AIFF 2014: Thursday's Choices - Universal Language In Love And Pain Program

Frederique Nahmani is one the two main characters in the short narrative film Universal Language.  Kirsten Russell directed the film. Kirsten's Kickstarter Page is a good place to learn more about the film.  Here they are Monday night at the Bear Tooth and I believe they will still be here Thursday evening when the film plays again in the "Love and Pain" short narrative program.  I say this here, because for me, that film is the only one so far that has, for me, transcended beyond the story - things just all worked. 6:00 pm AK Experience large theater.  

As you can see in the grid below, the three programs that short narratives in competition will all play Thursday.  But, unfortunately, they weren't scheduled so you could see them all unless you planned ahead and saw Global Village already, because the Mixed Bag program only plays once, overlapping with Global Village.   And, unfortunately, with the 8pm feature, Come To My Voice, which people told me I must see.  It's about Kurds in Turkey.  8pm Bear Tooth  Come To My Voice plays again Sunday at 11am.  

The after school program is "youth films' made by Anchorage students.  I'm guessing some of the most original stuff might be in there.  Or else they just copied what they thought was how to do it.  You'll have to go to find out.  3pm Bear Tooth

The Other Side is part of the Confucius Institutes program of Chinese films.  It's feature about artists in China.  You can read more here.  5:30 pm Bear Tooth

Seeds of Time is one of the documentaries in competition that examines the underground seed collection and the man who established it to preserve as many seeds as possible for the future.  Read more here.  5:30pm Ak Exp Small

Finally, always one of the more exciting events of the festival - the Quiksilver Short Film Contest.  The films can't be more than 5 minutes long and they must include in the film three 'prompts' that were given out Dec. 4.  I don't know what they are.  It's fun to watch the films and try to figure it out.
But it is late  10:15pm Bear Tooth

Another good film in the Love and Pain program was Reaching Home.  Below is a very brief video with the director Ken Murphy last weekend.

AIFF 2014: The Good And The Bad Of 6 Bullets To Hell

[I didn't start out to do a post on 6 Bullets To Hell.  It just happened.  I don't have the video edited that should go with this - the Q&A after the film - and I'll add it later.  This post just wrote itself.]




The face you see on the screen is not always a face you'll recognize off the screen.  I tried to take a couple of pictures of the opening of 6 Bullets To Hell to be able to give you a sense of the kitchy spaghetti western look in the titles and images.  I was too late, but this image from the screen turned out useful because I had - unknowingly - just taken Crispian Belfrage's picture with Ken Luckey. I'm still not sure who this is.  I thought it was the hero Bill Rogers.  But as I look at the actors, I'd say it looks more like Ken Luckey than Crispian Belfrage, who played Rogers.  Luckey played Joseph 'Two Gun Joe' Ross, a scuzzy guy with yellow teeth.

6 Bullets To Hell is one of those films I'm not sure what to do with.  Is it cool because it's an homage Sergio Leone?  Or is the homage idea just a way to get away with a tacky movie?  Was it an excuse for these guys to go to a grown up summer camp in Spain and make a movie?  It mostly followed the spaghetti plot line (from Wikipedia):

Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars established the Spaghetti Western as a novel kind of Western. In this seminal film the hero enters a town that is ruled by two outlaw gangs and ordinary social relations are non-existent. He betrays and plays the gangs against one another in order to make money. Then he uses his cunning and exceptional weapons skill to assist a family threatened by both gangs. His treachery is exposed and he is severely beaten, but in the end he defeats the remaining gang. The interaction in this story between cunning and irony (the tricks, deceits, unexpected actions and sarcasms of the hero) on the one hand, and pathos (terror and brutality against defenseless people and against the hero after his double play has been revealed) on the other, was aspired to and sometimes attained by the imitations that soon flooded the cinemas.

In this case the hero has given up being a gunfighter for farming. (Thus the first question in the Q&A which I'll get up eventually.)  It's the outlaw gang that comes into town.  I don't recall any deceit by the hero.  He went up to each target and told them he had come to kill him.  We certainly had scenes of terror and brutality - particularly the gang rape and murder of the hero's pregnant wife.  One can argue that this film portrays the rapists as disgusting thugs who all get killed in the end and so it tells a moral tale.  But the good guys are all good and the bad guys are mostly all bad.  One did halfheartedly protest the rape and murder, but he was quickly killed.  He should have pulled out his gun and shot a couple of the gang since he ended up dead anyway.  But then there would have been no need for the hero.  Some of you may be detecting my attempt to be fair with a movie that has such gratuitous violence (we really don't see any actual sex).  I'm thinking I should have asked them about how they felt about adding one more violent gang rape and murder to the endless such images that are already on the screen.  Was it better than The Lookalike because it was an homage?  Or because there were clear distinctions between the good guys and bad guys?  Or because it was outdoors mostly?  Or was The Lookalike better because the characters were more nuanced?  In both most of the women were basically sex objects for men and some got shot.

Better to compare it with the opening night film WildLike which looks at sexual abuse from the abused perspective, where we see the social and emotional impacts on the young girl.  Or I Believe In Unicorns which also has a younger girl seduced by an older (but not that much) guy.  In these films there was little violence.  WildLike portrayed the lead up to sex, but then cutaway.  Unicorns was more overtly sexual, but the kids had some clothes on, and the nature of their sexual relationship was important to understanding the story.

They clearly were having fun being in Alaska, and the audience made me proud with their unexpected questions and (expected) hospitality.  Here the crew are getting some pictures together in front of the film festival sign.

Russel Cunningham, Luckey, Tanner Beard, Belfrage, and friend (r-l)

I probably would have skipped 6 Bullets to Hell since I knew it was not my type of movie.  But it played at 10pm, there was no other films on at that time, and I was already at the Bear Tooth.  The Q&A was more entertaining than the film and I'll add that here when I get the video ready.

Any movie can give one something to chew on.  I'm not sorry I saw this one.  I enjoyed talking to the actors who were there.  They were genuinely decent guys.  I just keep thinking though, that we have relatively little time on earth and we should be thinking how what we do makes the world a better place to be, helps make humans more hopeful and decent to each other.  Maybe they'll take the experience they got from this film to make future films that add a little more understanding and insight into the world.

AIFF 2014: Anchorage Audience Liked The Ambassador To Bern

This film plays again tonight (Wednesday) at 5:30 downtown at the Alaska Experience theater.  Last night's audience at the Bear Tooth appeared to really like it  Here is a sampling of the audience as they walked out.  (And the two dark ones at the end were in the unlit theater still.)





This is everyone I talked to.  (I didn't cut out ones I didn't like.)

There was a short written explanation of the context at the beginning of the film, but it went too fast for most people to read.  AVO was the secret police in Hungary.

Actually there were two stories going on.  The breaking into the Hungary embassy is what we see on the screen, but the background (which relates to what's going on) was the Hungary freedom fighters in 1956 and the subsequent Soviet invasion to put them down.  Among the embassy staff there are people who were on different sides of the political upheaval  in Hungary.

You can see my Skype interview with the director, Attila Szász, here.

AIFF 2014: What's On Today (Wednesday)

  Here's the Wednesday schedule.

ACS Internet was down till just now.  Just a quickie here and I'll try to get a Wed post up shortly.

Ambassador to Bern was very good last night.  Two Hungarian immigrants to Switzerland in 1956 break into the Hungarian embassy in Switzerland after the Russians invade Hungary.  I asked a bunch of people, as they came out of the theater what they thought.  Intense was a word a number used.  It's one of the best films I've seen at the festival so far.   I've got a Skype interview I did with the director, Attila Szász up here.

[UPDATE:   I just posted video of audience reactions to The Ambassador to Bern.]

I saw the documentary  Mala Mala  Monday night.  It's a strong documentary that takes you into a world I knew nothing about - transexuals in Puerto Rico.  While the filmmakers take is sympathetic, it's not all a pretty picture.  When you seriously look into the world of transexuals, you have to question our culture's traditional black and white notions about gender.  What your genitals look like simply may not be consistent with what you head knows.  Is that a disorder?  To the extent that people's mental and physical identities are inconsistent and that causes them pain, sure.  But if society were not so freaked out about the idea, they would have a lot less pain.  Worth seeing - and it had the best final credits of any film I've seen so far - neon lights, music, and a dancer.

Both these are 'in competition' for awards in their category, and if I hadn't seen them both, I think I'd be headed for the Alaska Experience small theater to see them at 5:30 and 7:30.


The Mexican Consulate program at the Bear Tooth should be good too - they always bring up first rate films and there's a reception after The Zebra.   I suspect that's where I'll end up.

But the museum hosts two docs that have tempting subjects.  Thule Tuvalu is a documentary that apparently links glacial melting in Greenland to the flooding of the South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu.  Cold Love looks at arctic exploration.

Winter Project is a feature centering on snow machining in Alaska.

AIFF 2014: Powerful Alaska Film On Juneau Japanese-Americans And WW II

Imagine the high school newspaper editor's father being arrested by his best friend's father and sent out of state for the crime of being of Japanese.

The Empty Chair in the title of the film refers to a chair on the stage of the 1942 graduating class at Juneau High School.  The valedictorian, John Tanaka, wasn't there.  He'd been relocated with his family to an internment camp after Pearl Harbor was attacked.  John's best friend's dad was the highest ranking military officer in Juneau at the time and was ordered to arrest John's father, and later to round up all the Japanese-American residents and ship them south to an internment camp.

I got to see The Empty Chair Sunday morning - at its world premiere on the  73rd  anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  Heres a bit of video I took during the Q&A after the Sunday showing.



This film is a testament to how a dedicated film maker can preserve a small but significant part of history with his camera.  Greg Chaney interviewed Juneau residents who experienced those events.  Japanese-Americans who were kids back then and were sent to camps during the war.  Their white classmates, and a few others alive at the time like Katie Hurley.

Chaney chronicles a small Alaskan town - the film estimates Juneau had about 5000 residents then - where the Japanese residents were well integrated into the community and how some key members of the white community struggled when they were required to deport these citizens to the camps.

The film also takes advantage of vintage film and photos from any number of archives and from some family film that includes footage of playing in the snow on Dec. 7, 1941.

This is a huge contribution to Alaska's history and because it focuses on high school (and younger) kids, it would be a terrific addition to Alaskan history curriculum in high schools throughout the state.

It plays again tonight (Tuesday) at the Alaska Experience Theater at 7pm.

The programming is tight this year, but if you're seeing The Ambassador to Bern at 5:30 at the Bear Tooth, which I also recommend, there will be time enough to get downtown to see The Empty Chair.    It's ok if you're a few minutes late, though you might want to reserve a ticket in advance if you can.

The movie is quite well done, even on the minuscule budget they had.

AIFF 2014 - Attila Szász Talks About His Film The Ambassador To Bern

The Ambassador To Bern looks to be a very good film.  Unfortunately, film maker Attila Szász can't make it to Anchorage for the festival - he's just starting filming of his next film.  But I got a chance to interview him via Skype recently.  I'm going to combine text and video here, because I think it will work best, particularly since there was some trouble with the Skype images for some of the video.  I'll give you enough video to get a sense of Mr. Szász.

The Ambassador to Bern plays

Today (Tuesday) at 5:30pm at the Bear Tooth and 

Tomorrow (Wednesday) at 5:30pm at the AK Experience small theater

There's nothing in this long interview with the director that should be a spoiler for anyone.

As I've worked with the video in preparing this post, I realize there are a couple of key themes of interest that are discussed:

• The poetic license of fictionalizing a historic event.  Szász speaks of how the facts aren't all known about what happened, so they decided to write their own story about it.  And even though the ambassador in question was still alive - in his 90s - they decided not to talk to him before making the film. 
• Using past events to get people to discuss current events.  Szász relates that while they wanted people to think about how people in government today have the same kind of complex relationships as people did in the past, he wasn't trying to make a point either for or against the current Hungarian government.  But people on different political sides saw statements for or against the current government. 
• The story I hear from all film makers - the perseverance required to make a film.  

We spoke first, well after comparing the weather in Anchorage and Budapest, about how he got onto this topic.  He had a friend who'd stumbled onto the story of two Hungarian immigrants in Switzerland who stormed the Hungarian embassy in Bern, not long after the Russians crushed the Hungarian revolution in 1956.

1.  How he found the story

"Our screen writer Norbert Köbli who wrote two movies before regarding this subject matter, spent time in the library searching for those other two movie and he kept bumping into interesting stories from this time - 1956 and the surrounding year - and he bumped into this story he’d never heard of, actually no one had ever heard of it in Hungary, this attack against this embassy in Bern and he liked the idea of something that happened outside of Hungary regarding the revolution, it was the aftermath of the revolution."

2.  Fictionalizing an historical event   (this is the text of the video clip above)

"He realized what they had in the library was just the confessions of those people in the embassy and he realized they were synchronized confessions, synchronized reports, probably just one side of the truth.  Then he decided, ok, he takes creative freedom  and writes a version that’s a possibility that might have happened inside because nobody knows what really happened inside.  That’s why he created this hostage situation that never really happened in the embassy.   Because what happened according to the reports, the two guys broke in and started shooting and they were surprised the people in the embassy started shooting back.  They found at least 70 something bullet holes in the walls. So it was like a scene from a Western movie and we realized it would be too much to consume for the audience, the whole shooting, so we decided to go with a more intellectual happening inside."

Since I haven't seen the movie - only the trailer - I asked about what the two were looking for in the safe in the embassy.

3.  What were they looking for in the safe?

"No body knows what they were after but there were two versions, one is to get the attention of the Western media, because the former prime minister was just executed two months before this happened, and these guys who were immigrants in Switzerland,  realized nobody pays attention to what is going on in Hungary any more so they decided to make a blast, come up with something violent and loud, that’s why they used their guns.  They got what they wanted because the western media covered the event for many months afterward and again they started paying attention to what was happening in Hungary.     

And the other version was they were after the agent list which they kept in the safe in the embassy, because they heard that a lot of agents filtering in among the immigrants, pretending they are immigrants and finding out what all the immigrants are about and there were even attacks happening against the immigrants in Switzerland, so that’s why the guys decided to find out who were the agents among the immigrants so that’s the other version, but we thought that the agent list, even if it might be true it’s a little bit used for these kinds of movies, so we started the code book"

Q:  First shown on Hungarian tv?

Yes it was on Hungarian tv and came out on dvd and had a limited theatrical run and now on the festival circuit

Q:   Did people come out and tell you more about that time?

People wanted to find out what was true and not true.  After the gala premiere in Budapest, in the movie theater.  One of the relatives of one of the guys who died in the embassy came up to us.  

4.  Relatives of the two men contacted us after seeing the film  (Part 4 is in the clip above)

"Two guys were shot during the incident and we kept (???).  His relative showed up and  said it was very shocking to see the movie and told us her version of what happened.  A few months later, relatives of the other guy showed up.  They still lived in Bern, they said they liked the movie, they like the performance, but didn’t come up with their own version.  

The Ambassador was still alive, fictionalizing names of characters 

Actually the guy who was the ambassador in the film was still alive when we shot the film, but we decided not to contact him because he was over 90 years old and because we have a very strong statement in the movie that never happened in reality.We decided to change his names, to change all the characters’ names in the film, because it was not about them any more.  It was a story inspired by a real incident.  I think one or two months after the premiere he died." 

He had a very brilliant career.  He  became ambassador in Moscow and Prague and I don't know where else and he retired as a deputy prime minister I think.  He went far after this incident.  Basically we didn’t want to use him as a model.  We created brand new characters and we just wanted to show that there was a lot of conflict inside the embassy between the workers, between the secret police, between the ambassador,  between the secretaries, so it's all about people agreeing or not agreeing about how the system works and fighting for how things work.  The same thing that is happening today.  We wanted to reflect that as well, And of course we wanted to create a very tense and suspenseful thriller with all the twists. We realized whenever it was shown in a film festival outside Hungary, would have difficulty to understand the political and historical context because we used a lot of names that they don’t know who they are, but they enjoyed it anyway - 

Q:  but they’re all fake anyway -  

The Real Historical Figures in the Film

No the real names, because we're using the name of János Kádár  new prime minister at the time  of the incident who executed the former minister [Imre Nagy], so these were real historical figures, but outside of Hungary very few people know who they are, [but they kept hearing their names again and again. . .]

5.  Parallels to today 

Q:  You say the same thing is happening  today in Hungary.  What parallels are there?

It was fun to see that both parties said, this is a great movie for our party.  One party said because it is anti-communist it is a good election movie.  We told him that was not our motive, or goal at all.  We didn’t want to criticize or agree with the current government, just to show nothing has changed in the last fifty years.  Another crew member asked how could you get financing for this because you can see all the lines all the turns all the suggestions in the story and in dialogue are so much about what’s going on today.  So we enjoyed the situation that everyone kept hearing what they wanted to hear and read what they wanted to read between the lines, so it’s something that makes people think and makes people think about the recent situation, so that was fun.

How the film evolved over a decade

Q:  I understand that was your first feature film?  Yes.  

Q:  How does it feel having it done?

 I was working on getting my project off the ground for about a decade.  I directed a short film that has done pretty well all over the world. And so I thought ok the next step would be easier for now I have a   [hole in can?]   , but the one or two projects I was working on was too big to get financing in Hungary especially because we imagined  . . .

6.   A Script Appears

I wanted to shoot film based on my script, but it took a very long time that I got very frustrated.  My old friend Norbert Köbli, who wrote the screenplay, suddenly out of the blue called me and said I wrote this script and I know you aren’t interested in other people’s scripts but just read it and if you like you have a chance to direct it.  At that time I said I was interested in anything, Norbert just send it over.  He sent me the script and I read it and said, it’s going to be a tv film because it’s not financed by the film fund, but by another authorization who are usually financing tv movies and short films.  Yes, it’s a very little money, very low budget, but maybe you can take it one step further than a tv movie if you can get hold of the material.  Fine, I’ll give it a try, even if it is a tv movie, it is a narrative I can direct, because I usually direct commercials for a living and you know I wanted to, finally I wanted to film  . . . 

7.   Shooting the film and distribution

It was a very,very fast, crazy fast shooting and we enjoyed every moment of it, and the editing was brilliant. But we had a deadline.  We needed to deliver the film. 

Q:  Where did you shoot it?  

We shot it in Budapest.  So it was a great couple of months.  We had a limited run in movie theaters we gave it a chance, but the Hungarian tv had a premiere date, no distributors wanted to touch it because they didn’t have time to promote the film before it came out.  So we just went from movie theater to movie theater and they enjoyed it very much and they wanted to show it  so they organized special screenings all over the city and then we had the tv premiere and then afterward it came out on DVD because of the demand. 

Because the critics reacted enthusiastically and the audience loved it and so they all wanted to see it again.  So it is out in DVD and from time to time it is being shown in a movie theater in a couple of the cities in Hungary and we just had a rerun on tv so, we are getting good feedback and now we are in the beginning of our festival run.  We had the international premiere in Montreal with [?????] and we won an award in the first fiction film category, Bronze Zenith for the First Fiction Feature Film.  It was a blast.  It was a nice start with the festival.  And probably because of Montreal and the award, a lot of festivals have taken notice  and we’re happy to see it is doing well around the world and we are happy to see it is going to Alaska - We’re pleased -  Actually the short film I was talking about was also screened at this festival in Anchorage, it was called Now You See Me, Now You Don’t  In 2006 it was screened in Anchorage.  

Q: I started going to the festival regularly in 2007, so I don't recall it.  Is anyone from the film coming to Anchorage? -  

 I would love to go, but we are shooting our next movie.  Same crew and same producer, same production company, same writer, financed by the same authority.  And the same amount of money.

8.  The new project - assassination of a famous courtesan, financing the film

Q: What's the new film about?

The ssassinatrion of a famous courtesan….Years ago that shook up the entire city of Budapest, everybody was talking about it because the courtesan was very famous, everyone knew about her and they were shocked because someone famous was getting murdered.

Q:  Was that before or after the Arch Duke got shot?

It’s before.  It takes place in January, so it’s maybe a couple of months before the assassination [of the Arch Duke].  It’s a style piece.  It’s the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy.  So it’s very difficult to recreate the era, because we have to start from scratch, the costumes the props, set, everything.  And we have so little money again, but I just couldn’t refuse this chance because the script is again is something I love very much.  I was warned, do you remember the first time you had to shoot in 17 days with so little money, you suffered and you were frustrated, and you want to do it again?  I said, yes, because it’s a good script and we have now, nineteen days so it’s two more days, - piece of cake - probably it's a bit longer,  the story. so it’s very difficult to shoot again, but hopefully next time we’ll have the backing of the film fund and we’ll have maybe three or four times the time and money, because it’s normal that Hungarian films are being shot in 35, 40, maybe 45 days and we had less than 20 both times.

 Q:  So they got good value for their money?

Yes, and I’m afraid they are getting used to it that I am maybe being categorized as a guy who can make something good with very little money, so let’s not give him any more.

 Q:  That’s good and that’s bad

Yes, so we are very excited, we start shooting in two weeks, and we see how that turns out.   But otherwise we have now a lot of projects we want to take to the film fund

9.  Why the Hungarian poster just had the ambassador's face and the English poster had guns

Based on our success with the Ambassador to Bern, they are open to support us, and we’ll see how this second movie turns out.

 Q:  One more question - about the differences between the two posters

The first one was a teaser poster.  In Hungary the guy who plays the Ambassador is a very famous actor.  So his face alone is a very strong image for most of the audience.  But the producer wanted to something to put more actors, more action to show it has some real action, excitement, suspense in the film, so that’s how we came up with the second poster.  And we decided to use the second one internationally, because no one knows the actor who plays the ambassador outside of Hungary, so we wanted to give a feel of what is happening in the film.  I remember the first version of the poster even had explosions in it because the graphic artist got carried away so let’s not go the Indian way or the Thai or Korean way 

 Q:  The US way

So we don’t have any of that in the film so we took it off.  

 Q:  Is there anything I didn’t ask?

I don’t want to spoil anything for you, so I’d rather not talk about the story  , , I think  the first film it was a great experience but every film maker says that,  especially working with the actors, that was the biggest jump for me, to work with such good actors.  And we were very happy and pleased to see all the love we received.  We didn’t know if it would go anywhere.  We wanted to make a film that might be broadcast on tv once or twice and that was it and we’re happy to see the length it goes.  These are very good months for us.

Q:  Looking forward to seeing it. 

I asked again if anyone from the film might be able to come to Anchorage and he said unfortunately not.  Everyone is busy.  He's starting his new film and the actors are all involved in live theater in Budapest.  He said that right then Ambassador to Bern was at the Cairo Film Festival and they'd been offered airline tickets and free hotel rooms, but no one could even take advantage of that, even though none of them had ever been to Cairo, and it's a lot closer to Budapest than Anchorage.  

AIFF 2014: Tuesday's Offerings Include Ambassador To Bern and The Empty Chair

I can't believe it's only Monday night as I write this.  The weekend was packed with all sorts of interesting events and good films.  So, what about Tuesday?

My Picks

Greg Chaney, Director of The Empty Chair, Sunday

The Ambassador to Bern  and The Empty Chair (Made in Alaska #6)

I saw The Empty Chair Sunday at its world premiere.  It's a great Alaskan documentary that looks at the Japanese-American community living in Juneau when Pearl Harbor was attacked.  Although they were well integrated into the small town (one of the people interviewed said there were about 5000 people), they were all evacuated to internment camps after the attack.  Through interviews with the survivors - both Japanese-Americans and not, the movie paints a picture of a community that worked hard to support their neighbors.  The empty chair in the title refers to a chair on the stage of graduation for John Tanaka, who would have been the valedictorian had he not been sent to an internment camp.  This is a powerful movie that uses interviews with people who were there - including Katie Hurley - and archival footage and photos.  This was a very low budget film and gets my highest ratings on quality per dollar spent.  It captures some Alaska history while the eyewitnesses are still alive.  7pm at the AK Experience Theater Small.

Attila Szász director of Ambassador to Bern

The Ambassador To Bern - I've only seen the trailer, but I did a Skype interview with the director Attila Szasz which I'll get posted later today.  This is an historical feature film.  Based on a true story about two Hungarian immigrants who try to take over the Hungarian embassy in Bern, Switzerland, a couple of months after the Russians crush the 1956 Hungarian revolution.  This one feels like it's going to be good.  It is in competition (as are the other two films at the Bear Tooth tonight.)  5:30pm Bear Tooth

Ambassador to Bern is set to end at 6:46pm, so there is time to get down to the AK Experience in time to get to the 7pm showing of The Empty Chair.  This is a documentary, so if you get there a few minutes late, it will be ok.  For those sticking around at the Bear Tooth, there's over an hour between films.

The Others

You shouldn't dismiss the rest just because these aren't included in "the picks.' I just haven't been able to track everything. I Believe in Unicorns  (8pm Bear Tooth) and Six Bullets To Hell (10 pm Bear Tooth) are both features that are 'in competition.' You can see more about them (and Ambassador) at my post on the features in competition.

Québékoisie- A Canadian documentary.  From festival genius:

Mélanie and Olivier decided to cycle the North Shore of Quebec, Canada, to better understand the complex relationships that exist between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. This quest for identity would push them to travel deep inside themselves and to faraway lands. Their encounters, both planned and spontaneous, include the surprising tale of an Innu man in search of his ancestors in Normandy, and the heart-wrenching story of the sister of Corporal Marcel Lemay, who was killed during the 1990 Oka crisis.

6pm at AK Experience Large


These Hopeless Strangers  - Another Brooklyn film (Monday night's Appropriate Behavior also took place in Brooklyn.)   From Festival Genius:

When big news comes in for the constant bachelor Shawn, he makes it a mission to visit everyone who has shunned him for years. This includes his old friend Greg - a children's musician living in the cozy, domestic confines of Brooklyn. After the two hit some hilarious re-acquainting pains, they soon hit the American road for a trip that will show them the gifts and the costs of real friendship.

8pm at AK Experience Large 

The Making of the Cebra

This is one of the film brought in by the Mexican Consulate. Here's the description from Festival Genius: Mexican filmmaker Fernando León's award-winning film "La Cebra (The Zebra)" will be shown as part of the 2014 AIFF Mexican Consulate Program at the Bear Tooth Theater on December 10. Here's what one critic had to say about The Zebra: "A visually stunning debut by longtime screenwriter Fernando León, The Zebra feels like what might have resulted had Luis Bunuel adapted Homer’s Odyssey and set it in Mexico circa 1915" Come to the inlet Tower hear Sr. León director discuss his film, and then go see La Cebra at the Bear Tooth the following night.  7pm Inlet Towers, 

AIFF 2014: Monday Choices

The craziness of the weekend schedules - multiple movies playing simultaneously from 11 am to 11 pm - is over.  But one is still left with decisions.  Here's today's schedule.

I've had trouble keeping up with all the feature films and all the documentaries.  My focus has been on those 'in competition' to start with and then look beyond.  I did see "Listening" last night and enjoyed it and I'll post more on that later.  Just because a film isn't in competition doesn't mean it's not good, and the decision to pick one film over another often is divided.  Every year, there's at least one feature or documentary that I think is better than one in competition.

But tonight, I'm going with Appropriate Behavior (feature in competition) and Mala Mala (documentary in competition.

Appropriate Behavior is about an Iranian-American lesbian.  I bet you haven't seen too many films on that theme.  I have more on the film in my list of features in competition.   5:30pm Bear Tooth

Mala Mala is about the Puerto Rican trans community.  Another topic you probably haven't seen on film before.  This one is a documentary and I've covered it a bit more in my list of docs in competition.  8pm Bear Tooth

These two films are part of the Festivals traditional "Gayla" program.


Other Films being shown tonight:


Porch Stories
This feature sounds promising.  From their Indie GoGo fund raising page (which got $7900 out of their goat of $7500.)

Maddie is engaged and closing on a house when a man from her past walks by, throwing her planned out life into question. From nearby porches, neighbours young and old witness Maddie’s quandary unfold and are in turn moved to act radically in pursuit of their own happiness. Maddie’s actions inspire her next door neighbours - an elderly Portuguese couple and a musical brother/sister duo - to follow their hearts’ desire, even if it means going against convention.

And here's an interview with Sarah Goodman, the director, before it was finished if you want to  find out more.   The film takes place in Toronto.   8pm Alaska Experience Large

Made in Alaska #4  includes an aurora film.  You can get more info on each film here.  When you go to the link, click on the titles.  7pm Alaska Experience Small

• The Mystery of the Copper River | Mikhail Malakhov

• Tracing Roots | Ellen Frankenstein 2014

• Aniak to Dillingham | Luc Mehl 2014

• The World Beyond the World | Paxson Woelber 2014

• EPIC AURORA & Natural Phenomena | Todd Salat 2014

The Homestretch is a documentary that follows the lives of three homeless high school students as they struggle to graduate.  I heard good things about this movie from people who saw it Saturday, and I'm sorry I'm going to miss it.  6pm Museum


Mr. Intangibles  -  A bit from their Kickstarter Page (which also has a trailer):

MR. INTANGIBLES has been a labor of love from the beginning.  Over the course of 3 years, we wrote, re-wrote, raised money and finally shot our passion project.  We pulled together an amazing cast and crew and shot a film that is both heartfelt and hilarious.  And now we are seeking your help to finish post production and bring this film to a theater near you!
SYNOPSIS:Inspired by (probably) true events, MR. INTANGIBLES is the story of Billy “Junk” Wainwright, a guy who only loves two things: his girlfriend, Celia, and his college football team, The Bulldogs. But when Junk finds out that Celia is leaving him to date the team’s star quarterback and nation’s golden boy, Tate Armstrong, Junk’s world is turned upside down and kicked in the nuts.  8pm Museum

Sacrifice

The description at Festival Genius:

"Deep in the woods, four teenage boys come face to face with their own conscience."

  The Hollywood Reporter review, gives a little more detail.

"To celebrate their winning season, Hank and his friends Kaz (Brandon Smith) and Benny (Lewis Tan) decide to go on a hunting trip, with Tim begging to come along. Things begin well enough, with the usual drinking and boisterous spirits, until . . ."

I don't want to spoil it so I'll stop there.  And it's in Texas.  6pm Ak Experience Large



  

AIFF 2014: Khalil Sullins, Director of "Listening"

This is the kind of thing that happens at the film festival all the time.  I meet a director and actor and I end up seeing their film instead of what I had planned.  In this case, Saturday afternoon, I had an hour before Rocks in My Pocket began nearby at the museum.

So after making this very brief video, I went in to see 'Listening' - a feature I knew nothing about, except someone had told me it was good.  It's also Khalil's first feature.

So I decided to at least see the beginning.  

It starts out with a young man sweating his way through a Cambodia forest until he reaches a remote temple where he meets the head monk (or at least a monk who spoke English) and says he needs to gain self discipline because he's done something very bad.  Then we cut back to, well, I don't want to tell you too much.  Let's just say two young men are experimenting with brain reading technology.  What I saw was reasonably well done and I wanted to stay, but I knew it would be playing again -   And I'm planning to go see the rest of it tonight:

Sunday, Dec. 7, 8pm Bear Tooth

Here's the festival's  description  of Listening.

[There are going to be a few of these quick and dirty videos.  I was on my way to another film, and in all but one case, hadn't seen the film yet.  I wanted to give you a chance to see and hear the filmmaker, but didn't have the time to push for more than their canned quick "my film in 30 seconds' speech.  I'll get better stuff up during the week when the films are only in the evening.]

AIFF 2014: Films (and events) For Sunday, Dec. 7 [UPDATED]

It's Pearl Harbor Day.  A couple of years ago we had a great film, The Red Machine (scroll down), that was all about trying to decode the Japanese messages just before Pear Harbor Day, but it wasn't programmed for Dec. 7.  I don't see any such films for today. [UPDATE:  Actually, The Empty Chair was a good film for Dec. 7.  They even had clips of the bombing of Pearl Harbor AND footage of people playing in the snow that day in Juneau.  It was a very good movie, and a great capture of Alaska history while Juneau folks who experienced the internment of Japanese in WWII are still around to talk about it. NOTE:  Empty Chair (see bottom of post for more) is at 11am at Alaska Experience Theater.]

My picks (that I've seen):

Petter Ringbom Dec. 5 at Bear Tooth

Shield and Spear, which I saw last night, is an outstanding documentary on the contemporary on the edge art and music scene in South Africa.  The filming itself is beautifully shot  
and Petter Ringbom (who is here in Anchorage for the festival) did this as a one person film crew - which you wouldn't know.  But when I talked to him after the film, he said he thought this helped him gain the trust of the artists he filmed, had a painting vandalized when the ruling party's lawsuit to have it taken down was unsuccessful.  A photographer had her hard drives, with all her work, stolen.   Interesting characters and their stories are revealed well.  1pm Alaska Experience Large



Rocks In My Pockets -  This is a full length animated feature.  Word I'm getting is that the programmers and juries were split on this, some loving it and some hating it.  I'm on the loving it side.  The Latvian born American film maker, tells her family history with depression and suicide, which takes you through the history of Latvia in the last century as well.  It's very droll and she talks about things individuals and their families normally want to hide with straightforward images (they are simple in one sense but not really - each frame is a piece of art you could put on your wall).  I can understand if you like traditionally told stories this will not be your thing.  If you like original films that have a look and feel you probably have never seen before and are full of serious and honest content (and if you don't, why spend time at a film festival?) then this is a must see film.  5pm Alaska Experience Large



Film Archival Viewing and Talking at The  Museum

Rick Prelinger Image from Spots Unknown

Jim Parker, Director of Film Programming,  has put together a  day at the museum featuring archival film and discussions and demonstrations of interesting ways it can be used.  I'm struggling with words here because I haven't seen this yet.  But he's got a film archive living legend - Rick Prelinger - here with his film No More Road Trips  made up of old home movies he's gotten from people all over the US.  The film, as I understand, edits together all these home movies into one cross country road trip.  This again, is the kind of thing you can get at a film festival - unique kinds of films and a chance to talk to the people who make them.  There are also some vintage Alaska film.  Check out all the stuff going on at the museum today.  Here's an earlier post I did on Rick Prelinger.   No More Road Trips? is at the Museum at 2pm. 

Richard Gray director of Lookalike

The Lookalike  - I saw this last night against my better judgment, but it was well made and kept me watching the whole way through.  This is a typical Hollywood action murder movie with a good dose of violence, drugs, and sex.  The musical score, when I noticed (and mostly you shouldn't), was good.  But I'm just not into movies that use women as sex objects and for target practice.   But if you like that sort of thing, it's well done.  The film maker is here.  And he just finished shooting a film in Seward, that I'm guessing we'll see at the festival next year.  2pm Alaska Experience Small

Dec. 5 at AK Exp Theater

Listening    - I saw the first 45 minutes or so of this yesterday and plan to go back for the rest tonight. Two college plus another, develop brain reading technology.  Based on the opening scene, it doesn't go well.  This is a first feature for film maker Khalil Sullins, who is here in Anchorage.  I'm putting up a short post with video of him later today, so look for it.  8pm Bear Tooth





Global Village Short Narrative Program -   I'm looking forward to this because I've been scoping out the short narratives  in competition.  This program has four of them.  Based on what I saw in yesterday's short narrative program, they're going to be as good as my expectations.  I did talk to one of the film makers via Skype last week and you can see that here.  This is high on my todo list. Here's an overview I posted of all the short narratives in competition - by program.  You can get more details of each film there.  1pm Alaska Experience Theater Large

Alaska films  -   As you can see on the schedule, there are a bunch of Made in Alaska films to see as well.  This is a chance to see what Alaskan film makers are doing, and I think you'll be surprised by the quality of many.  Check the grid above of times and places.

Particularly look at the 11 am program which is the first program of the day.

The Empty Chair (11am at Alaska Experience Theater) looks worth seeing.  Here's the description

In 1942 an Empty Chair was set aside for the Juneau born Japanese American valedictorian of the Juneau High School. The Empty Chair is a unique story about how Japanese Americans from Juneau Alaska were sent to prison camps during WWII and how the community stood in quiet defiance against the immoral internment of American citizens.

The director, Ed Chaney, did a movie that followed a couple who walked, skied, and kayaked across Alaska.  You can see him talking about that film here.