You get a Wholphin. It's also the name of good people at McSweeney's DVD label whose new issue has more great short films than you can shake a stick at.
The newly released 'Wholphin: Issue 15' features a short meditation on La Santa Muerte, shot on my second day ever in Mexico City at the Altar de la Santa Muerte in Tepito and cut by the maestro Carter Gunn. It won't give you nightmares I swear.
The DVD is packed with pedigree and also features films by Sean Durkin (Martha Martha May Marlene), The Love Competition by Brent Hoff and a film by the Duplass brothers featuring the ever smoking Selma Blair who we don't see enough of on our screens anymore.
Only moments to go before the legend Kirsten Sheridan unveils her latest feature Dollhouse in the Panorama section of the Berlinale. Yeah!
Heartfelt congratulations to Kirsten, Producer John Wallace and the talented young crew Seana, Johnny, Ciaran, Kate and Shane for all their hard work during the maddest film shoot ever. If you're a Berliner get down there and see 'Das Puppenhaus' now!
The film will also screen at JDIFF in Dublin this month and at SXSW in Austin so plenty chances to see what the inside of drug-addled young minds look like on screen.
Great article in the Technology Review on David Hockney's latest series of motion collages captured using rigs of multiple DSLR's set up at different points of view. Long an innovator in the photographic medium and an astute commentator on the impact of lens based media on traditional painting and other art practices Hockney's contribution to photography is somehow still overlooked on university courses and by the photo establishment.
"A lot of people have told me," Hockney states, "that before they see these films they can't imagine what nine cameras could do that one can't. When they see them, they understand. It's showing a lot more; there's simply a lot more to see. It seems you can see almost more on these screens than if you were really there. Everything is in focus, so you're looking at something very complicated but with incredible clarity."
The Art of the Title Sequence was not just set up to let you watch the title sequence for Se7en over and over again.
In their own words it exists to "honor the artists who design excellent title sequences, to discuss and display their work with a desire to foster more of it, via stills and video links, interviews, creator notes, and user comments."
As Puma and the Channel 4 Britdoc Foundation announce a major financing partnership for independent documentary production, I thought it would be interesting to comment a little on the shifting balance of power and the level of convergence between the commercial and the more indy or artistically driven world's of visual storytelling. Like any agreement between art and commerce it can have both it's harmonious marriages and it's complicated relationships, some of which I hope to touch on here.
Harmony Korine's latest short film 'Act Da Fool' commissioned by fashion house Proenza Schouler is, along with Spike Jonze's 'I am Here', a perfect example of how brands and advertisers are more and more investing in directors, photographers and musicians to create standalone projects that associate their products with an already successful creative brand: the talent itself.
As the nature of film financing for independent projects seems in continual flux, advertisers are increasingly keen to fill this gap in the market by investing in projects that can capitalize on the brand strength of the creatives themselves or to create campaigns that tap into hot social issues and activist agendas.
This NY Times article on the subject harks back to the original BMW 'The Hire' series of short films that was among the first to let auteur filmmakers such as Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Ang Lee and John Woo step outside of the traditional constraints of the thirty second TV spot or the Hollywood system and produce works that followed their unique visions.
Korine himself in conversation with Boards magazine states that this financial investment in his creative output is something of a no-brainer:
"When I was young, when I first started making movies, I would sometimes get asked to do spots but I was more focused on making movies, really. Time passed, films take so long to make and also because I write my movies, the actual process just takes a long time. I enjoy making things and so I like the idea of beginning and finishing a project and having that immediacy."
'Act Da Fool' sees Korine at his idiosyncratic best, choosing as his location for this piece:
"The projects of Nashville. A school for the blind. A school for kleptomaniacs."
Perfect.
I personally think that both Korine's film and Jonze's are unequivocal successes and feel that the brands involved in these respective campaigns have positioned themselves perfectly within these two projects; almost as modern day Medici's for the Youtube generation. These projects are fun and the end result is good enough that the idea of being sold a product isn't at the forefront of my mind while I'm watching the film. It's a win win.
I'm slightly more concerned when brands try to take this approach into the realm of documentary and by extension into people's real lives. Whether Puma will be happy to fund documentary projects that are political, overtly controversial or chose to play it safe in their venture with Channel 4 remains to be seen but it's interesting that the initial excitement about the recent, Malick inspired Levis 'Go Forth' campaign has begun to wane as some dissenting voices are emerging towards Levi's efforts to be agents of social change in the community where the ad was shot, Braddock, PA.
While the Times reports that 'Levi Strauss executives plan to put their money where their pants are, donating more than a million dollars over a two-year period to assist Braddock in renovating a community center and further developing an urban farming program', the official 'Go Forth' website has published page simply entitled 'The Facts' that would appear to attempt to clarify the fine line that Levi's have chosen to tread between championing a cause and selling a product.
From what I can see the denim manufacturer has a good level of transparency about it's community activities in the town and their intentions seem to be genuine, one simply hopes that when next season's campaign rolls around the 'Pioneers' of Braddock, PA won't be making the trip to hip New York vintage stores to trade their free designer work wear in for some hard cash.
Either way it's a cool project and it makes for interesting times and offering fantastic funding opportunities for perennially struggling artists to flex their muscles in a variety of storytelling media can only be a good thing.
It may be true that the first thing to suffer when you are busy doing other things is the act of blogging. Why would you bother telling the world what you're up to when you're enjoying just doing it. This is the first post of August however and I promise to be more diligent in future. Something's better than nothing right?
First off a huge shout out to Howard Feinstein, critic, film fan and benevolent father figure for having Colony included in his outstanding 'Panorama' section at the Sarajevo Film Festival last week. Great city and some great movies.
Among the stand out efforts that I managed to catch at this Balkan cinema extravaganza were Simon Brumley's smart, lean and brilliantly executed hipster shocker 'Red, White & Blue'. Someone and by someone I mean you Harvey Weinstein should give Simon a three picture deal asap.
A scathing look at the nature of American laziness and the culture of violence that seeps from within it's greasy, Budweiser drinking, flag flying heartlands, Red, White & Blue was not for the feint hearted or the weak stomached.
Needless to say neither were the check golfing pants that Simon selected to wear at his Q&A.
He's a true original all the way and I have no doubt that great things await Simon as a writer/director and horror meister supreme.
Here's actress Amanda Fuller discussing the film. Nice to finally see her with some clothes on...
Next up was 'The Temptation of St. Tony' by Estonian auteur Veiko Õunpuu.
An existential black comedy that I would happily tout as the Estonian 'Big Lebowski', this was a film to be seen on the big screen. Shot in mindblowingly beautiful black and white, 'Temptation' is one that audiences will either love or hate.
Structured in chapters rather than following a traditional linear plot it reminded me of being a kid and turning on the television late at night and seeing a film with subtitles in black and white and people...just talking.
It's only now, as an adult, that I feel able to embrace these things that I may not quite understand and enjoy what I'm seeing...rather than changing the channel to watch 'Tango & Cash'.
I loved this film and Veiko's admission that after the success of his sophomore effort 'Autumn Ball' his discomfort at being touted as 'the savior of Estonian film' prompted him to make this movie as 'a big Fuck You to all of those people' was typical of the bone dry humor that fills the movie.
Full of self-deprecating comments, Veiko claimed to have stolen many of the films shots from masters such as Pasolini and Tarkovsky but I just think he was being modest. It's fair to say that movies like this just aren't being made anymore and it was wonderful to see something with a true love of cinema, philosophy and comedy up there on the big screen.
It's such a beautiful film that I'm just not sure why this youtube clip is so rubbish: there's enough moments of transcendental black and white cinematography in this film to make a year's worth of car commercials out of.
Here's a taster none the less:
Among other films that I managed to see were mischievous Columbian helmer Oscar Ruiz Navia's 'Crab Trap', Canne Palm D'Or winner 'Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives' and finally I got a look at Lixin Fan's doc masterpiece 'Last Train Home'. Thank you to Lixin for one of the most incredible films I have seen this year. Having met the guy it's hard to imagine a more earnest person, full of integrity and talent. It's truly an amazing documentary film.
Taking the cake however was the long awaited 'Enter the Void' by perennial 'enfant terrible' Gaspar Noe. Introducing the film and saying it was inspired by his drug experiences kind of put me off and I shifted uncomfortably in my seat for a while before the film started. There's perhaps nothing sadder in my mind than some geezer in his early forties asking where you can score a few 'E's and talking up his love for the odd acid trip but in the end all credit is due as the film absolutely blew me away.
Inspired in part by innovative first-person perspective 1940s noir 'Lady in the Lake', 'Enter the Void' impressed me so much firstly because it completely eschews any of the kind of cinematic shoe gazing bullshit that is so prevalent in the 'auteur' filmmaking that fills festival schedules these days.
From the first frame it drops you straight in to a kaleidoscopic world that is part dream, part nightmare beginning at a million miles an hour with this Manga fueled title sequence scored by old techno supremo Thomas Bangalter. Classic stuff.
Noe is one of the most honest directors working today for my money and that's why I enjoy his films so much. Although 'Irreversible' remains nothing more than a video nasty for some, I still maintain it's the film 'Eyes Wide Shut' just didn't have the guts to be.
In many ways perhaps 'Enter the Void' is Noe's '2001'. Full of beautifully rendered visual effects, wild, dimension bending camera moves, flashing neon, dreamy sex and a healthy preoccupation with death, 'Void' may perhaps be on the verge of ruining the French film industry but I loved every minute. Well...almost every minute.
After a mind-blowing trip to the San Francisco Festival I thought I'd post the extended highlights in trailer form. First off Walter Salles' Linha De Passe.
Salles was the Honorary Director at the festival, following in the footsteps of such luminaries as Akira Kurosawa and Francis Ford Coppola. I would never have classed myself as a 'Walter Salles fan' but after attending a wonderful event with him 'In conversation with Alexandero Gonazalez Innaratu', I am a convert. Screening a complete rough cut of a documentary charting his efforts to film the Kerouac novel "On the Road", Salles memorably twisted the Jorge Luis Borges line about Literature stating "Documentary is naming that which hasn't been named"
His love of cinema, documentary and stills photography, his knowledge and easy going manner gave me a new appreciation of previous works such as "Central Station" and "The Motorcycle Diaries" and also a candy coated opportunity to check out "Linha de Passe", his 2008 masterpiece made almost entirely with non-actors and a crew of first time filmmakers. The film, a look at a fatherless family of four boys and their mother living on the fringes of Sao Paolo, was incredible to see 'in the moment' and to appreciate the possibilities of filmmaking once again.
Inspiring stuff.
Salles' likely South American successor Pedro Gonzales Rubio seems to be making some of his own moves in the film world scooping the New Director's Prize with his debut feature effort "Alamar" which I didn't see but gets great word of mouth.
On a completely different tip was the sumptuous "I am Love", Luca Guadagnino's multi-layered epic of a bourgeois Milanese family. The film could be best described as Wes Anderson meets Antonioni and was a cinema experience not to be forgotton. Comes highly recommended for fashionistas, Tilda Swinton disciples and fledgling camera operators everwhere.
In the realm of the documentary, "Colony" was scooped in the Documentary Competition category by the powerhouse that is Lixin Fan's "Last Train Home". Surely marching towards an Oscar in 2011, the film is a deserving winner anywhere it goes. Other documentary highlights included the shell-shocked "Restrepo" by Tim Hetheringon and Sebastian Junger and the subversive "Marwencol" by Jeff Malmberg both of which fight different kinds of battles in different kinds of places but were both equally watchable. I can't find a trailer for Marwencol but the website is linked above.
Proving that almost anything with the words Werner and Herzog in the synopsis probably gets my seal of approval, for your viewing pleasure comes this unbelievably beautiful short film 'Plastic Bag' by wunderkind director Ramin Bahrani.
I hold my hand up and admit that I haven't seen any of Bahrani's previous feature length efforts, Man Push Cart, Chop Shop or Goodbye Solo but all have been highly praised. Roger Ebert named Bahrani as 'Director of the Decade' for what it's worth.
Plastic Bag is that rare beauty, a short film that is perfectly suited to the short form. The film is kind of 'Wall-E' meets Herzog's own 'Lessons of Darkness' and is poetic, uplifting and timely all at the same time. It's social message touches on that black hole of human waste that no-one seems to want to dredge the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' alluding to the issue without beating us over the head with it or resorting to any kind of environmental hyperbole or hysteria.
Plastic Bag is part of the recently launched Futurestates project, a series of short films by established and emerging directors that aims to 'present a different filmmakers vision of American society in the not too distant future, fusing an exploration of social issues with elements of speculative science fiction.' Check em out...
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