The Starz Denver Film Festival officially kicks off today, with a bounty of national and international features, shorts and special programs on tap for the next ten days (and nights!). The festival has a lot to celebrate this year, as does the city of Denver with our current mayor having just been elected to the govern the entire state of Colorado. But all the good news comes with major sorrow for both the festival and the Mayor, as news broke out last weekend that George Hickenlooper passed away unexpectedly (and at a young age) shortly after his arrival in Denver and prior to the premier of his latest film "Casino Jack" on Thursday night. The festival will pay tribute to George (who we previously had misstated as John Hickenlooper's brother, he's actually his cousin) all week and of course the state of Colorado will pay tribute to John as he takes the reins and hopefully will prove up to the task and be as widely popular and effective as he's been governing the city of Denver.
As the festival gets set to kick into high gear, we have a few more films to recommend, comment on, and encourage everyone to see and formulate their own opinion about.
Mandatory viewing for anyone in Denver's cultural scene
Echotone is an excellent documentary on the Austin music scene, with profiles on several quality bands who call Austin home yet can't seem to crack out of the local scene. This thoughtfully composed documentary has a lot of strong content relating to the absurd level of competition in the music business (which relates equally well to any other creative field, ie...film, visual arts, etc...) and is definitely important viewing for anyone with an interest in the complexities of secondary markets in the US that are achieving stature within the global discourse of creative arts. The film is pretty loose and doesn't force anything down your throat the way some docs try to, and at times it feels a bit experimental in its own right, which is pretty perfect given the subject. It's a great entry point into some of the bands profiled (including "Ume" who once performed an amazing set at Plus Gallery many years back) and hopefully might have the effect of breaking them out into a wider audience, as it's quite obvious that just being talented in the "Music capital" of the world isn't nearly enough, a lesson that a lot of us learn the hard way in the arts.
And you thought your family was screwed up!
A number of dramatic features I previewed are based on the age-old issue of family relationships and how they tend to destroy the soul of the individual. None could be more dramatically over the top then the US indie Fanny, Annie & Danny, a feature that feels like a Sundance hit but probably missed that mark just barely based on the fact that none of the actors are established or in-vogue. But that's too bad, as the acting in this ensemble piece is very strong, and the directing for the most part solid for what is undoubtedly a very low-budget piece. This story of three siblings, all with a major mommy-issue (namely that the mother is an extreme, cantankerous bitch) reaches deeply into complex relationships with far-reaching effects. The clever title is just a start to what is a solid story structure that gradually peels back the layers towards its final climax. It's not as tight as it could be, but it's definitely a promising debut and likely to be enjoyed by anyone who ventures to see it during the fest.
Much better, and possibly a fit for the greater market outside of the festival, is the Polish effort Erratum which also deals with family issues though in a much more thoughtfully structured and somber context. This film is a beautifully composed character study with excellent depth into the human condition, with cinematography that is rarely seen in our digital age anymore and perfectly captures the subtleties of the story. A man's brief journey home becomes an extended affair as he accidentally kills a homeless man who cuts into his path while driving at night. His search for the man's family leads him to reflect on his own existence and how he came to be in the situation in the first place. The climax in this case is thankfully the exact opposite of "Fanny, Annie, etc.." and likely to bring genuine tears to it's audience.
And now for something completely Iranian
This year's festival has a nice and timely spotlight on films from Iran, offering a diverse selection of features that should shed much-needed light on this society that the US government is continually at odds with. Anyone with a deeper knowledge of film has already been exposed to the more celebrated directors from the region, but the selection here seems to delve much deeper into what society is like for individuals that we can relate to in a more normalized context, at least this is the case in the two that I previewed. The festival descriptions for both My Tehran for Sale and Dog Sweat are very similar, and I was thrown a bit by them, not exactly expecting dramatic narratives. Both have a shoot-from-the-hip feel to them, something which should be expected as I'm assuming it's not easy to make a narrative film in Tehran, but each has it's finer points in regards to story and cinematic quality. "My Tehran for Sale" definitely seems to be coming from a more refined visual sensibility, it's very assured for a debut feature with a slow and solemn tone that focuses on a woman's plight through the pseudo-bohemian sector of Iranian society. I felt there was a bit of confusion in the structure of the narrative, but it nevertheless carried a depth and impact that resonates strongly with the narrative. "Dog Sweat" is operating in a parallel universe for sure, though it should be the more popular of the two as it offers a greater swath of characters to follow and substance to chew on, with multiple love triangles that are almost the realm of soap-opera but carry a much greater impact with how the material is presented (undoubtedly from a director who has maybe studied his craft outside the country). In both cases it's fascinating to see Tehran from the street as well as inside of people's homes and lives. It's also easy to see that our two society's are not so different, people are people with the same ugliness, motivations and attributes, the only difference being the freedom that we've acquired and almost take for granted in relationship to other parts of the world.
Is there really a Cinema superstar from Thailand?
Did you know that the most critically acclaimed film director in the entire world right now (and for the last decade perhaps) is Apichatpong Weerasethakul (or Joe, as he is most lovingly referred to)? This is true and unusual information, best understood when viewed through the same lens as say the contemporary art world where the most obscure and hyper-disorienting artists are the most celebrated yet probably the least understood. And you might not glean much on Joe's latest Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives by reading the description in the festival guide, which claims the films scale as "modest" but it's heart "large and incandescent." What I would say is that this is some of the most radical, experimental cinema being made right now, the fact that it is winning awards (such as the recent Cannes Palme d'Or) no mistake, though you are unlikely to get the same reaction from say the academy awards. Weerasethakul's work is challenging to say the least, he has proven that through almost a half-dozen features to date, some of which are slightly easier than others to digest. But Bonmee has already been hailed by some critics as one of the greatest films of all time as well as his most accessible, and I would suspect that 99.99999% of the world would disagree on principle alone. From a purely artistic perspective, Bonmee has exquisite depth and is highly watchable. Weerasethakul is clearly aiming for something that I believe equates much more towards painting in his sense of pacing and composition. Ultimately the mystery of his narrative is a perfect reflection of that sensibility, there is no need to "get it". Audiences will either relish this offering or turn their noses up the way they do at most contemporary art, failing to understand the artistic position that it comes from as well as the idea that cinema doesn't need to be compartmentalized in order to fully function. Fortunately this is a great opportunity to test your understanding and dedication to the medium, courtesy of Starz.
If you want to learn more about Apichatpong, check out the excellent interview with him from this summer's issue of Cinemascope
The mexican feature The Black Panther is probably the antithesis of "Bonmee" in that it's obviously trying to be something more important than the sum of his parts (and narrative flow) yet ultimately tries too hard in being mysterious. It's a good looking film and likely to be more pleasing for general audiences, the quirky narrative showing it's most winning side as it unfolds early on with an everyman detective being asked by no less than three people to come up with an impossible task for loads of money. The tables turn on him quickly, as he realizes that all three are really in control of his life (particularly the character who goes by "god"), kind of like a dog chasing its tail only to find that it's been cut off long ago. It's the perfect film that seems to be going somewhere, throws in low-budget aliens (much like Bonmee!) as well as a Mexican Elvis, and just somehow seems to be about great, possibly mundane mysteries of life, culminating in a tribute to Bergman! Certainly better on the screen than on my crappy tv, and acknowledgment that the Mexican industry can have fun with film too.
There is a serious side to the festival too
Much of what makes this or any festival great, are the documentary contributions that would otherwise end up on a shelf collecting dust or perhaps airing on PBS late at night. These are most suited to those with a keen interest in the subject, and two that I previewed should certainly be of interest to their respective audiences.
Forgotten Transports: Latvia - This documentary is one of a four part series that includes Belarus, Estonia and Poland, which I assume taken collectively has an even greater impact than individually. But with the election climate of the last two weeks I was in no mood for more depression and chose to let the Latvian episode be my lesson in the unfortunate ways of humanity. Not that these are fully demoralizing, certainly the context of how some jews managed to survive the holocaust has it's uplifting moments, and the exhausting amount of effort that the Polish filmmaker Lukas Pribyl put into composing this collection is to be celebrated, particularly as each location has it's finer points of how survival was managed by a few. But it is tough stuff to watch, particularly as our society seems to have no bounds when it comes to one person or ideologies ability to repress another to the utmost extremes. The power of the film comes from the small collection of interviews that intermingle and detail the finer points of the tragedy, with the most shocking statistic at the end (at least of the Latvian segment) when it's revealed how few of the jews survived in total from the transports, suggesting that the ones interviewed are the only left still alive.
Another feature that is both uplifting yet a slap in the face of reality, is the documentary Trust a great calling card for programs such as Denver's PlatteForum (which is an official sponsor), that tells the human side of teen troubles and how the arts can lead to a path of healing and a better life. The very idea of trust is a hard one for troubled teens to grasp, but through programs such as Chicago's "Albany Park Theatre Project" one can watch how it unfolds and get a better look at why teachers dedicate themselves to the subject and learn more about the lives of those effected. The Starz Denver Film Festival should be applauded for giving programs like this access and air-time for the greater good.
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