'SANTACON'
North Pole approved?
Dear Moviegoers,
A trip to late 1990s New York City did well for a performance march by the Cacophony Society. This multi-city anti-capitalist group would use physical urban spaces to disrupt and confuse various systems of human control, most of the time as it pertained to consumerism. They were organized among the chaos produced, and they were fun as hell. Burning Man was one of their many creations. So were cocktail parties in sewers.
And mass city crawls of people dressed as Santa Claus.
Indeed, SANTACON covers the heyday of this event, from the original crawl to its NYC glory day. The planners and the participants, now much older, are interviewed to recount their personal experiences, almost line-by-line, in detail, by the minute, of the initial programs. Their words are pieced together with analog video that documented everything, in the decade before the explosion of digital pocket camera availability. Everyone has a way to record life now. Everyone is a filmmaker. However, not everyone can be a disruptor.
What's made clear by the film is the generational gap between what the Cacophony Society did and what kids today are doing with what was done before they were born. It's staggering to see expressions of chainless goofs and satirical open dialogue by way of action, fast-forwarded to Spring Break-esque partying and obnoxious raving. That is damning the man, but more misguided than anything. More misinterpreted than what was hoped for.
Still, SANTACON's interviewees don't dwell on what's arrived, but rather on what they shipped, through excessive video archives. An unbelievable storage locker of golden moments and person-to-person purity. Mostly, anyway. These Santas would shock average denizens at their high-priced troughs, would chant sarcastic phrases in malls, and have a blast trying to make a point with some absurdity. What a time to be alive.
The documentary itself plunders the footage through and through, but rarely questions or considers alternative points of view. It's all about the participants, and all from their perspectives. As a film, the end was decided by the time production began, it feels. In other words, the Cacophony Society is immediately revered in a way that could've poisoned most other movies.
Yes, this isn't about politics or controversies involving corruption, I get that. People talking with one another and showing themselves for who they were and who they are now, without negative judgment, is somehow refreshing here. But not once are they picked apart or explored any more than Santa Claus deep. That's a shame.
And yet, I don't care all that much. SANTACON is fun. Fun in all the ways that affirms youthful foils and spoils, and reinforces the belief that societal criticism can be had in impressively creative ways. Maybe they did party back then. Maybe those were parties.
A Mardi Gras on Christmas. 5/5
SANTACON will screen and stream (in-person and online) as part of the 2026 SF IndieFest, from 2/5 to 2/15.