I'm rushing this post up not quite complete, because I'm rushing to the airport to get home to see it and because Keep Talking plays tonight (Thursday, Nov 30) at the museum at 6pm. From Kartamquin:
"Keep Talking follows four Alaska Native women fighting to save Kodiak Alutiiq, an endangered language now spoken by less than 40 remaining fluent Native Elders. Their small community travels to remote Afognak Island to start teaching kids Alutiiq. Sadie, 13, is inspired to begin learning the language and dances of her ancestors. Instead of getting swept up in the wake of historical trauma, these women overcome personal demons and build toward a brighter future. Keep Talking reveals the ultimate impact of language and culture revitalization; joy and hope."
Conspiracy PIE
Levi Taylor
11m
SHOWING: Sun Dec 3 AK EXP Large 4pm
I couldn't find a trailer - it's only a 4 minute film. The only information I could find was at the AIFF site. It says:
"A poem by Emily Wall and X'unei Lance Twitchell. Told from the perspective of both father and mother, this origin story chronicles the birth of Shaawatkee through Tlingit and English--representing the power and the importance of language and identity."
I'd note that Ron Spatz is someone I've known for many years and he's the editor of the nationally acclaimed literary magazine Alaska Quarterly Review.
The festival starts soon. Here's a post looking ahead to a movie showing SUNDAY (Dec 3) AT 4PM.
Over the River Vanina Lappa Italy 1:14:00 Showing: Sunday, Dec 3, Alaska Exp Small, 4pm Sunday, Dec. 9 Alaska Exp Small 5pm
I've only seen the trailer (it's on my overview post of docs in competition), but I did get to speak with the film maker, Vanini Lappa, last week via Skype. This will be the North American premiere of this film.
As I learned more about the film and then talked to Ms. Lappa, it became clear that this film's theme is very relevant to Alaska, and to all places where the young are leaving small towns to find work, and the wisdom of their elders they leave behind is dying out.
Ms. Lappa was attracted to this particular town - Caselle in Pittari, near Naples - because of a legend .
"People who are pure can find a secret in this mountain where there is a grotto. The secret is not money or material things, but is knowledge."
From the trailer and what I read, the film seemed almost a feature rather than a documentary, so I asked her about that.
"I began to shoot as a documentary, then it took the form of a feature for me."
It's interesting how we learn about ourselves. Listen to her talk about this.
"I realized one year later that this film is a lot about me and my relationships with my city [Milan] and country. Even if I'm not in the film . . . because now I don't live in Italy any more. I've come to another country, so I made the same choice as the main character."
She also talks about the making of the film. She did almost everything but the sound herself. (Sorry, I've edited some sound problems out, but didn't have time to edit more.)
If you're the kind of person who likes to figure out a movie on your own, you may want to wait until after you watch the movie to see what she says about it. Meanwhile, here is some information about the town it was filmed in.
"Caselle in Pittari is a cozy hill town in the heart of the Cilento National Park. It is dominated by its medieval tower. The town is a delightful cluster of stone buildings that occupy the crest and spill down the hillside. Its aerie position offers great views of the surrounding hills and the soaring peak of Mt. Cervati, the highest mountain in Campania at 1898 meters above sea level. Down below bubbles the Bussento River, which slices through the valleys of the Cilento."
It goes on to talk more about the festival that is the center of the film as I understood it in my Skype conversation with the film maker.
"Caselle in Pittari hosts an unusual event called the Palio del Grano, a homage to a by-gone era to remember and recreate the traditions of rural life. It starts at sunrise in the piazza with contenders of various contradas (districts) dressed in old-time rural garb, and they parade out to the fields below, just like their ancestors did as a daily way of life to work the fields. The competition involves harvesting a swath of field that measures 5 meters by 100 meters in teams of 20 people armed with sickles. They have to reap according certain specifications, and the first time to complete the task wins the Palio.
The Palio is followed by a peasant lunch for all - participants and spectators alike - of bread, cheese, salami, sausage, fresh tomatoes, salad and wine, all served right there in the freshly harvested field. Accompanying the Palio is a bread baking workshop and a tarantella competition (a traditional southern Italian dance)."
'Short Docs' are non-fiction films under 55 minutes. At least that was the rule in the past. I mention that because one film in this category is 57 minutes. 'In Competition' means the programmers picked it to be in the running for an award.
The shorts (narrative and docs), because they're short, are grouped into programs. To see all the short docs in competition you have to see three different programs, plus one more showing where the 15 minute short in competition plays with the 57 minute short doc.
To make it easier to find the times and locations of the films you want to see, I've grouped them and color coded them by program.
Perceptions: From Prison to Purpose
Garret Guinn
USA
40 min
Perception was selected as the Best Oregon Film at the Oregon Documentary Film Festival in November 2017. Here's what their website says about the film:
"On April 14th, 2009, Noah Schultz was arrested for attempted murder in Portland, Oregon. This is the story of his transformation. During his seven years of incarceration, Noah took advantage of every program, workshop and educational service provided. He pushed himself not only to be better, but to challenge our perceptions of what it means to be an inmate."
*************************** Wildland
Daniel Steiner
USA
25 min
This is the kind of film Americans need to see regularly to better understand who the people behind bars are. This film shows inmates at a juvenile work camp program that give them fire fighting skills and experience to make it outside the prison.
"Dan Steiner has worked on impactful documentary programming around the globe for VICE, the National Geographic Channel, and Current TV (RIP). In addition, he has held numerous post-production positions at ad agencies like Wieden + Kennedy, JWT, and Venables Bell & Partners.
He received a Master’s degree in Journalism from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism in 2016."
I couldn't find a trailer for this film, so here's the whole film, from his website:
This is an exquisite film. The camera writes poetry in light and patterns. Fred Nelson modestly but confidently voices wisdom.
"When the right thing comes along, something happens inside of us. . . There's a need to speak to God, but I think that everybody has their way of doing it. . . I know I found my joy in, not Jesus, not Allah, it's a piece of wood."
Ghosts of the Arctic
Abraham Joffe
Australia
7 min,
The photography, the landscapes, the caribou and polar bear shots are all incredibly beautiful. But this film is more about how brave the film makers were under harsh conditions than it is about polar bears - the presumed title characters of this film. I checked the amount of time that the filmmaker is in the image. I got 3 minutes and 21 seconds out of a six minute movie. There's also landscape. And a small amount of time with caribou and bears. Just read their own description of the movie at Untitled Film Works:
"Ghosts of the Arctic is the result of a passion project gone wild. Our goal was to venture out into the beautiful frozen expanse of Svalbard, in winter, to search and document polar bears. During the shoot we experienced temperatures that were never warmer than -20ºC and frequently plummeted down as low as -30ºC + wind chill factor.
Most days involved two hundred kilometres on snow mobile in very difficult terrain and conditions. We experienced three cases of first and second degree frostbite during the filming as well as several equipment failures as a result of the extreme cold. Each day involved 14-16 hours in the field.
The film was released with great reviews and write-ups on notable film blogs. The piece also received a converted [did yet mean coveted?] Video Staff pick of the Month."
In a movie about polar bears, the word 'bear' appears once in the description. It's mostly about how they braved the elements under terrible conditions. As an Alaskan, I'd say that -30˚C (-22˚F) is cold, but not terrible, if you're dressed right.
It would be fine to make a film about how hard it is to film polar bears in the wild, but that's not what they say their goal is and it's not what the title suggests.
But the footage is spectacular. You can judge for yourself. I could only find the whole video online, not a trailer.
******************************* Ten Meter Tower
Maximilien Van Aertryck
Sweden
16 min,
**Also Plays In Martini Matinee, Fri. Dec 8, Bear Tooth, 2pm
"Our objective in making this film was something of a psychology experiment: We sought to capture people facing a difficult situation, to make a portrait of humans in doubt. We’ve all seen actors playing doubt in fiction films, but we have few true images of the feeling in documentaries. To make them, we decided to put people in a situation powerful enough not to need any classic narrative framework. A high dive seemed like the perfect scenario."
After my comments about the previous film, I appreciated this comment very much:
"In our films, which we often call studies, we want to portray human behavior, rather than tell our own stories about it." (emphasis added)
"The Collection is a short documentary about two friends, DJ Ginsberg and Marilyn Wagner, and their discovery of an astonishing and unique collection of movie memorabilia, comprised of over 40,000 printer blocks and 20,000 printer plates used to create the original newspaper advertisements for virtually every movie released in the United States from the silent period through 1984, when newspapers stopped using the letterpress format."
This film should be shown before the full length documentary, Saving Brinton (it's the last movie in this post on the docs in competition.)
(Note: There's a 57 minute film (Journeys to Adaka) before it)
*******************************
Old Harbor, New Hope
Joshua Branstetter
USA/Alaska
15 Min
The pre-opeining night showing is about preserving a language that is only spoken fluently by about thirty people. This film is about resurrecting native dances among the Alutiiq people in the village of Old Harbor. I'd note the Old Harbor Village Corporation was contracted by Shell Shell to assist with its rescue operations in nearby Kiliuda Baywhen the oil drill Kulluk broke loose from the tug in 2013.
Shorts are fiction 10 - 55 minutes. In competition means they were selected to be eligible for a festival award. Super Shorts are under 10 minutes.
Shorts are generally shown in groups, called programs. The shorts in competition this year fall neatly into two programs. The first is "Shorts on the Edge" but it's also called "Opening Night Soirée."
The second program is called "Love and Pain." I've color coded them to make it even easier.
BUT, I've combined the shorts and super shorts on the chart below, since they are showing together in the programs. The super shorts have an * after them.
To make it easy for you to figure out when and where to see these films, I've divided the list of shorts in competition into two groups so you can see what program they're in, and when and where each program is shown.
[NOTE: I try to be completely accurate here, but there's a lot of details and I can make a mistake. To be safe, double check the times and locations before you go. If you see an error please let me know in the comments or via email - in right column above blog archive.]
The first program is:
Opening Night Soiree
Fri Dec 1 Bear Tooth 7 pm
Shorts on the Edge
Sat Dec 9 AK Exp Sm 9 pm
Shorts In Competition
Director
Country
Length
Cold Storage*
Thomas Freundlich
Finland
9 min
Game
Jeannie Donohoe
USA
15 min
Whoever Was Using This Bed
Andrew Kotatko
Australia
20 min
Iron
Gabriel Gonda
USA
17 min
Must Kill Karl
Joe Kick
Canada
12 min
The Robbery
Jim Cummings
USA
15 min
8:AM*
Emily Pando
USA
5 min
Brain Storm*
Christophe Clin
Belgium
6 min
Couples Night*
Russell & Robert
Summers
USA
4 min
Temporary
Milena Govich
USA
12 min
Remember, the blue ones are in the program called:
Love and Pain
Which shows:
Sat Dec 2 AK Exp Large 12 pm
Fri Dec 8 AK Exp Small 7pm
* means it's a Super Short.
###############################################
This first group of shorts in competition all are part of the Opening Night Soirée which repeats as the program "Shorts on the Edge." I've done it this way to help you identify which films are shown together so you can easily find when and where to see them. If they are in red, they are together in this program. Also, both Shorts and Super Shorts* are together in the same programs, but they are eligible for separate awards. The * marks the Super Shorts. These are films under 10 minutes long.
Opening Night Soirée
Fri Dec 1 Bear Tooth 7pm
Shorts on the Edge
Sat Dec 9 Ak Exp Small 9pm
**********************************************
Cold Storage* (*Super Short)
Thomas Freundlich
Finland
9 min
This one should appeal to all Alaskans, especially ice fishers, glacial archeologists, and dancers.
"Thomas Freundlich is one of the leading practitioners in Finland’s vibrantly growing independent dance film scene. Mr. Freundlich’s work ranges from dance shorts, documentary work, performance videography and 3D projects to music videos and projection design for the stage. His work has been seen at dozens of film festivals worldwide as well as broadcast TV both in Finland and internationally. From 2012 to 2014, Mr. Freundlich was the co-artistic director of Finland’s Loikka dance film festival."
This story takes place during tryouts for the high school basketball team. It's a very well made film. To add a little moral crunch to all this, the Weinstein Company was involved with this film. Just yesterday (Nov 20), I read an article from the Paris Review, "What Do We Do With The Art Of Monstrous Men?" I suspect that the Weinstein Company, particularly Harvey Weinstein had little to do with the making of this film. But it's something to think about as you watch this gem of a film. I know this film is good because you can watch it online, and I did. Below is a trailer. I'd note, watching it online probably won't take anything from the experience of seeing it on the big screen opening night of the festival. There's lots I'm sure I missed the first time.
**********************************************
Whoever Was Using This Bed
Andrew Kotatko
Australia
20 min
Go to the the film's website. Scroll through the credits and connections of the cast and the director and others. This is NOT a film by new faces showing what they can do in hopes of making it. But the fact that these aren't newcomers to the film industry tells us something about the competitiveness of the world of film-making.
"Iron is a short period drama set in the Pacific NorthWest inspired by the true stories of women railroad workers during the early 1900’s.
Lily Cohen escapes the the crowded tenements of New York to take on a demanding railway job. Determined to work on a steam engine, a position not traditionally held by women, Lilly faces the hostility of her fellow railroad workers while finding her own inner strength.
While America is very familiar with the iconic image of Rosie the Riveter, the women laborers of the First World War are mostly forgotten by history. The American railroad represented freedom and adventure in a time when most women had very little opportunity for either. These opportunities disappeared when the soldiers returned home."
I haven't seen the whole movie, but the trailer . . . judge for yourself. I had it up here for a day or two as I worked on the rest of the films. I decided to take it down because I thought the thumbnail was gross and I didn't see any redeeming features that would make it worth keeping up. I'm not censoring it - you can go watch it here. Remember, the programmers thought it was worth being 'in competition'. I'm waiting to be pleasantly surprised.
**********************************************
The Robbery
Jim Cummings
USA
15 min
Cummings won the best Short Award last year at AIFF with his film "Thunder Road." It also won at Sundance which led to a slew of opportunities which are described in this IndieWire article. The article also includes a full version of of The Robbery. I don't recommend seeing it now if you plan to see it at the festival. I'm not sure how much it offers with additional viewings.
It's about a robbery that goes badly. It's well made. It spoofs our national (global?) cell phone addiction among other things.
###############################################
This second group of shorts in competition all are part of the program "Love and Pain." I've done it this way to help you identify which films are shown together so you can easily find when and where to see them.
If they are in blue, they are together in this program Also, both Shorts and Super Shorts* are together in the same programs, but they are eligible for separate awards. The * marks the Super Shorts. These are films under 10 minutes long.
In this group, all but "Temporary" are Super Shorts.
Love and Pain
Sat Dec, 2 12pm AK Exp Large
Frit Dec 8 AK Exp Small 7pm
**********************************************
8:AM*
Emily Pando
USA
5 min Can't find much on this film, though it was at the festival in August 2016, the Cleveland International Film Festival and the Seattle International Film Festival's Shorts Fest this year if I'm reading the Facebook page right.
**********************************************
Brain Storm* (Remue-Meninges)
Christophe Clin
Belgium
6 min
(Also Showing at Martini Matinee - Friday December 8, 2017 2:00pm - 4:00pm)
Another film that's got few internet footprints. From Augohr:
"What happens in our heads when we are about to meet someone on the street? Anguish, prejudice, expectation, surprise, disappointment … These few very brief moments are the nest of a real brainstorm!"
I had to look much harder to find Christophe's Vimeo page. (His Youtube page was blank. You really don't need a link to a blank Youtube channel.) But it was worth the effort. (Actually, if you only google his name, there's more, mostly in French.)
This is one of the most tantalizing trailers I've seen. It could be a super short all its own.
This is a four minute movie. What do you want? A ten second trailer? Christophe Clin found a way to do a trailer for a six minute movie (above) but . . . And why would you want a description? This is part of a program of other shorts. Just sit back and watch it. I can give you one hint - it's been in some horror movie festivals.
**********************************************
Temporary
Milena Govich USA 12 Min
The first few minutes of this probably tells you what you need to know about this film. It comes from her Kickstarter page and I found the embed code at Vimeo.
I'd also note there are other Shorts programs. Global Village has a series of international shorts.
There are Made In Alaska shorts. And Martini Matinee will play a mix of narrative shorts, short docs, and animation. I'm not totally caught up (and probably will never be) with all these programs but I did want to give you an alert that the narrative shorts and super shorts in competition aren't the only shorts.
Here are the Anchorage International Film Festival in Competition.
Documentaries are non-fiction feature length films. "In Competition" means, at AIFF, these films have been selected by the programmers to be eligible for awards at the festival. Another way of saying that is these are the films that the programmers collectively liked the best. There are usually other films that appealed more to individual programmers, this list is there collective choices.
I haven't seen any of these. My goal here is simply to make it easy for people to know what's coming at the festival beginning December 1.
My experiences is that the documentary category tends to be very strong at the Anchorage International Film Festival. They're in alphabetical order.
"Early in my career I worked at NFL Films. That experience, of being able to see the drama on the field while having access to the people and stories unfolding off the field, has always been a fascinating intersection for me. In my recent film, The Great Alone, I was able to explore the epic scale of the Iditarod through the comeback story of a single competitor. In AlphaGo, the competition between man and machine provided a similar backdrop, albeit with far larger consequences.
The complexity of the game of Go, combined with the technical depth of an emerging technology like artificial intelligence seemed like it might create an insurmountable barrier for a film like this. The fact that I was so innocently unaware of Go and AlphaGo actually proved to be beneficial. It allowed me to approach the action and interviews with pure curiosity, the kind that helps make any subject matter emotionally accessible.
Unlike the film’s human characters – who turn their curious quest for knowledge into an epic spectacle with great existential implications, who dare to risk their reputation and pride to contest that curiosity – AI might not yet possess the ability to empathize. But it can teach us profound things about our humanness – the way we play board games, the way we think and feel and grow. It’s a deep, vast premise, but my hope is, by sharing it, we can discover something within ourselves we never saw before."
Among Wolves Shawn Convey USA 1:27:00 Showing: Monday, Dec 4, Bear Tooth 8:15pm From the beginning of the trailer, my thought was: This is not the movie the title suggests to most Alaskans. This is a movie about veterans of the wars in the former Yugoslavia, specifically in Bosnia. Here's elaboration on that from the Among Wolves website:
"A paramilitary leader at the young age of 20, Lija helped defend the town while neighbors fell to the invading forces. Now he heads the Wolves, a motorcycle club that resembles the stereotype in rough image only. Under his leadership, this wild crew has become a positive force for good with a self-defined humanitarian focus. As their numbers grow, so do their successes, like holding charity events for the neediest in their community and securing badly needed supplies for hospitals in Livno an Srebrenica.
One mission, though, rich in symbolism, captures their spirit more than any other. On what was once the front line, they now tend to and defend a herd of wild horses that society has similarly deemed expendable. A harsh environment, poachers, and urbanization continually threaten the herd. Stirred by their strength, the Wolves are determined to control their own fate and finally emerge from the shadow of war."
The Last Animals Kate Brooks USA
1:31:50 Showing: Tuesday, Dec 5 Bear Tooth 5:30 pm
This is a movie about how rhinos and elephants are being slaughtered for their horns and tusks. Hard to watch stuff. As I wander the internet reading about this film, it's clear it's doing a good job of marketing itself. The website is slick and full of gorgeous photos. There's even a piece about it in Glamor, not where you normally see stories about film festival documentaries.
"Kate Brooks may be missing the fear gene: At age 20 she was infiltrating state orphanages in Russia to document child abuse, work she published in The Boston Globe and *Newsweek*. By 25 she was capturing the American invasion of Iraq for Time. Ever since, she’s lived in war zones, sending back images of bombings in Pakistan, conflict in Syria, and amputees in Afghanistan.
In 2010 she finally took a much-needed vacation and headed to a national wildlife reserve in Kenya. “I was lounging by an infinity pool,” remembers Brooks, now 39, “and out on the horizon this herd of elephants walked by. It realigned everything inside of me. I left knowing I wanted to give the animals back some of the peace they gave me.” She returned to work, but the memory of those roaming giants stayed with her, and in 2012 she began looking into why such a staggering number—30,000—are killed every year for their tusks. When she learned the reason was related to terrorism, she set out to tell the world. The result is her eye-opening documentary, The Last Animals, which takes viewers on a journey into the violent epicenter of the ivory trade."
"What distinguishes The Last Animals from other films on the subject (in particular last year’s Netflix doc The Ivory Game) is the raw urgency of Brooks’ direct conflict reportage: she is a war correspondent who lets us understand that what is happening here is nothing short of an all-out battle. This investigative mission, coupled with her painterly eye, elevates this doc – for the most part – into something filmic, often elegiac, and hopefully galvanising. After all, who are we, she asks, as guardians of this planet, if we allow the slaughter of these mystical, beautiful beasts to continue."
I couldn't find a trailer, but maybe this interview at the 2016 Women in the World Summit in New York City with the director Kate Brooks about the film is a better introduction.
******************************************
[UPDATE Nov 29, 2017: I have a new post on this film with a video of my Skype conversation with film maker Vanina Lappa.]
Over the River Vanina Lappa
Italy
1:14:00 Showing: Sunday, Dec 3, Alaska Exp Small, 4pm
Sunday, Dec. 9 Alaska Exp Small 5pm
I've learned from the director via FB, that this film has been seen in Europe and Kathmandu, the showing in Anchorage will be its North American premiere.
As I looked this film up, I forgot we are in the documentary category. It has the look of a feature. But it's not. Which will make it interesting.
"'We are too old, that's the problem. We look at the moon, look at too many things ...'. So it's been said to Angelo, a young waiter who lives in Caselle in Pittari, a small town that lies on a river basin Bussento in southern Cilento, at the foot of a sacred mountain, where there is the St. Michael's cave, inside which , the legend says, there's an ancient guarded secret."
Here's from an Italian review of the movie, you can get the whole review here:
"Angelo, giovane cameriere di Caselle in Pittari, nel Cilento meridionale, vive nel tempo sospeso e fuori dalla storia che sembra caratterizzare l’intero paese. La comunità, ancorata a rituali più o meno antichi, è insieme nutrice e gabbia per il giovane; e tale è anche per il suo omonimo Angelo, barista più anziano di lui, con uno sguardo sulla vita più radicale e disilluso. I due dovranno decidere tra la permanenza e la fuga: ovvero tra due, contrastanti, idee di esistenza. [sinossi]
C’è costantemente una doppia dimensione, la percorrenza di un doppio binario, a guidare lo svolgimento di un lavoro come Sopra il fiume. Il documentario di Vanina Lappa, regista e montatrice italo-francese, è infatti saldamente ancorato alla terra che racconta, ai suoi rituali, al carattere misterico e al potere aggregante delle sue simbologie, ma contemporaneamente punta a mettere in scena la tensione con l’esterno, la pressione della modernità, la voglia di fuggire di alcuni abitanti del paesino che è teatro del film (quello di Caselle in Pittari, nel Cilento meridionale). La regista approccia qui il genere del documentario etnografico mettendo sempre in primo piano questa dialettica: lo fa fin dalla sequenza iniziale, che racconta il territorio attraverso un’antica leggenda che viene narrata al protagonista quand’era bambino, a illustrare lo sguardo sul fiume e sugli incontaminati territori che sovrastano e cingono il paese; poi, l’obiettivo si sposta sulla vita quotidiana della cittadina, sulla concretezza delle sue i(n)terazioni, sempre uguali a se stesse, su un tessuto sociale che sembra demograficamente condannato, incapace di favorire il ricambio tra generazioni, e quindi la sua stessa sopravvivenza."
Here's how Bing.com/translator renders this in English:
"Angelo, a young waiter of boxes in Pitters, in southern Cilento, lives in the suspended time and out of history that seems to characterize the whole country. The community, anchored to more or less ancient rituals, is together nourishment and cage for the young; And such is also for his namesake angel, bartender older than him, with a look on the most radical and disillusioned life. The two will have to decide between permanence and escape: that is between two, contrasting, ideas of existence. Synopsis]
There is constantly a double size, the journey of a double track, to guide the conduct of a job as above the river. The documentary of Vania Lappa, Italian-French director and upright, is firmly anchored to the earth that tells, its rituals, the mystery character and the aggregating power of its symbology, but at the same time aims to stage the tension With the exterior, the pressure of modernity, the desire to flee some inhabitants of the village that is the theatre of the film (that of Caselle in Pitti, in southern Cilento). The director approaches here the genre of the ethnographic documentary always putting in the foreground this dialectic: it does so from the initial sequence, which tells the territory through an ancient legend that is narrated to the protagonist when he was a child, to To illustrate the gaze on the river and the uncontaminated territories that dominate and surround the country; Then, the goal moves on the everyday life of the town, on the concreteness of its I (n) teras, always equal to themselves, on a social fabric that seems demographically condemned, unable to favor the replacement between generations, and therefore its Same survival."
Saving Brinton
Tommy Haines & Andrew Sherburne
USA
1:27:30 Showing: Sunday, Dec 3 Bear Tooth, 7:30pm
This feels like a film makers' film - it's about the finding and restoring of turn of the (20th) century films in Iowa. Last year we had an Indian film, The Cinema Travelers, about a business that traveled the festival circuit in India showing large reel-to-reel films as DVD's and online downloading were starting to challenge this old film showing tradition. It won best documentary.
We can get a sense of things by looking at where the film comes from: Northland Films:
"Northland Films are non-fiction storytellers in the Upper Midwest devoted to producing challenging and engaging films on timely social issues. Working throughout North America, the filmmakers work boldly to uncover themes of nature, history & community and in unexpected places."
"AFI: What inspired you to tell the story of SAVING BRINTON?
TH & AS: The common threads through all of our feature documentaries are notions of community and place and the interplay of tradition and modernity. This story had all of those elements.
TH, JR & AS: On top of all that, we’re film nerds. So here are 130 films, many of them unseen for a century, and we get to be a part of bringing these back into the public consciousness. Of course, we were in from day one.
AFI: How did you find Michael Zahs?
TH & AS: Our last film, GOLD FEVER, was about gold mining in Guatemala, and we were looking for something closer to home. Our eyes lit up when we got a call about a man, in a small town just south of us, who had discovered a basement full of nitrate films from Thomas Edison and Georges Méliès. Our first reaction was the same as most everyone: “In Iowa? Really?” That was the beginning. But in that first visit to Mike’s house, we sensed that the man who had saved these things was the real story — you can see it in the opening scene of the film. I think we left that day and told Mike 'you’ll be seeing a lot more of us.'”
[TH is Tommy Haines, AS is Andrew Sherburne, and JR is John Richards - Director of Photography]
Features are full length fictional films. Films in competition are those chosen by the original screeners to be eligible for awards.
I'd note that while these are the screeners picks, screeners don't always agree, so some might have chosen other features as the best. I often disagree with the screeners, but this is a good start as you try to figure out what to watch. There are always gems that don't make it to this list. And you might find films on topics that you want to see or from a country you're interested in, even if they aren't in competition.
Features in Competition
Director
Country
Length
American Folk
David Heinz
USA
1:39:19
The Drawer Boy
Arturo Perez Torres
Canada/Mexico
1:37:00
Painless
Jordan Horowitz
USA
1:40:10
Pale Blue Dot
Girish Mohite
India
1:39:00
What If It Works?
Romi Trower
Australia
1:35:00
I'm not making any judgments here except that I'm posting the films in competition - those eligible for an award. These are just descriptions, interviews, pictures and video I've found on line to give people a sense of what's coming to Anchorage Dec. 1.
"When their plane from Los Angeles to New York is grounded on the morning ofSeptember 11, 2001, strangers Elliott (Joe Purdy) and Joni (Amber Rubarth) are unexpectedly thrust together amidst the chaos of that historic day. With little in common but both needing to get to NYC urgently, they accept help from Joni's family friend Scottie (Krisha Fairchild) who lends the duo a rusty old 1972 Chevy Van. The shock and stress of 9/11 quickly threatens to derail their cross country journey until the pair discover what they do have in common: a love for old folk songs. Armed with a pile of guitars left in the van from Scottie’s touring days, Elliott and Joni raise their voices together (and with those they meet on the road), re-discovering the healing nature of music and bearing witness to a nation of people who, even while mourning, manage to lift each other up in the wake of tragedy.?
"The Drawer Boy (Draw-er, as in, a boy who draws) is an adaptation of Michael Healey’s 1999 play about Miles (Jakob Ehman), a traveling actor who shows up at a farm owned by Angus (Stuart Hughes) and Morgan (Richard Clarkin) with the hopes of staying in their house, helping around the farm and learning what it’s like to be a rural Canadian. Angus takes care of most of the work as well as Morgan, who has severe short-term memory loss. As Miles learns the ebb and flow of a farmer’s life, he also begins to uncover the tragic story that led to Morgan’s condition. To director Arturor Perez Torres’ credit, The Drawer Boy captures the staging and performances you’d expect from a stage production without sacrificing opportunities afforded by the cinematic lens. It’s a beautifully shot movie. There’s a tendency for stage-to-film adaptations to sometimes come across as something stuck between the two mediums in a way that satisfies neither. That’s not the case here."
This is probably a movie that you don't need to know anything about. Just go and let it unfold with no expectations.
Painless Jordan Horowitz USA 1:40:10?? Showing: Saturday Dec 2, 1:45 AK Experience Small Friday Dec 9, 7:45pm AK Experience Large
Here's the Painless website synopsis:
"Henry Long was born with a rare condition that leaves him unable to feel physical pain. Life for him is a daily struggle, never knowing when he might become seriously injured without realizing it, or worse, die from an internal injury he never knew existed. He lives in a constant state of fear and is completely alienated from those around him who cannot relate to his daily struggles.
Barricading himself in a world of science, Henry has dedicated his life to finding a cure so that he can one day know what it’s like to feel ‘normal.’ When he discovers a promising drug that he is unable to obtain on his own, he gets involved with a dangerous scientist with a dark past and his own secret agenda. Henry must decide if his need for normalcy is worth paying the ultimate price before it’s too late.
Based on actual medical science, Painless looks at the dark side of life with a rare condition and the challenges both symptomatic and social that people with these conditions face."
Showing: Sunday, Dec. 3 11:45am AK Experience Small
Saturday, Dec. 9, 2:30pm AK Experience Small
I couldn't find much on this film.
From Filter Copy - An Indian website reporting on this year's Mumbai Film Festival last month which highlighted 13 of the festival films including Pale Blue Dot.
"Synopsis: Sarvanaam, or the Pale Blue Dot, was birthed when a photograph taken by a NASA Voyager showed the earth to be smaller than a pixel from a distance of 6 billion km in space. The very fact that the Earth is as miniscule as a grain of sand in the eternal expanse of the universe brings forth questions about the weight of our existence and death."
From The Hindu, a page of very short questions and answers at the Mumbai Film Festival dated October 2017. Directer Girish Mohite was asked
What is your film about?
"It is about the existence of hum life and our fear of death - the eternal question that haunts us all our life"
I can imagine his head rolling back and forth as he gives this answer.
The next question was: What should the MAMI crowd expect to see?
"I have filmed the entire feature film in natural light without resorting to artificial sets. I have treated the subject as seen through the eyes of the central character - a man who is struggling with these thoughts about life and death when a person close to him in on the verge of dying."
UPDATE Nov. 23, 2017: The film maker, Girish Mohite, has sent me this synopsis of the film.
"A specific name underlines the existence of a given individual but Sarvanaam i.e. an Eternity is a collective notion. Even while living this life making an effort to preserve one's own identity, often the destiny plays its cards in such an incomprehensible manner that one is imperatively left with no alternative but to ignore one's own personal existence or unique identity and dissolve oneself in the mighty oblivion of the Sarvanaam, the eternity. The film 'Sarvanaam', the Pale Blue Dot makes you aware of this insurmountable truth.
Thus, the existence of LIFE is PALE BLUE DOT.
'Death' is an ultimate truth. Each one of us is radically aware that at some or the other point of time in life, the death, is going to come to meet us and end our role. But even then every human being feels afraid of the death of his near and dear ones rather than being frightened of one's own death. That is why, every individual gets disturbed when the same death starts lingering around in the lives of your near and dear ones. This close shadow of the death destroys the peace of mind of every individual howsoever invariable truth it may be. An approaching shadow of that evil arouses a feeling of unacceptable injustice in his mind and he leaves no stone unturned to unveil the answer of this riddle. The unbearable sorrow of this inhuman destiny and the agonising journey of every human being's life saga is the gist of the Marathi feature film 'Sarvanaam'."
I couldn't find a trailer for this film. [UPDATE Nov. 23: Girish Mohite sent me the trailer, so here it is:
I don't recall ever citing the Catholic Church of Australia, so it seems a good time to check that off my blogger list of things to do. Here's from their review of What If It Works?
"There have been many films over the years, especially in recent years, about relationships, romantic relationships, potential healing relationships between people who are physically and/or mentally disabled. We don’t always expect to see these stories acted out in the ordinary streets, in the ordinary suburbs of Melbourne. They are acted out here – but, at the end, there is still the question that the title raises, will it work, what if it works?
It takes a few moments to get into the feel of the film We are introduced to Adrian, Ford, a young man in his 30s, driving a fast car, getting into trouble, landing unsuspectingly into a group of drag queens. Who is Adrian? When we see him behave, gloved hands, hands raised in the air, wary of touching anything, fastidious, we realise that he is absolutely obsessive, has a compulsive disorder. Which means that while he is friendly in his way, it is not always easy to like him. Non-compulsiveness will feel very impatient with him. But, as we get to know him, see him in all his foibles, there has to be some sympathy. In fact, he is very intelligent with science and engineering and is able to help people in the art commune, even calling in the aid of the drag queen friends.
He almost runs over a young woman (Anna Samson) who lives just up the street, who walks dogs (which he abhors). When he encounters her on his session with his therapist and she comes to visit, mistaking him for the therapist and pouring out a rather salacious life story, he is upset. He later meets her in the street."
"Giving the leads of your romantic comedy mental health issues is tricky ground to navigate. Jokes built around your characters could be seen as laughing at them, rather than with them. Additionally, in the pursuit of true love, there’s a certain danger of downplaying their daily struggles. What if it Works?, from first time director Romi Trower, not only tackles these issues, it does so with success."
[UPDATE Dec. 18 - I've swapped out a film that is no longer in the festival for one on the list that I didn't see in the first list].
UPDATE Nov 30, 2017: I'd note that the film Muse was originally 'in competition' but for some (legitimate) reason, it will still be in the festival, just not in competition.
