GUMMO DVD (2001 release)

Filmmaker Harmony Korine's abstract dissonance of feelings is shown through his directorial creativity. Korine's oddly realistic and grotesque take on midwestern life is shown through “Gummo.” The film Gummo is a plotless narrative of lifestyle in rural communities.

The DVD case’s design presents characters from the film on the front and back. Characters are placed on the back and expand onto the case’s spine, even inside and around the cover. The pictures chosen display the nature and presence of misogyny and abuse experienced within America's Midwest, specifically Ohio where the film takes place. These are in no way highlighted as a sense of positive virtues through Korine's lens, just presented through a disgusting lens; he shoots the movie in a way that has no real storyline, and it is up to individuals to follow Korine's perspective and choose which catches their eye. 

The hand written Gummo title is accompanied by a signature of Harmony Korine's. Once watching the film viewers are now presented with a new idea of "Gummo" in Fette Fraktur, and not in a carelessly written font. Fraktur's history has a relation to Nazi propaganda from 1871- 1941. Hitler used fraktur as a use to spread German Nationalism due to the heavy dark strokes found in fraktur. 

Quotes on the cover are written in a usage of white-black-red variations of juxtaposition with photos. The font is Futura bold. The subject image of Solomon can be seen as important by the contrast of yellow background. stylistically the use of making Placement of Solomon as the use of subject on the front cover can be seen from the likes of August Sanders photographs.

The yellow and gradient highlights accompanied by Solomon's face present a level of disgust within American culture. The random, and seemingly messy design placements reflect the film's essence of no real goal through pointless placements of the characters. 

The random placements of culturally significant characters add to the value of Gummo, and the design of the DVD. The scattered presence of the characters Chloe and the Bunny Kid on the DVD case’s design reflects how they randomly show up throughout the movie. These characters were influential beyond the movie, Bunny Kid served as Playboicarti’s SoundCloud profile and influenced costume design for A$AP Rocky’s music video. The bunny cap is also heavily worn and represented through Memphis native A Weirdo From Memphis. 

I found this DVD while working in the back at Goodwill and grabbed it not understanding the full context. Interested by internet rap I wanted to look into it Gummo.

Gummo is available to purchase online at Walmart, Amazon, and Ebay.

Production Designer David (Dave) Doernberg.

Sources:
Harmony Korine, and Randall Poster. GUMMO. USA, 1997.

“Gummo.” n.d. Vimeo.com. Accessed April 3, 2023. https://vimeo.com/388834918.

“GUMMO.” n.d. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Accessed November 30, 2023. https://www.loc.gov/item/jots.200021786.

“Notes to ‘Vibhatsa’ by R. Morris.” n.d. Ecmc.rochester.edu. Accessed November 30, 2023. http://ecmc.rochester.edu/rdm/notes/vib.html.