Filmed in Exile

Canzo Empyrean is a bizarre film which features the character Destro from G.I.  Joe.

The film is impossible to see and has one of the most bizarre and inventive marketing campaigns I have ever seen.  As I can not see it, this discussion really only covers the marketing plan.

The movie has created an underground buzz about itself by inflating it’s own myth.  You can not buy the movie, (probably because of copyright infringement).  The rumor is it took over ten years to make.  Other rumors help build the myth of the movie.  It claims to have had it’s first screening in Liberia.

Other rumors claim the only way to see it is to tag “Canzo Empyrean” in graffiti six times and photograph it, then the director will send you a copy with a unique watermark so he can tell if you leak the movie to the internet.

As a G.I. Joe fanatic I would love to see it.  It has destro and Zartan and portrays the Baroness as a dominatrix/ Ilsa She-Devil type.  Whatever it is, it has to be better than that piece of shit-Hollywood-Rise-of-Cobra-bullshit.

The movie takes place in a dystopian American future where an AIDS epidemic has swept the nation.  Destro arrives with a cure and a promise of pleasure without consequences.  It is bizarre and full of strange and beautiful images.
Destro speaks with a Sean Connery like accent, and seems to be played as a direct homage to Connery’s Bond.  Destro is a pimp in this movie, living the life.  He comes off like a hip-hop icon.  Scarface and Caligula all rolled into one.

This movie is so outrageous and creative it has legions of fans begging to see it.

Spend an hour pouring through it’s amazing website: www.canzoempyrean.com.  It has tons of content and the only way to get at it is to dig for it, which gives the movie the feeling of a great puzzle you have to unlock.

The movie is the brainchild of Justin Fornal, an underground filmmaker who also goes by the altar ego of “Baron Ambrosia”.  Ambrosia is a character he plays on a public access show called Bronx flavor, which seems almost as weird as Canzo Empyrean.  Fornal is creating a name for himself in New York Underground circuits, but his mastery of marketing deserves bigger.  Canzo’s marketing campaign is a masterpiece of marketing genius.  He has people begging to see this thing.

Whether or not the actual movie will deliver is another thing.  Often, weirdness that plays well in three minute clips gets tiring when spread out over hours and I have a low tolerance for weird for the sake of weird.  There is also the chance that it will work and be a cult masterpiece.

There is no way to know.  I am not much for graffitti so I guess I will have to stick with the imaginary movie in my head, pieced together from two hours of research.  It might be better to stick with that flick.  Whether it is any good or not, it’s marketing is genius and is an excellent model for filmmakers looking for a new method of distribution.