This isn’t Sparta.
A Fort Greene artist has turned the movie “300” on its head, creating a contrasting short film that tells that story from the perspective of the Persians soldiers, rather than the chiseled Greek combatants. The movie’s creator said he wants to challenge the original flick’s presentation of the Persians as the bad guys.
“Greece is always held up as a beacon of democracy, but that is not really true. The Greeks held slaves, but in Persia, there was freedom of religion and federal government,” said Cooper Troxell. “I am trying to undo the Hollywood ideal that there is good and evil and they line up perfectly between protagonist and antagonist.”
The short, “I Dig Persepolis!,” will screen at Williamsburg theater Standard ToyKraft on Feb. 7 as part of a larger show Cooper is co-organizing called “Things Appear Weirder in the Rear View Mirror.” The evening will feature a number of other beloved stories reinterpreted through film, performance art, and music, including classical music played on ’90s synths and “Good Will Hunting” as seen from the perspective of a horny teen girl.
The show is intended to make viewers think twice about the art they think they know, Troxell said.
“It is fascinating to question things that are set in stone, because then the things become organic and unraveled,” he said.
“Things Appear Weirder in the Rear View Mirror” at Standard ToyKraft (722 Metropolitan Ave., third floor, between Manhattan and Graham avenues in Williamsburg, www.standardtoykraft.org). Feb. 7 at 9 pm. $8.
