You could make the argument that there wouldn’t even
be much of a local film scene if it weren’t for Skizz Cyzyk. Since 1985,
this ponytailed 32-year-old has been instrumental in organizing venues, making
music videos, judging film festivals –and yes, sometimes he even makes his own
films, as well. He went to Towson State for eight years, just so he “could
have access to all the film equipment,” he says.
Cyzyk has worked at Video Americain for certain bill-paying purposes (please, no
Tarantino jokes) for the past four-and-a-half years. Last winter, he
taught a film class at Johns Hopkins. He ran the Mansion Theater, a venue
for local and national independent film, shorts, and experimental film, in the
living room of his rented Victorian house off of York Road and 42nd Street, for
five-plus years. But with ticket prices at a low, low, $2 suggested
donation, the Mansion wasn’t exactly raking it in. Now he’s showing films
at the Lodge in Highlandtown, in what has been called Skizz’s post-Mansion
operation.
And of course there’s MicroCineFest,
Cyzyk’s first, and very successful, attempt at the art of being a festival
director. At last year’s first-annual festival, audiences were treated to
the Balitmore premiere of Jon Moritsugu’s bizarre Terminal U.S.A.
Planning for the second MicroCineFest is already under way.
Cyzyk’s filmmaking talents certainly don’t suffer
from his involvement in so many projects. His 4 Films In 5 Minutes
is a trilogy of primary-color-splashed, frenetically animated shorts. Two
of the segments, “Cheese Tweezer,” and “My Little Pickle Love Song,” feature the
neurotic/melodic up-tempos of his band, Blister Freak Circus. The film has
won several awards at festivals, most recently the Grand Prize at the Golden
Shower Video Festival in San Antonio.
“I would love
for filmmaking to pay the bills,” the soft-spoken Cyzyk says. “Then I
could spend all day making films.” Unfortunately, he’s had some minor
setbacks of late, especially regarding the recent Formstone documentary,
Little Castles, which ended in a dispute with his producer.
Undaunted, Cyzyk is starting work on Whopping
Intersection, “a film I’m making to have fun again,” he says, funded by an
Individual Artist’s Award for Filmmaking from the Maryland State Arts Council.
The very reason that Cyzyk is so admired as a
filmmaker is the same reason he’s probably never going to get rich. If he
does manage to make a living at this, he’s going to do it “without selling
out.” Which he defines as? “Making bad music videos for bands I
don’t like.”