Puzzle Films

I'm a bit behind on this, but I recently learned Warren Buckland, my ol' film studies prof., has edited a new book, Puzzle Films: Complex Storytelling in Contemporary Cinema.

I've already read and enjoyed the chapter on frustrated time in the films of Charlie Kaufman, and look forward to reading the chapter by my fellow Chapman alum Yunda Eddie Feng, among others.

My third ride on the Black Maria

The Black Maria Film Festival made its annual stop in the Capital City this weekend. As has become my tradition, I only made it to one of the two programs.

This year's event was different for a couple reasons. John Columbus, founder and director of the festival, was in town to introduce the program and conduct a Q&A with Arthur C. Smith, director of the doc Ice Bears of the Beaufort.

The program I caught also had much less narrative than past programs. Five of the nine films were docs, one was experimental and the last three were animated. None were what you would call a traditional narrative. I imagine this was more the luck of my draw than a trend throughout the festival.

My favorite was Yours Truly from director Osbert Parker, a noir story animated with photo cut-outs and real objects in a miniature 3D environment. The mix of media is unique and surreal, and while the occasional jumps into impressionism were a little jarring, I enjoyed every moment of it. You can watch it online here.

I was grateful for the chance to talk briefly with John Columbus after the program and thank him for the traveling festival. There's more on him and the fest in this NPR story.

Food Inc. | Big River Man

I'm back home after a five-hour night drive - one of many things to file under "not as easy as it used to be." Sunday, I made it to three more screenings and had a delicious Cuban pork sandwich at the Ragtag.

Food, Inc. is going to be huge. It's a catch-all overview of industrialized food and a strong call for action some of the big offenders. Despite being an episodic advocacy piece, slick graphics, animation and visual panache give it momentum. Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser feature prominently, and if you've read their books don't expect a lot of new ground to be broken.

Playing to a doc film fest audience in a college down, Food, Inc. elicited applause and cheers throughout. Director Robert Kenner said he will be screening the doc for Tom Vilsack, and Kenner, Schlosser and Pollan are all optimistic that the new farm bill will go in a new direction. The film is scheduled to open in LA/NY in June, then expand.

Big River Man is my favorite kind of doc - a profile of a truly bizarre individual. In this case it is the story of Martin Strel, who director John Maringouin described as "an overweight drunk who just happens to be the greatest distance swimmer in the world." The film follows Strel and his media hungry son as Strel attempts to swim the entire Amazon river. What follows is very funny and utterly bizarre.

I also caught O'er the Land, a non-narrative film with some fascinating moments, though also many of the characteristics that turn me off from these type of films. It screened with Bitch Academy, a Russian short about a school in St. Petersburg where women, many of them educated and successful, learn to dress sexy and behave in ways that will make men give them money. It moves from funny to sickening and back, crossing many lines of sexuality, dignity, identity, etc. But by never showing the women or the egomaniacal male instructor outside the classroom environment, it also lacks a certain context.

Bitch Academy has apparently also screened under the English title "Vixen Academy," making it this year's winner of the Indie Doc Which Most Sounds Like a Russ Meyer Film Award.

No Impact Man | Secret Screenings

I went into No Impact Man expecting the story of a man moving completely off the grid, but was more interested to learn Colin Beaven and family's year-long experiment would take place in their NYC apartment. Their year of using less suggests many "necessities" are really no more than "habits." Part of the experiment is clearly publicity stunt, and the family and the film acknowledge that.

As with so many good docs, an even more compelling story emerges underneath the premise. Beaven's wife Michelle is much more reluctant about the experiment, while also trying to convince Beaven to have a second child. Their quiet battles are a poignant picture of the compromises, concessions and gamesmanship in a marriage.

The look of the film seems geared towards television viewing, the focus on clarifying the information. Though, at the Q&A, directors Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein said they used no artificial lighting, in an effort to subscribe to the No Impact ethos themselves.

I also caught two of the festival's "secret screenings."

Secret Screening Silver is a gorgeous looking film. The director's camera exposes and contextualizes things his subjects may not even realize themselves.

As with No Impact Man, the premise (following three elderly greeters of returning soldiers) is more of a framing device for an exploration of aging and loneliness. When greeter Bill confesses his life doesn't mean anything to him, so he tries to make it meaningful for someone else, the note of despair rings as loud as the note of service. As moving as the majority of the film is, by the end it feels like the filmmakers are wallowing in this matter-of-fact melancholy.

A few things about Secret Screening Green kept me from fully investing in the film or its characters. It is a stark look at two Brazillian boys and their families' lives of poverty. The compositions are rich and cinematic, particularly in framing this simultaneously agrarian and industrial world.

But long atmospheric sequences are punctuated with stagey dialogue between characters. These scenes often begin with pre-set camera moves to both characters in perfect frame, engaging in dialogue with self-conscious exposition. I have no categorical problem with a director staging, coaching or otherwise manipulating a scene. But in a film which seems so intent on exposing the reality of these boy's lives, it didn't feel right to me.

That said, many people at my screening, including a good friend of high cinematic standards, were quite moved by the film.