Rubberman Accepts The Nobel Prize

Synopsis
A superhero who speaks only the language of dance makes an outrageous, graceful and rambunctious physical acceptance speech.

Key Credits:

Director: Karen Pearlman
Writers: Karen Pearlman and Richard James Allen
Producers: Daniella Ortega and Richard James Allen
Choreographer: Richard James Allen
Cinematographer: Tim Spicer
Production Designer: Kate E. Wills
Costume Designer: Justine Seymour
Editor/Digital Effects: Andy Canny
Sound Designer/Composer: Serge Stanley

And appearing as Rubberman: Richard James Allen

A Physical TV Company Production in association with
the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.

Duration: 6 minutes Year completed: © 2001

Distributors

Theatrical Distributors:
The Physical TV Company
and The Australian Film, Television and Radio School

Non-Theatrical Distributor Australia and New Zealand:
Marcom Projects as part of 3 Physical Digital Videos.

Non-Theatrical Distributor USA:
Artworks Video.

Broadcasts

Rubberman screened as part of Move the Frame, a program for cable access television produced by Anna Brady Nuse/Straight to the Helicopter, in the USA in 2006.

Festivals Screenings

Rubberman made his first film festival outing at IMZ dance screen in Monte Carlo, and has been bouncing around the globe ever since:

Artsfest Filmfestival, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
Australian Poetry Festival in Sydney,
Australian Film Television and Radio School’s National Screening Tour,
Constellation Change Screen Dance Festival, London,
Dance Briefs, Omeo Dance Studio, Sydney,
Dance for the Camera Festival at the University of Utah,
Festival Internacional de Video Danza de Buenos Aires,
Festival Internacional de Video Danza del Uruguay,
Mill Valley Film Festival in California,
Mostra de Video Dansa in Barcelona,
Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film and Video, Toronto, Canada
Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film and Video touring program
Reel Dance on the Road, Peterborough, Canada
Napolidanza, Festival di Videodanza/Il Coreografo Elettronico, in Italy
Popcorn Taxi at the Valhalla Cinema in Sydney,
Short Trips @ The Melbourne Fringe 2002 Best Film Award
Somerset Celebration of Literature in Queensland,
South East Dance’s Dance 4 Camera programme at the Brighton Film Festival, Guildford and Canterbury in Britain,
Shepparton Shorts Short Film Festival in Victoria,
VideoDance at the International Thessaloniki Film Festival, Athens,
Wollombi Short Film Festival in the Hunter Valley, NSW,
Art on the Rocks Film Festival, Sydney, Australia,
Danscamdanse, Gent, Belgium.
Awards and Reviews

Rubberman was shortlisted for Best Dance Film at the 2001 Australian Dance Awards and shortlisted for Best Short Film at Shepparton Shorts Short Film Festival in Victoria.
It won the 2001 AFTRS Critic’s Circle Award for Best Production Design for Kate E. Wills. It featured in Dance,Camera, Action2, Dennis Alexander’s trailer for the 3rd Constellation Change Screen Dance Festival in London, which won the DPA Award in Germany for Best Editing in a promotional trailer.

Rubberman has been described in glowing terms in Independent Filmmaker magazine by Christopher Strickland.

“ Karen Pearlman (writer/director) and Richard Allen (writer/choreographer/performer) deliver this quirky and energetic short on the trails of Rubberman – an indomitable superhero in black rubber suit and a helmet of styled pink rubber hair.

“ Rubberman’s Nobel prize acceptance speech (a voiced-over translation of his native language of dance) riffs on the enduring power of flexibility and the ability to bounce back. He reveals that only under attack from alien forces has he realised his chameleonic nature as liquid and solid, finally thanking his enemies for forcing him beyond the limits he had imagined for himself.

“Part poetic manifesto, part movement piece, Rubberman also does karate in comic strip colours, KAPOW! style text harking back to the days of cheesy Batman stoushes. Warped screen effects and lightning zooms show that the Physical TV Company is easing with maturity into film, doing much more with it than merely recording performance. They also seem to be the only bunch attempting this sort of thing in Australia, and doing it well.”