The news out of the Cannes Film Festival yesterday (May 24, 2006) was that at a press screening for Sofia Coppola's new film MARIE ANTOINETTE starring Kirsten Dunst, Steve Coogan and Jason Schwartzman, the critics booed. As of this writing, the film has not yet premiered to the public but the damage in a lot of ways has been done. Before a "real" audience has seen the film, the international scuttlebutt is that the film is bad, really bad. I haven't seen the film so I can not comment on the quality of the work but I question whether or not critics can make or break a film or whether people listen to them at all.

Don't get me wrong. I think that criticism in any field including cinema is hugely important. Good criticism should help us understand something in the context of history, society and culture as well as give us insight from someone who is or should be an expert in that field. It seems to me that in recent years film criticism, save very few like AO Scott, is more E! Entertainment than Cahiers du Cinema with very little middle ground. Audiences are smarter than I think that critics (and studios for that matter) give them credit for and will go to see whatever they want regardless of what the critics say. Take The Da Vinci Code for example...one of the most anticipated films of the year based on a multi million dollar selling book - it was universally panned by the critics. The film opened last weekend and had the second highest box office opening weekend in history!

So with independent and foreign film not having the huge marketing budget edge over studio films and therefore not able to reach everyone on the planet in the vicinity of a television,magazine, computer, newspaper or billboard, how do indie and foreign films get a chance at the box office? Besides indieIN, of course - good reviews from those very same critics that booed at the screening of Marie Antoinette.

It is a vicious cycle. One that I think can change if audiences were a bit more informed about their choices. Not necessarily informed about whether or not a film is good or bad but things like cast, subject matter, how the film fits into the context of life, culture, and society. For me, indie film is sometimes like when you are a kid and you are trying new things, foods, tasks. You are initially reluctant and afraid because of what you have "heard" - you can fall off a bike and hurt yourself, broccoli is good for you so it must taste bad. But then, you get on the bike and you feel like you are flying for the first time. You eat the broccoli and is not really that bad. Either way, you have to work up to it. Take the time to learn balance, speed and confidence. In the fast paced culture we live in - with the desire for instant gratification driving everything we do, every decision we make, every food we eat - maybe if we took a little time, took a breath long enough to prepare for a leap of faith, we just might discover something incredibly satisfying that might last a bit longer than an instant.

Keeping it indie,

Julie

The Down Low on Downloading...

The way people view movies has certainly come along way. Thanks to videopodcasts and streaming videos, watching a short film or video (and soon feature films) is now as simple as a click of a button. But is this the best way to truly experience a film?

I’ve always been reluctant to viewing films online. Sure when traveling, I’ve used my computer to watch DVDs and even borrowed a friend’s video iPod to catch a missed episode of Lost. But this week, I found out about a short film, A Supermarket Love Song, by filmmaker Daniel Outram. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will be making it rounds at a few festivals this summer. At present, I wouldn’t be able to attend the festival so I thought I’d view it online on the Sundance website.

So I pulled up the link on my Mac G3 laptop and tried to watch the film. Slowly the film started to load. Although the film is only 13 minutes long, it took me about 25 minutes to view with the stopping and starting or pixilated view. By the film’s end , my first thought, I bet that would be great in a theater.

Maybe I’m being too much of a purist, but for me, the best part of the watching a film is the entire experience. Hunching down in your comfy seat of a large dark theater, with the images dancing on a huge screen is your only view and the sound enveloping you. That way I can truly escape. Watching films online, I feel like I’m given the information but am robbed of the emotional experience.

Maybe this will all be solved when I can get an even higher, high-speed connection plus a new G5 computer with surround sound speakers. But until then, I think I’ll stick to it old style.


Long live indie film,
Michelle

P.S. Check out Daniel's film, A Supermarket Love Song this summer at the Seattle, Atlanta, or the Los Angeles Film Festival, or at the Kodak Short Film Showcase at BAFTA in London!

For the first time in its 22 years, VC FILMFEST: The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, decided to have a juried Narrative Feature Award. It was my honor and absolute pleasure to serve as a member of that inaugural jury. The festival, which took place - May 4 -11, was a true celebration of Asian Pacific cinema from all over the world and offered a wide range of films that explored the complexity of relationships, identity and history within and without the Asian community. The 14 features I watched were all very diverse but the one thing that I took from each of them was an incredible excitement. Though most of the films were made by first time filmmakers, each film had a sense of ambition that is rarely seen in the most experienced filmmakers' work. Story lines dealt with race, politics, religion, immigration, and sexual identity. There was even a musical - a real honest to goodness musical! The quality of work was truly inspiring.

In addition to the features, there were shorts, digital media programs and seminars that encouraged not only the dialogue of the nuts and bolts of filmmaking but also the nurturing of filmmakers and of community. What was also interesting was that I noticed that a lot of people worked on each others films. Not just actors and actresses but editors, photographers, camera men, etc. The audience was the same. Though I am not certain, but just by seeing the amount of lanyards in the audience, I would venture to guess that the majority of attendees bought festival passes and not individual tickets - a sure sign that an audience is ready to support multiple films and not just one that they have heard hype about. As I spent the past few days at the festival chatting with both filmmakers and audience members, I started to wish that there was a little more of that same spirit within the general independent film community. I see indie filmmakers now who are much like actors who get into acting because they want to be rich and famous. This to me is the antithesis of indie filmmaking - indie filmmakers do not become rich and famous unless they stop making indie films. At VC FILMFEST, the emphasis seemed to really be on storytelling - the importance of having a voice, of being truthful to yourself, of challenging your audience and not being afraid. The whole experience was, for me, invigorating to be around.

Here is a list of highlights from the festival, but I encourage you to check out their site www.vconline.org for more information or screenings of these films at festivals in your area.

COLMA: THE MUSICAL - directed by Richard Wong with music and lyrics by H.P. Mendoza
Think the brilliance of the songs in Hedwig and the Angry Inch directed by Richard Linklater.

JOURNEY FROM THE FALL - directed by Ham Tram
A moving and highly ambitious film about the experience of a family fleeing from Vietnam.

SAIGON LOVE STORY - directed by Ringo Le
A coming of age love story set against a country - Vietnam - struggling towards the modern age.

ASIAN STORIES(BOOK 3) - directed by Ron Oda and Kris Chin
A hilariously sad story about the lengths you will go to get over a break up.

THE MOTEL - directed by Michael Kang
What happens when a 13 year old's life gets turned upside down and backwards by a stranger.

KIEU - directed by Thu Ha T Vu
A moving portrait of 24 hours in the life of a sex worker in San Francisco's Tenderloin.

Keeping it indie,

Julie

Docs Rule at the Tribeca Film Festival

Without a doubt, the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival was a star-studded event. The Festival opened with a bang with the premiere of United 93, and then hosted the world premiere for both Poseidon and Mission:Impossible 3˜which even broadcast its own red carpet arrivals. But never mind the red carpet, you can find plenty of stars just by looking at the jury. Rather than having one jury judge all of the films, Tribeca created four juries for each program that included such judges as Trudie Styler, Melvin Van Peebles, Ed Burns, Whoopi Goldberg, Candace Bushnell, Wycleaf Jean, Lou Reed, and Laurence Fishburne (to name a few)!

Even with all this glitz and glamour is drawing attention to this heavily marketed festival, the majority of the 274 films playing at Tribeca do not have a film distributor. As I attended several films over the course of my visit there, I found myself being drawn to the documentary films.

The one film that really moved me was The Bridge, directed by Eric Steele, a documentary about the Golden Gate Bridge, which aside from being an American icon and tourist attraction, is also the site of more suicides than any other place in the world. Steele and his crew filmed the bridge every day for a year and captured more than two dozen suicides. Steele gives a glimpse into what led these people to this tragic decision through interviews with their friends and family, and even a jump survivor. The film is very powerful and touching, a tribute both to the people and the bridge itself. It‚s been over a week since I saw the film and I can‚t get it out of my head.

Another stand-out film was When I Came Home--—which won Tribeca'’s New York Loves Film Documentary award. Director Dan Lohaus unveils the troubling statistic that over 300,000 of the estimated 1.2 million homeless in the United States are veterans, including men and women are currently returning from Iraq. The film follows Harold Noel, a returning Iraq War veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and is forced to live out of his car because he no longer qualifies for Section 8 housing. It incredibly disturbing watching Noel fight tooth-and-nail to receive the benefits he was promised before enrolling and at one point, his only alternative seems to be going back to Iraq. Noel’s fight leads him to the White House, and even though he finally received help from an unnamed source, he continues his battle for the other homeless veterans and ones who are still fighting today.

I have to say, overall, I was impressed by my Tribeca Festival experience. They seem to have bridged the gap of combining high-profile films with the small, indie films, which I guess is what New York City is all about. We will keep you up-to-date on when thse two great films are playing near you.

Long live indie films,

Michelle