MEET THE FILMMAKER: PJ RAVAL (“CHRISTEENE”)

CHRISTEENE has been characterized as being a sexually infused sewer of live rap and vile shamelessness, capable of adapting amazingly well to all styles of music. Attempts at gathering information on Christeene concerning age, origin, race, religion and even gender have proven fruitless, leaving the public to rely primarily on an impressive and highly stylized collection of music videos released through the collaborative efforts of Christeene and award winning filmmaker and cinematographer, PJ Raval…who remains quiet on the subject of their relationship…until now.

We screened PJ and Christeene’s delightfully irreverent “Fix My Dick” as a part of our short film program “The Pursuit of Love” back in May.  It is now our pleasure to present you lucky Rooftop blog readers with another of Christeene’s music video gems (see below). Plus, as a bonus, we talk to PJ about how their collaboration was born, and about the wisdom Christeene has to bring to the world. Rumor has it, the lady herself even chimed in with a few words. But you’ll just have to read on to find out…

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Rooftop Films: Describe the film for someone who hasn’t seen it.

PJ Raval: “Tears from my Pussy” is a music video that follows the stank sensation we call “Christeene” as she/he expresses heartbreak and wrestles with the sour enigma of “the cry between the thighs” after all, where do all the tears go…?

RF: Christeene: Tears from my Pussy is one of several short films which you have made with Christeene. Can you explain a little more about her?

PJ: Christeene is best described as the self proclaimed “cum dump” of Austin, TX. Characterized as being a sexually infused sewer of live rap and vile shamelessness, Christeene confronts you with celebrity culture obsession, viral video and social networking overload, and forces you to break down gender and sexual identity boundaries. Christeene is your on-going scandal, pure trash, pure honesty. The videos are a response and a reflection of these ideas.

RF: How did you start working with Paul Soileau (a.k.a Christeene)? What drew you to this collaboration?

PJ: Paul and I first met through mutual friends a few years back. We were both huge admirers of the other person’s work and kicked around the ideas of collaborating together as performer and filmmaker for a year or two until finally we sat down one day when we were both feeling the need to make work in a different direction. And as Paul likes to describe it, I was looking to get crazy stupid and Paul was looking to step up his lady game. We decided we would make work for us, for pure creativity and not have any boundaries or outside restrictions. Anything was fair game and lack of money could never be an excuse to not make work. It was an opportunity to explore and question and not be apologetic with our thoughts and expressions. And from that day the Christeene video collection was born. And now Christeene as a performer and personality has taken on a whole new life as well. It’s still evolving and changing. It’s also been a great opportunity to bring friends out for an afternoon and just have a great time making some work…

RF: The Christeene videos have a certain joyfully irreverent political undertone. How important do you feel it is for a filmmaker to be politically aware in his or her filmmaking? What motivates you personally to take on a given project?

PJ: For me it’s important to make work that is challenging, films that make you think or make you question. As a filmmaker/artist, I personally like making work that allows me to explore and helps me answer my own questions about a subject that I may have. At the same time I don’t believe in the masterpiece I believe in the body of work and the experience of making work and using work as a way of expression. So some projects will be more successful than others, some will shine and some will fall. But it’s important to me to be invested creatively and emotionally but also have fun and enjoy and learn from the process. You can’t control the audience perception or public critique, but you can stand by your work and take responsibility for it. You don’t owe anyone an explanation, but at the same time you have to be prepared for questions and especially if you’re making “provocative” work, be prepared for strong responses in different ways. You’re expressing and communicating something to the world, so naturally the world may communicate back. You have to be prepared for that.

RF: What’s your next project?

PJ: I’m currently working on the next Christeene video for the song “African Mayonaise” which is about celebrity culture obsession and media overload. For the video we created various un-welcomed live performances at different venues like a mall food court, a church of scientology, a laundry mat, The W Hotel or even a 24 Hour fitness gym where Christeene and entourage let the world know “I am your new celebrity, I am your new America…” We then posted times and locations on twitter and facebook and encouraged fans to show up, witness, participate and be in the video and document the public train wreck we call “celebrity sightings” with anything they had – IPhones, flip phones, video cameras etc and along with some of our footage we are now cutting this media explosion into a video. It’s a fan video, a sasquatch sighting video, a top 10 celebrity meltdown video, the 10 o’clock news, you name it. Will be fun stuff indeed. Other than that I’ve been working on a feature documentary for the past two years about lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGBTQ) retirees and seniors. I’m still shooting and am very excited where this project is going. Paul and I also have a feature length Christeene project in mind so prepare yourself for when this hits…

and finally, a word from Christeene herself;

RFWhat message does Christeene have to give to the world?

Haaaaay Ya’llllll …… diz is a stank azz fuggged up candyland we be squishin our toes up in, and da celebratin dont have ta stop juz cuz mister mister sumtimes git his sticky fingers up in our royal businezz.
i wanna kick da wurld hard hard swear ta gawd in da puss….hold it by da buh hole like a 6 pack an throw it down da greazy bowlin lane uh dis wild life we livin.
i want da people tooo scream when dey see me an my boyz cummin hard an fast….and i want dem to grab hold uh dis leather stallion an ride it side saddle HAAAAAAAAAAY!!!  Cum play wit me….play wit me hard as u can motherfuckerz.

XO
C