AIFF 2019: The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open Is Now On Netflix

Life is going by too fast for me to keep up with all the posts I want to write - like one on my favorite films from the Anchorage International Film Festival 2019.

But one that I did really like, The Body Remembers What The World Forgot is now available on Netflix.

The film, written and co-directed by Canadian Indigenous woman Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, who also plays one of the two main characters.  The other lead is also a Canadian Indigenous woman.

This was the kind of film you go to festivals to see.  It's not from a Hollywood point of view.  It tells its story the way it needs to tell it without having to satisfy funders or marketers.

[Note:  Netflix doesn't allow screenshots - they come out black.  So I had to take a photo.  I apologize to the film makers for the quality.]

So the pace is not what people are used to, at least what non-Native people are used to.  There are lots of long pauses in the dialogue.  The whole story takes place in real time.  Very real time because, after the title appears, about 12 minutes into the film,  it's basically one long scene in one long camera shot.  (I read that they had cameras ready to pick up where the other ran out of battery)  So they couldn't cut from the women getting into the taxi at the apartment  to where they get out at the safe house.  You watch them get in, then you get in with them and travel the whole distance in very close proximity.

I knew that a film in the festival had been done as a single shot, but I didn't remember which one.  After a while I began to look for the cuts from shot to shot and there weren't any.  Paying attention to the camera made it easier for me to just sit back in the taxi and ride along and not get impatient with the pace.

And having just had seven weeks of a class on homelessness, this film helped illustrate things I'd learned.  There are no easy answers.  People don't break habits quickly.  Helping can be trying.  There are serious societal structural problems that result in homelessness and while individuals can perform acts of kindness, they are only temporary solutions at best until the system is worked on.  And adding in the issues of indigenous peoples in North America requires understanding even more factors.

I would urge people who have Netflix to at least watch the beginning of the film - not as much for the content, but for the feel of this very intimate film.

And I'd like to thank Netflix for putting films like this up.

AIFF 2019 - Features Part 1: Indigenous Women, Homelessness, Coming of Age, (Young and Old), Bi Polar

There are 12 films in this group and I've got six here and will do a second post with the other six.  We've got a film here with two indigenous women actors, two films with homeless leads, a return to the home country (Italy) to save the family vineyard, a bi-polar college student, and a coming of age film.  (I know it's hokey to try sum them up this way, but the topics may cause some people to be more interested.)

I'd also note that the new website is ready and my first impression is that it's an enormous improvement over past AIFF websites.  But I haven't explored it too closely yet.  It also looks like it's possible to see every film this year, because there aren't two competing films at any given time. I think that's the case but, again, I need to check more carefully.

So, here are the first six of the  NARRATIVE FEATURES

The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open  

Directors:  Kathleen Hepburn & Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers

Canada/Norway

Showing:  Sunday, Dec 08, 2019 2:00 pm   Alaska Experience Theatre - Small

From Imagine Native:

Two Indigenous women, unknown to each other, and from very different backgrounds, meet by chance. Áila is middle class, university educated and light skinned. Rosie is eighteen years old, poor, and has just been assaulted by her boyfriend. When Áila sees Rosie crying barefoot in the street, she makes the decision to help her. What follows is a complicated extended conversation between these two women as they navigate their similarities, differences and shifting power dynamics. Tense and affecting, the film employs long takes and masterfully executed handheld cinematography to unveil a story in real-time, a story that at its core is a testament to the resiliency of Indigenous women.

There are a number of interesting aspects to this film.  Not only is it about two Canadian indigenous women, it's also directed by an indigenous woman.  It also is filmed in real time:

"We had many conversations with our DP, Norm Li, and ultimately settled on shooting 16mm. This required that we develop a rather experimental process which Norm calls “real time transitions.” Once we had all of our locations, we carefully choreographed stitch points throughout the film where one of our camera assistants would have a camera pre-rolling to swap with Norm. This required five days of full crew rehearsal. We filmed the prologue scenes in three days, and filmed the continuous action sequence once a day over five days."

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Banana Split

Director:  Benjamin Ben Kasulke
USA
88 minutes

Showing  Sun, Dec 08, 2019 8:00 pm  
Bear Tooth Theatrepub

I read some descriptions and interviews and then saw the trailer which didn't match what I'd read at all.  Turns out the trailer was for another movie with a similar title.  

This excerpt  comes from  Sumbreak.  I don't want to say too much about the film.  Others have written that the basic description doesn't do justice to this film   So I've picked this part from an interview with  first time director, but experienced cinematographer Ben Kasulke.  They're talking about actress Addison Riecke who plays the little sister.  

"And yeah, with Addison, it was like you know, we saw the tape and I was like, ‘oh my god, this little girl’s great.’ And I didn’t know much about her. She has a really long history of acting. She’s a full-on child actor who works all the time, and so she comes out of the Nickelodeon World and she does comedy but she does comedy in a sort of very wholesome way. And you know I knew that she had done some comedic work.
But I knew that she had worked in The Beguiled, a Sofia Coppola film, so I knew that understood things that might have to exist as visuals or have a little more nuance to them. So she came from a good pedigree and then the word on the street was that she was just this like powerhouse actress, and that all proved to be true.
I was a little nervous. It was my first film and I you know worked with lots of younger actors and actresses as a cinematographer and spent a lot of time with director like Lynn Shelton and Megan Griffiths, who are really adept at making a set that’s conducive to safe, emotional space and getting good performances out of actors of any age, but in particular, children at times. And so I knew that I’d had some good role models as directors and people I’d collaborated with over the years.?"

Here's part of an interview with the director and writer/producer/star Hanna Marks.  It's an after the film Q&A at the Toronto Intl Film Festival.  I cut out the beginning, but it didn't offer me an option to end it early, so, if you're interested, watch as much or little as you like:

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Feral 

Director:  Andrew Wonder
USA
73 minutes

Showing:  Thu, Dec 12, 2019 6:00 pm
Anchorage Museum Auditorium

Mathew Monagle at Film School Rejects pushes films by former documentary makers who switch to narrative features.

". . .  these films ask us to simply exist in a series of moments with the main characters, exposing ourselves to their truths by seeing the world as they see it. And as of this weekend, you can officially add Andrew Wonder‘s Feral to this list of must-see narrative debuts. 

It would be wrong to say that Yazmine (Annapurna Sriram) lives on the streets, considering her actual home is a good hundred feet below them. When we first meet Yazmine, we walk alongside her in the abandoned tunnels and empty homeless camps that litter the underground relics of the MTA; with her as our guide, we eventually find our way into the long-abandoned power station she has converted into her home. But this underground life is only one facet of Yazmine’s existence. In her collection of sweaters and skirts, she can also pass among the fashionable parts of Brooklyn, moving alongside hipsters and bohemians and passing judgment on their hollow lives as she bums cigarettes." (emphasis added)

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From The Vine 

Director:  Sean Cisterna

Canada

94 minutes

Showing:  Friday, Dec 13, 2019 4:00 pm  
Alaska Experience Theatre - Small

This is a new film which had its North American premier in Canada in mid-October.  It's also been at the Napa Film Festival this month, which is fitting for a film on a vineyard.  But there's also not much out there about the film besides stock descriptions

Here's from a review from the  Devour! The Food Film Festival where you can read more:

"It’s the tale of a downtrodden man (Joe Pantoliano) who experiences an ethical crisis and travels back to his hometown in rural Italy to recalibrate his moral compass. There he finds new purpose in reviving his grandfather’s old vineyard, offering the small town of Acerenza a sustainable future, and reconnecting with his estranged family in the process.
From director Sean Cisterna, From The Vine is a delightful yet admittedly predictable affair about the need in life to not live for your work but to work for your life.
Cisterna is an experience Canadian filmmaker and with From The Vine he really does manage to get the most out of a well worn formula.  It looks great and as it launches into its story it’s always nice to see a Canadian film that isn’t overtly TRYING to be a Canadian film.  Cisterna has always had a good sense of story, it all has a genuine flow to it as we move along and it really has a strong sense of self.  That kind of narrative confidence not only comes from the script from the director leading the ship."

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GUTTERBUG 

Director:  Andrew Gibson

USA

100 minutes

Showing:  Wed, Dec 11, 2019 8:00 pm
Alaska Experience Theatre - Small

"Have you ever been walking around Allston and thought, “This place would be the perfect setting for a gritty drama about young, homeless street punks trying to find their place in the world, resisting the tedium of a forced 9-5 careerist lifestyle and simply surviving in a harsh world?” Well, so did Andrew Gibson, who’s gearing up to direct Gutterbug, a film that explores those themes listed above. Gibson is also the former head of video for Allston Pudding, so we’re excited to see him develop a full feature! The project’s synopsis, quoted from the film’s Indie GoGo  description, reads as follows: 
Stephen Bugsby, known by his street name “Bug,” left home on his 18th birthday. GUTTERBUG picks up three years later at his rock bottom. When the punk rock shows end and the drugs wear off, things feel quiet on his dirty mattress under the overpass. The suffocating atmosphere of the homeless environment and its toxic characters spark something in him he forgot he had… Before choosing death as the answer, Bug makes a choice even he didn’t see coming."

Here's an interview with director Andrew Gibson.  This film is focused on some homeless folks and the interviewer here lets us know he was once homeless.   I started it two minutes in when they began talking about the movie.

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Inside The Rain  

Director:  Aaron Fisher

USA

90 minutes

Showing:  Wed, Dec 11, 2019 6:00 pm 
Alaska Experience Theatre - Small

From WBOC:

"Facing expulsion from college over a misunderstanding, a bipolar student (Aaron Fisher) indulges his misery at a strip club where he befriends a beautiful and enigmatic sex worker (Ellen Toland) and they hatch a madcap scheme to prove his innocence.  Rosie Perez stars as a tough love shrink, Eric Roberts as an unhinged film producer, and Catherine Curtin and Paul Schulze as the long-suffering parents. The ultimate underdog film and proof that if you believe in yourself, anything is possible.
"'Inside the Rain' is an important film that deals honestly with issues of mental health, and manages to be at once humorous and poignant," said co-star Rosie Perez.  "I responded to director Aaron Fisher's script, and enjoyed working with him on our scenes together."
"Inside The Rain" has also attracted many film critics attention.  Westwood One states, "Insightful and audacious, with terrific cast…raw and heartfelt emotion." And Tribune Media Services said, ''Inside the Rain' is a captivating story where the brush strokes of life and the arts blend together beautifully.'"

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Homelessness In Anchorage - Thoughts On What I've Been Told In OLE Class

I've been to five 75-minute classes on Homeless in Anchorage offered through OLÉ.  The class is facilitated by Nancy Burke, the Mayor's homelessness point person.  Friday's class was presented by Thea Agnew Bemben, M. A.,  who works for a consulting company on mental health.  She gave us the results of studies on ways to improve how the civilian and forensic (criminal) mental health population are served.


So after this much, here's my sense of things:

1. Berkowitz's administration is better organized and on top of things than I thought
1. At least in the data gathering aspects of homelessness
1. They're part of a couple of national models for handling data and using the data to reduce homelessness
2. Gathering data is important because it gives a picture of 
1. how many homeless there are
2. what categories the fit in
3. what services they use
4. how long they've been homeless
5. best ways to use resources
2. The Muni's data gathering system is up and running, though the sense I have is that it's a fairly recent phenomenon and it still has more to do
3. Homelessness models identify three categories of homeless on a 1-10 scale
1. 1-3 folks basically need help finding social services resources and can get themselves back into housing - these are people who have been housed and through an unexpected event (lost job, health emergency, etc) lost the ability to pay rent or mortgage
2. 4-6 moderate problems,
3. 7-10  problem homeless - mentally ill and or substance abusers that cost the city the most in police and health  and the most expensive to take care of
4. The third category is about 50% of the homeless in Anchorage
4. So, the most important way to deal with the 50% who have serious problems is to have better ways to deal with mental health in the community.  To increase the number of providers and beds available for the people with the most serious mental health problems
1. Right now both on the civil side (hospital emergency rooms, API) and the forensic side (jai/prisons), we're failing woefully.  
1. People get minimal treatment and sent back out onto the streets on the civil side.
2. On the forensic side, people wait in jail until they  can be evaluated to see if they are fit to stand trial, if they aren't, they sit in jail.  They are off the streets, get fed, get some medical treatment, but not what they should get.  And they could be in jail for months before even going to trial.  
2. A serious obstacle to enough beds is Medicaid rules that restrict payments to facilities with about 16 beds or less.  
5. Despite all the Mayor's attention to homelessness, without improving mental health access early on, the part of the homeless problem people are most upset about isn't going to go away.  And getting money for improved mental health care for the indigent is going to be hard.
6. The $40 million fund to help the homeless in Alaska will help
1. The MOA is using several different national models - including Housing First - which seems to have an immediate effect on reducing lots of the other problems homeless people have.  And getting housing that's accompanied with social workers is an important factor. 
2. There's concern that the State will cut funding because of this new source of financial help for the homeless.  

OK, that's my take on this off the top of my head after five classes.  There are two more 3 more classes, but I'll miss the last one.  

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The chart below comes from the Executive Summary of the Alaska Behavioral Health Systems Assessment commissioned by the Alaska Mental Health Trust with other health co-sponsors.  Thea Agnew Bembem - the presenter Friday - was part of the study team.  The Executive Summary is short and has good visuals.  I recommend a visit.  The whole study is much longer and requires a serious commitment.

I would point out the numbers and percentages of people with problems compared to the numbers and percentages of people who get help.  It's an impossible gap and probably explains not only a lot of our homelessness problems, but also accounts for dysfunctional families which create a population of kids with serious issues.  (The chart format is different in the original, but I think all the data are there.)

YOUTH

Grant Funds in State Fiscal Year 2013

Risk Behaviors 1                               
Approximately One in Five
4,641 traditional high school students had a moderate or high-risk behavior for substance use.
• The prevalence of this behavior was similar for male
and female students (20.3% compared to 16.4%)
Mental Health Issues 1, 2         
Approximately One in Four
7,214 traditional high school students experienced a mental health issue in the past year.
• The prevalence of mental health issues among female
students was higher than among male students (37.8%
compared to 19.4%)
Among 9 to 17 year olds, 5,550 (6%) were estimated to have had a serious emotional disturbance in the past year.

Youth Clients Served 4     
Approximately One in Nine
12,147 unique youth clients were served with support from state Medicaid and/or behavioral health grant funds.
Breakdown of Youth Served
By diagnosis category:
• Substance Use Disorder: 1,324 (11%)
• Serious Emotional Disturbance: 9,350 (77%) • Mild or Moderate Mental Illness: 2,215 (18%) • Co-occurring Disorders: 482 (4%)By gender:Male: 7,129 (59%) | Female: 5,018 (41%)

ADULTS

Total Prevalence 3         
Approximately One in Four
145,790 adults needed treatment for illicit drug or alcohol use and/or experienced a mental illness in the past year.
Alcohol & Illicit Drug Use 3    
Approximately One in Nine
62,815 adults needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol problem.

• Estimated need for treatment among low income
  adults was higher than among adults above 138% of the
  federal poverty level (16.7% compared to 11.5%)
• Estimated need for treatment among adult males
  was higher than among adult females (15.5% compared
  to 7.5%)
• About one-third of those that needed treatment
  (22,990 adults) also experienced a mental illness in the past year
  Mental Illness 3                    
  Approximately One in Five   
  105,966 adults had a mental illness in the past year.

• 61,176 adults (11.2%) had a mild mental illness, 23,487 adults (4.3%) had a moderate mental illness and 21,302
  (20%) had a serious mental illness
• Estimated mental illness among low income adults was
  higher than among adults above 138% of the federal
  poverty level (23.8% compared to 19.4%)
• Estimated mental illness among adult females was

higher than among adult males (24% compared to 15%)

Adult Clients Served 4              
Approximately One in Twenty
27,728 unique adult clients
were served with support from
state Medicaid and/or behavioral health grant funds.
Breakdown of Adults Served
By diagnosis category:
• Substance Use Disorder: 14,442 (52%)
• Serious Mental Illness: 16,841 (61%)
• Mild or Moderate Mental Illness: 2,061 (7%) • Co-occurring Disorders: 3,690 (13%)By gender:Male: 11,480 (41%) | Female: 16,232 (59%)

Behavioral health services in Alaska are funded through a mix of Medicaid, state and federal grants, Indian Health Service Compact and other Tribal funds, private insurance, self-pay and uncompensated care so the utilization data analyzed tells only part of the story. Nonetheless, the report’s findings reinforce what we heard from stakeholders: the behavioral health needs of many Alaskans are going unmet resulting in higher costs and poorer health outcomes.