Seattlest at Sundance: Take 2

It seems that it's always about day two of the fest that we really fall in love with this place---the overheard intense discussions of films, the industry gossip, the random interactions with individuals you will never see again, and all that swag just ripe for the taking---really, these are a few of our favorite things.

When we last left off, we were headed into Zoo. The buzz going into the film was not good; what we had heard over and over again was that it was far too sympathetic to those who like to get sodomized by horses. It's the opinion of the filmmakers that the news reports of the notorious Enumclaw horse sex incident were wildly sensational and biased against the participants. Probably true, but Zoo leans rather heavily towards beastiality rather than presenting the pros and cons of getting your ass reamed by a huge horsecock. The issue of whether or not an animal is capable of consenting to a sexual act is given short shrift compared to the idea that zoophilia is merely that: the love of an animal other than a human. Following that line of thinking, the only thing that these individuals were guilty of was loving those horses a little too much. Y'know, kinda like Michael Jackson.

But all of that is to be debated elsewhere. What about the filmcraft? That too was a mixed bag. Just like in his previous films, director Robinson Devor's camerawork is slow and deliberate. Our companion thought it was rather "European-feeling" and smoothly flowing, while we thought it was often ponderous to the point of boring. Taking that one step further, during a scene where dolphins leapt out of the water in slo-mo, a member of the press seated near us loudly sighed, "I fucking hate this film!" We wouldn't go that far, but the last thing a movie about horse-on-man sex should be is ho-hum.

After all of Zoo's re-enactments, we were hungry for a more traditional documentary. Enter Banished, the examination of a few (out of the thousands of) communities in the U.S. that forcibly exiled their black residents in the early 1900s. Even now, approximately a hundred years after the fact, the long-lasting effects of this racial cleansing can be seen in the demographics (i.e., overwhelming whiteness). The doc looks at three areas dealing with this outrageous past: Forsyth County, GA; Pierce City, MO; and Harrison, AR, the latter of which is trying to make amends for its racist history while still housing the KKK and flying the Confederate flag. Though the film could have been edited a bit more tightly (like ten minutes shorter), the story is compelling and it's a long overlooked part of our collective history. Sometimes we're just so goshdarn proud of America.

Staying in the documentary genre, our last film of Tuesday was Strange Culture, an examination of post-9/11 paranoia and restriction of civil liberties via the story of artist and college professor Steve Kurtz. After his wife's sudden death by heart failure, Steve becomes a suspect because of his politically-charged art drawing attention to the potential dangers of genetically modified organisms. Due to the science supplies used in his art, the FBI got involved (thanks Patriot Act) and Kurtz was arrested as a terrorist. Nearly three years later, the charges have neither been dropped, nor has the case gone to trial. Kurtz remains in an existential and legal limbo. The story is fascinating, and the storytelling adroitly blends interviews and re-enactments (Kurtz is unable to discuss all aspects of his case, so for some parts of the doc, his viewpoint is conveyed by Thomas Jay Ryan, the actor playing Kurtz, with Tilda Swinton as his wife). Just one more proud moment in American history.

This morning started early with Never Forever, another strong showing by a female filmmaker. Writer/director Gina Kim subtly, skillfully directs the luminescently feminine Vera Farmiga, who is thankfully given more to do here than in The Departed (like, I know I'm your therapist and you're my crazy patient, but I'm still going to sleep with you, Leo!). Farmiga plays Sophie, a woman happily married to a wealthy Asian-American man; she's got it all, except for a baby. But her husband's sperm ain't so great and the fertility treatments haven't worked, so out of desperation she finds another Korean man willing to breed her. He's an illegal alien who needs the money, and she really wants to get knocked up---what could possibly go wrong? Kim expertly traverses the territory of the aftermath with an unflinching eye. All in all, expertly done.