Boston Independent Film Festival
The Boston IFF was this past weekend, and I saw 5 films this year. Three were good, two were bad. My new theory is that indie films that star well known actors should be skipped in favor of ones starring nobodies, directed by nobodies or obscure somebodies. That is my new theory. My friend Nancy volunteered (as she has for the past several years) and her account of volunteering makes me want to do so next year too. You work two shifts, then you get to see as many films as you want, and you also get to go to two of the parties for free. Pretty sweet.
Below is a list of what movies I saw. Ballast/Twelve/Encoutners at the End of the World were all really great, and worth seeing. Stuck and The Tracey Fragments were a waste of money and time. I actually left The Tracey Fragments half way into it, because it was stupid and gave me a headache. The highlight of the whole thing was listening to Lance Hammer, director of Ballast, speak. He was so down to earth and kept giving the actors full credit for how great the movie came out. He said he wrote the film around the location (The Mississippi Delta) after having driven through it in the dead of winter. So if you ever see that on DVD, it's worth looking to see if there is any director commentary.
Also, I had really wanted to go see Eleven Minutes, a documentary on Jay McCarroll, who won Project Runway season 1. I found out that he was there at the screening! I am kicking myself. I heard from a friend who was there that he was as entertaining as he was on the show. Grrr. Kicking myself for not seeing it. And there was a documentary called Very Young Girls that I wish I saw, but I will probably just netflix it.
Note: All blurbs below are from the IFF website.
Ballast
Winner of the Best Directing and Best Cinematography Awards for a Narrative Feature at Sundance Film Festival 2008
With this contemplative debut, writer/director Lance Hammer crafts a quietly devastating portrait of family relationships that feels utterly real and complex, free from the pretensions and privilege that have marred many dysfunctional-family indies of the past decade. The three leads-their achievement made even more impressive by the fact that none have acted before-subtly and naturally explore a richly layered emotional landscape that reverberates though the brittle terrain and harsh light of the rural Mississippi Delta winter in which the film is set. Allowing the characters' histories to unfold at an unhurried pace, Hammer offers the viewer an intimate, soundtrack-free atmosphere where silences and gestures speak volumes about sorrow and disconnection.
Quiet, sensitive Lawrence is grappling with the profound loss of his twin brother, who has committed suicide on the property they shared since childhood. Meanwhile, single mother Marlee struggles to make ends meet by scrubbing toilets for a living. Her 12 year-old son, James, innocently laughs at cartoons over his morning cereal one moment before sneaking off to rendezvous with drug dealers the next. Dealing with his powerlessness in the only way he knows how, James soon finds himself overwhelmed and crashes into Lawrence's life, causing old wounds to resurface and forcing the adults in his life to revisit former battlegrounds. Whether these three characters will destroy or heal each other depends upon a delicate navigation of new territory that threatens to shift under their feet at any miscalculated turn.
Stuck
Brandi (Mena Suvari) is a hard-working nursing assistant at a senior citizen facility who pleases her elderly patients and her tough boss alike. Tom (Stephen Rea) is a downtrodden guy whose run of bad luck has forced him onto the streets. When the worlds of these two average people collide in a hit-and-run accident, the circumstances push them far beyond the limits of everyday experience and unleash extraordinary aspects of their personalities: for one of them, this means plumbing the depths of the human will to survive; for the other, it means testing how far someone will go to maintain the appearance of normality.
With this gory thriller, director Stuart Gordon-the mind behind David Mamet's harrowing EDMOND (IFFBoston 2006) and the cult-classic horror films RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND-delivers a new journey into the monstrous psyches of regular people. This film is not for the faint-hearted, as Gordon never flinches from inventing cringe-worthy images of the bodily grotesque that are sure to have the audience squirming and giggling in their seats. Yet what may be the most horrifying aspect of the story-especially considering it is based on a true incident-is what it reveals about the powerlessness of underprivileged groups and the virulent self-centeredness that plagues modern society.
Twelve
This eclectic but unified collection of short stories forms both a love letter both to Boston and an impressive showcase for the area's burgeoning indie filmmaking scene. Executive producer Scott Masterson conceived an experimental collaborative project in which each film is written and directed by a different filmmaker, while all of the artists were required to contribute in some way to every other short in the project. Knowing cohesion would allow the project to shine, he devised a simple but inspired theme: each of the twelve films represents a month of the year and was shot entirely in that month. The directors simply had to capture the spirit of their month however they wished.
The result is a smorgasbord of different genres: comedy, drama, ghost story, crime melodrama, documentary, and even-quite unexpectedly-musical. Together we meet a robot-sport inventor, a young woman obsessed with following a stranger, several beekeepers, and a man who hasn't slept in two years. What holds these variety of visions together is its local flavor: TWELVE guides us from famous sightseeing spots to familiar neighborhoods, beckoning us into Boston's bookstores, bars, and candlepin bowling alleys, leading us along the Charles and down Mass Ave. Part of the fun lies in spotting the different ways each filmmaker incorporates a particular Public Garden tree and in recognizing characters from one film when they pop up in another. It is this combination of individual creation and collaborative inventiveness that makes this film both unique in itself and distinctively Bostonian.
The Tracey Fragments
If Tracey Berkowitz (Ellen Page) is just a self-described "normal 15-year-old girl", how did she wind up sitting on the back of a bus, wearing nothing but a ragged shower curtain, looking for her lost little brother Sonny (who thinks he's a dog)? Well, her life is fraught with dysfunction from her parents, her shrink (the peculiar, androgynous Dr. Heker), her more popular classmates (who ostracize Tracey, cruelly referring to her as "It") and most of all, her obsessive crush Billy Zero, the dreamy, elusive new boy in school.
Adapted from Maureen Medved's novel, the film takes its title literally. It eschews a traditional linear narrative in favor of an audacious sound-and-vision collage with the screen continually split up into fragments. Instead of falling into a set pattern throughout, the fragments (which range from two to twenty at any given moment) appear, scatter and overlap in a seemingly infinite number of configurations. The fluid, jagged editing rhythms result in illusory tricks, often leaving the viewer wondering how or if a certain fragment is related to another. Fortunately, the style and story mesh perfectly; not only do we see many perspectives onscreen simultaneously but we also get a vivid sense how Tracey's reality and fantasy tend to blur (out of nowhere, a heavily stylized credits sequence appears for Tracey's own movie about her life). Featuring an effectively atmospheric score by Broken Social Scene, the film establishes a new creative standard for what one can accomplish with digital video.
Encounters at the End of the World
For the most part, Werner Herzog's films draw upon the same underlying elements: outsider protagonists battling against Nature or society, strange zealots whose unwavering determination and need to conquer ultimately destroys them. These characters are seduced and then destroyed by Nature: Timothy Treadwell is devoured by the creatures he is closest to in GRIZZLY MAN; Aguirre's titular conquistador is descended upon by monkeys and swept away in the current of the river he set out to claim.
Herzog's newest film, ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD, offers a reinterpretation of these themes. As suggested by its title, the film documents Antarctica and its unusual creatures, people, and places. Set at the U.S. operated McMurdo Station on Ross Island, the film visits scientific research facilities and natural landscapes to capture the continent's majestic and otherworldly beauty. While the overwhelming visuals dominate every frame, it is the interactions with the characters that color these encounters. Whether they are zoologists, Antarctic divers, philosophers or plumbers, the same idiosyncratic eccentrics that characterize Herzog's narrative feature films gravitate toward him here.
Though the film is almost eschatological, Herzog narrates and interviews subjects in his typically jocular manner. The scientists and field experts featured are utterly engaging - one can observe how this South Pole commune of real-life Fitzcarraldos and Kaspar Hausers provides an infinitely fascinating study for a director who is obsessed with obsession, the insane, and the concept of the "other." ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD is a perfect meditation on Herzog's haunting themes.
Below is a list of what movies I saw. Ballast/Twelve/Encoutners at the End of the World were all really great, and worth seeing. Stuck and The Tracey Fragments were a waste of money and time. I actually left The Tracey Fragments half way into it, because it was stupid and gave me a headache. The highlight of the whole thing was listening to Lance Hammer, director of Ballast, speak. He was so down to earth and kept giving the actors full credit for how great the movie came out. He said he wrote the film around the location (The Mississippi Delta) after having driven through it in the dead of winter. So if you ever see that on DVD, it's worth looking to see if there is any director commentary.
Also, I had really wanted to go see Eleven Minutes, a documentary on Jay McCarroll, who won Project Runway season 1. I found out that he was there at the screening! I am kicking myself. I heard from a friend who was there that he was as entertaining as he was on the show. Grrr. Kicking myself for not seeing it. And there was a documentary called Very Young Girls that I wish I saw, but I will probably just netflix it.
Note: All blurbs below are from the IFF website.
Ballast
Winner of the Best Directing and Best Cinematography Awards for a Narrative Feature at Sundance Film Festival 2008
With this contemplative debut, writer/director Lance Hammer crafts a quietly devastating portrait of family relationships that feels utterly real and complex, free from the pretensions and privilege that have marred many dysfunctional-family indies of the past decade. The three leads-their achievement made even more impressive by the fact that none have acted before-subtly and naturally explore a richly layered emotional landscape that reverberates though the brittle terrain and harsh light of the rural Mississippi Delta winter in which the film is set. Allowing the characters' histories to unfold at an unhurried pace, Hammer offers the viewer an intimate, soundtrack-free atmosphere where silences and gestures speak volumes about sorrow and disconnection.
Quiet, sensitive Lawrence is grappling with the profound loss of his twin brother, who has committed suicide on the property they shared since childhood. Meanwhile, single mother Marlee struggles to make ends meet by scrubbing toilets for a living. Her 12 year-old son, James, innocently laughs at cartoons over his morning cereal one moment before sneaking off to rendezvous with drug dealers the next. Dealing with his powerlessness in the only way he knows how, James soon finds himself overwhelmed and crashes into Lawrence's life, causing old wounds to resurface and forcing the adults in his life to revisit former battlegrounds. Whether these three characters will destroy or heal each other depends upon a delicate navigation of new territory that threatens to shift under their feet at any miscalculated turn.
Stuck
Brandi (Mena Suvari) is a hard-working nursing assistant at a senior citizen facility who pleases her elderly patients and her tough boss alike. Tom (Stephen Rea) is a downtrodden guy whose run of bad luck has forced him onto the streets. When the worlds of these two average people collide in a hit-and-run accident, the circumstances push them far beyond the limits of everyday experience and unleash extraordinary aspects of their personalities: for one of them, this means plumbing the depths of the human will to survive; for the other, it means testing how far someone will go to maintain the appearance of normality.
With this gory thriller, director Stuart Gordon-the mind behind David Mamet's harrowing EDMOND (IFFBoston 2006) and the cult-classic horror films RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND-delivers a new journey into the monstrous psyches of regular people. This film is not for the faint-hearted, as Gordon never flinches from inventing cringe-worthy images of the bodily grotesque that are sure to have the audience squirming and giggling in their seats. Yet what may be the most horrifying aspect of the story-especially considering it is based on a true incident-is what it reveals about the powerlessness of underprivileged groups and the virulent self-centeredness that plagues modern society.
Twelve
This eclectic but unified collection of short stories forms both a love letter both to Boston and an impressive showcase for the area's burgeoning indie filmmaking scene. Executive producer Scott Masterson conceived an experimental collaborative project in which each film is written and directed by a different filmmaker, while all of the artists were required to contribute in some way to every other short in the project. Knowing cohesion would allow the project to shine, he devised a simple but inspired theme: each of the twelve films represents a month of the year and was shot entirely in that month. The directors simply had to capture the spirit of their month however they wished.
The result is a smorgasbord of different genres: comedy, drama, ghost story, crime melodrama, documentary, and even-quite unexpectedly-musical. Together we meet a robot-sport inventor, a young woman obsessed with following a stranger, several beekeepers, and a man who hasn't slept in two years. What holds these variety of visions together is its local flavor: TWELVE guides us from famous sightseeing spots to familiar neighborhoods, beckoning us into Boston's bookstores, bars, and candlepin bowling alleys, leading us along the Charles and down Mass Ave. Part of the fun lies in spotting the different ways each filmmaker incorporates a particular Public Garden tree and in recognizing characters from one film when they pop up in another. It is this combination of individual creation and collaborative inventiveness that makes this film both unique in itself and distinctively Bostonian.
The Tracey Fragments
If Tracey Berkowitz (Ellen Page) is just a self-described "normal 15-year-old girl", how did she wind up sitting on the back of a bus, wearing nothing but a ragged shower curtain, looking for her lost little brother Sonny (who thinks he's a dog)? Well, her life is fraught with dysfunction from her parents, her shrink (the peculiar, androgynous Dr. Heker), her more popular classmates (who ostracize Tracey, cruelly referring to her as "It") and most of all, her obsessive crush Billy Zero, the dreamy, elusive new boy in school.
Adapted from Maureen Medved's novel, the film takes its title literally. It eschews a traditional linear narrative in favor of an audacious sound-and-vision collage with the screen continually split up into fragments. Instead of falling into a set pattern throughout, the fragments (which range from two to twenty at any given moment) appear, scatter and overlap in a seemingly infinite number of configurations. The fluid, jagged editing rhythms result in illusory tricks, often leaving the viewer wondering how or if a certain fragment is related to another. Fortunately, the style and story mesh perfectly; not only do we see many perspectives onscreen simultaneously but we also get a vivid sense how Tracey's reality and fantasy tend to blur (out of nowhere, a heavily stylized credits sequence appears for Tracey's own movie about her life). Featuring an effectively atmospheric score by Broken Social Scene, the film establishes a new creative standard for what one can accomplish with digital video.
Encounters at the End of the World
For the most part, Werner Herzog's films draw upon the same underlying elements: outsider protagonists battling against Nature or society, strange zealots whose unwavering determination and need to conquer ultimately destroys them. These characters are seduced and then destroyed by Nature: Timothy Treadwell is devoured by the creatures he is closest to in GRIZZLY MAN; Aguirre's titular conquistador is descended upon by monkeys and swept away in the current of the river he set out to claim.
Herzog's newest film, ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD, offers a reinterpretation of these themes. As suggested by its title, the film documents Antarctica and its unusual creatures, people, and places. Set at the U.S. operated McMurdo Station on Ross Island, the film visits scientific research facilities and natural landscapes to capture the continent's majestic and otherworldly beauty. While the overwhelming visuals dominate every frame, it is the interactions with the characters that color these encounters. Whether they are zoologists, Antarctic divers, philosophers or plumbers, the same idiosyncratic eccentrics that characterize Herzog's narrative feature films gravitate toward him here.
Though the film is almost eschatological, Herzog narrates and interviews subjects in his typically jocular manner. The scientists and field experts featured are utterly engaging - one can observe how this South Pole commune of real-life Fitzcarraldos and Kaspar Hausers provides an infinitely fascinating study for a director who is obsessed with obsession, the insane, and the concept of the "other." ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD is a perfect meditation on Herzog's haunting themes.
