Black Maria 2010

This weekend the Black Maria Film Festival rolled through town, and I made my annual trek to catch one of its two programs.

I enjoy the grab bag nature of shorts programs, and Black Maria always feels like it contains even more variety.  So many shorts feel like an audition for a feature - be they narrative, documentary, animation.  Black Maria always features some work that lies outside those parameters.

A notable example in the program I caught was Neil Needleman's film Corporate Art Policy, which was essentially a video essay.  I've heard work like this derided at festivals as better suited to a blog or You Tube.  But despite it's low technical aspirations, it tells a story, it's got a point-of-view.  Plenty of more glossy films don't manage to do that.

On the high end of the production scale was the PBS-ready documentary Worlds of Sound: Ballad of Folkways, telling the story of Folkways founder Moe Asch, and narrated by Pete Seeger.  If this hasn't been picked-up for broadcast, I'm sure it will be.  It's a solid, informative doc.

Pickles for Nickels was a unique, hand-crafted piece of animation.  It was so well-done, I wasn't surprised to see CalArts scroll across the credits.  There was a bit of narrative to the film, but also plenty of non-linear elements more associated with art film.  The filmmaker, Danielle Ash's voice comes through very strong and makes the film something more than an audition for Pixar, as animated shorts so often are.

Sebastian's Voodoo by Joaquin Baldwin is more Pixar-like in its computer animation and its storytelling - but in a good way.  The simple story of individual sacrifice elicited an audible gasp when it ended.

As always, this Black Maria program delivered a variety that made it well worth making time for.

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.

Black Maria Film Festival

I had a chance to see a program of films from the Black Maria Film Festival again this year, and caught a few really exceptional works. Films accepted to the festival tour the country in short programs, playing in classy joints like the Des Moines Art Center.

The Heart is a Hidden Camera is a beautifully shot, moving film in a sort of magical realist style. Not the type of thing I usually go for, but this was really well done.

Phoenix Dance is a documentary about Homer Avila, who continued his career as a professional dancer after losing an entire leg to cancer. It's an 11-minute film smart enough to know that its subject is moving without need for a lot of embellishment. Some of the movements he does are just amazing.

And, if you're looking for a quick laugh that also gives you that warm socially conscious feeling, you could always watch Bodega, available in its entirety at YouTube.