AIFF 2015: Sunday Afternoon Report - Cricus Without Borders, When The Ocean Met The Sky

Number 1:  Circus without Borders was pretty much what was advertised.  It focused on a group in the Canadian arctic that developed some acrobatic skills in part to combat suicides in the village - and a group of acrobats in Guinea, in Africa.  The leaders of the two groups met, bonded, and brought their groups together.  The story was told directly in video by the participants themselves and there was a lot of great acrobatics as well as cross-cultural background on how the acrobatics helped support the local communities.

Yesterday's Madina's Dream got me thinking about how far documentaries have come from the days of the omniscient male narrator with the deliverer of the truth voice.   Marina's Dream had no narrator and I could have used just a little help with context.  A map would have helped.  But basically, the film's job was to get us to see the lives of people fighting for their land and lives.  It was about people and emotions, not about facts.  It was a point of view story.  We never hear from the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir who is repeatedly accused by people in the film of trying to wipeout the Nuba people.  That's probably with good reason because Wikipedia's account says al-Bashir is under indictment by the International Criminal Court for a variety of crimes including genocide and there's a Wikileaks document that says he's embezzled $9 billion.



Number 2:  When The Ocean Met The Sky

I'm trying to figure out why this one worked well for me, while Midora in Hawaii yesterday, didn't.  Marina is about two sisters who haven't seen each other for a while and now have a week together and their various problems with each other come out in the movie.  It was well done, but I got tired of their conflict after a while.   Ocean was about three brothers forced on an outdoor adventure with to get their (substantial) inheritance as stipulated in their father's will.  Their unresolved conflicts start coming out in the first scene.  Yet this film worked for me.  Why?

Part may be because  I don't understand Japanese and got the dialogue only through the subtitles.  It had sisters while Ocean had brothers.  I saw Midora after the movie on Sudan so I was already a bit down.

In any case,  I really enjoyed When The Ocean Met The Sky.  It just worked.  The tension among the brothers was real and the confrontations were realistic, as were the eventual resolutions.  And one likes to think that the father who put this condition on the will intended that they would work through their differences this way.   The three actors who played the brothers and the one who played their guide in the woods were all strong and their chemistry, even when they were fighting, was good.

In a sense this was a story that could have come out of Hollywood, but the way it was done was much more understated.  The audience here clearly enjoyed it.

I'm writing this after having seen Children of the Arctic, but I need to hold off on that and post this.  Lots of people were in line for the next film - High Treason.

AIFF 2015: Audience Likes Iranian Film The Descendants

A film festival volunteer  told us before the film, that the filmmaker really wanted to audience to send feedback.  The film is about an Iranian student who's moved to Sweden to study.  His mother gets upset because after two months they have heard nothing from their son.  Finally the dad goes to Sweden to find their son.  He discovers a world where foreign students of low means are living a different life from the one they write home about.

The volunteer herself is Iranian who went to Sweden as a student before coming to the US, so she found the film very poignant.

In response to the filmmaker's request, I offered my camera to audience members after the film and you can hear their comments below.

Thank you for sending this film to our festival!







The Descendants plays again Wednesday night, December 9 at 8 pm at the AK Exper Large theater.

AIFF 2015: Sunday Preview

There's lots of great stuff today.  The best option is to go to the scheduling website - click here - where you can see the schedule in different useful ways.  Just put your cursor over the Schedule tab for the drop down menu and experiment.






 There are just too many interesting films for me to cover and different things will interest different people.  So you have to do it yourself.

There's a movie about Tlingit soldiers in Vietnam (Hunting In War Time), a Bangladeshi woman (Under Construction), a 90 something woman who directs her first play (Janey Makes a Play),  a horse headed for the glue factory, that's rescued and goes on to be a champion (Harry and Snowman).  Children of the Arctic follows the lives of Barrow youth.

There are a number of features - including one about three young men forced to go on an adventure together to fulfill the conditions of their father's will (When the Ocean Met The Sky.)

There's a short documentary program.

And there's an archival movie involving Alaska that was recently discovered (High Treason).

Just pick something and enjoy what an international festival like this offers us.

Below is a screenshot of the simple schedule (the links don't work here, but it's clean and fast).  Go here to see the list with descriptions.

Sunday, December 6 

 

12:00pm

Harry & Snowman Circus Without Borders 

1:00pm

Made in Alaska Shorts 

1:30pm

Janey Makes a Play 

2:00pm

Hunting in Wartime 

2:30pm

When the Ocean Met the Sky 

3:00pm

No Greater Love 

3:30pm

Stink! 

4:00pm

STORIS: The Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast 

5:00pm

Children of the Arctic 

5:30pm

Short Docs 

6:00pm

Under Construction 

7:30pm

High Treason (1929) 

8:00pm

Death on a Rock 

 

AIFF 2015: Saturday Afternoon Report

It's been a hard day.  I started out at the Bear Tooth watching The Incredible Adventure of JoJo,  which wasn't bad.  Basically, it was a Little Red Riding Hood story of two very young kids - seven and maybe 18 months - finding their way back to grandma's house after mom drives off the road and doesn't wake up.  It started off with some snarky humor for the parents, but that faded away pretty fast and I got impatient.  I wondered whether it was a movie I'd take my three year old granddaughter too, and I think not.  Probably seven year old boy is perfect. 

Then downtown to watch the best film of the day, for me, The Descendants, an Iranian film that tells the story of less affluent students studying in the west from any country.  When his son has not contacted the family back in Iran, the father travels to Sweden to find his son and discovers a number of students whose lives are much less successful than the stories they are sending home.  Scholarships  don't exist, they are working many hours to support their studies, and living precariously from day to day.  The father was a strong character as were the students he meets in Upsala.  But I think of the much richer presentation of the same basic story that are in books like The Americanah and this film is pretty superficial in comparison.  We get told that things are hard, but but didn't get much detail of why.

I do have audience reaction on video for the filmmakers who couldn't be here, but did, through an intro before the film, ask for such feedback.  Look for that later - both in English and Farsi.

The last film I saw was Madina's Dream.  This is the sort of documentary that everyone who lives comfortably in a nation that sells arms to the rest of the world should see.  It's just video of kids and their mom's in the Yiba refugee camp in South Sudan and the men fighting against the Sudan national army to keep their land in the Nuba Mountains.  I don't recall any narrative, just subtitles to translate for us.  This film didn't create a story to package this for us, like many docs do, and that was refreshing.  But it was pretty depressing.  And this sort of thing is repeated here and there all over the world.

OK, my last show is about to begin - Midori in Japan.  I hope this is a little lighter.

[Reposting for Feedburner issues.]

AIFF 2015: Saturday At The Film Festival - First Choice Between Animation and The Incredible Adventures of Jogo

Seeing all the films laid out by time and venue is easier this year with SCHED.  I won't have to do as much charting on here as I've done in the past.  Here's a screen shot for Noon (when things begin) and about 4:30pm today.

Go To the Actual Grid Here Where You Can See Details For Each Block.

I thought I would just go see the animation (AK Exp Large noon). I know nothing about them, but they are all in the same program, and I like the idea of surprise. And animation is often the most original and interesting category visually. But some folks tipped me off about The Incredible Adventure of Jojo ((and his annoying little sister Avila). (Bear Tooth Noon.)

After that, there's more hard choices.  One feature in competition - The Descendants  is an Iranian film at the AK Experience at 2pm - and one documentary in competition, and sure to be very well attended is  about romance novel authors - Between the Covers at Bear Tooth at 2:30,  plus there's a shorts program, though I'll wait until the Shorts Jury Selection Program which is Thursday.  (But as I look at it, it's playing opposite Creditors which is one I really want to see.  Lots of hard decisions.  You can't have the chocolate chip AND the mango surprise AND the mocha fudge.  You have to make choices.

AIFF 2015: First Night

It's been a bizarre and busy day.  I woke to a Japanese business man, a rural Alaska mayor, and our house sitter having coffee in the kitchen.  Some video on their project coming in the future.

Best thing that happened didn't happen.  The car that smashed into the rear end of the car to the right of me at a stop light, in all its wobbling and skidding, never touched my car.  It was like watching a slow motion shot in a movie.

My cough/cold was better today, but it's still lingering waiting for me to stop paying attention.  So I'm  going to keep this brief so I can go to bed and heal more.

Kyle Rideout Q&A after Edward

We got to see Edward at the film festival.  Interesting movie.  Great subject and two interlocked stories - the first being the use of photography to capture motion, but having a row of cameras take pictures as people walk, jump, etc.  The second was his troubled relationship with his young wife, with lots of hints that his earlier carriage accident and resulting frontal lobe injury, had changed him.  But were not uallysure what comes from the accident and what would have happened anyway.

As he moved from clothed to nude models, I couldn't help but think about how many people volunteered to pose nude back in the late 1870s.   What does it mean about those times?  What does it tell us about our naked selfie era?  What might it suggest about the social construction of nudity?

There were beautiful shots all through the film.  I would have like a little more on the mechanics of how the cameras actually synched.  There were lots of ropes, but it was never clear to me how the ropes triggered the cameras.  Maybe I just missed it.  Given that Eadweard Muybridge is famous because of these photos, and not because of his marriage, a little time explaining that better would have been good for me anyway.  And yes his marriage and jealousy are important.  A well prepared questioner pointed out that timing in the film different from actual history - that he'd done these action photos before he met his wife.  Kyle explained that in the play the chronology was correct, but that the need for constant flashbacks in the film convinced them to portray them as married while he was doing the action shoots.  But when he said that, it some things much clearer - why his wife would have known about him and sought him out, that he was already fairly eccentric before they got married, and why he wouldn't use her as a model in the action studies.  I recognize that the logistics of flashbacks is tricky, but meshing the time together seemed to take something away from the emphasis on their marriage in his life.   We really didn't understand who she was and why she had nothing to do all day but wait for him to come home.  That didn't seem to match the progressive, forward young woman who would cross the country to meet and marry this older photographer.

But it was a perfect film to open the festival given it focused on the beginnings of moving pictures.  Eadweard plays again Wednesday night at Ak Experience theater.


Afterward I got to talk to several filmmakers and festival folks.

Bjørn Olson - Heart of Alaska

Bjørn Olson is a filmmaker from Homer, whose film Heart of Alaska, is in competition among the
Alaska Made Films.  His website says:

Hig, Erin and their two children walk out of their comfortable home on a cold March predawn morning and begin a four-month human powered expedition around Alaska's Cook Inlet. While carrying food, camping gear and other necessities for their survival, the family also carries a question – 'what do you think the future of Alaska will look like in 50 years?'
Read more: http://www.groundtruthtrekking.org/movies/heart-of-alaska/#ixzz3tRNPAZ5e

We saw a film from Hig and Erin's earlier trek from Seattle to, what was it, the Bering Sea?  So this ought to be good.  It plays next Sunday (Dec 13) at 11 am.

Scott Ballard's feature, Death on a Rock, is a bout a woman facing death.

Here's the film's Facebook page.   It plays this Sunday, Dec. 6, at 8pm at the Alaska Experience theater.


Yeah, the lighting was weird after the movie.







Phillip Thomas, co-wrote and acted in When the Ocean Met The Sky  (just remember it's in the past tense) about three brothers whose inheritance is dependent on them doing a treasure hunt together.  You can watch the trailer and see him as one of the brothers.

This plays this Sunday (Dec. 6) at 2:30 pm at the Bear Tooth.  Here's the trailer:




OK, I need to get to bed now.  And get better.   Enjoy the festival.

AIFF 2015: The Man Who Proved Horses Leave The Ground While Running Comes To Anchorage Tonight

Well, not exactly in the flesh - he's been dead over a 100 years - but appropriately, in a film about his life.  From the National Museum of American History:

"Expatriate Englishman Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904), a brilliant and eccentric photographer, gained worldwide fame photographing animal and human movement imperceptible to the human eye. Hired by railroad baron Leland Stanford in 1872, Muybridge used photography to prove that there was a moment in a horse’s gallop when all four hooves were off the ground at once. He spent much of his later career at the University of Pennsylvania, producing thousands of images that capture progressive movements within fractions of a second."

The film itself begins at 8pm, but it will be proceeded by the opening gala of the Anchorage International Film Festival.

The film is Canadian and simply titled Eadweard.   Kyle Rideout, the director will be there for questions afterward.

Looks like a good start for the festival.

With the Gala and all, it's a little pricey, but includes some food, and a chance to meet some of the filmmakers in town for the festival.  And, of course, ask the filmmaker about the film right after you watch it.

A discount version (regular festival prices) will Wednesday night at the Museum.


I''d add an additional note.  This is a feature film, but it is not in competition.  Most films are submitted to the festival by the filmmakers.  Some of these are recruited by the festival programmers who hear about good films or see them at other festivals.  Some are invited, for various reasons, to show, but not be part of the competition.  I'm assuming that that is the case here.

This is a good thing, because in the past, there were several years in a row where the opening night film ended up as the award winning feature.  That didn't seem like a great idea to a number of us who regularly attend the festival.

And here's the trailer:




He was a bit of a character, but perhaps that says more about the rest of society and how it imposes rules on all of us, than it says about him.

Mao: “I used to read [these outlawed books] in school, covering them up with a [Chinese] Classic when the teacher walked past . . . "

As a boy, Mao read voraciously, developing what would become a lifelong habit.  “What I enjoyed were the romances of Old China, and especially stories of rebellions,” he later recalled.  “I used to read [these outlawed books] in school, covering them up with a [Chinese] Classic when the teacher walked past  . . .  I believe that perhaps I was much influenced by such books, read at an impressionable age.”

I read this on the ferry into Seattle to catch the train to the airport earlier tonight.  I couldn’t help noting the irony between this quote and an article in today’s LA Times  about how four men involved in a book company in Hong Kong that publishes political books about Mainland politicians, disappeared in October this year.  Their work, based on the one country two systems policy, is legal in Hong Kong.  [Can't get the link right now as we prepare to board, but will try to add it later.]

Where will the future Mao’s come from?  Well, Mao’s legacy is pretty grim, so maybe those books should be available too so people don’t repeat what he did.  

The original quote comes from James Bradley, The China Mirage:  The Hidden History of American Disaster in Asia.   

Bradley, who also wrote Flags Of Our Fathers, started this research trying to understand what had caused the US to go into the war in which so many died, and his father had fought.  

So far, the basic premise is that American Christian missionaries along with the traders who got rich smuggling opium into China, painted a picture for Americans  of China just waiting to become Christianized and Americanized.  And a few Chinese students in the US played this fantasy to their advantage.  

Sound familiar?  

Seems like we’re still running blindly into other parts of the world we are woefully uninformed about and are easily swayed by Americanized nationals, especially those of wealth, good family, and a US education, and a story that matches our narrative of the US greatness and as the savior of the world.  

Bradley traces how Warren Delano was among the opium traders who created family dynasties.  Delano's fortune was passed on, in part, to  both Theodore and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Franklin’s story of China came directly from his Grandpa Warren and his mom Sara who had spent a few early years in a completely isolated rich quarter in Hong Kong.   From this she was an expert on all of China.  

What do we really know about the Middle East?  Sure, there are a lot more sources today, but think about some of our recent adventures, and think about what some politicians are saying we should do.  Their realities are just as wishful as those who invested in Chiang Kai Shek in the 1920s.  

AIFF 2015: Shorts in Competition - From Iran, Belgium, Kenya, US, South Africa,

I started a little ahead this year, but grandchildren rightly claimed my attention this last week.  And passed on their germs.  So my goal at the festival is to see as many good films as I can while my health improves.  I will blog as much as I can and meet those other two goals.  Because of the four different programs these films play in, this got a bit complicated.  I hope I've made it easier for you to find the films you want.  And let me know if there are any typos.

Here are the Shorts in Competition.

Shorts = fictional films much shorter than features.
In Competition = films the screeners thought should be up for awards.

Since 'good' is often subjective - a couple of my favorite shorts weren't in competition last year - this doesn't necessarily mean these are the very best.  [UPDATED 8:53am:  I speculated wrong in the original about what the Jury Selection title actually meant.  So I've cut that out and I'm adding the info I got back from AIFF:  "These were the shorts and super shorts selected for competition." ]

AIFF 2015:  SHORTS IN COMPETITION
Film Title	Director	Country	Length
Nkosi Coiffure	Frederike Migom	Belgium	14 min
Scary Larry	Greg Ivan Smith	USA	13 min
The Bravest, The Boldest	Moon Molson	USA	17 min
The Call	Zamo Mkhwanazil	South Africa	10 min
The Story of a Rainy Night	Mehdi Fard Ghaderi	Iran	23 min
Zawadi	Richard Card	Kenya	12 min

The GOOD NEWS:  The will play several times in different programs.
The BAD NEWS:  Keeping track of when and where is tricky.

So, I've tried to make it a little easier for you to find when they play.  You still have to think a bit.

Program (right)   Film (below)	LOVE & PAIN Saturday Dec 5, 2015 2-4 pm - AK Exper Large	SHORTS JURY SELECTION Thursday. Dec 10 5:30-7:30PM BEAR TOOTH	SHORTS REAL LIFE Saturday Dec. 12 2-4 pm Snow Goose	GLOBAL VILLAGE Sunday, DEC. 13  1PM-2:45PM AK Exper Large
Nikosi Coiffure	√	√	√	√
Scary Larry	√
Bravest,Boldest	√	√	√
The Call		√	√	√
Story of Rainy Night		√		√l
Zawadi		√		√

Nkosi Coiffure
Frederike Migom

Belgium

14 Min

Showing all four programs in table above

"During a fight with her boyfriend on the street in Brussels’ Congolese neighbourhood, Eva escapes into a hair salon. The African women in the salon initially support her, seeing a woman in distress. But when they find out what the fight is about, opinions differ…"

Scary Larry

Greg Ivan Smith (attending  Dec. 5)

USA

13 min

From Middlesex.edu

Over Columbus Day weekend, Middlesex was thrilled to have Greg Ivan Smith back on campus shooting his original short film, "Scary Larry." The movie is set on a college campus in the early 1950's and follows the story of four coeds in the first year the college adds women to its ranks.   Greg wrote the movie to feature the talents of the ensemble of the Theatre 80 acting class.
Greg has been named by indiewire.com as one of “Ten Short Filmmakers You Should Know." Greg's short films have screened on five continents in over 35 film festivals.

This is NOT the slasher movie by the same name.

One Take Films suggests Greg is a pretty flexible film maker:

"I am currently seeking new representation, and would love to write and direct and edit your next zillion dollar movie, independent film, commercial campaign, television series, web series, music video, actor reel, or other exciting project..."

And that he directed the web series Darwin. 

The Bravest, The Boldest
Moon Molson
USA
17 Min
Showing three programs (not Global Village)

You can look at the trailer - two army officers knock on a Harlem door to make an unwelcome announcement.  This film has been to a lot of festivals in the last two years, including Sundance.



The Bravest, the Boldest - Original Trailer from Moon Molson on Vimeo.

The Call

Zamo Mkhwanazi  

South Africa 10 min.

Showing three times (not Love  & Pain, which seems most fitting)

A pregnant woman, a man, a decision.  

The Story of a Rainy Night 
Mehdi Fard Ghaderi 
Iran
23 min
Showing Jury Selection and Global Village

From an Iranian website:

"Story of a Rainy Night" was praised for using a different approach in presenting filling the gap between the reality of family relations in Iran and the West's demonizing media reports with sincere emotion and empathy.
Fard-Qaderi's 24-minute film is produced by Iran's Youth Cinema Association and narrates the story of an elderly man who is celebrating his birthday and takes a new look at the relationships among his grown children.
It has been screened and awarded in numerous international film festivals, including the Hollywood Festival of New Cinema and the 9th annual Colony Film Festival in Marietta, Ohio.
Mehdi Fard-Qaderi is one of Iran's promising filmmakers who has directed several successful short films so far. His films have been screened in numerous national and international festivals."

Zawadi
Richard Card
Kenya
12 min
Showing Jury Selection and Global Village

Having some trouble finding out about this movie without just copying from other film festivals.  Here's a bio of the director from his website:

"RICHARD LIVES IN LOS ANGELES BUT IS STILL A PROUD TEXAN. HIS STYLE AND TECHNIQUE HAS BEEN SHAPED BY YEARS OF EXPERIENCE BUT ALSO BY WORKING WITH AND STUDYING UNDER MANY INDUSTRY SHAPING DPS INCLUDING BILL POPE ASC (THE MATRIX TRILOGY), ROBERTO SCHAFER ASC (THE KITE RUNNER) AND DANA GONZALES (SOUTHLAND). A NOMAD AT HEART, RICHARD FINDS GREAT INSPIRATION IN OTHER CULTURES AND TRAVEL. IF HE IS NOT SHOOTING A MOVIE IN ANOTHER COUNTRY HE IS TRAVELING THERE WITH A STILL CAMERA TO DOCUMENT ITS INTRICACIES.

RICHARD BELIEVES NOTHING GREAT IS MADE WITHOUT PASSION, HE APPROACHES ALL OF HIS WORK WITH THIS MENTALITY.

IN 2008 RICHARD RECEIVED 2 DEGREES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS BOTH BACHELORS OF SCIENCE FOCUSING IN FILM PRODUCTION AND PHILOSOPHY."

There's also a Vimeo video there from the film, but I couldn't find a share link.  And it doesn't have subtitles, so I'm guessing it is not a trailer.  There's a kid collecting bottles.  You can see it here.  Looks to have promise.

You've All Heard About The Guy Who Ate A Car, Right?

I was talking to my granddaughter about things and the story about the man who ate a car came to mind.  I was at the computer, so I figured I could get some video of this great feat.

I got something about a Frenchman, but no video.  Then I got the video.






It doesn't take too long to realize this has to be a spoof. First there aren't any pictures.  No way.  Second, they're all too articulate and serious.


.



But on the same Youtube page was The man who ate a lightbulb.





This guy looks pretty real, though some of the crunching noises sure seem to have been edited in.  My wife was wholly disapproving and my granddaughter and I had a serious discussion about not trying to to this and how dangerous it would be.

Next, there was the man without bones.






OK, this is getting a little weird.  But it is always amazing to me what the human body can do.  And the ways we limit ourselves by saying, 'that's impossible.'

OK, there was one more that seemed more appropriate to an almost three year old:  World's Fastest Reader




I told her she could try doing this.


Then I found this Jalopnik post that says nobody has eaten a car:

"The idea that a person has actually eaten a car is so commonly accepted that I had to figure out why that is. And that why is actually a who, and that who is a Frenchman named Michael Lotito. This is the guy that most people are pretty sure they saw eat a car on That's Incredible or something like that back in the '80s. And they almost did."

He does say that the French guy - who died in 2007 - didn't eat a car.  He went from bicycles and shopping carts to a Cesna 150.

He also concludes the video at the top is a fictional short film.  Which is what I was working on - a list of the shorts in competition for the Anchorage International Film Festival.  So enough of these diversions.