FilmClick

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

The trend toward digital cinema may have left the seventies far behind, but there must still be some of you out there who remember when 16mm film was among the most accessible formats. Before the Handicam, the onboard shotgun microphone, and non-linear, OS-based editing software, documentary filmmakers had to actually light their subjects’ spaces, sound recordists had to carry reel-to-reel tape recorders, and tens of thousands of feet of film had to be exposed, developed, printed, and spliced together on electric flatbed machines.

Thanks to the versatility of small-format 8mm and 16mm film stocks, low budget and independent films were still achievable. And if it still sounds like a work-intensive process, just take a look at the results at Film Forum this week.

Always for Pleasure (1978)

Documentary filmmaker Les Blank’s legendary body of work is on display at one of Manhattan’s premier independent theaters, located at 209 West Houston Street, and what a body of work it is. The director and his collaborator Maureen Gosling, in a tireless pursuit of rare, beautiful, and otherwise interesting subjects (spanning some four decades and still going strong), have compiled several dozen films, both short and feature length, on topics ranging from the love of garlic to women with dental eccentricities to Latin music traditions in the American southwest. A soft-spoken Blank and the more assertive Gosling will be appearing for several question and answer sessions throughout the week’s programs.

Blank and Werner Herzog

His footage alone is historic. Whether tracking Werner Herzog through the rainforest of the Amazon basin (1982’s Burden of Dreams earned a prestigious Criterion Collection release), exploring drumming and rumba traditions in Cuba, or making enemies in dance halls throughout the deep South for imposing his modest lighting scenario, the results are never anything short of breathtaking. Blank’s camera lyrically shifts focus, poignantly zooms in and out, and takes advantage of all the beautiful soft edges and soft contrast that 16mm has to offer.

Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute (1995)

What has emerged, and will continue to emerge, from the countless hours of this process-intensive filmmaking are a cache of poetic and resonant stories about love, music, good food, and the passion that drives our human culture.

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

This may be the best film you didn’t see this season. Or perhaps it’s the best film you avoided because you remembered the experience of 1997’s Double Team? Either way, it’s been making it’s way from art-house to multiplex in major cities across the country, and surprising audiences at every turn. Van Damme is an absolutely compelling subject in this non-documentary study of his life as a former international superstar. Yes, indulgences and betrayals in Hollywood have screwed up his life, and yes, he’s like a confused kid inside, and yes, he can still kick a cigarette out of a man’s mouth.

JCVD

French breakout director Mabrouk El Mechri offers an ultra-meta story about a robbery involving JCVD, who plays himself, arriving in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s not only an allegory for his knocked around Hollywood experience: the drug use, child custody battle, and his fall from grace in the action industry. It’s a poignant exploration of the public’s relationship to celebrities, the role of violence in Hollywood and its satellite media, and an intelligent comment on victimization in today’s culture. And it also reminds us of how awesome this superstar once was.

director El Mechri and Van Damme

JCVD poses Van Damme as a hero in his European home, rather than the washed up Hollywood by-product as the phone conversations with his American agents would have us believe. Are these crowds of fans cheering a native son, or an action star they once truly believed in, and won’t throw to the wayside like so many multiplex flavors of the month? JCVD certainly takes the time to pose for pictures, sign the autographs, and please the crowds. He’s one of the good guys. El Mechri and this film seem to be saying that despite the exploitative Hollywood factory system, good guys can still rise above the mire and prevail.

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

Kate Churchill is a filmmaker and hard-core yoga practitioner who insists that yoga can transform anyone. She decides to prove it in the making of Enlighten Up! The doc begins with short clips of published yoga instructors who claim to do yoga for varying reasons: it is an amazing workout, it has the power to transform, it is a means of spirituality. None of them can agree how old yoga is, ranging anywhere from 2,000 years to 40,000 years, allegedly.Churchill has the noble aim to find a novice and prove that yoga can transform spiritually and physically (at least one way if not the other), although she herself does not know why, and , reminding us that yoga is a multi-million dollar business in the United States, she remains slightly but refreshingly skeptical herself.

She chooses 29-year old Mark Rosen, a journalist living in New York City, who has recently quit his job. His father is a lawyer with a “big office” and his mother is a spiritual healer. True to his journalistic nature, Mark seeks facts in his yoga quest, as he is not looking to believe anything that cannot be proven to him. This primarily-journalistic and increasingly skeptical approach takes Mark through a variety of different types of yoga practices and everywhere from New York to LA to Hawaii to India. When asked why he is participating in the documentary, Mark affirms that he wants to explore the issue of yoga for both himself and society, although he does not expect to find earth shattering changes.Instead he embarks on a journey of travel, discussion, inquiries, and discovery, as he exposed to different ways of life and beliefs. A self-proclaimed “non-religious/spiritual” person, one yoga guru explains that admitting he knows nothing makes him inherently spiritual. But Mark struggles with his spiritual-less identity, hoping for it all to click. Meeting a large variety of people, one woman believes yoga to be better than sex, giving her an “incredible, unbelievable feeling of goodwill and oath” that is better, she swears, than an orgasm. Mark seems intrigued by this, although he never achieves it himself. Another practitoner promises better sleep, love life, and ways to make money. In his global quest, it seems that each person has different advise. Some claim that yoga is solely spiritual or solely physical, while others declare it is both on the “inside and outside”. As Mark wrestles with the conflicting data, Churchill wants desperately for him to undergo a transformation, and he seems disappointed that he does not live up to her expectations. However, multiple yogis constantly explain that it is a lifelong achievement.We cannot help but enjoy Mark’s honest struggle, as he seems generally laid back about the whole issue. He is charming and seems to get along with those who take yoga with a grain of salt and a sense of humor, and the audience cannot help but appreciate this. The documentary takes a close look into a highly trendy American practice, literally tracing back its roots. It is a cultural exploration, worth taking an hour and a half pause on which to reflect. Although it doesn’t appear that yoga is for everyone, Mark finds it does affect his life. In the end, it seems that experienced yoga teachers, writers, and gurus, alike, that no one really can define yoga. In fact, it is Mark who explains it best: “yoga is different things to different people”.

by Lily Saltzberg, FilmClick staff

Greenwich Village’s IFC Center helped keep the scare alive during my post-Halloween weekend. The indie theater boasts a new 35mm print of Werner Herzog’s classic genre subversion, Nosferatu the Vampyre. IFC consistently includes retrospective programs, classic and rare films that augment an already impressive lineup of new and independent work.

Nosferatu the Vampyre

Nosferatu may not necessarily be among Herzog’s best films, but it’s certainly among the most memorable. It stars a terrifying Klaus Kinski as Dracula, the Romanian vampire of legend, brought to life in Bram Stoker’s immortal tale. In a strange combination of the classic German expressionist style, in particular the original 1922 Nosferatu by F. W. Murnau, contemporary (1970’s) industry horror movies (the dialogue is recorded in English, even), and Herzog’s tendency to inject a profound weirdness into his themes, the film becomes far more complex as it moves along.

By the end, we’re treated to some typical Herzog subversion, as the city is stricken with rats, and the plague they carry with them. Citizens in their final hours dance around the anarchic town square in glee, at one with death and decay. Also of note is Kinski’s natural ease with the role of Dracula. He seems to have been born for this role. The piercing stare and ethereal stillness that characterize many of his Herzog roles in this case come off as truly horrifying.

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

Debate Team accelerates all notions of competition as it explores the bizarre subculture of competitive college debate. This documentary takes us into another universe that, while it takes place on my college campus, is otherwise absolutely foreign. Speaking at 360 words per minute, the debates are impossible to process and understand by anyone who does not have a well-trained ear to keep up.  In 2005, nearly 200 teams converged at San Francisco State to compete in the National Championship. The documentary follows four teams: Michigan State, Harvard, West Georgia, and Berkeley in their quest for the national title.

Exploring the potentially dangerous history of college debate teams that ponder questions of universal magnitude, the debaters find a stimulating allure in the frequent potential of planetary extinction or nuclear war in which most debates end.  As one debater puts it: “you can be talking about how going to the mall will end in universal war”.The students spend about 60-80 hours a week refining their technique, even when not in tournaments. Debaters confess that they enroll in classes that do not require attendance, so that they do not have to worry about showing up to class, instead focusing on the all-consuming realm of debate.  Although the primary debate technique is a blend of speed and endless information, there is a strain of debate that is largely about the very style of debate itself, debating not topics of extinction or global warming, but instead investigate the purpose of debate, which is used as a laboratory for activism instead of to practice the art of argumentation. While teams have varying styles and strengths, all seem to share a common sense of rivalry.Much of the contention between teams centers around Aaron Hardy (U of Michigan) who sacrifices sleep and showering to “cut cards”, the laborious method of collecting research.  He is infamous for his stench that signifies his poor hygiene, symptomatic of his unwavering efforts to win.  Aaron proclaims that he doesn’t “give a shit” who likes him.  Michael Klinger from Harvard is a naturally gifted debator, as opposed to Aaron who has to work at debate and is not as naturally talented.  Harvard has the successful, fun, and popular team, that Aaron refers to as the “Moby Dick of my debate”.  Hardy is such a force in the deate world, that Will Repko, Michigan University coach, refers to him as a “punk” and a “fucker”.  Aaron is further described as one “who comes off has being mean, has a singular focus, which is winning, which is off putting”, starkly opposed to the fun, more sociable Harvard team, led by Klinger.   The ruthless competition accelerates throughout the documentary, a glimpse into a shocking yet guiltily entertaining world of intellectual spats.Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of debate, is a popular metaphor that coaches use to train winners: you have to be able to kill a puppy.   This metaphor captures the ruthless, heartess attitude that debators stirve to achieve. This documentary is equally shocking and entertaining as it takes an unforgettable look at competition at its  most intellectual and yet most vicious state.

Sunday October 19 at 7:15 PM at Roxie Cinema

Tuesday October 21 at 7:15 PM at Roxie Cinema

Sunday November 2 at 9:30 PM at Shattuck Cinema

by Lily Saltzberg, FilmClick staff 

Jake’s Closet (92 mins) takes us through the dark and twisted world of divorce where the terrifying threat of zombies is an easier fear to defeat than reality.We first meet Jake (the film introduces Anthony DeMarco) as he plays in his backyard by himself and finds a dead rabbit. A few scenes later, his reluctant playmate, Dillon (Matthew Josten), convinces him that a zombie that lives under Jake’s house killed the rabbit.  Dillon gives Jake a pamphlet with the FAQ’s about zombies, which encourages both Jake’s fear and proof of the zombie’s existence throughout the film. Although he falls in love with another woman, the audience learns to sympathize with Peter (Sean Bridges; HBO’s Deadwood), Jake’s father, who is  actually invested in his son’s interest and well-being, while his mother, Jules (Brooke Bloom; CSI: Miami), is the epitome of a self-interested, clueless maternal figure.  His mother ceaselessly blames Peter for the divorce, victimizing herself and Jake, and overlooks his well-being to indulge in the instability of her own emotions.  Home from school during the summer, Jake finds himself with too much free time for his imagination to run wild.

The film is shot with impeccable skill and beautiful technique, creating a calm, serene sense of eeriness that accurately captures the plot’s suspenseful tone.  Forced to play mediator between his parents, Jake is alienated from his family as he is ping-ponged from his mother to father, and back again, embodying the very split of the nature of divorce.  He is further alienated by his his overwhelming fear that neither one of his parents can understand.  Although Jake learns to grow up faster than a young child should, making his mother coffee when she cannot get out of bed or delivering the mortgage check from his father to his mother, it is when he finally comes face to face with the zombie that terrorizes him that Jake is truly forced to take action over his own life as he confronts his paralyzing fear. Writer/Director Shelli Ryan says of Jake’s Closet: “with so many marriages ending in divorce, there needs to be a national discussion about the effects of divorce on children, along with the appropriate behaviors from parents and everyone involved in family courts.  Often in a divorce, the children get lost in the battle that everyone claims is being fought on their behalf”. Exploring the fragile issue of divorce, Jake’s Closet tackles the common yet often unexamined  topic through the eyes of a young, only child who understands little of the trauma that he faces on a daily basis.

DVD  release: Tuesday,  October 28, 2008

Trailer:  www.JakesClosetMovie.com      

photos courtesy of Jack Zeeman

by Lily Saltzberg, FilmClick staff 

Consider 2nd Avenue’s haven for avant-garde film projects of all shapes and sizes. Anthology officially made its start in 1970 as the first museum dedicated solely to film as an art form, and hasn’t looked back since. Lithuanian filmmaker and curator Jonas Mekas, along with several others including Stan Brakhage and Peter Kubelka, laid the groundwork for what is today Manhattan’s premier venue for both new and retrospective avant-garde film and video work. Between the 72-seat Maya Deren Theater and the larger (182-seat) Courthouse Theater, Anthology is equipped to project work in formats including 35mm, 16mm, 8mm, super-8, and video.

Song and Solitude

I saw the third and final segment of a week-long Nathaniel Dorsky program entitled The Walking Picture Palace, which featured selections of his work since the 1960’s. He’s a San Francisco Bay Area 16mm artist, whose typical work is meticulously shot, juxtaposed, and projected in a silent testament to the power of this overlooked medium. By far, his work is among the most beautiful 16 I’ve had the pleasure to witness. His talkback after the program was representative of one of Anthology’s missions, constructing a theater in which films “can be seen under the best conditions.” Dorsky apologized for the noises of the ventilation, and the sirens outside, and asked if anyone would like to see the program again.

Abel Ferrara, Venice Film Festival 2005

A week later an unreleased Abel Ferrara film finally opened. Sometimes ecstatic, sometimes chaotic, this exploration into the spectrum of Christian belief won the Grand Special Jury Prize at Venice 2005, yet somehow never gained commercial release in the states. Mary stars Juliette Binoche, Forest Whitaker, Matthew Modine, and many more, and explores the varied ways in which people experience religious catharsis. Co-producer and long time Ferrara friend, collaborator, and production designer, Frank DeCurtis introduced the film and answered questions. “Abel meant to be here,” he said on opening night, “but something came up last minute and he had to fly to Moscow.” Hopefully, with so many fascinating elements, Mary will enjoy more than just a two-week run. Thanks to Anthology Film Archives, though, films like these are allowed to surface, however briefly.

Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait

Another gem that has been scantly recognized here in New York is a formalist experiment from co-directors Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno. Superstar cinematographer Darius Khondji and an army of camera operators follow Réal Madrid star Zinédine Zidane from start to finish during an exciting home football match. Continuous editing allows the game to happen in real time, while the skillful camera work keeps the viewer’s attention solely on the titular star. Many of the elements work to create an unique experience and effectively de-familiarize the match, although the score from hipsters Mogwaï is almost too effective, drawing too much emotional response and not quite enough concept. But Zidane is among this year’s most interesting releases, and without this ambitious art venue and its continuing mission, this film and countless others may go completely unrecognized.

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