CineBlog

Cinequest wraps

Cinequest, San Jose's film festival celebrating maverick filmmakers, ended Sunday, March 9th with a gala including a screening of the film "Take" and a party at San Jose nightclub Motif. The festival had over 80,000 attendees this year, a new record. Thirty-seven of the features were US or world premiers and over 100 first-time filmmakers from 34 countries had their work showcased.

At the gala, the audience and jury award winners were announced and Public Relations Director Jens Hussey was honored. After nine festivals, he is stepping down to pursue a career in psychology. Hussey was presented with a gold watch inscribed "Maverick Legacy" and made a heartfelt speech thanking the many people he has worked with over the years to make Cinequest a success. "It's been a lot of blood, sweat, and tears," he said, "but also a lot, a lot of fun."

Cinequest does more than just the film festival. During the rest of the year, watch for their Camp Cinequest, a five-day summer camp for middle-schoolers interested in film making; Cinema San Pedro, which features films shown outdoors in the middle of San Pedro Square, a screenwriting competition, and other events -- not to mention cinequestonline.org, the distribution website for maverick films. You can buy CDs or watch downloads of a broad sampling of films on the website.

Konyec

I'm putting Konyec down as a drama but in reality, it's a subtitled little soufflé. Charming.

Emil and Hedl, an elder couple advanced in years and struggling with an inadequate pension, are not limiting their options to simply giving up and dying. Why not engage in armed robbery to make ends meet! Since they are a couple with a civil panache and gentle demeanor, they soon enjoy supportive notoriety from the population - including their victims. As a side benefit, their Jesse James ways also brings illumination to the plight of the elder and underfunded pensioners. Society takes note and possible changes are in the offing.

Being chased through the film but some street smart cops, Emil and Hedl show more cleverness in escaping and, ultimately, in disappearing. The film almost makes one want to cheer their criminal rebellion. Filming was nicely done.

Note: there is a graphic sex scene/nudity that makes no sense - extremely gratuitous. The director easily could have accomplish the thought and idea without disrobing the well endowed estrogen carrier. That aside, Konyec was a pleasurable romp. yes, good film can come out of the Eastern Block.

With Subtitles

Director Gdbor Rohonyl

Butterflies (Pirret)

“Butterflies” is a pleasant little fantasy where a five year old makes a wish upon a shooting star and the wish comes true. Suddenly, charming urchin Sara discovers she can fly. Mom is the harried caretaker who listens to her little girl with a modicum of attention. Initially disbelieving, mom soon discovers Sara’s gift and she’s rushing off to the local medical facility to understand if it’s normal for children to levitate. The local lead doctor, in a Disney’s 101 Dalmations/Cruella sort of caricature, gets excited about a possible Nobel Prize, and the laughable staff go through their inept shtick. Sara, meanwhile enjoys her new reality transcending everyone's else’s. It seems Sara flies when she reaches for a dream, turns toward a goal, something that gives her butterflies in the tummy. Sara shows some natural child-like compassion when she reaches out to a terminally sick child in the same facility. Unable to discover and exploit the location of Sara’s "butterflies", or their trigger mechanism, the medical staff give up on their dream of fame and fortune. Little Sara floats home with mom in tow. It may not be a major cinematic event, still, “Butterflies” left a smile on my face. With subtitles.

Director: Kjell-Ake Andersson

Next play is March 8 at Cinema 12

SUPERHEROES

Superheroes is the poignant tale of a war veteran who struggles with the aftermath of the experiencing Iraq. Ben (Dash Mihok) has extensive psychological damage and is in therapy. He meets a young neophyte filmmaker, Nick (Spencer Treat Clark), at one of the sessions who would like to document his story. Mihok and Clark hold screen attention easily. The writing is smart, the presentation is melancholy. Ben’s journey is emotional, his journey touches the heart. The production is compelling and telling. Simply, war is hell. The project was nicely put together.

Director Alan Brown

DISFIGURED: A MOVIE ABOUT WOMEN AND WEIGHT

“Disfigured” is the story of two women, each suffering from eating disorders; one bulimic, the other overeating. They are unlikely duo. Lydia is part of a Fat Acceptance/Activist group. Bulimic Darcy wants to join the group believing she fat. She is summarily tossed out the door. Lydia is more accepting of people and tries forming a walking group. Darcy lends a hand and as the friendship grows, Lydia, concerned with her own appearance, asks Darcy to give her bulimic lessons. The writing is witty, the exchanges engaging. Actors Deidra Edwards and Staci Lawrence are wonderful as the Mutt and Jeff body types. Tall and lanky, and shorter and rounder, they are fun to watch. Society has made the topic of body dimension a sensitive issue. Acceptance is a solution not soon discovered. “Disfigured” is a good film and worth being in one’s collection.

Director Glenn Gers

Commit

COMMIT is an intriguing tale of two people who find one another on the internet, each looking for someone special. Well, rather, each was looking for someone willing to do something extremely special. The structure of the film was quite simple. Presented in three, uncut 30-minute segments, the film is most all dialogue. There’s little or no action. Simple conversation. The tale is told in text and presentation. The writing was superb, the exchanges sharp and witty. The acting really was great. Nicole Blaine and Forest Erickson gave engaging and touchable performances. One serious problem haunting the film is believability. There are such great, intelligent, witty exchanges between Blaine and Erickson, such solid chemistry, discussions that suggest so much to live for, that it is near impossible to believe they are contemplating their own mortality. “Commit” is solid faire. Look for a DVD or an internet presentation. This film will last.

Director Mickey Blaine

Eden Court

The misfortunate Schroeder laments turning the big 3-0. Wow. 30 years old. Should be no big deal, except the lament began when he was injured and he lost the opportunity to play profession baseball. His dreams of sports was destroyed. These days he manages the grass on infield for the local semi-pro team. His frustration burns deep inside.

Without talking to anyone, he makes plans to leave his prom-queen high-school sweethear /wife..."she deserves better." Schroeader wants to try a new start in Australia. Trouble is, where every one goes, they take themselves as well. His frustrations and personal problems would tag along. Still, he plans a trip in a van suspect of mechanical integrity.

His wife is the ultimate cheerleader, willing to wane life away in a trailer court, happy, as long as her husband loves her. Through some good writing, Shcroeder final comes to understand his personal success is his family, is the love of his wife, is the success of his own mind.

Eden Court is a touching film, a film of pleasing melancholy. Director Paul Leuer has put together a gentle view of those who aren't the one in a million, but represents the majority...those who plug away, doing the day to day necessities, forming the foundation of society. Thomas Lennon and Kimberly Williams-Paisley were wonderful. They had nice chemistry together. This is a good movie.

wfc 3/08

Disfigured Interview

"Disfigured" is a movie that takes on one of the most sensitive issues in our culture: weight. It tells the story of the friendship between Lydia (Deidra Edwards), a fat woman, and Darcy (Staci Lawrence), a recovering anorexic. Their relationship is tested when Lydia becomes involved with Bob, a sweet guy determined to lose his excess weight, and Lydia asks for "anorexia lessons." Writer-director Glenn Gers, Lawrence, and Edwards took time from their screening schedule at Cinequest and sat down for a conversation.

[Note: This is an extended version of a piece which ran in The Milpitas Post and other papers]

Inspirations for making the movie:
Gers: I used to walk on the beach in Venice a lot in the very early the morning, this very empty, odd time with odd characters. I saw a very heavy couple walking in sweats, and I thought "wow, that's a way to get into the subject of weight," which had been on my mind because my wife has been many sizes but none of them skinny. She is beautiful and marvelous but ... she is not represented in movies, she's simply not honestly dealt with. A whole large -- literally, percentage-wise -- group of the population is simply not shown in movies, and that just seemed wrong. The inspiration was to find a way to deal with those issues.

I started writing the story of Bob and Lydia, who are characters in the movie, but in finding Lydia's life I was dealing with the fat acceptance movement. The idea of an anorexic coming in there because she calls herself fat, there's a logic there that's bizarre but actually really sharp. From the moment I thought of that character walking into that room and thought of what it would be like for her to meet Lydia, it just totally took over the movie. ... it felt scary because I'm not a woman and I don't have weight issues, there's no justification for me to write that, except it just felt like there's a cool movie, I've never seen it before, and I can get it to be made.

Edwards: the script came to me through my agent, and I read it and I was moved by the fact that he had written a real person, real people. He used words to describe Lydia like "graceful" and "sensual" and "intelligent" and "fun," not just someone shoveling food in their face for a joke. I hadn't seen that before in my experiences and the opportunities that were given to me in Hollywood. I felt very moved to tell the writer, thank you for having this exist at all in Hollywood! On the front of the script was his agent's information, so I wrote him a little thank you note saying that, and I dropped it off at his agent's office -- never expecting to hear anything ever.

Gers: I called her. It was a nice note, it was very feeling, and I thought I should answer it. I guess I'm stupid that way.

Edwards: Thank God!

Lawrence: The script came to me through one of my very best friends, who said "I've read this script, and you have got to get in touch with this director." And so, I did, and was able to get an audition. I ended up going on a vacation with my fiance's fishing partner and his girlfriend. She happens to be a producer, he starts telling her about the movie, and she says, "wait, I know Glenn, after I saw you in a play, I told him, 'I have the actress for you.'"

Gers: People were coming at me with Staci's name for a long time, and frankly in the stack of head shots I got for each role, the Darcy stack was about 4 or 5 times higher than the potential Lydia stack, there were a lot of people. When Staci auditioned, I felt, as I did with Deidra, right away -- I feel this electric connection, something making me feel like this would be an exciting, powerful performance. But, Staci spends a lot of her time being a stand up comedian, and the audition had a lot of comedy energy, and she was really strong, but I wasn't sure if she could do the more withdrawn side of the character.

I was running the camera myself on the auditions that day, and I got confused, and so I was pushing the button backwards, so that whenever somebody started I was turning it off, and I was turning it back on when they were done. I had covered the red light so they wouldn't know and wouldn't feel self-conscious. I happened to get a phone call during Staci's audition first reading, so I left the room for 5 minutes and she was just sitting there with the camera on her, being absolutely quiet and still. When I reviewed the tape, that was it, she had the part.

Right before we started shooting, some more producers read [the script], and one said I really, really want to help you get this movie made, and I really think I could raise some serious money to really do it right, but we need to spend more time raising the money and we'd have to talk about casting. I already had [Lawrence and Edwards] at this point, and I said no, there is no one you can show me who is going to be better than them. There was simply no question in my mind, they were so exciting to watch.

On the lovemaking scene between Lydia and Bob:
Edwards: It was very challenging. it's a very vulnerable feeling. The actor, luckily is a wonderful guy. Married, kids, understanding spouse. My spouse was understanding about it as well, which was helpful. That scene was our last scene we shot together. We had shot everything else already. We felt very comfortable together, but still, you know, I sort of feel like when the director said "action," Lydia was vulnerable to Bob, and when the director said "cut," Deidra was vulnerable to everybody who wold ever see this footage. ... When it was over, I was a bit of a mess for a couple days, it's a very vulnerable thing to do. This took about a year and a half to finish, so every now and again i would just be going about, my daily life and go, (gasp)! One time I was at his [Glenn's] house and I said, "promise me you are not going to ruin my life with this footage!" And he promised. The day I actually got to see the concept come together, I cried because I thought it was so beautifully, artfully done, and he had kept his promise, and that was so important. I mean, what a thing to put in somebody else's hands! He said there is no other scene like that in all of film and how proud he is to have thought of that, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Gers: Also, within the context of a movie, I personally feel these two both had to be emotionally naked through most of the movie, I mean there's some fun things, but there's a lot where they are literally emotionally naked, and that was very hard for them to do. And then -- they seem to not think it's a big deal, but I assure you it is -- there are several sequences where they wear no makeup. I know that sounds weird, but that's something you don't see in movie: actors allowing you to see them truthfully in all of those different ways. It was a hard three weeks, they were wiped out. it was very demanding on them emotionally. For Lawrence, the idea that she had to break down screaming and crying, and those days were all tense. I was very grateful and proud that they would be willing to risk that.

On a scene in which Darcy examines her body critically in a mirror:
Lawrence: Glenn and I had talked about it, and he said, this is your sex scene. I read the script, I thought it was a beautiful scene. I thought I knew exactly what needed to happen. I wasn't intimidated by it. And then the day of, it wasn't so much intimidation as it was the realization of how private it was going to be. I know that I'm lucky that I'm thin. I have no judgments on people that are bigger than me because I know I eat just like them. I'm very lucky. I don't have discipline. Having to admit, even with my body that is perceived to be a great body, that I'm not happy all the time... I don't admit that to people. I don't admit that my boobs are small and it makes me feel like a 12 year old, because I'm supposed to be happy with my body because I'm thin. Something else I tried to think about and use is that it's a little bit lonely sometimes because if I'm feeling bloated, and my jeans don't fit, I don't have the luxury of complaining about it. Who am I to say that I feel fat, right? If it ever comes out, the first thing I hear is, "oh, shut up." And it's like, oh, right, okay. But I still have those feelings, all those things that I should not, but I do.

Gers: I think this movie is about something that's universal: we all, every single one of us, exist within a body, and that is inherently weird. What the end of the movie, hopefully, is saying is: we should all be very conscious of our own body. The line in the movie, "do you have an image of yourself as completely satisfactory" -- I don't know anybody who can say yes to that question. And yet we all have these bodies that in their own ways are really cool, and do all the stuff we need them to do. Everything that we do in our lives is through our bodies, even the mental stuff is through our body, it's biochemically created. And yet, our culture sometimes doesn't allow us to be in our bodies. That's universal. that is what I was trying to get to, because I have those feelings too.

On watching their movie with the audience at festivals like Cinequest:
Edwards: One of the reasons that I've always wanted to do this for as far back as I can remember, is when I would watch a movie, how that would make me feel. For some reason I always knew that I wanted to share emotions with people too. This has been my first opportunity to find out that I have done that. I'm getting choked up as I talk about this because it's so important to me. It means so much to have that opportunity.

Gers: To see it with a group of people has been really, really cool. It's different every night.

Lawrence: Our opening night of this festival was the first time I felt like I exactly shared the sense of humor of the audience. I was saying, "I always thought that was funny too!"

Gers: And then last night it was a really quiet audience. I think they were clearly enjoying it, but they were very quiet. The weird thing is, you see your own performance and you know it's exactly the same, it's on tape, but at the same time it's playing differently. If you're a live performer you think it's part of the interaction, but in fact each audience has a different vibe.

Lawrence: Yeah, I do a lot of theater and the second night letdown, they call it, where you've had opening night and then the next night you're like, oh it's crap, and you're beating yourself up and why am I doing this? I can now see that my work hasn't changed but I have this feeling like - it's sort of taken that pressure off. I'm actually excited to go back on stage and realize, I'm just doing my thing and people react differently.

Disfigured will be out on DVD this summer. Sign up for the news list at www.disfiguredmovie.com

48-Hour Film Project Filmapalooza

Every year, the 48-Hour Film Project Filmapalooza is one of my favorite parts of Cinequest. This year, we were treated to nearly eight hours of short films in a series of four screenings. The project is straightforward: teams of filmmakers gather in cities around the world (last year's project took place in over 50 cities worldwide). They are randomly assigned a genre, a prop, a line of dialog, and a character (both name and profession). Then the clock starts - within 48 hours, they must return with a completed short film. The winning film of each city is sent to Filmapalooza, where the overall winner is chosen.

This year's batch of films had some wonderful inclusions. San Jose's regional winner, "The Spy Who Spied Me," was an over-the-top mockery of the spy genre. Philadelphia's "Science: The Musical" (yes, some brave folks choose to do a musical when they draw the musical/western option) included zombie Abe Lincoln and was charming in its insanity. Nashville's educational film parody "Electricity: Unplugging the Myth" offered a new take on just what is going on behind our electrical sockets. St. Louis' "Franz Kafka: The Happiest Man In Happy Town" told the true story behind Kafka's masterpiece. Louisville's "Phenomenal Me" offered an unusual sort of superhero working hard to save the day. Utrecht's quietly menacing "Souvenir" was a top-notch take on its required elements. The sweet "Monkton Family Christmas" from Miami showed how sometimes white lies are necessary to save Christmas. The winner of the Second Life machinima competition, "Zombie Attack," gave us a twist on the zombie genre and was made entirely in the popular computer game Second Life. Tel Aviv's "TimeCatcher," a moving story about a young man who can see exactly how long all living things have left before they die, cleaned up the awards, winning Best Film, Best Directing, Best Script, and Best Editing. The quiet, somewhat surreal "Room 303" from Amsterdam won Best Cinematography. All in all, a great collection. I'm already looking forward to next year's Filmapalooza, which will include shorts from Mumbai and Singapore.

Official Site: www.48hourfilm.com

Autism: The Musical

Remaining screenings: March 8, 6:30pm (Cam 12); March 8, 5:15pm (Rep)

The title alone is an attention-grabber. The content is even more arresting: a group of autistic kids working together under the guidance of parents and teachers to put on a musical play. There are bumps and snags along the way, but the kids and their supportive adults are determined. We meet the kids, see a little of their daily lives with their parents, and watch as they learn to act, dance, and sing together while working on writing the play as a group. This film will warm your heart even as it makes you ache for the difficulties these kids and their families face in a society that doesn't understand or (as one astute parent points out) value autistic children. By turns funny and touching, "Autism: The Musical" offers an inside look at what autistic children are capable of.

Official Site: www.autismthemusical.com

The End

Screenings: March 7, 9:15pm (Cam 12); March 8, 4:30pm (Cam 12); March 9, 12:01pm (Rep)

This is a peculiar film. Part existential crisis, part lighthearted horror movie, it defies a description which does justice to its story without spoiling the surprises scattered through the second half of the film. What I can tell you is this: the story revolves around high school English teacher Joseph, who sixteen years ago saved a young girl because he could see what no one else could. Now he is having visions again -- but they are far more difficult to understand. As his friend, police detective Clara, struggles to solve a series of mysterious kidnappings, Joseph's curiosity drives him to understand his visions, no matter what the cost.

Karl Rove, I Love You

Screenings: March 8, 5pm (Cam 12), March 9, 2:45pm (Cam 12)

"Karl Rove, I Love You" is two things: a shallow overview of Karl Rove's perfidity and a hilariously surreal look at what might happen to a peace-loving, democratic actor who gets a little too into his role as Bush's top adviser. Everyone in this film, from director Phil Leirness to star Dan Butler, plays themselves, and it's shot in hand-held, up-close-and-personal documentary style. It starts out so thoroughly plausible that it's tricky to remember it's not actually a straight up documentary.

It all begins in early 2004 with Leirness' idea to make a documentary about Butler, "the unknown supporting actor." Leirness has to work hard to win Butler over, but eventually manages it -- only to be swept up as Butler becomes obsessed with bringing the truth about Karl Rove to the uneducated public. Butler's vehicle: a play. He works on it with friends, doing scads of research and even writing to Rove undercover. Soon, though, he's so deeply into the role that he finds himself falling in love with the very man he despises. Clever and irreverent, this is a must-see for political satire fans looking for a new take on the genre.