Archive | August, 2010
Dark Endings & Sultry Beginnings: The 2010 Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival – Feature
27 Aug
The inevitable progression of the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival proceeds with an inherent focus (at least within the films experienced) of a South American structure. While distinctly different than its European cousins, the subsect of such a tropical climate brings a more visceral interlude at times in regards to its cinema. Ironically enough, the two films journeyed within this short stint were both made in Colombia (which this writer had the chance to witness firsthand in the auspice of a Bogota wedding less than a few months ago). This experience adds to the understanding of the structure but also to the extremes of filmic license which should indicate to viewers that all is not what it seems on these films. Both films describe tendencies of violence in the country which, while prevalent earlier in the decade, are at little less vehement in the current political climate.
The first film, “Retratos En Un Mar De Mentiras” ["Portraits In A Sea Of Lies"] restructures itself in a post-visualistic style using documentary verite structures that brings one back to the dirt road mentality that so imbued a more Hollywood inferred idea such as “Romancing The Stone” (which also took place in Colombia). Here the political heirarchy, family bloodletting and “an eye for an eye” code take on almost literal meaning with the exploits of a barely functioning teenager Marina (played with exceptional steel and tenderness by Paola Baldion). The story involves the returning from Bogota to claim land on the sea left by her grandfather to her and her cousin (played with brevity by Ramses Ramos) within a coastal town. Marina was beset by a traumatic childhood experience which comes to bear later in the film. The specific rememberance scene alone in the middle of the forest is utterly primal despite the fact of its retreat to a silent end. Baldion’s utter surrender to the character in this instance anchors the film giving it a visceral quality that is missing from many other parts of the journey yet makes sense in the inherent moments of still. The idea that the guards stand on the roads is an utter reality bringing to mind the similar way Gareth Edwards shot “Monsters [LAFF 2010] in Guatemala. The ending begets a darker sensibility that balances but does not overtake similar thought patterns in Serbia cinema yet one that remains surrepticious with hope.
The second film, “La Sangre Y La Llluvia” ["Blood & Rain"], also from Colombia, takes on a more stylish progression but again is a revelry because of its shining female star in the form of Gloria Montoya. The narrative of the picture starts off in the ways of a party girl Angela (Montoya) who wanders through the clubs looking for her next hit of blow. Her anguish is basked in an ever shining light by not letting herself be alone or too much in one place at any given moment. The story of a taxi cab driver she runs into trying to survive a gang war he unwittingly has become involved in unfolds over one night. Instead of staying at the club, Angela helps this lost soul on his way down as bad luck befalls every step of his way until she is completely consumed by its evil. However within this shadow, she finds a connection only to have it broken. While many could see the film’s impetus as gratuitous, the reality, despite the style of the picture shot anamorphically, is its basis in real life in terms of how people function. “Blood & Rain” succeeds in its character based angle of showing how the lives of people intertwine even when they push against not wanting such a responsibility. Fate is fickle in an unbecoming way which makes the full circle connotation of the images such as trees bending with the crashing of rain in darkness all the more metaphorical.
Another film, Sequestro, predicated on a more documentary essence involving a film crew enmeshed with a Police Kidnap Force for four years, follows the hard hitting action needed to save victims in the San Paolo region. A reception following at H. Wood in the Hollywood & Highland complex, where the festival was held, discussed the intensity of such a shoot while the reality of bringing it to view at a confab such as this verified its importance overall. With drinks such as the Prohibition Carnival made with H. Wood’s propreitary teas, elderflower liquor and LeBlon Chacaca, the tropical but hard edged fuel mirrored the film’s ideals as a DJ played scintilating rhythms while fused roses and a glass chandelier mirrored the revelry from overhead.
The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, though experienced briefly, impressed with its hard hittiing viewpoints of cinema and entertainment, especially from the country of Colombia which, though dark in its viewpoints, showed exceptional acting abilities in the visceral performances of two leading ladies in the form of Paola Bondion & Gloria Montoya.
Artistic Creation & Hollywood Texture: The 2010 Feel Good Film Festival – Feature
27 AugThe influx of any festival is finding its identity within the persistent structure of lives without a face. Learning and imparting a bit of wisdom despite any struggle meant to get there always reflects in the face of the beholder.
The Feel Good Film Festival, held at the The Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, loosely personifies a lot of the structure it holds in place. Offering a place for a community of filmmakers is always conducive, no matter what the event may be as long as the lingering of ideas speaks true and not because of any preconceived notions of business, which nevertheless permeate.
The films, both short and feature length, reflected this artistic struggle and the need to connect, whether accomplished or not in the confluence of their narrative, some with more success than others.
“Art House“, a small film about the maintaining of artistic freedom within a collapsing financial structure, shows popular culture’s reflection of the current economic stresses. While the aspect of the university dean’s inflection that the house is indeed mainly used for parties, the wanton aspect of imagination relishes through. Granted everything tends to work out a little too quickly but shooting a film with a bit of humor heavily helped by Danny Mooney’s Ben and Ana Kayne’s Becky as the modern day flower children encumbered by fashion or a sense of political correctness gives a lightness to the proceedings. Greta Gerwig, who made this film before her big break in “Greenberg” and is now starring in the upcoming “Arthur” opposite Russell Brand, seems less than luminous in a role that has definite potential if expounded in a “Election” kind of way with some bite.
“How To Make Love To A Woman“, by comparison, uses the idea, actually mildly paralleled in the new Drew Barrymore comedy “Going The Distance” off how the new style of relationships where the career is the breaking point offsets the idea of actual physical compatability. Josh Meyer plays Andy, a boy in love but unaware of how to speak directly without causing a problem while his girlfriend Lauren played by Krysten Ritter, who brings to mind the light and luminiscent charm of Anna Friel and Anne Hathaway, sits bewildered by his swings in moods. Ian Somerhalder, gaining increasing traction on “Vampire Diaries” and lore on “Lost” plays the thankless role of an old childhood friend of Lauren that provides the motivation for said breakdown of relationship. The narrative’s progression is the all-the-while expected but maintains the uplifting spirit while lacking the depth of say “Before Sunset”. Jenna Jameson makes an appearance hampered with kids and a mini-van as herself which make the inherent meaning all the more unbalanced.
“Eagles In The Chicken Coop“, despite all its frustrations, seems to understand that the maintenance of sanity is compromise which the characters in this film do not embrace. The idea from a mockumentary perspective has merit though it has been tried in many ways before. The thought of the faux drama of a “mature movie” (which has become legend on Cinemax) is simply an apt translation of what is known as “bad cinema”: films made on a formula on the cheap for certain buyers and a certain audience. For reasons that would never happen in real life (despite the need to cut costs), “Nameless Studios” hires two wide eyed thirty-somethings still interested in the thought of subtext. While many of the interludes shown happen all too often in these types of films, the baseline optimism portrayed even in the destruction of the picture and the anger of the people involved parlays a distinct lightheartedness that is hard to believe.
In terms of the short films, the ideas paint a little more subversive because the compacted structures require an efficiency of story, that unlike features, they simply cannot afford.
“There Might Be Dragons” starts the progression with a sea of doubt involving a man suddenly layed off from his job equating, in his fragile state of mind, his boss with a living breathing dragon. Though the progression seems internal (and even dark), the last frame reveals a specific detail which gives the film punch.
“Henry & Sunny” harks the idea (at least from this Irish filmmaker) that clowns are the cause of all the world’s problems. Like low level peasants, the ones who make people laugh are treated like garbage. One clown professes his love to an actress. She sees the laughter in his heart and, against her better judgment, shows that she too can be a clown herself to make him happy. The bittersweet element is cut short in a resolution paradoxically more pessimistic than optimistic.
“Undercover”, an outlay on the balance of Muslim perceptions in a pork based world, is actually quite successful in its recreation of 80s comedy. Further discerning that FSU Film School with its Sony Red tendencies is indeed a consistently effective creator of shorts as evidenced by last year’s “Four Inch Precious”, this film takes it one step further addressing cultural issues while still being self-deprecating.
The Feel Good Film Festival highlights a bit of its abilities in the sardonic wit of some of its films simply because, despite their romantic comedy fronts, the ideas are quite subversive, especially in the shorts. Optimism, especially in current times, is reflected in very specific ways within the indie film scene allowing for a cultural record to permeate the ideas of a new generation.
