Sound And Vision: Christopher Bickel
In the article series Sound and Vision we take a look at music videos from notable directors. This week we look at the output of Christopher Bickel.
Christopher Bickel might not be a household name, but as a director he made a few interesting no-budget films. Hailing from South-Carolina, his films fit the tradition of regional filmmaking. Some of the best no-budget horror films and filmmakers worked directly within their community, often in rural places, seeing filmmaking as a collective thing. You do not need a large budget to make something worthwhile, these regional filmmakers said, and it brought us the likes of George Romero, Herschel Gordon Lewis, Bill Rebane, William Grefé, Andy Milligan and many more. They often made films within their community, with use of local scenery and the help of local businesses. Christopher Bickel's work fits that ethos and style of filmmaking, but with a decidedly more modern and feminist edge. His newest film, Pater Noster and the Mission of Light, which can now be found on streaming and physical media, is an interesting case in and of itself, as Bickel has larger ambitions that make it ripe for discussion in a Sound and Vision.
Pater Noster and the Mission of Light was made for about 21,000 dollars, which gives you an idea of what kind of ballpark we are working in. What is most impressive about the film is that it looks way more expensive, and is way more ambitious than is honestly reasonable with a budget that small. Even more so, Pater Noster and The Mission of Light isn't only a film, it has a lot of worldbuilding surrounding it. In the film, a group of hippies in the late sixties, early seventies, started a commune/ cult, where they made their own music. According to the lore in the film they cut a few albums, some of which have been highly sought after by collectors, especially a holy grail album that is said to be cursed. Enter the protagonist and her friends, who all work in a used record store and who are getting on the trail of the cult. Bickel knows the world of record collecting well, as he has also made music in several punk-bands and is himself an avid collector. Which brings us to one of the world-building pieces: Bickel decided to cut an album himself, with the help of a lot of musicians stemming from the Carolinas, with the goal to make the best album from that region ever made.
Pater Noster and The Mission of Light is a really great and fun psychrock-album, that feels partly like a very well done pastiche, and partly like something exciting and new in its own right. Bickel, who has made several music videos in the past, including a few good ones for underground bands like Demiser, MNRVA and Boo Hag, also made a huge selection of music videos for the Pater Noster soundtrack. The songs are often heard in the background during the film, and are seen in some flashbacks, but what Pater Noster is not, is a horror musical. It never alleviates the horror, and there are only a few extended song and dance moments, but those fit properly in the story in an organic way. The cult members, now all elderly people, welcome the protagonists with the song Come Out and Sing Father, an earworm of a hippy-song. The music video (below) of that song is different from what we see in the film: it looks and feels like it was made in the seventies, using only the cast of hippies that are briefly seen in flashbacks and on the album covers.
That is what the main purpose of these pastiche-like music videos seem to be: worldbuilding. Therefore it is slightly weird that one of the good guys in the movie, played by Tim Capello (the sax guy from The Lost Boys), shows up in one of these. But that is me being a bit of a stickler. Overall, the music videos for Pater Noster feel successful in conjuring a certain time and place, even with the limited means. That is what is great about Bickel: for 21.000 dollars he made a film, but also built a world around it. The music videos might be deceptively simple affairs, but given that it is just one part of an entire universe, that exists of a feature film, an album ánd a short film prequel called Welcome To Wunderlawn.... It's all mightily impressive.
