FilmClick

The sometimes thought-provoking, often wacky, but always original Brainwash Bike-in Walk-in Movie Festival returns for its 15th year showing 23 unique independent short movies in Oakland at the American Steel Building on Friday, July 31 & Saturday, August 1, 2009, 9:00 pm.

“We project movies onto a tarp in West Oakland,” says festival director Shelby Toland.

See the trailer right here at FilmClick:

“These are movies that know they’re movies,” claims festival judge Jason Gohlke. “If you like the art of storytelling, if you care about the suspension of disbelief, or if you just like watching moving pictures on a screen, you don’t want to miss Brainwash this year.”

The 2009 15th Annual Brainwash Movie Festival will be held July 31st and August 1st at 9:00 p.m. at the American Steel Building at 1960 Mandela Parkway in Oakland. The fully juried festival will screen 23 original shorts in two separate programs.

Admission is $9 per person per night OR $20 for a Two-Day Pass, which gets two people into both nights of the festival Buy tickets at http://www.ticketweb.com/snl/EventListings.action?orgId=16986 OR at the gate.

For more info, see the offical site at:

http://brainwashm.com

Chris Taylor’s documentary “Food Fight” plays at the Santa Cruz Film Festival on Tuesday, May 12th, at 6:30pm at Regal Riverfront Twin Cinemas. Taylor’s film examines American agricultural policy and food culture development in the 20th century and how the California food movement has created a counter revolution against agribusiness.

This film delves in to the local-sustainable-organic food movement that grew out of the counter-culture of California in the late 1960s and 1970s and which lead to the birth of farmer’s markets.  Featuring interviews with restaurateurs Alice Waters and Suzanne Goin, writer Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma),  chef Wolfgang Puck and many more.

View the trailer here:

Director’s statement:

When I started to think about the story that I wanted to tell in FOOD FIGHT, I knew that the story would have many threads. It’s a story that starts politically, in the cultural ferment of Berkeley in the 60’s, and ends in pleasure, by way of some committed chefs, restaurateurs, and food activists in California. Along the way this counter-revolution has brought American food consumers, small farmers and political activists into direct conflict with the power of big agribusiness and American government policy.
This way of eating that I portray in the film started out (or more accurately was rediscovered) in a restaurant called Chez Panisse in Berkeley. Almost by accident, Alice Waters and her chef and partner Jeremiah Tower found that they could find the best ingredients not by buying from the usual industrial food distributors, but instead by canvassing the local neighborhood backyard gardens. Fellow-counter culturists and other proto-organic farmers were growing fresh tomatoes, lettuces, micro greens, and making artisanal cheeses locally.

As Alice herself says in the film, “When I started the restaurant I wasn’t looking for the local organic farmer. I was looking for taste. But in looking for taste, I found those farmers.” Soon she was putting together a local food chain, free from long-distance shipping, and without the pesticides and fertilizers that were leaching taste from supermarket food. As she developed this food chain of small local farmers, an especially fortuitous piece of California statehouse legislation opened a new opportunity for these same farmers to meet consumers directly. This legislation, in 1975, enabled local farmers to sell produce directly to consumers, and Farmers Markets were born. The first markets developed in university towns, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo, and later in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and San Diego. In the Bay Area, as Chez Panisse developed a national reputation for spectacular culinary results, the local farmers were named on the menu, and the spotlight of chef artistry was shown on the farmers. Savvy consumers realized that they could buy the same ingredients as Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck (who was reprising the same paradigm in spectacular fashion at Spago), and as dedicated foodies know, 85% of cooking is getting the best ingredients.

-Chris Taylor, Director, “Food Fight”

For more information on the film visit:

http://www.foodfightthedoc.com

Check out more films and ticket information about the Santa Cruz Film Festival, which runs from May 7 to May 15, by visiting their website at:

http://www.santacruzfilmfestival.org/

The Santa Cruz Film Festival celebrates opening night at 7:30pm on May 7 at the Del Mar Theatre with Giancarlo Esposito’s (in attendance) directorial debut, “Gospel Hill”, starring Angela Bassett and Danny Glover and featuring Samuel Jackson, Julia Stiles and Adam Baldwin.

About the film
In the town of Julia, the neighborhood citizens of Gospel Hill are being forced out of their homes to make way for a multimillion-dollar development. Dr. Ron Palmer (Giancarlo Esposito, Do the Right Thing, The Usual Suspects), an influential black community leader who runs the local health clinic blindly supports the development. The good doctor’s desire for wealth and status awakens the racially divided community town. John Malcolm (Danny Glover, The Color Purple, Lethal Weapon), withdrew following his brother Peter’s (Samuel Jackson, Pulp Fiction, Eve’s Bayou) assassination thirty years ago, and is still haunted by the pain of the unsolved murder. He is detached from his wife and the society he once fought for.

John’s wife, Sarah (Angela Bassett, What’s Love Got To Do With It, How Stella Got Her Groove Back) takes it upon herself to battle Dr. Palmer and reveal his profiteering to the whole town. Meanwhile, the towns bigoted, ex-sheriff (Tom Bower, Appaloosa, North Country), who was responsible for letting the investigation of Peter’s murder go unresolved, is facing his own mortality and twisted choices.

Each of these characters’ lives intertwine to create a gripping, revealing and dramatic tale touching on issues of race, imminent domain, and the power of the human spirit to overcome the pain and hatred of division. Gospel Hill is overflowing with the deep emotions of greed, transformation, racism, redemption, forgiveness, and hope.

Check out more films playing at the Santa Cruz Film Festival from May 7 to May 15 by visiting their website at:

http://www.santacruzfilmfestival.org/

Monty Miranda’s directorial debut “Skills Like This” opens this weekend in the bay area, playing at the Sundance Kabuki in San Francisco, the Elmwood in Berkeley, and the Nickelodeon in Santa Cruz. Miranda’s film, the South by Southwest Film Festival audience award winner, is about a struggling writer named Max Soloman (played by screenwriter Spencer Berger) who decides to make an unlikely career change at the spur of the moment.  When Max calmly walks across the street and robs a bank after the failure of his latest play, he discovers that he’s finally found something he’s good at.  As Max embraces his new talents, his change in career filters through his friends and they start to look at their lives from new perspectives as well.  The film is amusing; it doesn’t take itself too seriously and features good performances from Berger, love interest Kerry Knuppe and Gabriel Tigerman as the uptight friend Dave.

FilmClick had an opportunity to discuss the film with director Monty Miranda and writer/star Spencer Berger while they were in town for the film’s showing at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival.  Take a look.

For more info on the film, check out the “Skills Like This” website:

http://www.skillslikethis.com

Several excellent films from the San Francisco Independent Film Festival make their way across the bay to the Shattuck Cinema in Berkeley, CA for an extended run this weekend. FilmClick recommends these films from local filmmakers which are playing this weekend in Berkeley:

“The Full Picture”

Bay Area filmmaker Jon Bowden’s feature “The Full Picture” plays on Sat. Feb 21 at 9:30 PM. The film is about unresolved family history and the lengths that people will go to keep uncomfortable secrets even in their closest relationships.  The main character, Mark, lives in San Francisco with his long-time girlfriend, Erika.  The couple is headed toward marriage, at least that’s what Erika thinks, but Mark has been keeping some secrets about his family’s sordid past.  A visit from Mark’s mother leads to some uncomfortable revelations for all involved.  This is a well-written film; I particularly enjoyed the relationship between Mark and his brother, Hal, played by Joshua Hutchinson. Hutchinson and Lizzie Ross, who plays Erika, stand out in this film for me.

“Harrison Montgomery”

Daniel Davila’s “Harrison Montgomery” plays on Fri. Feb 20, at 7:15 PM. This film follows an aspiring artist, Ricardo, played by Octavio Gómez Berríos, who lives and creates his art in San Francisco’s rough Tenderloin neighborhood. Ricardo deals drugs to get by.  He ends up in a tangle; owing money to his boss and forced to move into a room at the grimy Hotel Boyd.  At his new place, Ricardo meets single mother Margo and another Hotel Boyd tenant, Harrison Montgomery, played soulfully by Martin Landau.   Montgomery is an eccentric and aging shut-in, who may have won the lottery years before. I won’t go too much more into the story, but it’s a surprisingly inspirational film filled with solid performances.  Of note to me was the gritty production design and the beautiful cinematography of the rarely featured Tenderloin.

by Christopher Potter, FilmClick.com

Go to: www.sfindie.com for show times, more information and tickets.

The 11th annual San Francisco Independent Film Festival opened to a packed house last night at the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco’s Mission District with Shane Meadows’ film Somers Town. Meadows’ film was an atypical choice for an opening night film, but a wonderful surprise.  Thomas Turgoose, the star of Meadows’s internationally acclaimed This is England, delivers an awkward, brave and vulnerable performance as run-away teenager Tomo, who leaves the north-Midlands and ends up in the rundown North London neighborhood Somers Town.  It is a difficult role to portray and Turgoose is full of the bravado of youth, the determination not to return home, and the discomfort of adolescence.

Somers Town

Turgoose’s deadpan comic foil, Piotr Jagiello as the as shy, Polish immigrant Marek, brings another dimension to the film’s illustration of the current struggle of the many Polish immigrants finding their way in the United Kingdom since the expansion of the European Union.  The film is shot primarily in black and white and its colorless world adds to the contrast between the characters, town, and their situations.  The exception is the film’s final journey, via the London to Paris train which is a background for this film about journeys.  When the film switches to color in a grainy, high-speed stock for a final journey by the two teenagers, it is almost a coda to the film, a reminder that journeys, internal and external, can be vivid parts of life.

Opening Night at SF IndieFest

True to form for any of SF Indie’s events, which include Another Hole in the Head and the San Francisco Documentary Festival, when we left the theater after Somers Town, a motley group of Star Wars characters awaited the departing audience.  I didn’t C3PO, but R2-D2 was there, along with many storm troopers, Ben Kenobi and Luke Skywalker himself.  One of the great things about  the festivals that Jeff Ross puts on is the light whimsy that surrounds the events.  I think he realizes that films and events like these are meant to be fun and it always shows.  I’ve been to festivals with my films and usually the parties seem to be stiff, hotel ballroom mixers and the best times are usually had after hours at whatever bar you migrate to.  Not the case with SFIndie’s events.  Don’t miss the Big Lebowski costume party on Saturday, February 7.  I’m sure it will be fun.

by Christopher Potter, FilmClick.com

Go to: www.sfindie.com for show times, more information and tickets.

The 11th annual San Francisco Independent Film Festival, which opens February 5 and continues throughout the Bay Area until the 22nd, presents several world premieres to viewers including Abraham Obama, Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and BYO Records, and Morris County.

Abraham Obama

In Abrahma Obama, Pop/street artist Ron English creates an iconic image of Abraham Lincoln’s faced merged with Barack Obama’s and with his co-horts paste it up illegally all across America, plastering the image wherever they can find an open wall. Along the way they meet up with counterculture heroes like Shepard Fairey, Morgan Spurlock and David Choe and spread their subversive propaganda to America’s heartland on a grassroots campaign to get Obama elected.

Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and BYO Records

Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and BYO Records takes you through the last 25 years of an independent Punk Rock label. The story is told through interviews and rare footage of the explosive LA Puck Rock scene from the 80’s until current. Riots, harassment from the law, amazing bands, crazy stories and best of all, a real and earnest desire to change the world through punk rock are captured in this documentary.

Morris County

Morris County by Matthew Garrett is an equal parts drama, horror, true-crime anthology and life-cycle piece following three sets of characters on their individual journeys into oblivion.

Go to: www.sfindie.com for show times, more information and tickets.

The fest is wrapping up, and the award winners have been announced, but for the hundreds of filmmakers that make Sundance one of the world’s premier stages for emerging cinematic talent, this is only the beginning. The two-week event that yearly takes place in the idyllic ski town of Park City, Utah comprises programs in a variety of categories, including US and international, dramatic and documentary, with films screened in and out of competition.

Short Term 12

As Sundance has grown in recent years, high budget feature premiers have overshadowed many smaller productions, but for true cinephiles, often it’s the under-the-radar releases that make a festival great, and what could be more under-the-radar than the short films?

Short Term 12 earned this year’s Jury Prize in US Short Filmmaking. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and featuring a remarkable dramatic performance by fringe Hollywood funnyman Brad William Henke, this story set in a halfway community for troubled youth poses difficult questions about choosing to bring a child into the world. Lies by Jonas Odell earned the International Jury Prize.

Jerrycan

An Honorable Mention when to Chema García Ibarra’s unsettling Spanish short, The Attack of the Robots from Nebula-5, which depicts a young man’s attempts to warn his community of an impending alien attack, shedding more light on the relationships with his family and friends than on the aliens. Another mention went to a subtly complex film, Jerrycan, about an improvised boyhood masculinity trial, where a bully forces his playmates to light a fuel can on fire, causing a massive explosion. The film says much about the experience of childhood, proving that sometimes seemingly trivial events can be the most formative. It was directed by Julius Avery

Next Floor

But it’s not just the award winners that enrich these programs. Ten for Grandpa, written and directed by Doug Karr, is one continuous, compounded conspiracy theory. Knife Point is a visually satisfying exploration into the darker mindset of fundamentalist Christians, directed by Carlo Mirabella-Davis. Countertransference takes emotional therapy to hilarious new heights, and Next Floor is an incredibly elaborate allegory, with stunning production design, that warns of the dangers of an over-consumptive society.

For more information, please visit: http://www.sundance.org/festival

Written by Michael Lee, mlee@filmclick.com

Behold the 16th Annual ADFF, which, in grand fashion, celebrates films by people of color from all over the world. Four hundred years of forced migration during the slave trade is certainly the reason that people of Sub-Saharan African descent comprise one of the largest demographics around the world, but it’s the rich cultural contributions, especially in the last century, that have made this wonderfully diverse group so famous.

La Corona

The fest this year features films from all over the world, spanning Africa, North and South America, the Middle East, and the Caribbean. Screenings are held upstairs at Anthology Film Archives in Manhattan’s East Village, Harlem’s, Thalia Theatre, and the Clearview 62nd on the Upper West Side. Special events, including filmmaker talks and panel discussions have been held throughout the three epic weeks at CU Teacher’s College and at each of the venues. I caught a remarkable short documentary shot on 35mm called La Corona, directed by Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega about a beauty pageant in a Bogotá women’s prison. The first prize winner, a black Colombian, serves out her sentence and aspires to a new life outside the prison walls.

Gospel Hill dir. Giancarlo Esposito

Dozens of films and several events comprise the fesitval. The opening night feature, Gospel Hill, was directed by celebrated actor Giancarlo Esposito, and features a noted cast including Danny Glover, Angela Bassett, Julia Stiles, and Esposito himself. He plays a wealthy community member in the American South who conspires with a development corporation to buy out the poor community members’ cherished family properties. It’s a poignant comment on the real estate exploitation that’s being perpetrated by opportunistic developers all over the country.

Masai: The Rain Warriors

A beautifully-photographed Kenyan movie, Masai: The Rain Warriors, filled a matinee spot at AFA this week, and was the day’s cultural event for a pair of Brooklyn junior high school groups. For the first act, director Pascal Plisson’s depictions of the tribal decorations (i.e. elaborate ear-stretching, creative body piercings) were a source of great amusement for the kids. The story, though, building on an old Masai myth about the vengeance of the Red God, eventually won their attention and at the triumphant climax the theater broke into gleeful applause.

By Michael Prall, FilmClick staff, mprall@filmclick.com

For More Information, please visit: http://www.nyadff.org/

Good things often come in small packages, as this year’s BAFF certainly proves. In only its fifth season, the fledgling fest already feels perfectly at home in the Tribeca Cinemas building on the corner of Manhattan’s Varick and Laight Streets. Dozens of filmmakers and patrons, both local and visiting, crowded the lobby and the theater’s upstairs lounge, trading compliments and filling nearly every seat throughout last week’s four-day festivities.

The sold out shows were a frustration for many hoping to catch pieces, both features and shorts, that probably won’t make it to many more NYC screens this year. BAFF showcased almost a hundred low-budget, alternative, and unconventional-running-time works this year, earning it a special place in the hearts of indie-philes citywide. A couple behind me in the theater was surprised to learn that there were two shorts playing before the film they’d come to see. They told me their film’s running time was an hour. “Technically, that’s a short, too,” I replied.

Save Coney Island

When filmmakers and their cast and crew attend screenings, the energy is always tremendous, but often the crowd forgets to pay sufficient attention to the rest of the program. In one such occasion, we were lucky to begin with a short by Peter Lipera that immediately grabbed the fidgety audience’s attention, starting the program off with a poetic telling of The Playground of America’s desperate fight against an unrelenting development corporation and its backers in the mayor’s office. Save Coney Island is an in-depth look at Brooklyn’s most eclectic neighborhood, and its struggle to preserve its wonderful traditions. It’s a doc that evolves with Coney Island’s ongoing saga, and definitely my personal pick of the fest. Check it out next month at Anthology Film Archives.

The Beautiful Hills of Brooklyn

The program ended with a local favorite: Beyond Wiseguys: Italian Americans and the Movies, a fairly self-explanatory doc, but with some excellent moments (i.e. Ben Gazzara on choosing a stage name). Other films of note include The Beautiful Hills of Brooklyn, a gorgeously photographed piece, winner of BAFF’s Best Short Film award, based on the true-life retirement journal of a lifetime state worker in a crumbling Brooklyn neighborhood, and the opening night feature The Living Wake, directed by Sol Tryon and starring the NY Emerging Talent winner, Jesse Eisenberg.

The Project

For my money, the best emerging performance was from a young Jamie Proctor and the entire cast of the closing night feature, The Project. The film won BAFF’s special Cityscape award for its bold portrayal of inner city New York, but the performances themselves may be the best reason to check this one out. Keep your eyes out in the near future for Proctor and co-stars Bilal Bishop and Kevin Porter Young.

By Michael Prall, FilmClick staff, mprall@filmclick.com