FilmClick

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.

An interview with director Melody Gilbert about the film “Urban Explorers” at DocFest in San Francisco.

See it in HD here.

See it in SD here.

For more info on Docfest go to: www.sfindie.com

Melody Gilbert’s new film Urban Explorers captures a facet of life and adventure that I never really ever considered. I must admit that it was a complete surprise to me, I had no prep and I’d heard nothing about this film when I saw it.

The film takes a look at a new breed of explorer.  These explorers investigate the urban landscape; abandoned places and underground infrastructure throughout the world.  It’s interesting as a piece about something you’ve most likely never heard of before, and something you might not ever have tried, yet.  Often, the explorers are climbing fences and breaking the law to explore, but doing the illegal isn’t their goal.  Many are deeply interested in this history and function of these places beyond the chaos and danger of their current state.  There is a perspective which they garner from the entropy they seek out.  Gilbert takes a voyeuristic look at their mini-culture, in which they often meet other urban explorers for foreign adventures after connecting on the internet.  There’s even a convention.

This film is engrossing and doesn’t try hard to be anything but a film about some people with an unique hobby.

See Urban Explorers this weekend in San Francisco at DocFest:

Fri. Oct 24 2008, 7:15 pm at Roxie Cinema
Sun. Oct 26 2008, 12:30 pm at Roxie Cinema

by Christopher Potter, FilmClick.com

For more info, check out http://www.sfindie.com