media Centre, Bristol, UK (July 1991)
Fringe Film and Video Festival Edinburgh, UK (1990)
Glastonbury Festival,Vision Vortex UK (June 1990)
C.I.C.V. Festival Videotheque, Montbeliard, France (1990)
IKAROS Aarhus, Denmark (1990)