Split (1989 film) (nonfiction)

VHS case art for Split.

Split is a 1989 film written and directed by Chris Shaw and starring Timothy Dwight and Joan Bechtel.

Starker (Dwight) attempts to counter the oppressive message of a big brother media and is forced to go into hiding.

The film was notable for its early use of CGI.

It was the final film appearance of Gene Evans.

Reviews

Jon Abrams

Jon Abrams of Daily Grindhouse writes:

A slovenly man with obviously fake teeth, dressed like a vagrant, wanders around a bus station. He then looks directly into the camera and begins ranting about how they can see him. The film then cuts to two men watching him on a computer screen, arguing as to what to do about him. He doesn’t match any profile in their files, identified on screen as a wall of computerized faces without hair or teeth. "Clean him, tag him, start a file," one absent-mindedly says to the other.

So begins SPLIT, one of the most criminally underseen films of 1989. The sole film to date of mathematician Chris Shaw, SPLIT is a low-fi sci-fi film of the most ambitious variety, a bizarre ride of dystopian paranoia, religious allegory, and tongue-in-cheek humor that basically defies description from the computer-generated opening credits (from Shaw’s brother Robert) to the inconclusive ending.

• [http://dailygrindhouse.com/thewire/25th-anniversary-project-split-1989/

THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY PROJECT – SPLIT (1989)] by Jon Abrams @ Daily Grindhouse (Feb 27, 2014)

Fiction cross-reference

• Crimes against light
• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Chris Shaw (nonfiction) - Christopher W. Shaw is a mathematician who also writes, directs, and acts in films.
  • Dynamics: The Geometry of Behavior @ Amazon

External links:

• Split (1989 film) @ Wikipedia
• Chris Shaw's SPLIT (original 1989 theatrical trailer) @ YouTube
• Split @ Spectacle Theater - "The only film by mathematician Chris Shaw, and featuring frenzied, schizoid computer animation from MacArthur Genius Grant winner Robert Shaw, SPLIT is a once-in-a-lifetime oddity; a thoroughly-baked, paranoid foot-chase through the dumpsters of early-MTV Santa Cruz. Starker, would-be messiah and master of disguise, eternally attempts to evade the dystopian fascist forces hellbent on keeping him in a feedback loop of capitalist-driven order. As their surveillance systems are based off of “consumption” and Starker eats out of garbage cans and freeloads from gallery openings, he has so far been able to escape the clutches of the freakish, half-machine overlord. Starker wafts of a Pynchon hero scurrying like a rat through the moribund, chaotic future as envisioned by Derek Jarman or Alex Cox. This 2K restoration of the cult headtrip is some kind of miracle — lovingly transferred by Verboden Video and the filmmaker after the discover of not only the film’s original 16mm negatives, but a print of a never-released, 20 minute longer cut of the film as well. We are ecstatic to be able to bring you both."
• ‘Split’: A Political-Religious Parable by Kevin Thomas @ LA Times (August 30, 1991) - "As a timeless political-religious parable, “Split” invites many interpretations in its celebration of the power of ideas and the notion of freedom. (The film’s title refers to the bifurcation theory of mathematics, which apparently means that events can go either of two unpredictable ways; Shaw is a mathematician by profession, with four textbooks to his credit.)"
• Chris Shaw @ IMDB - "Chris Shaw is an actor and editor, known for Split (writer/director, 1989), I Sell the Dead (actor, 2008) and Open Air (film editing, 2009)."