AIFF 2012: 16 Months In A Brooks Range Cabin - Tom Irons' Arctic Son

Tom was waiting to see Rousseau's Children when I met him.  His (and Jean Aspen's) film, Arctic Son, is about his family's 16 months in the Brooks Range. 




Arctic Son plays today (SUNDAY, DEC 2) at 8pm at the Alaska Experience Theater. And again next Saturday, Dec. 8, at 3:30pm at Out North.

AIFF 2012: Movie Overdose

Started at 11am downtown to see Native Tongue - four short films.  I had to take J to the airport by 1pm so it was iffy if we were going to see the fourth film.  They started about 20 minutes late and the fourth one - Lapse - didn't start.  We decided not to wait - it was 12:30 already and no movie is more important than getting my wife to the airport on time when I'm not going to see her for a week.

Mossadegh was very good.  I've posted on this at length, before I saw it.  I'm not going to give detailed reviews here because I saw way too much, my brain is fried, and I need time to let it digest.  But I do think Calcutta Taxi was the best of the three we saw this morning.  It told several different stories and neatly came back to the same critical scene and each time we had a new layer of understanding.  A very complex trick which gave the film  significantly more content than and richness than one would expect from a 20+ minute film.  Suddenly Zinat . . . held up well in my second viewing.  A powerful film.

Off to the airport, stopped for bananas, then home for lunch, then back downtown to see Confine.   I kept thinking, in the tiny Alaska Experience small theater, that this was not the best use of my time.  It was a very well made movie, but the story was not one I wanted to be watching - a model who had confined herself to her luxurious apartment in London after a disfiguring car crash, now a hostage to a psychotic woman who's taken over her flat.  Blood, gun, knives, canes.  But I'm also beginning to believe that this film is going to stay in my brain.

I was in a daze after that and ended up across the hall for the Snow Dance documentary Rousseau's Children about Yul and Ruth Kilcher's children.  A Swiss team filmed the first generation - now in their 50's to 70 - who grew up in their Swiss father's dream of raising them in Rousseau's  state of nature.  In this case Homer.  I've heard about this family since we got to Anchorage 35 years ago and met Yule once or twice, so it was interesting, but not great.

Waiting for Rousseau's Children I met Tom Irons the director of Arctic Son and did a video of our short chat.

Then back to the small theater to see People of a Feather.  Powerful.  Island in Hudson Bay people whose lives, historically depended on the eider duck.  Lots of great shots of the ducks, seal hunting, and the people who depend on these animals and the ice.  A global warming threat I never knew about was a factor in their lives.  Hydroelectric dams release fresh water into the oceans out of the normal season causing serious problems with the amount of ice, quality of ice, and the animals' ability to survive.

Then home for a quick dinner, phone call from my wife on the ferry to Bainbridge, and then off to Bear Tooth for Lad: A Yorkshire Story.  A very satisfying evening - maybe more when I've had time to reflect.

I stayed for the 10 o'clock shorts because one of the shorts in competition wasin the group, but it took forever for Cockatoo to be played.  But I did enjoy many of the shorts.  I'd mention That Which Once Was as particularly catching my attention.  The story takes place in 2032 at an orphanage for global warming refugee children and uses ice as a fitting icon for the title phrase.  The opening balloons took too long for me, but after that is was just right.  You can see the whole film at the link.

I also learned that Lapse was never shown.   Technical problem.  Bummer.

Seeing so many different kinds of films in one day forces my brain into trying to figure out how to distinguish different types of films and ways to evaluate them.  I'm sure that will perculate into a post before too long.

No idea what to tell people for Sunday, except look at the schedule and have fun. 

AIFF 2012: Dan Hartley On His Film Lad: A Yorkshire Story

I caught Dan after Deadfall in the Bear Tooth theater Friday night.  It shows there tonight (Saturday) at 8pm.  In the video he explains the source of the story and tells us a little about his life before becoming a film maker.
His film Lad: A Yorkshire Story is in competition in the feature catogory.
We were in front of the theater and they were setting up for musicians.  As we were talking they turned off their lights which you'll see at the end.


It plays a second time Saturday, Dec. 8, at 6:30 at the Alaska Experience Theater.

AIFF 2012: Vikram Dasgupta Talks About Calcutta Taxi

Gilles Guerraz, director of Lapse

I somehow latched onto the "Native Tongue" program and communicated with two of the four film makers.  There's a post with an overview of all four films.  And one with director Roozbeh Dadvand's (Mossadegh) email interview.  And I chatted with Gilles Guerraz* (Lapse)via Skype.  But I hadn't gotten hold of Calcutta Taxi's director and assumed it he wasn't coming.  But there he was.

They are all playing together

Saturday Morning at 

11 am 

at the Alaska Experience Theater.

And here's Vikram last night after Deadfall.  He was not excited about how close the camera was and when we tried to do it again at a quieter spot it wasn't as natural and he said ok.  He is right about the lighting.   But you get a sense of Vikram's energy and charm and the after film crowd at the Bear Tooth last night.  So, this is dedicated to his mom and his wife. 

*I have a lot of video of my chat with Gilles Guerraz. Too much video. I'll try to edit it and post a short bit of it before the film shows again next week.

AIFF 2012: Deadfall Better Than I Expected

I'm not the official blogger of the festival.  That allows me to say what I think without worrying about it reflecting on the festival itself.  And let me say the festival organizers have been kind to me, helped me out, and even given me a pass. I think it's a good thing that we have a festival and for that reason want to encourage people to see as many films as possible.  And while I'd rather focus on what I like, pass over the glitches,  my main obligation is to the audience, not to the festival. So sometimes I have to give some friendly, and I hope constructive, criticism.

People waiting for things to start at the Bear Tooth

There was a good crowd at the Bear Tooth tonight for Deadfall.  But at 7:50pm people were still  waiting to be let in out of the cold. By 8:15 people were in the theater, but there was still a long line at the pub.   You know they won't start the movie until everyone has had a chance to get their beer and wine.

The guy who introduced the Aurora film was appropriately respectful to the audience and worded his thanks politely and as though he'd given it some thought.  (I couldn't find reference to him or the film in the program. [12/6 - Met him Thursday night.  He's Todd Salat and the film is Catching Alaska's Light Waves and he didn't do the music.]) The film's shots of the aurora were beautiful.  The music was the  typical classical music that often accompanies nature films and I was thinking some Yupik drumming might have been a nice touch instead. 

It's important to acknowledge sponsors and volunteers and to give a nod to the film makers in the audience.  And I know the people running the festival are working 26 hours a day right now. But a friend I talked to after the film said he left his house at 8:05pm  figuring the film would start late and when he got into the theater they were still doing introductions..  For all the work that was put into the festival, it would be nice to keep the opening remarks short and gracious and start the movie within ten minutes of the scheduled time.  Or maybe the music and dancer, who played to a mostly empty house after the film while everyone else was in the lobby eating the big spread of pizza and desserts, should have been on stage before the film. 

Film Programmer Josh Lowman in Bear Tooth lobby

Deadfall itself was better than I expected.  I'm not into bloody chase films, triple flip car crashes, gratuitous shooting, etc.  Last year I put up with a lot in one late night film, but finally walked out when they started cutting off someone's ear.

But Deadfall turned out better than I expected.  There were lots of little things that worked -   scenes where I just enjoyed watching how the camera framed a face or Sissy Spacek nicely bringing her character to life.

As one film maker said afterward, it was as though they couldn't figure out which film they wanted to make.  The prison movie?  The boxing movie?  The caper movie?  The love story? The heist movie?  A comedy?  And the villain's Thanksgiving dinner guest role just didn't work for me.  Yes, bad guys often do have good sides, but I didn't believe his Thanksgiving dinner guest persona.  And while the script made sure the audience knew why Eric Bana didn't bleed to death from his missing finger,  I was thinking, while he was flying across the landscape on a stolen snowmachine in a blizzard without gloves, that frostbite would have been a much more serious concern.

The Quick Freeze Prompts were announced: Sunrise Duct tape Hostess

And what does it means when the crowd laughs at the seemingly serious sex scene?  Was it because the whole act started and ended in what felt like less than a minute?

It's late and I don't have enough to time to think this through.  This was quite different and a lot less satisfying than what we're used to for opening films at this festival.  And I know I'm being contradictory here because I complained in the past about using films in competition to open the festival and here they didn't do that. And I'm complaining again.

And making a film called Deadfall is like tempting critics to add an 'r' and switching out the 'a' for a 'u'.  But it wasn't that bad.  It wasn't a waste of my time.  But now that I'm focused here on the title, I'm not sure what it means in relation to the movie. 


Got to get ready for a busy day tomorrow. 

AIFF2012: Roozbeh Dadvand's Mossadegh Takes a Different Direction from the Movie Argo

The film Argo begins with Mohammad Mossadegh being the first democratically elected prime minister of Iran in 1953, soon to be overthrown by a CIA backed coup.  It then fasts forward to the 1979 takeover of the US embassy.

Mossadegh - screenshot from Mossadegh.com

Roozbeh Dadvand's Mossadegh takes a different direction.  It visits Mossadegh six years after the coup when he's in house arrest and ill and is offered help from an overseas doctor.

I emailed some questions to the director and I got a long, thoughtful response that adds to our understanding of the history in the film, his personal interest in it, and also the process of making the film.  


His email had, first, direct answers to my questions and then he added at the end some answers he'd sent to  Reorient Magazine, which bills itself as a Middle Eastern arts e-magazine.  Their reviewer liked the film.  (Their main page has a lot of interesting looking stories that certainly give a contrasting view to what our media tell us about the Middle East.)

By the way, that Saturday morning showing at 11 at Alaska Experience Theater has three of the shorts that are in competition - Mossadegh, Calcutta Taxi, and Lapse.  (In competition means the judges chose them as the best and in competition to win the festival's golden oosik awards.)

So here is the email interview with Roozbeh Dadvand director of Mossadegh.  I'm adding the questions and answers he sent to Reorient at the bottom.  There's a lot of interesting information there.

I'm probably spending way too much time on one 24 minute film I haven't even seen, but it's won a lot of awards at other film festivals, and, well, I can't cover everything, so I get to pick what I want to cover.  Most important, Roozbeh responded with thorough and interesting answers. 


The Interview

Steve:    Mossadegh follows up what happened to Iran's democratically elected leader after the 1953 CIA directed coup.  Is this based on a what actually happened or complete fiction?  If true, how did the story come to light?

Roozbeh Dadvand:   The story of the film is fiction, but based on historical circumstances. An American physician never in fact came to treat Mossadegh at his home. It is true that following the 1953 coup, Prime Minister Mossadegh was placed in jail for 3 years and then in house arrest for the rest of his life until his death in 1967. It is also true that he suffered throughout his life from mysterious ailments that his son, a doctor, could not satisfactorily diagnose (this link provides a good summary of his problems: http://www.mohammadmossadegh.com/biography/medical-history/). In real life, Mossadegh's family had sought permission from the Shah of Iran to have a specialist come and treat him. The Shah gave permission for a specialist from abroad to come but Mossadegh only wanted a domestic specialist from Iran. When Mossadegh heard that the Shah was allowing a physician from abroad to come treat him, he refused. My source for this is from Farhad Diba's biography of Mossadegh. I used those circumstances as a jumping off point in developing the story for this film. 

Given that this was a student thesis project at USC, [University of Southern California]  it was particularly challenging and perhaps overambitious to do a short film about Mossadegh. I almost canceled the project. It is a big subject that is challenging to condense in a short format. Also given that it is a period piece, I felt that the only type of story that could be effective and even film-able within the scope and budget of a student film would be one that focused on Mossadegh in house arrest. I found a story that dealt with him imprisoned to be poetic. At the same time, a house arrest story allows you to limit locations and to keep the film small enough in scale to actually film.

Steve:   This seems to be a film that shows a different direction that Argo could have gone. How has the release of Argo affected your film, if at all?

Roozbeh Dadvand: I actually haven't seen Argo yet. Did you like it? I will be seeing it soon this week! I don't think Argo has affected my film too much, mainly because of timing. I researched Mossadegh for a few years before writing the script (from 2005-2007). In 2007 I went to Iran and traveled to Mossadegh's actual home where he was imprisoned. It's about 50 miles northwest of Tehran. After that, I developed the script from 2007-2008 and filmed the project over 2 weeks in California in December 2008. It was edited, sound designed and scored over the next year and a half. Student films at USC typically take so long for 2 reasons: Each process such as editing or sound design takes at least a semester or more to complete. Also, other students are required to fill all the other main roles in the crew. So for example, my editors were fellow students, my sound department heads were other students, the producers, the cinematographer, and the film composer were all USC film students. No one is paid or anything. Those are part of the rules. So work is done on it when other students find time outside of class to do it. The film premiered at the Raindance Film Festival in London in October 2011 and has been on its festival run since then. So it has been released out into the festival circuit well before Argo.

But I hope that Argo has overall increased attention towards films that deal with Iran; and if it makes people more interested to see Mossadegh, then I will happily take that.

Steve:    I notice that you have a couple of Voice of America videos and something called "Jebhemelli."  Playing with internet translations it seems to be something like National (or Popular) Battlefront (or warfront), but I can't figure out what kind of station it is.  It looks like it might be Persians outside of Iran.  Did VoA
pick this up after it was completed or did they help with the financing?  (I see it
was a student thesis project, but funding would have been helpful I'm sure.)

Roozbeh Dadvand: Unfortunately the Voice of America videos are not translated. I should work on that. The problem is that my Farsi isn't at a good enough level to actually do the translation. I can only speak it conversationally. My reading ability is pretty poor (elementary school level). Voice of America did not pick it up or help with financing. They were only aware of the film after it was completed and they requested an interview of me and my actor who played Mossadegh. Voice of America is interested in broadcasting the film but they will have to wait until I finish screening at festivals. I also do have a Canadian based distributor that is picking up the film to broadcast on tv and on video on demand services over the next couple years.

I would have loved funding from them but alas that did not happen. Honestly I had a lot of donations and breaks on this film. For example, USC has a SAG Waiver with the Screen Actors Guild that basically says no actors we use have to be paid. So an actor working on a USC film gets only copy and credit. Film schools typically do this to give students a level playing field to be able to cast and actually work with actors. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to afford it. And actors that work on student films do so to receive reel material, to work on their acting chops and to establish connections. Because they are short films, we don't take too much of their time so it seems to be a pretty fair system. I was very lucky to have the actors I got. I did have a union casting director (Mark Tillman, CSA) that was willing to work on my project to help cast my film. I felt that having him was a tremendous help i.e. I don't think I would've gotten the quality of actors I did without him.

The film was shot on the RED Camera (which professional feature films shoot on nowadays). I had friends that owned a package that donated it to me. The film was edited on my editor's personal computer. Sound was designed on my sound editor's personal computer. We're all friends so I had a lot of breaks throughout the process. So overall the movie looks more expensive than it actually turned out to be. I'm not sure I could have actually afforded to make this film with the production value it has without those benefits. But there were costs in the production associated with make-up, food, travel to certain locations.

I can confirm that jebhe-melli is not an organization based in Iran. It would be illegal there. In America and Europe, there are a variety of Iranian groups that are against the current regime in Iran. Jebhe-melli is one of them and they take their name from the Jebhe-Melli (National Front) party of the 1950s in Iran. You probably have read this already: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Front_%28Iran%29. In the 1950s in Iran there were a variety of factions and different political parties spanning the left-right political spectrum. Most or all of them went underground following the regime change in 1979 and have since sprang up in name only on different websites that are run in Europe or North America by Iranian exiles living abroad. None of those old parties are actually politically active in as far as they have no ability to incite change in Iran. They only have news sites with a certain ideological flavor based on what the political party stood for decades ago.  [UPDATE:  Roozbeh sent a clarification so I replaced the original paragraph with this clarification.]

Steve (in follow up email):  I'm just curious who is behind this website?  

Roozbeh Dadvant (in follow up):  In regards to jebhemelli, my interviewer there was Bijan Mehr. He sought me out and he's part of jminews.com (which i assume stands for jebhe-melli-iran news i.e. the national front of Iran). That site is probably associated with jebhemelli.info as well but I am not sure. I don't know if he is the founder of the site or if he runs it but he is a contributor. He did a phone interview with me (he's in Boston) and he posted a VOA interview about my film on jmi (http://www.jminews.com/news/fa/?mi=35&ni=7182)

Steve:   Is anyone from the film going to be at the Anchorage festival?

Roozbeh Dadvand:  Unfortunately, no one will be attending the Anchorage Film Festival. My actors and fellow crew members are all working. I really would love to but film festivals typically don't have the budgets to bring short filmmakers over. Because I work in Los Angeles, I just can't schedule a trip up. It's disappointing because Anchorage is really quite beautiful. I was in Anchorage and in Kenai 2 years ago  filming for Alaska State Troopers on the National Geographic Channel. Alaska is really quite lovely. To be able to go for a screening of my short would be awesome. But unfortunately it is not possible.

Here's the official trailer and the extended answers are below that.






The Extended Answers that Roozbeh added to his response:

1. Why did you decide to produce a film about Mossadegh? What is it about him that caught your attention?

I was born and raised in the United States and had never even heard the name Mossadegh until 2003 when I read Stephen Kinzer’s All The Shah’s Men, which is one of the more well-known biographies on Mossadegh and the inner workings of the 1953 CIA coup.

[For those not familiar with the history, Stephen Kinzer gives a very concise interview about Mossadegh and the greater context surrounding his overthrow on NPR at the following link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1357781 ] In short, Iran had existed under quasi-imperial British rule for several decades before 1953 during which Britain would refine Iranian oil and take much more than their fair share of profits. In order to maintain these benefits, Britain held strong influence over Iran’s political system, namely over the Shah of Iran and by manipulating the election of Parliamentary members that would benefit their policy.

When Mossadegh rose to political power as Prime Minister, he saw that a nation such as Iran could not truly evolve democratically when another country (Britain) exercised such influence over its own national resources and politics. He therefore nationalized Iranian oil and expelled British oil workers and embassy staff from the country. In response, Britain brought Iran’s economy to a standstill by preventing the country from exporting oil and took advantage of cold war communist fears to manipulate the American CIA into overthrowing Mossadegh, arguing falsely that Mossadegh had Communist sympathies and will leave Iran and its oil vulnerable to a Russian takeover. Following his overthrow, Mossadegh was placed in prison for 3 years and then in house arrest for the rest of his life; the Shah of Iran became more powerful and developed into a dictator up until his downfall in 1979 and Iranian oil ended up split into a consortium among U.S. and European powers.

The more I read about Mossadegh, the more I was both inspired by his life and struck by the tragedy of his political downfall in terms of what it meant for the prospects of democratic evolution in Iran. Mossadegh represented the last true hope for democratic nation building in Iran. In all my research on him, including negative propaganda against him, he was one of the very few political leaders of the last century that did not have a corrupt bone in his body. As Prime Minister, he allowed for political groups to speak out against him, he never censored these organizations or had them arrested or tortured. He lived and governed by his democratic ideals, arguably to a fault at the expense of the consolidation of his own power. It is for such reasons that he continues to be revered as a national hero today by many.

Personally, the more I read about Mossadegh, the more I felt connected to my own cultural heritage as an Iranian American. A common reason many Iranians of my generation are growing up outside of Iran is because their parents left the country during the tumult of the 1979 Revolution. Though one cannot say for sure, had Mossadegh been able to remain in power, it is possible that the course of Iranian history may have changed for the better and that many Iranians who have left the country in search of better opportunity may have instead stayed content with life in Iran. As a member of a growing Iranian diaspora, I therefore feel personally connected to the history and consequences of Mossadegh’s story.  

Ultimately it is the inspiration of his life and the tragic poetry of his downfall that motivated me to make a film about him. I was in film school at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and decided to make my thesis film about him. Because I never grew up in Iran, especially during those times, I spent 2-3 years just researching Mossadegh’s life in order to feel confident enough to cinematically express my vision of him. I read several books on him and on that era in Iran’s history from both American, European and Iranian scholars. I traveled to Iran in 2007 and met with some of his family members, met with local scholars and visited Mossadegh’s village home in Ahmad Abad where he lived the rest of his days in house arrest.

2. Was the American doctor an actual person, or was he fictional? (Excuse my ignorance if he was real)

The American doctor was a fictional character. The film is a historical fiction drama.

I did draw heavily from true situations, however. It is true that Mossadegh was in house arrest following the coup. He also did suffer from a variety of physical ailments throughout his life, some of which were perplexing and never had a fully accurate diagnosis. Dr. Gholam-Hossein Mossadegh—Mossadegh’s son and physician—sought many times to have a specialist examine Mossadegh during his time in house arrest, only to have each request rejected by the Shah of Iran. The Shah, however, did eventually give permission to the Mossadegh family to have a specialist examine him on the condition that the physician come from abroad. Mossadegh, however, rejected this because he only wanted to see an Iranian specialist from within Iran. At the time, his explanation was that he did not want any extra expense spent on his behalf to bring in a foreign doctor. One could speculate though that he may also have been suspicious of the Shah’s offer for only a foreign physician to treat him.

From those true circumstances, I took artistic license and came up with a fictional scenario in which Mossadegh has an encounter with an American physician. Given that Mossadegh was overthrown by American intelligence forces in 1953, I intended his interaction with the American doctor to explore issues of trust between the two men and to symbolize the distrust between the two nations.

Ultimately, the story I developed was meant to be an entertaining vehicle with which to introduce Mossadegh’s life, character and legacy both to viewers familiar with him and to viewers i.e. Westerners that have never heard of him. Accomplishing these objectives in a short student film with limited budget and resources was the biggest challenge. To condense the detail and complexity of Mossadegh’s life and overthrow into a 20 minute film is nearly impossible. After much thought, I settled on focusing on his time in house arrest. I felt that his imprisonment was very poetic and tragic to me because it represented the deferred dream of Iranian democracy. Also, by focusing on his time in house arrest, it became feasible to make a dramatized film with a limited budget. I didn’t have to travel exceedingly far or find too many locations. I was also able to limit the number of characters in the film.

3. Do you think Mossadegh is still relevant today? If so, why?

I think Mossadegh is certainly relevant today. On one level he is relevant because his overthrow is a prime example of how meddling in a foreign government can reap terrible consequences in a region even several decades later. The 1953 coup against Mossadegh was the first U.S. overthrow of a foreign government. U.S. presence in the Middle East was very much consolidated with Mossadegh’s overthrow. Following the coup, the U.S. really cemented themselves as a world player, having taken over that title from England at the end of World War II. But there are consequences because of that. For example, the U.S. support of a dictator in the Shah of Iran ultimately led to the 1979 Revolution and to a worse government coming to power; and this last decade we can further see the consequences of U.S. involvement in both Iran and the greater region. So on one level, Mossadegh’s overthrow represents a lesson into the consequences that can arise when you support a government at the expense of human rights.

On another more positive level, Mossadegh remains relevant because his life and ideals still live on in people. In Iranian political history, he is essentially a legend. A hero. A majority of the population in the Middle East now is below the age of 30. The region is very young. And with the movements that have happened the last few years in Iran, Egypt, Syria, Libya, etc., we see the strong desire of these young populations to have a say in the direction their country takes in the future. It is especially during these times that we should remember and be inspired by the virtues of the heroes of the past.

AIFF 2012: Take Saturday Morning Tour to Iran, India (Calcutta), and France

You can book a package tour to many exotic places around the world. For $2500 - $20,000 plus airfare, you will be shown the sights of anywhere in the world. Or, for $8, you can go to the Alaska Experience Theater at 11 am and go on four intimate trips - about 20 minutes each. And remember, exotic just means some place you've never been. After all, most people in the world think that Alaska is exotic.

Really, these four films will take you on adventures that are much better than staying home cleaning the bathroom or wasting even more time on the internet. (Don't deny it.  After all, you're here.  Justify your time here by going to a movie.) And when the program is done there's still time to see if the ski trails are decent enough to use. And unlike the many package tours that will cost you thousands of dollars, this short tour will take you inside the lives of people you would never meet on a tour.

SATURDAY, DEC. 1, 2012  

11AM  

ALASKA EXPERIENCE THEATER, 4th&C

The tour goes again on SUNDAY DEC. 9, 2012 11:15 AM.  Same location.  


 Mossadegh

First the tour will take you to Iran, 1959. If you saw Argo, you saw a brief overview of the CIA overthrow of the first democratically elected leader in Iran - Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. Six years later, under house arrest, he's ill. An American doctor comes to care for him. Is this his assassin? Directed by a USC film student of Iranian descent, the film offers an immigrant's view of the events. And Voice of America has a couple of interviews, broadcast in Farsi (I assume) about the film.  Check their website.

Calcutta Taxi

Next go wildly through Calcutta trying to find the taxi that went off with your luggage.  (The trailer hints this is just a metaphor for seeking much bigger things.)  Oh yes, there are demonstrations going on at the same time.  I can't find too much about this one.  It looks like the film maker is an Indian-Canadian.  Based on the trailer, you'll definitely go places you'd never go as a tourist.  To get ready, here's a deleted scene they have on the website of a street vendor making Indian cha.   India with no visa and no shots.

Naagahaan, Zinat… (Suddenly, Zinat…)

Back to Iran.  Today.  The Anchorage audience will feel at home in Teheran as the camera briefly catches the snow covered mountains surrounding Iran's capital.  I think most people will also be suprised at how much the Iranian middle class life compares to ours, at least in terms of consumer goods.  Not as ostentatious, but not so different.  A poor drug addict visits a middle class mother to claim the baby she gave up for adoption seven or eight years ago.  This film was made, from what I can tell, in Iran, by Iranians.  Americans should see more films from Iran so they can realize we have way more in common than not.  There's an interview with the film maker here and the whole fim itself is posted. 

Lapse

Finally, we head to Paris.  A thriller it looks like.  You can see Gilles Guerraz, the film maker's, pitch (with English subtitles) at what appears to be a French version of Kickstarter.  The trailer shows a beautiful woman disappearing around corners and into alleys and a man who doesn't remember something important, except that he has a feeling for this woman he keeps seeing.



When was the last time you got to Teheran?  Or Calcutta?  Or Paris?  (I think Lapse was shot in Paris, but that's just a guess.)  Well, do them all next Saturday (Dec. 1)  morning at 11 am at the Alaska Experience Theater.  The whole package for just $8.  There's a second tour a week later Sunday, Dec. 8. 

Here's the Film Festival link to this group of films titled "Native Tongue."   Yes, it's true, if you don't speak Farsi or French or Bengali you'll have to read subtitles, though the first two have some English spoken.  It's the price you have to pay to see grown up films that weren't made in the US.  (Well, the first one was. All this categorization gets confusing.)

AIFF 2012: Mormon Missionaries Fall In Love, or . . .

"East High student returns to Anchorage as an actor in Anchorage International Film Festival film, or . . ."

"Sometimes Skype really sucks."

These were all potential titles for this post.  

I got an email from Harold Phillips saying he was in "The Falls" which would be showing at the Anchorage International Film Festival  

Tuesday Dec. 4 at the Bear Tooth at 8pm

and he and one of the two main characters would be coming to the festival if I was interested in talking to them.

Local Boy Returns Triumphant is a great story line.  So we arranged to do a Skype interview.

Bad Skype connection

This was one of the worst skype connections I can remember.   Here's a screenshot.  This wasn't even the worst part.  The audio kept going in and out.  We tried recalling several times with only marginal improvements. 





They even moved to another room, which was a little better, but the audio and video were not synched making conversation difficult. 


Harold Phillips, one of the actors (not one of the two missionaries), moved to Anchorage when his father was transferred to Ft. Rich.  He's a 1989 East High grad and when his father was transferred away, he liked Anchorage enough that he decided to stay on his own,  spending two years in the UAA Theater Department  before going off to finish his degree in Bellingham, Washington.  He eventually ended up in Portland, following a woman, whom he eventually married.

While he does some part time work, he sees himself as an actor and gets most of his income through acting.  He hasn’t been to Anchorage in five years and is looking foward to the trip and to seeing friends and spending some time over at the Theater Arts building at UAA the day after the Tuesday night screening. 



Jon Garcia graduated from film school at Portland State University in 2009.  He was already working on this film at the time.  When I asked him what parts of film making he liked the most and least, he quickly responded, “I like the writing.”  He actually started out as a singer/songwriter and got involved in a movie, and one thing led to another.  He really couldn’t think of any part he didn’t like.  The film was made on a tiny budget - $7,000 I think for the filming and then some more for post production work which took him two years. 


This is a movie about two Mormon missionaries on a mission in Eastern Oregon who fall in love, with each other.  Jon’s not Mormon.  And the Mormon setting just sort of happened as he was working on the script.  It wasn't what he started out to do.  He spent about six months intensively researching the Mormon church, including talks with some gay ex-Mormons whose stories provided some of the scenes in the movie.

 The video  improved a bit in another room, but not the audio

He’s hoping Anchorage Mormons come to the showing.  He and Harold emphasized that it was not offensive.  Mormons who have seen the film have told them that, and that it rings true.  Though in a YouTube interview he says that people have pointed out some things that wouldn’t have happened - like someone working without a partner.  That, he said, had more to do with lack of funds for another actor.

Of course, anyone can be offended by something that seems innocuous to others.   I understood that most of the Mormons who’ve attended showings of the film were lapsed Mormons including some who discovered their sexuality in their missions like the two main characters.  That group, apparently, have given Jon lots of positive feedback.  I’m sure for many devout Mormons, having this subject matter in a movie, no matter how well intentioned, will be offensive.

On the other hand, I also understand that lots of Mormons have gone to see the Broadway musical, "The Book of Mormon" and The Salt Lake Tribune's headline on its review was

'Book of Mormon' musical called surprisingly sweet

They acknoweldged that

"Many believers — especially older viewers or those easily offended — would see it as a blasphemous assault on scriptures . . .

"[b]ut the satire and tone were not as hostile as many Mormons feared . . .

 "I was expecting to be offended," said Anne Christensen, a 22-year-old LDS New Yorker, "but was pleasantly surprised by how incredibly sweet it was."

"Her mother, Janet Christensen, added: "It's not G-rated, but they treated us with affection. And they did their homework."

After watching the trailer for "The Falls", seeing a 20 minute YouTube interview with director Jon Garcia, and talking to him and Harold tonight via Skype, I suspect they've gone for the sweet too, but without the South Park sarcasm and profanity. (The Broadway musical was done by the folks who bring you South Park.)

So Anchorage Mormons should feel ok about attending "The Falls" here Tuesday, Dec. 6.[4]  [That's only a week from Tuesday.] Since it's part of the film festival's Gayla program, the gay community is likely to be there too.  It would be cool to have a discussion of the film afterward with the two different groups represented in the audience.  It's not an easy topic for many, but one that Anchorage folk across different political persuasions need to discuss. 

And East High grads - one of your alumni is in the film and will be there.  So you might want to cheer him.  Not sure the UAA theater students will have much time as they get ready to finals that week, but think of it as a good study break. 

Harold is definitely planning to be here.  Unfortunately the actor who was originally planning to come can't do it.  So now Jon is trying to get here as well, so there should be discussion with the film maker(s) after the showing.

People who know Mormons might want to let them know about the film. 

Here's the trailer.



The Falls trailer 2 from Jon Garcia on Vimeo.

Note, this film was invited to be the feature for the Gayla program and is not in competition.  

AIFF 2012: Wolves, Cuba, Skiers, Dislecksia - Some Documentary Topics Coming To AIFF 2012

The Anchorage International Film Festival comes to Anchorage in less than a month - Nov. 30, 2012 is the opening night.   Lots of films come each year and probably most people in Anchorage have no idea that a film on a topic or location of interest will be playing.  So I'm trying to alert people to some of the many topics coming.  I've already done an overview of the feature films.  This one looks at the documentaries.  I'm sure there are some topics for everyone.

I'd note here that the makers and stars of the 2009 AIFF Audience Award winning Paddle To Seattle (the tongue-in-cheek documentary of their kayak trip from Skagway to Seattle) will be back with their adventure traveling the Ganges River in India, though the title - Go Ganges - doesn't have the cache of Paddle to Seattle.

So here's a long table.  Scan through the topics in the left hand column.  Remember I haven't seen the films, I'm just pulling out topics based on the descriptions.  Then mark the ones you'd like to see and check the Anchorage International Film Festival website to see when they will show.  They range in length from 5 minutes (Solar Roadways) to 113 minutes (YERT - Your Environmental Road Trip).  The shorter ones will be grouped together and the longer ones will show by themselves.  The schedules aren't up yet.

Topics	Film	Other
Inuit People - Hudson Bay	‡People of the Feather
Subsistence	‡People of the Feather
Eider Duck	‡People of the Feather
Yukon River	River
Wolves	Wolves Unleashed
Siberia	Wolves Unleashed
Zaire/Congo	Back to Mandima
Cuba	Unfinished Spaces
Art	Unfinished Spaces
India	‡The World Before Her	Go Ganges
Miss India Contest	‡The World Before Her
Iran	Falgoosh (Blames and Flames)
Film Making	Falgoosh (Blames and Flames)
Kenya	Where Dreams Don't Fade
Runners	Where Dreams Don't Fade	The Mountain Runners
Journalism (Mexico)	Reportero
LGBT	Burmese Butterfly	I Need A Hero
Hair Dressing	Burmese Butterfly	‡Cutting Loose
Burma	Burmese Butterfly
Prison	‡Cutting Loose
Scotland	‡Cutting Loose
Extreme Skiing	Tempting Fear
Sweden	Tempting Fear
Palliative Care	Okuyamba (To Help)
Uganda	Okuyamba (To Help)
Piano Prodigy Twins	Toni and Rosi
Nazis	Toni and Rosi
Seniors	‡Ping Pong
Ping Pong	‡Ping Pong
Inner Mongolia	‡Ping Pong
Dyslexia	Dislecksia:  The Movie
Comic Super Heroes	I Need A Hero (couldn't find good link)	I Need a Hero (White Hawk Bourne) a brief history of LGBT characters in comic books and the impact these characters have had.
Model T Race Cars	The Mountain Runners
Aparteid	†Roadmap to Apartheid
South Africa	†Roadmap to Apartheid
Palestine	†Roadmap to Apartheid
Solar Energy	Solar Roadways
Highways	Solar Roadways
Sea Horses	Mission of Mermaids
Oceans	Mission of Mermaids
Environment	Mission of Mermaids	Solar Roadways/YERT
Innovation	‡YERT - Your Environmental Road Trip
Cystic Fibrosis	Breathe Life
Ganges River	‡Go Ganges	Or try this link, which took forever to open.

HTML Tables

[‡ = films in competition. There are lots of films here, so not getting into competition doesn't mean it's not a good film.  Update Nov. 25]

Remember, this is just the Documentary films.

AIFF 2012: H.P. Lovecraft, Señor Student, Coolio - All Coming to Anchorage International Film Festival 2012: Feature Peek

Screen Shot from Lad: A Yorkshire Story

[UPDATE Nov 11:  I just learned that two features were added - Deadfall and The Falls.  I've updated this post to include them.  Deadfall is scheduled for opening night and opens theatrically in New York, DC, and Cambridge, MA. the next week.]

The 2012 Anchorage International Film Festival begins Friday, Nov. 30. They posted their list of films officially selected to the festival earlier this week. 
 Below is the Features category.  These are the full length (55 minutes or more)  narrative films.  The kind you'd go to the movies to see normally, though few independent films ever make it to local theaters.  Except during film festivals.



There are 15 feature films from eight countries:

• Canada (2)
• Hungary (1)
• Italy (1)
• Mexico (2, one with Spain), 
• UK (2)
• USA (9 - one with Switzerland)

The links are my first quick and dirty looking around at what these films are about.  Some go to film websites, others to trailers, there's an interview with a director (in Spanish), and one or two reviews of the films, and a couple of interesting google translations.  I tried to find something that gives you a sense of the films.  These weren't just the first thing google listed. 

From Shouting Secrets

Features
Title	Director(s)	Country	Runtime
‡Aquí y Allá (Here and There)	Antonio Mendez Esparza	Mexico/Spain	110m
A föld szeretője (The Lover of the Soil)	Zsolt Pozsgai	Hungary	100m
‡Between Us	Dan Mirvish	USA	90m
‡Confine	Tobias Tobbell	United Kingdom	90m
Deadfall*	Stefan Ruzowitzky	USA	94m
El Estudiante (The Student)	Roberto Girault Facha	Mexico	98m
The Falls*	Jon Garcia	USA	90m
‡Grassroots	Stephen Gyllenhaal	USA	97m
Il cacciatore di anatre (The Duck Hunter)	Egidio Veronesi	Italy	90m
‡Lad: A Yorkshire Story	Dan Hartley	United Kingdom	96m
Passionflower	Shelagh Carter	Canada	83m
Redlegs	Brandon Harris	USA	67m
Servitude	Warren Sonoda	Canada	85m
‡Shouting Secrets	Korinna Sehringer	Switzerland/USA	88m
‡Things I Don’t Understand	David Spaltro	USA	111m
Two Hundred Thousand Dirty	Timothy L. Anderson	USA	89m
The Whisperer in Darkness	Sean Branney	USA	104m

[‡= in competition - updated 11/25]

A Föld szeretője

Some bits of info I picked up while checking film links, that might attract or repel movie goers:

Takes place in:
Cincinatti - Redlegs 
Guanajuato - El Estudiante
Seattle -  Grassroots
Winnipeg - Passionflower

Other:

About waiters - Servitude
Won Best Film, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor,  American Indian Film Festival - Shouting Secrets
Stars Coolio and a mattress store - Two Hundred Thousand Dirty
H.P. Lovecraft story brought to screen in 30's black and white style - The Whisperers of Darkness
Director involved in leak that Sarah Palin didn't know Africa is a continent - Between Us
Involves a Hospice - Things I Don't Understand
Director won an Oscar in 2008 for Best Foreign Film - Deadfall*
Two Mormon missionaries fall in love - The Falls *

There are also documentaries, animated films, short films, super short films, and Snow Dance films (shot by Alaskans or about Alaska.)

Screenshot from Things I Don't Understand

I'll post more about the festival as we get closer, but I thought I'd give folks an appetizer since the festival website now has lists of the selected films.  This means that of all the films submitted to the festival, these are the ones that the screeners have selected to be shown at the festival.  The next step is to identify the 'films in competition.'  These are the ones the screeners deem the best and eligible to compete for festival prizes.


[*Were added late, I added them here Nov. 11]



Here's a 2008 festival post that explains the different categories and the steps from submissions to awards.   I still have the 2011 AIFF Tab up above if you want to check out last year's festival.