The Starz Denver Film Festival is now well underway, with screenings occurring not only at the one-time festival central at the Tivoli Center but also at the new film center on Colfax next door to the cities two most treasured retail institutions The Tattered Cover and Twist and Shout records. The festival's big-ticket items take place at the swanky Caulkins Opera House, which is a well suited, glamorous context for film or just about any affair. That's where a packed house caught Danny Boyle's latest 127 hours, a spectacle that perhaps sounds better on paper but managed to pull its weight for the most part on the big screen. While Boyle was set to receive the Mayor's yearly career achievement award the following evening, he was not available to introduce his big night film, leaving some in the audience to wonder if he was trapped under a rock in a Utah Canyon. Fortunately the subject of his latest was in town, and in fact a Denver resident, providing as unique an introduction to his story as one could ask for, a nice and fitting touch for the festival. His story is, of course, quite simple: man goes on an outdoor expedition to the Canyonlands of Utah, tells nobody where he is going, briefly meets and carouses with a couple of young women (whom he does not sleep with, even though he looks like James Franco), continues on his merry way and all of a sudden ends pinned 7/8 ths of the way down a slim canyon by a boulder that dislodges as he confidently traverses through. It's definitely a fatalistic moment that could have ended much worse from the start, but if you believe in a playfully vengeful god, this scenario is far more appropriate. And of course there are a ton of different possibilities in how to direct this material, Boyle proves as capable as anyone to ride this one-trick pony though I'd be hard pressed to call it his best (and I for one was not a Slumdog fan). There are a lot of good reasons why people will connect with the film, however, whether it's having suffered any kind of injury involving a severed digit, or the mutual appreciation of isolation from your fellow man as a superior state of being. And just about everyone I know has done something stupid that they end up regretting, though few go so far as to be able to contemplate the site of their own grave over it. The whole thing makes for a good night of drinking and storytelling, and the fact that the subject hails from Denver makes it all the sweeter as a major component to get the festival rolling.
My following evening out proved to resonate on a much different level. Longtime film society patron and collaborator Joey Porcelli unveiled her first short film Condemned to an appreciative audience preceding one of the superior documentaries of the festival There once was an island. Joey's anger over the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 once brought her to the brink of creating her first short film, a simple combination of text and imagery relating the tragedy in straightforward terms. That she ended up shelving the project could be due to a lot of reasons, but she found new reasons and a stronger context to reprise the piece once this summer's BP oil-spill began to impact the collective consciousness. It's hard to really critique a brief, socially aware work such as this, the timing and context is really what gives it impact. But it's as much a statement about history repeating itself as it is a view of how visual history and our access to it have dramatically changed in just twenty years, for aspiring filmmakers everywhere. Regardless, it was a nice moment in the bigger picture of the festival that brought one of it's longest and probably best patrons to the forefront on screen.
The feature that followed proved to be well worth the trip, the treatise of a remote island and existence of a 1000-year old culture being threatened by global warming proving to be significantly less heavy-handed than I would have imagined. What is depicted is a scenario that captures the drama of life on many different levels, the context of sea-levels rising simply forcing many ageless issues that at the root of humanity. Some of the Islanders are against the option of moving en-masse to the larger mainland of Papua New Guinea, while others embrace the concept of being the "first" to make new roots and get on with their lives. Much of the problem comes from the scale of the island economy and how that relates to the mainland culture, but the issues relating to it are relevant to a larger picture and one gets the feeling that it's more a matter of motivation than anything. It's hard to watch the beach-side homes get flooded in real-time from an unusually high-tide, but the question begs as to why the islanders don't move their homes further inland to avoid such catastrophes in the first place. Beach-front property is a costly thing no matter where you are, but the people of the film are also greatly limited in resource and education that might help them to adapt to the threat that's slowly brewing. Ultimately, there are no firm resolutions offered and there is unlikely to be any. The wider context of how many people across the globe may be threatened by nature's evolution drives the final point home, one most of us may or may not ever know in our lifetime.
The big-screen experience is definitely the high-point of attending the festival, but fortunately I had time to review several other films in advance of their festival screenings, including another local effort of feature-length in the narrative category that will make its debut towards this week's end. Starz Film Festival staffer Neil Truglio's We are the sea has nothing at all to do with rising tide's, at least not those of the earth, but it has everything to do with impending change and understanding of the human spirit and personal evolution that can be enhanced through the interaction with others. This quite, understated film was very impressive on a number of different levels, though it's most noted as an interpretation of the music by the Sub-pop band "Iron and Wine." Truglio shows a fine gift for composition and pacing, one that is rare from a first-time effort and should allow him to move on towards a more developed career in film. His acting leads (which include our ex-babysitter Chantelle Frazier) deliver honest and inspirational performances that could also pave the way towards greater careers in film. It's nice to see this kind of talent so close to home, and I don't think the selection of "We are the sea" is gratuitous at all, particularly judging by how many other festivals across the country it has already been included in. Perhaps there is a true movement occurring here in Colorado, and hopefully our new governor might find it wise to finally advance the cause of film production across the state so that one day big-time directors like Danny Boyle might decide to spend their budgets in Colorado instead of our neighbor Utah (though we must say the creative talent in the industry there is extremely high!).
It's nice to have the opportunity to watch something like "We are the sea" and compare it to other current indie-fare such as Tiny Furniture, a quirky narrative whose director has been touted as one of the 25 US filmmakers to watch by Filmmaker magazine. Director Lena Dunham shows obvious ambition and ability with her film, providing a level of much-needed depth to the proceedings by serving as actor, writer and director. But her vision might leave some audiences cold, as a lot of the proceedings come across as pretty pretentiousness, including the contemporary art context which rarely if ever seems genuine in narrative film. I like to laugh and so wanted to but only on occasion did laughter come naturally with "Tiny Furniture," even the more inspired moments that are kind of funny. But it should speak well to a younger audience that takes "youtube" artists seriously and is a fine example of contemporary society finding a voice in film.
The changing of the guard
Two other films gained entry into Starz this year most likely on the basis of their major awards through prior prestigious festivals, including Berlin's Silver Bear winner How I ended this Summer and recent Cannes jury prize winner A Screaming Man. Both also fit the mold of their relative festival wins quite well, and neither is likely to see much box-office outside of the festival circuit. These are excellent tales of human nature getting the best of the individual, along with elements far out of anyone's control having the greater impact. In the case of the Russian "How I ended the summer", two men of tremendous age-disparity and circumstance share a remote work station at the Arctic Circle, their breakdown in communication leading to potentially tragic results. The film fits well into the genre of Russian existentialism as well as a contemporary dialogue on culture shift amongst the generations, and it's as well crafted as one might imagine for a polar narrative. It's also fantastically long and slow paced, so those who prefer the hyper-speeded up action of "127 hours" may not do as well here. "A screaming man" is a more sustained and perhaps durable affair that shows the context of impending rebel-based war in Chad as a disruptive force on ordinary lives, with a slow building family conflict leading to tragic (and most likely quite common) results. The simplicity of the narrative is handled with strong, subtle direction by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, which seemingly defies much tradition for the Cannes prize by virtue of location though really it's as solid and thoughtful a piece as anything likely in contention this year. And it's definitely in keeping with the mission of Starz or any caliber film festival in providing substantial world cinema that might otherwise go unnoticed.
