Don't Shoot the Messenger

I finally got the chance to see An Inconvenient Truth last week and I must say I really enjoyed the film. In my "other life" I work at The Nature Conservancy, so environmental conservation is a priority for me. Much to my surprise, when I've asked people if they've seen the film, the conversation immediately turns political, whether or not Gore should be President, the current war in Iraq, (or if Gore really invented the internet). Sure, publicity on the film is centered on Al Gore (the narrator of the fil), and the film and the documentary shares Gore's passion for spreading the word on Global Warming, but in the end, it's really about the truth he is trying to deliver. Isn't it?

This makes me recall a similar experience I had a few years ago when Fahrenheit 9/11. I asked a friend if she saw the film and she immediately ranting how she supported George Bush--as if seeing the film would be a betrayal to him.

It makes me wonder, in film, especially with documentaries, can the message get lost in the messenger? If instead of Al Gore as the centerpiece of the film, if some random river scientist were sharing the impending threats of climate change, would we listen?

Well, if you are interested in finding out more about climate change and global warming without "supporting Gore" here are a few places you can look.

The Nature Conservancy - www.nature.org
Climate Crisis - www.climatecrisis.net
Clean Air, Cool Planet - www.cleanair-coolplanet.org
Climate Wire - www.climatewire.org

Long live indie film,
Michelle

Though as most of you know who have been reading my blog installments, I am not one to be hating on the big budget "event" movies - except for when they star insane men with "please everyone love me" complexes and when films are marketed on my fruit. I, for one, am very excited about the crop of summer-blockbuster-event-sequel-Hollywood-needs-to-make-up-for-the- lull- in- box -office- numbers-by-studio -films movies. I am looking forward to Bryan Singer's Superman as well as Pirates of the Carribbean 2 and the Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (because speed needs no translation). But, if you are anything like me, while you love the event, the experience gets old, your brain starts to numb and you get a little deaf from all of the noise of things blowing up and big stars making asses of themselves. I have the perfect cure for what ails you... a sampling of some of the very cool, non mind numbing, least blockbuster quality (and I mean that in the best possible way) laden films coming out this summer. Check your local listings.

Brothers of the Head (Louis Pepe and Keith Fulton) - a film that just floored me when I saw it at Toronto last year all about conjoined twins who form a ultra punk band in the 70s. Creepy and cool, it is being released by IFC Films and Fuse Network.

Wassup Rockers (Larry Clark) - must admit I am not a huge fan of this director but I left this film invigorated and yelling "Wassup Rockers" to all of my friends. The film is about the adventures of Mexican skater kids who travel from the barrio to Beverly Hills. Don;t miss the Janice Dickinson cameo among others.

The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Ken Loach) - winner of this year's Cannes Palme d'Or. Cillian Murphy stars, Ken Loach directs and you really do not need to know more than that. Run to the theater.

Gabrielle (Patrice Chereau) - I am not going to lie to you this a difficult film - it is about the final break in an unfaithful marriage (a story that has been told many times before) but in the hands of the French master Chereau and starring the luminous Isabelle Huppert, the film is a stunning work of vulnerability, brutality and utter loneliness.

Road to Guatanamo (Michael Winterbotton) - the unbelievably prolific director has done it again with a stunning film about 3 Britons who go to Pakistan for a wedding and end up being held under suspicion in Guantanamo. Timely and devastating.

The Illusionist (Neil Burger) - you can't get more indie than this film in that it stars some of the indie world's darlings including Lili Taylor, Adrienne Shelly and Fisher Stevens along with Matt Dillon who plays Charles Bukowski's alter ego - a man whose mission is to do nothing but write but life will not let him.

A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater) - technically not really indie but I put it here because Linklater is great at bringing innovation in animation on a more intimate scale - it stars Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder and the fabulous Robert Downey Jr.

The Science of Sleep (Michel Gondry) - after Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Dave Chappelle's Block Party much less all of his fabulous music videos, I will see anything Gondry does - throw in Gael Garcia Bernal and I am in the front row.

Shadowboxer (Lee Daniels) directed by the producer of Monsters Ball and The Woodsman, this film stars Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr. I did not catch it a festival so I will see it when released this August.

The Photographer, His Wife and Her Lover (Paul Yule) doc about a photographer who at 73 married a 48 year old woman who stole his work and sold it while keeping him locked in the basement and taking another lover - yes a true story.

So this should give a good base o start with. Keep checking with indieIN weekly to see what may be coming to your town.

Keeping it indie,

Julie

“Will it play in Peoria?” How many times have you heard that term? When talking in circles about the audience for independent film, it comes up often. “Sure,” they say, “indie films do great in Los Angeles, New York, or even in San Francisco, but will it play…” You get the picture. As a Midwestern transplant, I always wondered why anyone would gauge the potential success (or failure) of a film on a small town in Illinois with a population of 112,000.

This past weekend I heard this phrase yet again, but this time in another small Midwestern town, Saugatuck, Michigan, at the Waterfront Film Festival. I overheard two older women discussing the films they had seen that day, and remarking how they’ve attended every year because this was the only opportunity to see indie films all year long. “After all,” the woman said, “Will it play in Peoria?”

Curious, I had to get to the bottom of this. So, of course, I turned to Google. Much to my surprise, this phrase dates back to the early 1920s in the vaudeville era, originated by Groucho Marx who first asked this question when he was putting together a new act. He believed if a show could play in Peoria, it could play anywhere in America.

Over the years, Peoria was deemed the perfect place for a test market not only for films but for consumer products, politicians, and concerts. Bob Dylan and Robert Plant have launched concert tours there. At one time, Peoria closely reflected the diversity of the United States population in terms of race, income, age, business interests, and educational background. And while they are still considered an ideal test market, cities such as Albany, Santa Barbara, and Greensboro are more commonly used.

And just in case you were wondering, Peoria only has three movie theaters in town which were all playing studio films. In fact, there were only two independent films playing within a 50 mile radius. So will it play in Peoria? Probably not.

The 2006 World Cup started this week with teams from all over the world from England to Trinidad & Tobago (in the very first appearance) to Brazil to Portugal competing for the coveted top prize. But unlike, other international sports competitions like Wimbledon or the Grand Prix, the Olympics or even the ahem, Oscars millions and millions of people around the globe will be listening and watching and not just for a few days or one night but an ENTIRE MONTH! However, the majority of those millions will not come from the United State, even though there is a US team that is actually contrary to years past doing quite well. There is no full on network coverage like NBC does for Wimbledon or the Olympics. Is it because Americans just don't care about football/soccer or is there something else at work here? I just don't get it. There is certainly money to be made in advertising dollars, good looking superstar athletes (as demonstrated by the lovely Becks) and kids all over the country play it with parents watching and cheering them on - family values at their very best. What is it all about? Why ha America kind of ignored this worldwide phenomenon except for at McDonalds in Latino communities? I think I got it....football matches are quite long with very low scoring. There often contain sublime moments of utter athletic perfection (see Becks' left foot), great endurance and quick skill that you will remember for a lifetime after but those moments do not come quickly and without patience, much like what happens when you watch a foreign film. Perhaps this is why Americans are so afraid of the long running times and subtitles of some of these films. They are so used to the quick fix, the easy emotional pay off and the fortune cookie wisdom soundbyte from the trailer, that they have no patience to wait for the sublime.

Films by Kurosawa or Bunuel or Truffaut or Marker (some of the greatest foreign filmmakers of all time) are not exactly quick or apt to spell it all out to you. You must sit and wait and absorb with patience but if you do, you are rewarded by the sublime. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing better than a quickie - good guy vs bad guy story to help you escape from life's crap but I implore you, the audience, to take some time to watch a film by one of these directors without scheduling anything afterwards, you will NOT regret it. If you want to start out on the shorter side, check out Chris Marker's La Jetee - a film you may recognize the content of. If you are feeling incredibly adventurous, I recommend SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE by Victor Erice - an almost 4 hour epic poem that is one of the most beautiful and moving things committed to film.

Go England!

Keeping it indie,
Julie

LA Film Fest mixes the old with the new...

The Los Angeles Film Festival announced its 2006 line-up yesterday, offering an ambitious and eclectic mix of films and events. The festival, which opens June 22 through July 2, will open with David Frankel's The Devil Wears Prada and will close with Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' much-talked about comedy,Little Miss Sunshine. Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland’s award-winning Quinceañera will screen as the Centerpiece Premiere.

George Lucas will serve as the Festival's Guest Director and will host the annual filmmaker's retreat at the Skywalker Ranch in Marin. DJ Danger Mouse, aka Brian Burton, will serve as the Artist-in-Residence for the fest. Both Lucas and Danger Mouse have each selected a sidebar of films that will be featured in the festival including Jean-Luc Godard's Masculine Feminine, Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko, and Fassinder's The Marriage of Maria Braun.

The LA Film Fest will award two $50,000 cash prizes to the winner of the Juury awards for the Narrative and Documentary Competition. This year's contenders follow:

Narrative Competition
Analog Days, Mike Ott
Chalk, Mike Akel
Gretchen, Steve Collins
Ira & Abby, Robert Cary
Islander, Ian McCrudden
The Lather Effect, Sarah Kelly
Swedish Auto, Derek Sieg
Undoing, Chris Chan Lee

Documentary Competition
Beyond Conviction, Rachel Libert
The Creek Runs Red, Bradley Beesley, Julianna Brannum
Darkon, Andrew Neel, Luke Meyer
Deliver Us from Evil, Amy Berg
East of Havana, Jauretsi Saizarbitoria, Emilia Menocal
Inheritance, James Moll
Kabul Transit, David Edwards, Gregory Whitmore
Mario’s Story, Jeff Werner, Susan Koch
Matthew Barney: No Restraint, Alison Chernick
Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater, Julie Anderson
A Place to Dance, Alan Berg

Other special events at the festival will include A Leonard Cohen Evening (with a special appearance by Cohen himself), The Filth and the Fury Live, and an 20th anniversary screening of Blue Velvet with David Lynch. For a full list of events, go www.lafilmfest.com.

Long live indie film,

Michelle