(The cast, producers, writer and director of the film Life)
(The moderator during the interview of Pierce Brosnan for the episodic series The Son)
(Pierce Brosnan)Although I didn’t see the first two episodes which were shown, I like the premise of Nobodies produced by Melissa McCarthy, Ben Falcone, Michael McDonald (of Mad TV fame) and starring Hugh Davidson, Tony Hernandez, Larry Dorf, and Rachel Ramras.
I saw some shorts on Tuesday that were quite interesting. They all involved relationships or sexual interactions with people. Every so many years women make a mark on the film industry. They create stories from their point of view or what they would like something to be. That’s what artists do, they create a world that they would like to live in. Sometimes they get payback from whatever has been on their minds.
He Made a Mess - It was an interesting title, but I realized from the opening what was going on. I just didn’t know if he was in a relationship with a woman or a man. The man gets a call from his daughter after having his blood drawn for an HIV test. The he mentions her daddy and that clears up the fact that he is in a relationship with another guy. And this act of infidelity would change everything.
Spring - A young girl wants to be popular and she starts to take selfies of herself, but she doesn’t like the way they look. She gets a friend to help who seems to have an attraction and wants to see her friend naked. Once the friend becomes uncomfortable she asks the girl to leave. We can see the pain on the friends face as this was her only chance to admire and tell her how beautiful she looked.
Melon Rainbow - This is somewhat of a disturbing film for me. Of course it makes you think and that’s what ART does. A young woman works as a cleaning lady for a home for visually impaired people. By night she shows off on camera for those willing to pay. She is offered money to do porn, but she has to send in a video tape of herself with another person. She talks to a friend about it, who then criticizes her about her body looking like that of a teenage boy. We think that the idea is squashed when we see her seduce a young blind guy and learn that she has filmed them having sex. The guilt gets to her and she destroys the camera.
Rubber Heart - Pubic hair or no pubic hair? That was the question presented to the boy friend as she stood in front of him naked. Of course no man is really going to refuse sex based upon that one thing. This was very interesting as it was the first time I recall seeing semen on film outside of porn and Greg Araki’s The Doom Generation.
This is the reason I like film festivals because they will show films that don’t always get to be seen by the public.
I Know Your From Somewhere - This one was right on the money. It was funny and deals with what is happening today with social media becoming so prevalent in the lives of most of us. We don’t give people our time, or presence. Everything is via text or messaging, emails, etc. A woman meets a guy online and they hook up, but she later finds out that the guy has hooked up with who she thought was her best friend. To get back at them she invites them to a restaurant and causes a scene. Unbeknownst to her, someone is video taping the incident and it ends up online ruining the woman’s life. She even tries to change her name after losing her job since no one wants to hire her. This one gets high marks if you can see it I highly recommend it.
Forever Now - This film was interesting as we see a couple presently and in flashbacks of their relationship. They are in the midst of a breakup. This was beautifully done.
Person to Person - This was an interesting film trying to track down who killed a woman’s husband. A young woman (Abbi Jacobson) joins a newspaper and its her first day on the job. Michael Cera plays her boss and tries to teach her the ropes of getting the story. The film has its moments.
Walk with me - A film that follows several Buddhist Monks in their rituals and reuniting with their families. You can learn a lot from watching documentaries. I had no idea their were female Monks.
The Son - Film festivals are changing as this is the first time I’ve known for episodic television shows to show up at a film festival. The first two episodes were shown which are very gripping. It’s interesting to see other nationalities going through similar struggles. This is based on the book of the same name which I want to read. It spans 150 years of a family ( The McCullough’s and The Mexican Indians in Texas.) I don’t know if the entire series is directed by Tom Harper, but the two episodes that were screen were.
A Life In Waves - Directed by Bret Whitcomb This documentary was about Suzanne Ciani, the innovator behind techno sound. You may not know the name, but you have certainly known her work unless of course you don’t watch television. She created the sounds for Atari, Pepsi, Star Wars, the pinball machine Xenon and so many others. She has countless albums of innovative sounds of New Age Music.
I saw a documentary on film maker David Lynch. I had no idea he was an artist outside of film making. In fact he started out as an artist. There were many facets of his life that I could relate to. I was very inspired by this film. There are so many ways I can tell my story. Film brings her through his child hood, up to his college years and ends with his first film which he says is his best, Eraser Head. There are some funny moments and the visuals are really great. There are some art pieces that I wish the camera had lingered on just a little longer. I would have liked to have heard more on some of his other films. I’ve only seen a handful of his films. I never got into Twin Peaks, perhaps because I didn’t see it from the very beginning. I was a fan of the leads in the show, Michael Ontkean and Kyle McLaughlin who had appeared in Blue Velvet.
I hung around to watch the documentary on Mike Brown, it was called Stranger Fruit. It takes its name from the song by Billie Holiday Strange Fruit. The gun has become the metaphor of the new lynching. This films brings to light everything that was left out. Lots of facts and how things get covered up. There’s also a history lesson as to how things were in Missouri. Most people just think of racism being in the south, but it was everywhere. The fear of people taking something that you think is yours… You uproot people and make them your property and when it is no longer just you just want to throw them away. You can’t do that sort of thing. The only way we are going to move forward is to be honest. Even an lie can become the truth, but honesty, there is no denying it.
Jason Pollock gets very emotional when he begins to talk about his film. His message was for everyone to write the department of Justice to reopen this case. Darren Wilson needs to be accountable for his actions. All of the correct information needs to be presented and not hidden from the grand jury.
Mike Brown’s mother just wanted everyone to imagine if it were their child.
If we don’t experience certain things its hard for us to understand what people are going through.
Friday night I was going to see one of the films since my shift ended at 5 PM, but then I was asked to work the last two films. Hot Summer Nights is based upon actual events in a small Cape Cod community. The film written and directed by Elijah Bynum is very interesting. I really had no expectations or which direction the film would be going in. The film stars Timothe’e Chalamet, Maika Monroe, Alex Roe, Maia Mitchell, William Fictner, Thomas Jane and Emory Cohen.
The film is based on actual events from the Director/ Writers life. It’s about a teenage boy who comes to live with his grandmother while on summer break. He encounters, the hot girl and a man who is a small time drug dealer. The teenage boy befriends the drug dealer and encourages him to branch out. He soon finds himself involved with the hot girl who is the drug dealers sister and he had been warned to stay away from her. The film flows quite well with several twists and turns. There are similarities to Boogie Nights which the director was influenced by. Although set in Cape Cod, it was filmed in Atlanta, (the magic of Hollywood).
The second film that I saw was Madre- now this one was very interesting. A foreign language film, (in Spanish, with English subtitles) the film is about a woman raising a teenage son with Autism. She is expecting another child and wonders if she could give birth to another son with Autism. The stress and strain over having to do it all alone since her husband has been working in Japan, she stumbles upon a grocery clerk who seems to be able to handle her son’s outburst. Her husband tells her to hire the lady as a nanny even though she knows in her gut it isn’t the right thing. Soon, the nanny has the son doing things the mother never thought possible. The nanny then starts to put ideas into the mother’s head. She later finds out that the nanny is poisoning her which explains her hallucinations, but some of them are actually real. I don’t want to spoil any more of the film, but it has a surprise ending that I’ve not seen since the film Far North. The film was directed by Aaron Burns and stars Daniela Ramirez, Cristobal Tapia Montt, Aida Jabolin, Matias Bassi, Ignacia Allemand and Nicolas Duran.
This is why I love film festivals. You get to see films you might not normally get to see. When I attended the Seattle International Film Festival, I would always try to see the foreign films and those with bizarre story lines. I recall such films as Jamon, Jamon, Golden Balls, Umbrellas Under The Cherbourg (which incidentally was the inspiration for La La Land), Next Year in Bed by Ten, Different For Girls and Orlando just to name a few.
Life was the last film of SXSW on Saturday night at ZACH and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to see it. Most people knew the stars of the film, Jake Gyllenhal and Ryan Reynolds would be in attendance. Our theatre only seats 420 and there were many staffers as well as volunteers from both SXSW and ZACH that wanted to see the film.
The film started 30 minutes late, but I managed to get in. I sat in our directors booth which is a great place to sit, but this would be my first time seeing a film from this location.
I knew it was a sci fi film, sort of like Alien, but I wasn’t sure how the film would play out. The story begins out in space and the crew, on this lavish space station has just discovered some sort of life form. The only black astronaut/scientist on board begins to mess around with it.
Immediately that running joke in most films of the black character dying first came to mind. The species looked like an amoeba, which I am quite familiar with from a science project I did back in high school. Soon the species began to grow and took a grip of the hand and just wrapped itself around until it was cracking bones. The species at this point was looking more like a starfish with jelly fish type features.
Everything I was learning about the film festival I would bring back to New Orleans to implement some of it into the New Orleans Film Festival.
I’ve noticed this year SXSW had a secret festival. I’m not sure how long they’ve had it, but this was the first time I’ve noticed it.
I wish I could afford to do the film festivals again, but its not in the cards at the moment. Since some of my younger co workers are into film and theatre, I’m becoming inspired to work on some projects that have been tucked away.
Timing is everything for me. Perhaps now is the time to start knocking on those old doors and maybe open some new ones.
Coming soon: Lincoln, Silver Lining Playbook, Django Unchained, ARGO, August: Osage County, Grapes of Wrath- Henry Fonda, Wild River - Montgomery Cliff, Lee Remick
The rating system - (d) it’s okay, if you like the stars (D) worth a look, especially if you are a fan of the stars (DD) Great cinematography and costumes (DDD) good script, cinematography, (DDDD) Not to be missed (DDDDD) I highly recommend this film
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Dlonzo
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