The Bumfights rage has quieted. Hunting for Bambi has been scolded and disproved. So along comes Brawling Bag Ladies, combining the worst elements of both.
"Criticized by the National Coalition for the Homeless Washington, D.C., office!" boasts the movie's website. "Condemned by church groups!" it screams. "Condemned by the Nevada Film Office for its controversial scenes!"
It's a film that began as a documentary tracing the homeless problem in Las Vegas. Delving into the whys and hows that have led to an estimated 7,000 homeless men women and children living in the streets of Las Vegas. A film exploration of one of Las Vegas largest social problems. But something, somewhere, went terribly wrong.
"When we were up in the areas where a lot of the homeless people hang out, we were interviewing a couple of people, and two women started arguing, started fighting with each other, and we started recording it, of course, and we asked them if we could use that in the video we're shooting," says Mark Parillo, who owns the company LasVegasWild.com, where the tape sells for $19.95.
So he and fellow filmmakers Shane Pierce and Todd Pope began focusing on the lives of women on the streets, delving into a subculture, exploring what the rough streets are like for homeless women and what they do to get by. "It's interesting, because what we found is, it's like a community unto themselves, and there's a lot of rivalry and jealousies of homeless women going after other homeless women's boyfriends, if you can call them that," Parillo says.
Then came Brawling Bag Ladies, the end product, which could more appropriately be called an anti-documentary. Maybe it was the dollar signs flashing, the allure of flesh, the hoopla that always follows the exploitation and degradation of women and the exploitation of the powerless. The commercial value changed the direction of the film, and the exploration of homeless women collided head-on with something between Bumfights and Girls Gone Wild.
"We also have [produced] what in retrospect may be mentally ill," says Parillo. Like dragging homeless women in straight jackets into a cage in a truck marked "Homeless Pound Transport" and driving them up and down the Strip? That's one of the repeated themes of the poorly assembled shock-value montage that took a year and a half to make. A small sampling:
• A distressed homeless man is attacked in the desert. He's pinned down and hooded. Then a string of firecrackers are placed around his neck and lit, while he screams and turns in circles, confused.
• Two homeless women pose for the camera, growl, "I like to beat up bitches," and then roll around in the grass in what seems less than a fight, with some flailing extremities and hair-pulling.
• A man wears a sign that says "Will suck for a buck."
• A woman is offered grilled bull balls and buffalo penis if she'll eat it topless, which she does.
• Shots of a naked woman playing racquetball.
• They offer another woman who appears to be a prostitute money for a night's stay at a hotel if she'll put two piercings through each nipple. After getting two thin metal rods through one nipple, she gets dizzy and can't go through with the other. The filmmakers give her half the money and demand the piercing instruments back. Blood drips down her chest.
• Potatoes are shot at homeless people
• Blunt arrows are shot at naked women
• They give a stun gun to three men, who compete to see who can stun their testicles the longest. The prize was a pair of shoes and a lap dance.
It's a "ruckus-style" film, says Parillo, whose tone rings with pride at his work. He denies that any of the scenes are staged, though some look like they've been rehearsed. "Some people say it's exploitative. If it is, in some people's eyes it may be. We've had other footage, and on some other footage we've been criticized, yes. But everybody's got their own thoughts on different things."
And his thoughts remain the same as before his documentary-gone-wild. He still wants to make a movie documenting homelessness in Las Vegas in a serious way, one that will be picked up by PBS. That's assuming, of course, that he doesn't maim, cage and pierce all of his subjects in the meantime.