McGinn is Mayor
SAM Remix Hits Its Stride
Can't Miss It: Wednesday
Requiem For a Dream Season
Wednesday was the second and final showing of SIFF's 2006 Fly Film Festival, this year based on scripts submitted to the Screenwriters Salon. We kinda wish they hadn't done that.
The challenge is that the filmmakers are given 5 days to shoot, 5 days to edit, and 2 days post-production, to come up with a finished 10-minute film. This year's crop of auteurs were Virginia Berta Bogert, Douglas Horn, Kris Kristensen, and Brad Wilke. Weirdly, given the time constraints, all of the films had a glossy, over-produced visual sense.
First up was War and Peace, which we disliked so much we had active trouble recalling it seconds after leaving the theater. The story is that a filmmaker (focus on the navel, focus on the navel!) has her documentary on the war rejected because it's too one-sided. Her colleague suggests she interview "Troy," a Marine whom we learn is the filmmaker's estranged son. Turns out he just got his papers for Fallujah. What timing. It really frosts the filmmaker that her son is a soldier, but she gives him a hug goodbye anyway. Not. A. Movie.
Kristensen (whom we know, just so you know) chose to opt out and make a documentary about the band House of Freaks, after the freakish murder of its lead singer Bryan Harvey. An examination of how music can thread itself into the soul -- and sometimes pull and unravel -- the film is gorgeously shot but suffers from the lack of time it has to introduce us to the interviewees: former fans of the band who talk about how it felt to "hear the news." Thanks to free use of the band's music and terrific production values, it's more like a music video at times than a documentary. Too ambitious for 10 minutes.
The Palweiser Label is about a young film school graduate (Aiiiieee! More navel lint!) whose first commercial gig, for Palweiser Beer, goes humiliatingly wrong when he's replaced by the client's wife's something's son, who also wants to be a film director. It's a little rocky getting started, with some pandering "Oriental" jokes (our hero is Chinese) and a cartoony replacement director with scarf, but it has funny moments. The script provides no stable ethical/moral perspective, though, so it's difficult to appreciate more than the jokes. Is it good to make commercials? Is it bad? Or is the best thing just to get even if somebody fucks with you? Almost Live! material.
Lastly, The Delivery is more or less a "silent" film with musical soundtrack. A reclusive writer (played by Shawn Telford, you know, from The Pillowman at ACT) orders his groceries and they're delivered by a shy, sweet girl who for some reason doesn't have anywhere pressing to be after that. They communicate via notes pushed under the door. There are some visual gags. Will he open the door and let her in? Of course he will but who cares. Thumb-twiddling twaddle.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Post a comment (Comment Policy)