Sync or Swim at the 2008 DocFest

I was originally going to write about several films but I wrote so much about Sync or Swim, that I decided to give it a dedicated entry.

In a previous lifetime, I was a competitive swimmer. I swam from ages 7 to 19. The bible for competitive swimmers was Swimming World Magazine. I believe the issue I have in mind was from late 1984 or early 1985. Anyway, the year end issue of Swimming World bestows awards (e.g. Swimmer of the Year). For 1984, the synchronized swimming award went to a young woman named Tracie Ruiz. I had never seen a synchronized swimming event nor had I met a synchronized swimmer. In fact, it's 24 years later and I can claim near complete ignorance of synchronized swimming...except in 1984, Tracie Ruiz had a full page photo spread in Swimming World. I wish I could find that photo but take my word that she was very attractive. As for synchronized swimming, I didn't really think much about the sport before or after seeing Ms. Ruiz in Swimming World. Tracie Ruiz and that comedy skit with Martin Short about men's synchronized swimming are the only things I associate with the sport.

Another interest side note is that one of the top synchronized swim clubs in the nation is the Santa Clara Aquamaids. The Olympic coach and several of the swimmers were associated with Aquamaids and the team trained at the Santa Clara facility. Much of the film takes place in Santa Clara and the Bay Area.

I was somewhere between apathy and mild curiosity before I saw Sync or Swim. The main reason I saw the film was because it fit my schedule on a Tuesday night and it played in the Big Roxie. To be honest, Lucio was the film I preferred to see. Both films played at the same time but Lucio was playing at the Little Roxie. That venue plus sweet memories of Tracie Ruiz was enough to sway me. I'm glad that fate directed to me to Sync or Swim because it was engaging and entertaining movie.

Sync or Swim chronicles the 2004 US Synchronized Swim Team from just before the Olympic Trials to the Athens Olympics. The journey is filled with difficulties. The first thing I found odd was the selection process. At the Trials, each pair competes against each other. The top scoring pair gets a spot on the Olympic team as a duet. Then they select 13 or so individuals (from the losing pairs) on the second day. The selection is based on judged scores for a series of technical movements in the water. Those 13 are eventually whittled down to 8 (plus an alternate) that comprise the "team." Synchro swimming has two events - pairs or duet and team competition so the Olympic team consists of 2 in pairs plus 8 in team competition plus one alternate for a total of 11. In 2004, I think one swimmer competed in pairs and team events so there were only 10.

That method seems strange and cruel. I would think the best way to select an eight-woman team is to have teams of eight compete against each other and the top scoring team makes the Olympic squad. I suspect the reason they don't do that is because some (all?) private teams have difficulty getting eight Olympic caliber swimmers together. So the thinking is to select the eight best individuals and form a team with them. Rather than taking the top 8 scores, they take more swimmers and have two rounds of cuts in the ~20 months between the Trials and the Olympics. Woe are the 5 swimmers cut from the squad after several months of training.

That might elicit sympathy but one would think it makes for good drama in a film. Unfortunately, the swimmers were very friendly towards each other and didn't exhibit ultra-competitiveness that one would imagine or bitchy behavior that frequently occurs when women (or men) are forced to spend long and stressful hours together over a prolonged period. By the end of the film, I was dubious of this harmnony.

Don't think bitchy behavior was missing from the movie though. Head Coach Chris Carver supplied it in spades as she drove her team through a grueling training program and berated her swimmers for their mistakes with pointed comments and sarcasm. If that had been the entire movie, I probably would have enjoyed it...but there was more to come.

One swimmer, Tammy Crow was at the wheel of an SUV when it crashed and killed her boyfriend and a 12-year-old boy in the backseat. They were driving to a ski trip near Yosemite when she lost control and the vehicle crashed into two trees. The accident left Crow with a broken arm. She was subsequently charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter. She had consumed alcohol a few hours before at a late night party with the team. The first police officer on the accident scene smelled alcohol on her breath. She slept very little before taking the wheel to get her boyfriend and one of his players to a ski trip where the boy's parents were waiting. Witnesses said she was driving too fast for the slick road conditions. Her BAC test results were within legal limits although I found references on the internet to an earlier test that showed alcohol in her system. Crow claims alcohol was not a factor.

This crash occurred in February 2003; prior to the final cuts to establish the team. Putting myself in Crow's shoes, I think I would take myself out of consideration for the Olympics. She was grieving her boyfriend's (fiancée?) death, she was facing two counts of vehicular manslaughter and she had a broken arm, which meant she couldn’t train in the water. Crow decided to soldier on. This is where I started to take an emotional position in the film and I was decidedly against Ms. Crow.

I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt w.r.t. the car accident. She's entitled to it under the Constitution and I'm sure that causing the death of boyfriend and a 12-year-old will haunt her the rest of her life. It was what happened after that turned me against her. First, Coach Carver decided to give Crow an exemption from the first round of cuts. I thought that was incredibly unfair to the other swimmers. Crow's injury basically gave her a free pass.

By the time of final round of cuts, Crow had healed, rehabilitated her arm and trained with the team. She made it past the final round, which I suppose justifies Coach Carver's decision. In the months before the Olympics, media scrutiny on Crow was intense. She pled no contest to the manslaughter charges and the judge deferred sentencing until after the Olympics. Being convicted of felony charges would seem to disqualify someone from the Olympic team. Crow received a special ruling from the USOC or US Synchronized Swimming governing body that allowed her to compete.

So it is clear that Crow was someone the powers at large wanted on the team. The documentary showed Carver cautioning the team to keep their focus despite the media distractions - distractions due solely to media interest in Crow. At that point, I felt Crow was being selfish. I thought she should have resigned for the good of the team. She could have cited the distractions caused by her presence as being detrimental to the team. Instead she continued with the team. The team won a bronze medal so her presence could not have been completely negative. I wonder if the team could have finished higher if the alternate had competed and Crow's distraction was removed from their training process.

Frankly, I thought Crow did not show enough contrition for the deaths she caused and was a bad teammate for not resigning. Of course your teammates are going to support you publicly but you should not put them in that position to start with. One audience member asked Director Cheryl Furjanic why she didn't show any scenes of conflict between the teammates. Furjanic said she witnessed no arguments so she couldn't put any in the film. I can’t help but wonder if there was a confidential team policy to self-censor any arguments or negative comments about Crow when the cameras were rolling.

Although the film was about the team, I think Furjanic unintentionally cast Crow in a negative light. Of course, Crow had a lot to do with the way she was viewed. I don’t think she could have caused the death of two people and be viewed in a positively by most of society or at least by me.

Ultimately, Furjanic’s film succeeded. She kept me interested for the entire film and provoked a strong response. She flashed Tracie Ruiz’s photo in one montage sequence which was nostalgic for me. I just realized that the title of the film was not only a play on words but the homonym title could apply to the entire team or specifically to Crow.

Considering Time, Trends and Objectivity in the Context of DocFest and the Mission District

The most striking feature of the 2008 San Francisco Interntional Documentary Film Festival was the length. It ran for three full weeks. When I saw the schedule, I knew I would be in town for the first 20 days of the festival. I naively thought that I could see one film per day and two or three films per day on the weekends.

The films started every 2 hour, 15 minutes. Travel to and from the Roxie is about 45 minutes for me. That knocks out a three hour chunk of time. Travel to and from the Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley is about 90 minutes for me. One movie at Berkeley is a four hour commitment.

Obviously, I wanted to see more films at the Roxie than the Shattuck. Furthermore, one film would take three hours but two films would take 5 hours, 15 minutes and I could grab bite between films. Clearly, it was more time effective to see multiple films. I'm not like Jason though. I can't see four or five movies in one day. I get loopy or punch drunk. In general, I limit myself to three films per day but two is my preference.

I ended up seeing 28 programs over the first 16 days of the festival. I missed the last five days of the festival due to choice or travel. Looking at the histogram data of programs viewed over the 16 days -

0 programs - 1 day
1 program - 7 days
2 programs - 7 days
3 programs - 1 day

I saw 26 programs at the Roxie and 2 programs at the Shattuck.

Seeing 1 or 2 films/programs a day doesn't sound too bad but I quickly realized that it translates to 3 to 5 hours per day. As the days went by, I began to weary of the schedule. It felt like I had a second job.

Another idiosyncracy of the schedule was that I seemed that I saw most of the best films in the first week so the second week dragged on. When you see an enjoyable film the time goes quicker.

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I read that Fay Dearborn and Bill Banning programmed the festival. I wish I knew which films each one programmed. From the Guardian article, it seems like I enjoyed Fay's selections more. Regardless, I congratulate Fay and Bill for programming a strong lineup at DocFest.

Also, Current TV was the co-sponsor of this year's DocFest. They provided some short films that ran before all the programs (except Bunnyland for some reason). I wish I could get a listing of Current TV shorts that ran before the programs. I can't remember any of the names but a few stood out. Before Bird's Nest, they showed one where a Chinese architechtural student drove around Beijing pointing out buildings with interesting designs. Before Operation Filmmaker, they showed an incredible film about American bloggers/stringers/photojournalist in Baghdad or Beirut. These were captured after encountering an road side bomb and being shot at. All this was captured on video although the quality wasn't great since they were hauling ass out of there. They were captured and even more incredibly, they were released. The third Current TV film I remember was before Disconnected. It was not a documentary per se. It was more of a social satire. A young man is visited by the animated icons of Facebook, Myspace, SecondLife and other social networking websites. He is being harangued about not logging in more often. I remember a great scene where Myspace Founder Tom Anderson appears (like God before Moses) and intones that Myspace was founded on three guiding principles - skanky chicks, crappy bands and I can't remember the third. I do remember laughing hard though.

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The aforementioned Jason always seeks out a theme to the festivals he attends. I don't consciously look for themes but I noticed two at this year's DocFest. The first was that the line between documentary filmmaker and subject was blurred beyond the traditionally stated goal of objective distance. There was an obvious emotional bond between the director Nina Davenport and her subject Muthana Mohmed, in Operation Filmmaker. There is one scene where they quarrel like boyfriend/girlfriend. Davenport's objectivity and judgment are questionable in the film.

Similarly, director Kate Churchill and subject Nick Rosen almost seem to be courting each other as Churchill leads Rosen on a 9 month, global search for the transformative secrets of yoga.

Another type of objectivity was lost in several films. Most prominently, I Think We Are Alone Now was highly exploitive of its subjects. One audience member commented to the producer that he thought the protagonists' stories were told in a non-exploitive manner. My mouth was agape at that statement. In response, the producer said that the main criticism of the film was that it exploited its subjects. One subject has Asperger's Syndrome (a form of autism). The other subject is a hermaphrodite or intersexual who spoke as if she was continually drunk or on drugs. Furthermore, she exhibited emotional imbalance & stalking behavior which made me feel like a rubber-necker at a traffic accident.

The line between documentary and exploitation is thin. The subjects agreed to be filmed and if they had editing control, the film would be nothing more than a hagiography. There were times when I felt uncomfortable viewing the emotional wreckage which were these peoples lives. I Think We Are Alone Now crossed the line and I felt ashamed of myself. It was as if I happened upon a vantage point of seeing a neighbor or acquaintance in some private/intimate moment. Rather than turning away, I kept watching because I couldn't help myself. That is how I felt after watching I Think We Are Alone Now. That feeling was intensified because Jeff Turner (the man with Asperger's was sitting two seats away from me). I felt self-conscious laughing at his antics up on the screen. To make matters worse, there was a heckler in the front row that mocked Jeff and Kelly (the intersexual) mercilessly until someone yelled at him to "Shut the fuck up!!"

Elvis in East Peoria, Chasing the Devil and to a lesser extent Over My Dad's Body seemed exploitive; particularly when considering that two of the films were made by family members.

The second trend I saw is not specific to DocFest but has revealed itself over the this year. The formula is to find young people in a fringe sport or activity, follow them to some competition, portray them in a largely positive light and leave the audience with a feel good ending. The first film I can recall that followed this formula was 2nd Verse : The Rebirth of Poetry (kids competing in Poetry Slams) at this year's IndieFest. Then at the SF International Asian American Film Festival, they showed Planet B-Boy (kids competing in Break Dancing tournaments). At this DocFest, they screened Jump! (kids competing in Jump Rope tournaments), Sync or Swim (2004 US Olympic Synchronized Swim Team) and Debate Team (college debate contests). Debate Team and Sync or Swim had more nuance than the other films (mainly due to oversized personalities or personal tragedy) but largely hewed to the formula. I'm too much of a cynic to not think filmmakers are copying each other. I'm certain this particular formula has not reached its saturation point (in terms of number of films following this formula or my enjoyment of these films).

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A few other odds and ends.

I do not like the Little Roxie. The seats are not bolted to the ground so I'll lean forward or backward and the chair will rock as if it will tip over. Noise from the lobby filters into the theater. Also, there is a bar next door which shares the wall behind the screen. Sometimes, noise from there can filter over too. Light and noise from the projection can distract me as well.

Attendance seemed hit or miss. The screenings of Bird's Nest, Going on 13, Megalopolis, Come On Down!, Enlighten Up! and Operation Filmmaker were healthy but did not fill up the Big Roxie. I believe there were four people in the screening of Here, Kitty Kitty (Little Roxie) and Bunnyland (Shattuck).

Panhandling in the Mission seems more active as of late. Perhaps that is a consequence of the economy. I keep believing the Mission will gentrify but the 16th and Valencia area hasn't changed much since I started going to the Roxie more than 10 years ago.

Speaking of poetry slams, they seem to have one on Thursday nights in the 16th Street Mission BART southwest Plaza. I'm not sure if it is every Thursday. The difference between the southwest and northeast plazas at that BART station is incredible. They two plaza are catercorner but worlds apart. The SW plaza has bright lights and usually a portable food stand. People are milling about. I've seen rats or large rodents, gang bangers and drug dealers in the NE plaza. It's darker than the SW plaza and kind of scary at night. I wonder why BART doesn't do something about it. They spent a lot of time and money renovating the both plazas a few years ago. The SW plaza is more inviting (as inviting as plaza can be when there are drug addicts and other shady characters lurking). The NE plaza didn't really improve. The only time I take it is when I go the the Victoria Theater. For some reason, the NE escalator from the station level to street level is always going down and the SW escalator is always going up.

There is often some guy(s) with a grill on a pushcart in the SW plaza. I've seen him at various location in the Mission but he was set up several nights outside the Roxie. He sells sausage wrapped in bacon with grilled onions and green peppers. I think that is an English or Irish food tradition. I haven't been brave enough to try one yet. Instead of bacon wrapped sausages, there was a lunch truck selling Nicaraguan food in the SW plaza during most of DocFest's Roxie run. I wonder if it that spot is on a first come basis.

2008 San Francisco International Documentary Film Festival

I saw 28 programs at this year's DocFest. DocFest is affiliated with SF IndieFest and Hole in the Head. The festival ends today but I won't be able to attend tonight's programs. I have not been a big fan of documentaries in the past. Modestly speaking, I'm a history buff so I watch the History Channel alot but I don't seek out documentaries like I do other films.

I surprised myself by how much I enjoyed the 2007 DocFest. That was the main factor influencing my decision to purchase a festival pass this year. I'm glad to report that I enjoyed this year's festival tremendously.

I'll list the films I saw in categories of enjoyment.

Favorite Film of the Festival
Operation Filmmaker; (2007) - Official Website

Highly Recommended Films from the Festival
Going on 13; (2008) - Official Website
Come On Down! The Road to 'The Price is Right'; (2008) - Official Site
Jump!; (2007) - Official Site
Debate Team; (2008) - Official Site
Sync or Swim; (2008) - Official Site
Urban Explorers: Into the Darkness; (2007) - Official Site
Toots; (2006) - Official Site
Over My Dad's Body - Hebrew with subtitles; (2007) - Official Site
Elvis in East Peoria; (2007)
Enlighten Up!; (2008) - Official Site
Spirit of the Marathon; (2007) - Official Site

Enjoyed but Felt Ashamed Afterwards
I Think We're Alone Now; (2008) - Official Site

Not a Bad Way to Kill an Hour or Two
Chelsea on the Rocks directed by Abel Ferrara; (2008) - Official Site
Bird's Nest: Herzon & de Meuron in China - German and Mandarin with subtitles; (2008) - Official Site
Married at the Mall; (2002) - Official Site
Whole; (2003) - Official Site
Disconnected; (2008)
The People's Advocate: The Life & Times of Charles P. Garry; (2007) - Official Site
San Francisco: Still Wild at Heart; (2007) - Official Site
Chasing the Devil: Inside the Ex-Gay Movement; (2008) - Official Site

Did Not Enjoy/Cannot Recommend
Bigfoot: A Beast on the Run; (2008)
Brave New West; (2008) - Official Site
Bunnyland; (2007) - Official Site
Here, Kitty Kitty; (2007)
Neshoba; (2008)
This Dust of Words; (2008) - Official Site
When Clouds Clear - Spanish with subtitles; (2007)
Belonging; (2008?)
Megalopolis - Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese and some Arabic languages with subtitles; (2008) - Official Site

Short Films that Preceded Certain Features
I'm Like This Every Day; (2008)
A Stiff Upper Lip; (2008)
Song of a Sperm Donor; (2007)
Why We Wax; (2007) - Official Site
Standard Deviation; (2008)
The Good Mother of Abangoh; (2008) - Official Site

Dust played at DocFest but I saw it previously at the 2008 SF International Film Festival. I didn't enjoy it the first time so I saw no reason to see it again.

Films I Regret Missing at the Festival
A Life Without Pain
A Hole in the Fence
Kassim the Dream
Lucio
The Rich Have Their Own Photographers
Silhouette City

Conversations Overheard in a Public Restroom

The title of this post sounds like a John Cassavetes film. "They are having a Cassavetes retrospective at the Roxie next month. They are screening A Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and Conversations Overheard in a Public Restroom."

Anyway, during one of the Dead Channels screenings, I went to the bathroom during the film. The men's room at the Roxie is adjacent to the sidewalk and there is a small window high on the wall that is left open. As I was doing my business, I heard festival founder Bruce Fletcher outside on the sidewalk. He was speaking to what seemed to be a couple that was scanning the film posters or festival guide. Fletcher was engaging them in small talk about his festival when they mentioned they attend Noir City every year at the Castro Theater. BTW, Noir City will be January 23 to February 1, 2009 at the Castro.

When Fletcher heard this, he told the couple that the Castro Theater was turning into a "regular theater" starting November 1. That jolted me as I've heard that the Castro is not doing so well financially and some of the screenings I've been to have been sparsely attended. I recalled this SF Chronicle article on fading rep houses from February.

"Regular theater" could mean many things but I interpreted Fletcher's statement to mean that the Castro was going to show traditional cineplex offerings like they did this summer with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I thought the Castro was switching programming to shore up finances but that didn't really add up. My observation is the that Castro packs them in for film festival, special film events (like Romeo and Juliet or Midnite for Maniacs) and various live events like the annual San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus performance every December.

Furthermore, there are a lot of Hollywood films that bomb at the box office so unless the Castro could program a hit like Indiana Jones every time, why not just stick with the current model and avoid the public outcry if they tried to change programming?

According to the Castro's calendar, nothing seems amiss starting November 1. November is filed with Tony Curtis films, a Bette Davis double feature, the revival of Lola Montès and the 2008 San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival (otherwise known as the Third I).

Then I noticed that the Castro is screening Milk with Sean Penn for first 23 days of December but followed by a Sing Along Sound of Music and a Joy Behar performance on New Year's Eve. Knowing the Castro is hosting Noir City for the last nine days in January, it would seem that the Castro is not turning into a "regular theater."

Still the extended Milk run (pun intended) is identical to the programming of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull earlier this year. Given the programming to date, the Chronicle article, the declining movie audience and general economic conditions, maybe the Castro is planning a change in programming. Only the future will tell.

For my own part, I enjoy the Castro programming. Festival screenings excluded, I see more films at the Castro than any other theater. Including film festivals, I probably see more films at the Roxie because SF IndieFest and Dead Channels use their facilities primarily.

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Speaking of IndieFest, their documentary film festival (DocFest) opened last night at the Roxie. It runs until October 30 at the Roxie and then October 31 to November 6 at the Shattuck Cinema in Berkeley (within walking distance of the Downtown Berkeley BART). I wasn't sure if I was going to buy a festival pass but I was in Las Vegas recently and hit a 200 to 1 jackpot on a video poker machine at the airport. I spent the winnings on a DocFest pass.

A few films that interest me:

Toots - a film about New York club owner Toots Shor. This film screened at the SF International Film Festival earlier this year.

Bigfoot: A Beast on the Run - I'm Sasquatch believer or at least I want to believe.

Neshoba - a modern day exploration of a Klansman prosecuted for the 1964 Mississippi Burning murders.

Fatman Walking - a 400 pound man decides to walk from San Diego to New York.

Jump - chronicles five teams pursuing the World Jump Rope Championship.

Over My Dad's Body - Israeli woman investigates her father's claim that her uncle is a Soviet undercover spy in Israel.

Changing Channels

I have some free time to riff on some of the 2008 Dead Channels films.

Far and away, the best film of the festival was the Swedish language Let the Right One In. The film is based on a 2004 novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist. I have not read the novel but the film (directed by Tomas Alfredson) seems to be set in the 1970's for some reason. There was a quick mention of Leonid Brezhnev which confused me. Sweden (where the film is set) was not under Soviet control during that time.

Regardless, the film could have been set in any time period because the plot successfully melds two genres - the vampire lore and lonely boy/first crush film. The plot centers around a Oskar, 12 year old boy who is bullied at school. If well told, that story always interests me because it can veer off any which way - nice guy ignores the bullies, nice guy gets a mentor to deal with the bullies, nice guy turn introverted and goes postal, etc.

Let the Right One In melds Oskar's tribulations with his first crush on his new next door neighbor (Eli). I thought the character of Eli was perfectly cast with Lina Leandersson. She looked like a 12 year old girl, she was a little tomboyish and she exhibited the awkwardness that can be prevalent at that age. Of course, Eli's age and cause of her awkwardness are not what they appear. Eli is actually a 200 year old vampire frozen in a 12 year old body. I thought that Kirsten Dunst's similiar role in Interview with the Vampire was a compelling storyline in that film. Leandersson's interpretation of a vampire trapped in a child's body is more understated and sympathetic.

The result is a film that treats the relationship between the two prepubescent with tenderness and humor while allowing Eli and her minion the standard allotment of vampire related blood and gore. I can't say enough about Lina Leandersson's performance. She captures the weariness and desperation of her existence while retaining some humanity in her relationship with Oskar.

Bruce Fletcher said the film will be remade ("crappified" was the exact quote) by the director of Cloverfield. I never saw that film so I don't know how bad that can be. I can only imagine that Eli will be cast as an older girl with definite sex appeal which changes the audience's reaction to Eli. Most studio films are crap anyway so I don't know if I'll ever see the American version of Let the Right One In.

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The other film I was impressed with was Who is K.K. Downey? which is a spoof of the JT Leroy hoax from a few years back. The two leads (Darren Curtis as Terrance/KK and Matt Silver as Theo Huxtable) deliver outstanding comedic performance. Curtis' Southern drawl makes me smiles (who knew "nachos" was pronounced differently with a Southern accent?).

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Viscera and the Incubus was hosted by Shannon Lark - director, actress, Viscera Film Festival founder, Chain Saw Mafia Production Company CEO, Living Dead Girlz manager and probably much more. I found tremendously appealing; she was very friendly and atriculate. She is the type of person that would probably be successful in any career although my impression is that she likes the limelight so some occupations wouldn't suit her.

The Viscera Film Festival is not a film festival like most. It's an on-line festival and since my internet connection is on a small notebook computer, I don't watch much streaming video. Based on the 2007 selections, I may have keep an eye out for it.

Three short films from Viscera stood out. Wretched with Joe Bob Briggs (I read his movie reviews in high school) and Jaime Andrews portray a dysfunctional married couple at a diner. Joe Bob (aka John Bloom) is a jerk and his wife copes by binging and purging between dinner courses in the restaurant women's room. There was a scene where she vomits copious amounts blood but I thought this film would have worked without that scene.

The Cleaner feels vaguely derivative but I can't identify which film I'm thinking of. Regardless, it was enjoyable. It's the story of a clean freak woman who lets her obsessive compulsive disorder ruin her marriage and job. After being fired, she comes home to find his wife in flagrante delicto (with Shannon Lark!). The wife gets her revenge by forcing industrial cleaning solvent down Shannon throat.

Brains is an extended music video - Valley Girl meets Zombies (and it was directed by Shannon Lark!).

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I had high hopes for A Visit From the Incubus directed by and starring Anna Biller. Let me preface my statement by saying I am a big fan of Viva. Her 2007 feature film played at last year's IndieFest. A Visit From the Incubus (28 minutes and made in 2001) hints that Biller is an auteur or one-trick pony if you are less polite. Both films had similarities - Biller likes musical numbers and audacious costumes. It appears as though she likes period pieces too. Biller likes to coordinate colors on screen, e.g. her red dress matches the red curtains.

There is nothing wrong or distracting with these traits. In fact, I like musicals and noticing details like the colors on screen. However, Biller also stars in her films and her performances (for the two I have seen) are nearly identical. Biller delivers her lines with a halting cadence. She seems to orate sarcastically more than act. Her facial expressions frequently seem to extend beyond the fourth wall into the audience with a "wink wink" undertone. Now that worked fine in Viva and it could have worked in A Visit From the Incubus (after all the plot revolves around the Incubus singing in a cowboy saloon). However, having seen Viva, I was expecting something different or "more" but instead I saw Biller channel Viva from the 1970s to 1880s or whatever Old West setting that was.

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Cosmic Hex sponsored Colossus: The Forbin Project. This film was a Who's Who of televions actors. It stars Eric Braeden as Dr. Forbin. When I was a kid, I watch repeats of The Rat Patrol. Braeden was the Nazi nemesis in that show. Although not a fan, Braeden has been on The Young and the Restless for 20 years. Also in the film were Susan Clark (Webster), Marion Ross (Happy Days), Georg Stanford Brown(Roots) and Dolph Sweet (Gimme a Break!) had supporting roles. Hannibal Chew (James Hong) had a non-speaking role.

The film was badly dated but at least now I know the inspiration for the Cylon voices in the 1970's Battlestar Galactica. The films stretches the imagination and even more so when you wonder how a 1970 mainframe (with about as much computing power as modern PC) could have acheived sentience and subjugated humanity. Still, Colossus: The Forbin Project is the cinematic nexus between HAL from Space Odyssey 2001 and Skynet from The Terminator. I'm glad for the opportunity to see it.

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Bad Biology was directed by Frank Henenlotter. Henenlotter has a special place in my cinematic education. His Frankenhooker (1990) was one of the first cult films I saw. My friend's reaction to the film led me to realize my tastes in films are not mainstream and that there are alternatives to the summer studio blockbuster.

In hindsight, Frankenhooker isn't really that great but like a character from a Henenlotter might say, "it wasn't that great but it was available."

That reminds me that festival programmer Bruce Fletcher seems to have a penis fixation. Last year, he programmed The Secret Life of Sarah Sheldon and Welcome Home Brother Charles. Now he programs Bad Biology. There are only so many times you can go to that well. You see one animatronic penis, you've seen them all.

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Golgotha was oddly effective for a low budget film - the costumes looked a little silly and the dragon was most certainly not animatronic or CGI. I don't know if director Karla Jean Davis really has a keen interest in German Expressionist films or made judicious use of her budget. She shot in black and white which is probably cheaper film stock (I believe the movie was shot on film). She also filmed a lot of scenes in shadows and darkened rooms which saved on lighting. By making much of the film silent (particularly the outdoor scenes), she didn't have to wory about sound quality.

In many instances, independent directors cannot effectively make a film in this manner. Rather than DIY, it looks cheap. To Davis' credit she adequately conveyed the silent film feel. I rather enjoyed the film and wish I could have caught the showing where she field questions from the audience.

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Another short film that deserves a mention is Dead Bones. Ken Foree from the original Dawn of the Dead (1978) is the most recognizable actor. The film is about a bounty hunter in the Old West. He rides into town looking for two escapees but he soons finds out that the townfolk are cannibals. The rest of the film is him and one prisoner escaping. The film was ok but what impressed me was that they had a scene or two with galloping horses which I don't recall seeing in small budget films. It must be difficult to film and to find actors with equestrian skills. I also wondered where the exteriors were shot and was surprised to discover that it was filmed in Spain.

Taking Inventory as of October 8

I've had a very crowded film schedule over the past two weeks. Since September 28, I've seen 20 films and a play.

Dead Channels Film Festival

The feature programs were

From Inside - Animated; (2008) - Official Website
Let the Right One In - Swedish with subtitles; (2008)
Bad Biology; (2008) - Official Website
Reality Bleed-Through; (2008) - Official Website
Plague Town; (2008) - Official Website
Colossus: the Forbin Project; (1970)
Who is K.K. Downey; (2008) - Official Website
Puffball; (2007)
A Gothic Tale; (2008) - Official Website
The Disappeared; (2008) - Official Website
Epitaph - Korean with subtitles; (2007)
Cut-Throats Nine; (1972)
Golgotha; (2008) - Official Website
Retardead; (2008) - Official Website
 
There were three short films that proceeded some of the features.
Far Out; (2007)
Latchkey's Lament; (2007) - Official Website
Peekers; (2008)
 
Fantastic Short Films - Short film program
       Mr. Video; (2008)
       Augu; (2006)
       Foet; (2002)
       The Horribly Slow Murder with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon; (2008)
       Mina; (2008) - Official Website
       Ending the Eternal; (2008) - Official Website
       Dead Bones; (2008) - Official Website
 
Viscera & the Incubus - Short film program; all films are 2007 Viscera Film Festival Official Selections except A Visit From the Incubus.
       Out of Print
       I'm a Little Teapot
       It's My Birthday
       Wretched - Official Website
       When Sally Met Frank - Official Website
       The Cleaner - Official Website
       Snake Pit
       Brains
       A Visit From the Incubus starring & directed by Anna Biller; (2001) - Official Website


All the aforementioned Dead Channel films were screened at the Big Roxie. The festival ends today but I had to travel out of town so I am missing the final night. All told, I saw 16 programs which means I made my $150 festival pass cost effective.

Im addition to the Dead Channel films, I saw two Godard films the night before the festival began and a Kurosawa film on Saturday of the festival.

At the PFA, I saw:

Masculine-Feminine directed by Jean-Luc Godard; French with subtitles; (1966)
A Woman is a Woman starring Anna Karina and Jean Paul Belmondo; directed by Jean-Luc Godard; French with subtitles; (1961)

At the Castro, I saw:

Kagemusha directed by Akira Kurosawa; Japanese with subtitles; (1980)
Rebel Without a Cause starring James Dean and Natalie Wood; directed by Nicholas Ray; (1955)

In addition to these films, I saw Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll at American Conservatory Theater.

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Regarding Dead Channels, I am ambivalent. I saw 16 of the 21 programs at this year's festival. I saw a 17th film Tokyo Gore Police at Hole in the Head in June. Of those 17 programs, I would recommend five of them. Far and away, the best was Let the Right One In which also played at the more prestigious Mill Valley Film Festival (final screening October 10).

I was also impressed with Who is K.K. Downey which had several laugh out loud moments. Tokyo Gore Police is worth a look for horror fans.

The two short film programs were outstanding. I notice that short films are typically of higher quality than feature lengths at most festivals. I think it is easier to maintain a plot and budget with the confines of the short film format. I particularly enjoyed Wretched, The Horribly Slow Murder with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon, Foet, The Cleaner and Brains.

An Honorable Mention goes to Retardead which was shot in San Francisco (I recognized several locations) for $15,000.

Another positive development is that there were only two films I considered walking out on. A Gothic Tale and Reality Bleed-Through should be avoided at all costs. Both films are amateurish, convoluted and derivative horror films. From Inside showed more skill but was self-indulgent at 71 minutes. Based on a graphic novel, I think From Inside could have been serialized into four or five 10 minute short films which would have made its bleak, post-apocalyptic plot more palatable. Maybe some festival programmer can run with that idea. Have a serialized set of short films play at a festival before different (even random) feature films. Maybe word of mouth would get people to buy a ticket to see the short film.

The rest of the films were mediocre. They met my (rather low) expectations but I can't believe any self-respecting horror film afficianado would get very excited about these films and I am far from being a "fantastic film" buff.

Maybe I hold Dead Channels (along with SF Indiefest's various festivals) to a higher standard because I typically purchase festival passes. However, I purchase passes to Noir City and the SF Silent Film Festival and feel more satisfied by those festivals. Of course, a casual inspection of my film viewing shows I have a bias towards older films.

Regardless, nothing Dead Channels did this year would dissuade me from purchasing another festival pass next year. I thought attendance was off this year. Last year, Dead Channels' opening night was at the Castro Theater. This year, it was at the Vortex Room. Many of the screenings were lightly attended. None of the 16 programs I went to came close to being sold out.

As I cravenly joked with a co-worker, what I'm seeing on Wall Street and the fast declining value of my stock portfolio is scarier than anything I saw at Dead Channels.

Paying Tribute to Bernard Schwartz & Lola Montès

Last month, while perusing the Telluride Film Festival Program, I wrote "I hope Gary [Meyer] can convince someone to screen a few of these in the Bay Area...Lola Montès - directed by Max Ophüls; (1955)"

As I was re-reading the current Castro Theater calendar, I noted on the back cover that Lola Montès will be screening there from November 19 to 25. November 27 is Thanksgiving so I'll have to keep that in mind when making travel plans but with any luck I'll get to see Ophüls' film of the (in)famous European courtesan of the 19th century.

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On November 18, the Castro is having rump session of the Mill Valley Film Festival. MVFF is paying tribute to Bernard Schwartz, better known as Tony Curtis. Curtis will be there to accept his award and then they will show Some Like it Hot. I'm not a huge Curtis fan but he has had enough memorable moments to be well deserving of a tribute. Actually, with all due respect to him, I thought he was dead.

My Immediate & Random Five Tony Curtis Screen Memories

1) Tony Curtis being propositioned by Laurence Olivier in Spartacus. I think that scene was filmed at Hearst Castle. Olivier kept speaking metaphorically about liking oysters and snails. Rather than literally being Sir Larry's Love Slave, Curtis runs away to join the Slave Revolt where he develops a serious man crush on Kirk Douglas

2) Burt Lancaster making Tony Curtis his personal bitch in The Sweet Smell of Success. Lancaster's voice oozed with contempt for Curtis' character - something like "Match me Sydney" when asking for a light for his cigarette.

3) Tony Curtis doing his Cary Grant impersonation in Some Like it Hot. Curtis and Jack Lemmon made a great comedy team. Afterwards, Curtis opined about co-star Marilyn Monroe, "It was like kissing Hitler."

4) That scene with Natalie Wood in short shorts in The Great Race. She was changing behind the car or something and she steps out to give a nice view of her gams. There was a pie fight at the end of the film. Jack Lemmon co-starred.

5) Earlier this month, I was watching AMC on a Saturday morning. I started watching Kansas Raiders (1950). Audie Murphy starred as Jessie James. Richard Long (best known as Jared in the TV series The Big Valley played Frank James. Brian Donlevy played William Quantrill of Quantrill's Raiders fame. James Best (Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane from The Dukes of Hazard was cast as Cole Younger. In the role of Kit Dalton was Tony Curtis. Kit Dalton was an author that wrote Under the Black Flag, his memoir about his time in Quantrill's Raiders. I don't know much about Kit Dalton but I don't think he had a heavy Bronx accent.

Honorable Mention - The Vikings (1958) starring Issur Danielovitch Demsky, Ermes Effron Borgnino and Bernie Schwartz (otherwise known as Kirk Douglas, Ernest Borgnine and Tony Curtis). Weren't the Vikings tall, blonde, Aryan Norsemen?