Jason goes to Docfest--Day 3

Another 5 movies last Sunday. Here we go:

Most festivals (especially in SF when I take BART) include at least one show where I sprint like a madman to make it there. Sometimes it's my fault, but this time it was BART's fault, as the train leaving Fremont was late, I missed the transfer, and got to 16th and Mission at 12:29 instead of 12:09. So I sprinted to the Roxie just as the first movie was starting. As I walked in, I saw the meditating image of Abbot Phra Khru Bah Neua Chai Kositto (aka Khru Bah). the amazing subject of "Buddha's Lost Children". Khru Bah was a Thai boxer, but he gave up the sport to become a Buddhist monk, traveling to the remote northern province of Thailand most famous for impoverished hillside villages and brutal druglords. There he founded a temple and orphanage. He travels to all the local villages, adopting the most impoverished and/or sick children, battling drug smugglers, and spreading his message of peace and love. The filmmakers had amazing access, and captured some beautifully moving images. And just when I'm in awe of Khru Bah, my attention shifted to the children. 3 stories in particular touched me. Nehn Sukh has unknown parents, and although he starts out having trouble keeping up, he becomes sort of a leader of the novices (apprentice monks), and wants to be a monk his entire life. Yee starts out barely able to speak, but slowly comes out of his world and becomes a novice himself, changing his name to Pan Saen. And finally, Boontam is only 4 years old, the youngest of 5 children in a family too poor to take care of himself, much less his disease that has made his legs so weak. But he has a smile that could light the world. Khru Bah even believes he could be a Buddha, and the miracle these people need. As a follow-up, his legs are healthy now, and he travels back and forth from the village to the temple. When he becomes 7, he plans to formally become a novice, too.

Next up was "Call of the Wild", the documentary about Chris McCandless, the 20-something who went out into the Alaskan wilderness and died on an abandoned bus after about 3 months. It was made into a book called "Into the Wild", and Sean Penn directed a movie version of it that's out now. In fact, this documentary runs into Sean Penn twice, as they're both filming on location. I never read the book, but I knew something of McCandless. I had recently moved out of Alaska at the time, and still kept track of the news up there. I'm eager to see Sean Penn's take on the story (which I've heard is pretty faithful to the book), but in the meantime Ron Lamothe has made an incredibly fascinating rediscovery of the events, including new discoveries that the book got wrong. One of my favorite points is when the local guide shows Lamothe the McCandless' backpack--found in the bus but completely overlooked by the Alaska State Troopers. In a secret pouch is McCandless' wallet, including about 8 forms of ID. So the weeks spent trying to identify the body, the dental records sent from the east coast--that was all unnecessary. I also like the reactions of the locals in the bar in Healey. They're the only ones who are blunt about how he was a dumbass and his death was Darwinism in action. That's actually more or less my opinion, although I can sympathize with the idealism and romanticism that has surrounded his myth. This was one of my favorite movies of the festival, and makes me all the more eager for Sean Penn's movie. By the way, I think I also recognized Lamothe's friend Tom Borden and his movie "American Rash" in there, but that's another story.

Next up was a short and a feature. First the short "The Indypendent", a brief look at the independent, mostly-volunteer, New York newspaper of the same name. I'm sure they do great work, and there are a lot of dedicated people, and they've won many independent press awards, but the movie really plays as an extended commercial for the paper.

The feature was "WTF: an Okaymentary", about the online community okayplayer.com. Originally a site for Roots fans, ?uestlove put the url on an album and then called his web administrator and told her "you have to make this site!" I'd never heard of it before this movie, but it's grown into a fairly large online community that's not necessarily even all Roots fans anymore (though mostly it still is). The filmmakers are all on okayplayer, and made it as sort of a road trip with the intention of meeting all the people face to face who they already know online. In that way, it shares a lot in common with any online community, particularly the stories of how people are meaner online than in person. But overall, okayplayer seems like a friendlier site than most online communities I've seen. Pretty cool. Here's a pic of co-directors Leslye James and Tim Adkins:


Next up was the treat of the festival so far, the dogumentary "Wiener Takes All". They really rolled out the red carpet for the stars:


The premise is simple and hilarious--an in-depth look at the world of competitive wiener dogs (or dachshunds for you prudes). It delves into the cutthroat world of wiener dog racing, the waaay more cutthroat world of dog shows, and even into the history of wiener dogs--they actually go back to Egyptian hieroglyphics, which oddly show other dogs on leashes but wiener dogs unleashed. The racing, of course, is the best part, with the fierce rivalries of Noodles, Pretzel, Vinnie Barbarino, Baby Luv, Heidi Roo, etc. It also hits on some faux-scandalous elements, like allegations of doping or bribing dog show judges. And in a few moments, it touches on deadly serious elements. I don't want to give away spoilers, but I feel I should warn about three things, since they'd be likely to upset dog lovers who are otherwise the best audience for this film. First, there's a scandal in dog show world about double-dappled and piebald dachshunds. Both have a color that's unacceptable to the dog show world--white. Problem is, dappled or double-dappled is a genetic disorder that doesn't just affect pigment, but affects function--whatever is underneath the white spots doesn't work right. Piebald is a different kind of white coloration that is completely harmless. On the one hand, puppy mills will breed dapples to make double-dapples, because the ~10% of survivors are so cute. On the other hand, dog shows ban piebalds for no good reason (in fact, one doggie historian claims the original wiener dogs in Egypt were piebalds). The second disturbing episode--historical accounts of hate crimes against "German" dogs during WWI and WWII. Poor wiener dogs were killed just for being German, even if they were born in America (they were in fact temporarily renamed Liberty Pups). And the final disturbing bit--and the one that really got me--comes from the argument against wiener dog racing. Greyhound racing has become such a big industry that perfectly healthy losing dogs are often put to death. It's fine to note that as an abomination and a reason against letting the sport get that big, but this movie did show graphic footage. I understand why it's there and I don't want to say it shouldn't be seen. And normally I might not even say a word about it. But since the presumed audience is doggy enthusiasts, I think they oughta be forewarned. Especially since all the rest of the movie is silly and fun.

Here's a pic of director Shane MacDougall with Docfest programmer Fay Dearborn.


And here are stars Baby Luv and Bruno, with their humans. It was so cool to meet the athletes/movie stars in person. I even got a smooch on the nose from Baby Luv!



And then, the final movie of the weekend was the surrealist suburban joke, "Radiant City". I will now visibly struggle with the issue of spoilers:

Errrgh, ungh....umm....

Okay, I've decided not to give any spoilers, other than that there is a major spoiler and if you know that you'll probably get it while watching it. This documentary is about the suburbs, the sprawling, uniform, featureless zombie wasteland that stretches across North America (it's a Canadian film, but that's not the spoiler). They interview experts, activists, and families who live in the suburb. My personal favorite was author James Howard Kunstler ("Geography of Nowhere") with some rather biting criticisms. The scene of his musings while sitting on a "recreational" bench facing a chain link fence and the freeway is priceless. But they also interview a family of suburbanites. As the children show them around their neighborhood, the mother defends suburban living while the dad passive-aggressively tolerates it while putting on a local theater production of "Suburban: The Musical!" All in all, it's a pretty funny look at a way of living that's best described as the "first attempt" to build community architecture.

And that was Sunday at docfest.

Jason goes to Holehead--Day 2

So the second day of Holehead started with some free Saturday morning cartoons of the 80s and 90s, because...that's just the kind of odd festival it is. And Saturday morning started at 1:00 pm, because that's definitely the kind of festival this is. Free sugary cereal (I ate too much and got kinda sick, so I had to balance that with a couple of beers) and SUPERFRIENDS (a weird space-Arabs episode), SMURFS, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (the origins episode where April O'Neill meets the turtles), CARE BEARS (learn sportsmanship with magic bears who help you cheat and win!), SHE-RA (crossover episodes featuring HE-MAN and SKELETOR), THUNDERCATS (the origins episode, where before they land on Earth they're actually walking around on their spaceship naked--but covered in cat fur. That's right, a little naked-ish Cheetara action! And I feel dirty writing that). Anyway, it was free to everyone, and quite a lot of families brought their kids there. A lot of them were asking the Balboa Theater management about doing this again, so...maybe?

Then the festival continued with...a surfing documentary? Okay, some explanation is necessary. Because the Balboa Theater is a new venue for the festival, and because it's near-ish the beach (certainly nearer than the Mission), the organizers of the festival thought it would be fun to take a break from horror and do a kind of mini-fest of surfing documentaries at the Balboa. And so H2INDO was the first one they booked. And then they couldn't find any more. But they talked to the director and he was super-excited to play the festival, especially at the Balboa. Then at the last minute he couldn't make it (or, I guess, convince any of his friends to go) so we ended up with a surfing documentary in a horror festival with maybe 5 people in attendance, myself included.

It's a shame this wasn't played in the right context, because it's actually a pretty good movie. It explores the world of the surfing sub-category or Stand Up Paddling through a two week trip to Indonesia with 7 giants (old guard and new stars) of the sport. I'll admit I know nothing about the surfing world, but for some reason the name Dave Kalama seems like someone I should know. The rest of them are Connor Baxter, Slater Trout, Talia Gangini (the one girl among all these guys,) Chuck Patterson, Dave Boehne & Jamie Mitchell. First-time director Brent Deal writes himself into the movie by essentially integrating his "making of" scenes into the film, starting with the phone call from his main backer--his grandma--agreeing to give him the money to make his movie. Then it's off to Indonesia with the gang, where he obsesses over how he doesn't know how to shoot surfing scenes--shooting from the boat is too shaky, and shooting from land he can't get good shots, so he gives all credit on his first day to his assistant who is shooting in the water. At first the idea of focusing on his struggles to make the movie seemed kind of self-indulgent, but eventually I realized that since he's a novice to Stand Up Paddling, having himself as a character actually serves as the point of view of the audience, letting us discover the world as he does. Too many surfing documentaries (in fact, action-sports documentaries in general) fail to do this, and end up being movies by and for the surfing/action sports community that aren't all that accessible to those outside. So that novice point of view is greatly appreciated.

Anyway, I've gone a full paragraph and haven't even explained what Stand Up Paddling (SUP) is. You might have seen those guys on big surfboards standing up with a long paddle (as opposed to lying on your board and paddling out.) Well...the guys standing up and paddling are doing SUP. Simple as that. Staying upright and using the paddle makes it easier for newbies to learn, and you can surf in more "junk" waves that shortboard surfers would pass up. And those shortboard surfers don't like these "spoon goons" getting in their way. That's a part of the story that plays heavily but isn't very well explained (mostly because it's explained by people who don't agree with it) but surfers can be very territorial and shortboarders don't think SUP is "core" enough to share the waves. Whatever, SUP looks like a heck of a lot of fun, and the movie ends up--despite Brent Deal's early concerns--getting some absolutely awesome shots of it.

Then the next show--exactly six hours after the beginning of the festival day--was the first horror movie of the day. And PINUP DOLLS ON ICE made me yearn for more surfing documentaries. Okay, not really, but it made me yearn for a good horror any-genre movie. It's derivative of any number of slasher movies, but with the misogyny dialed up to eleven and the intelligence dialed down to zero. The Pinup Dolls are a retro burlesque act that despite being introduced as kick-ass girls who will beat a guy with a baseball bat because he owes them money, but as soon as the generic-homicidal-maniac-with-a-weak-backstory-told-through-gratuitous-exposition-long-after-we've-stopped-caring shows up, they turn into quivering, scantily-clad (or not clad at all) weaklings who can't recognize and pick up a weapon in a roomful of weapons (hell, they're all wearing spiked heels and none of them think to take them off and use the heel as a weapon; instead they'll all try to run in them.) What bothers me most is that it was pretty well made. It was well shot, the bloody effects were good, and the acting was...energetic, if not exactly great. It bugs me that some obvious skill went into making something so distasteful, pointless, and dumb.

Then the next film was the highlight of the night, Bobcat Goldthwait's latest directorial effort, WILLOW CREEK. Set in...or at least near...the site of the famous Patterson-Gimlin footage, we follow a couple of documentary filmmakers on the search for Bigfoot. Or at least he is on the search for Bigfoot. She's along because they're a couple and she supports him. So they travel to the town of Willow Creek, California, home of the Bigfoot museum (and Bigfoot Burger, and multiple Bigfoot statues, and lots of ardent "squatchers.") They interview locals, hear some Bigfoot-themed folk music (this part blurs reality and fiction.) And for the first hour or so it plays out as if it's a pretty cool Bigfoot documentary. Then they go on a camping trip, against the warning of an angry local (San Francisco's own Bucky Sinister, who was there for the screening) and...well that night it turns into a genuinely scary horror movie. There's an already-famous 17 minute scene of them sitting up in their tent at night listening to noises and freaking the heck out. As someone who has in my youth spent more than a few nights in a tent in bear territory in Alaska (and with Boy Scouts who like to prank you by faking bear attacks) I can tell you how scary that can be. And as someone who watched the scene with THE HUNGER GAMES blaring in the theater next door, I can tell you how important it is to watch it in a well sound-insulated room, because that kinda broke the scene a little bit. But just a little bit, the scene was still excellent and made me jump at the right moment. I've said this quite a few times, but I think Bobcat Goldthwait is one of the most interesting directors working today, and Bucky Sinister related that Bobcat calls this time "the Ed Wood part of his career" where he will make the movie he wants to make, take a studio note from nobody, and then figure out how to sell it. Kudos to him for this movie, and for that attitude towards filmmaking.

Then we ended the night with a valiant attempt to watch BUCK WILD. More mis-adventures in Holehead screwups, the copy of the movie never arrived. So we watched a screener--an online screener via Vimeo. And it started out okay, despite poor audio and a watermark across the bottom, it actually looked okay. We met the main characters--a group of young men off on a hunting trip on Buck Wild ranch in Texas. There's the leader, the horny one, the glasses-wearing nerd, and the crazy cousin. And we meet the bad guys--Billy Ray (who we are assured is a bad-ass despite dressing like a gay pimp and speaking in a British accent) and his gang. And we're introduced to the concept of the Chupacabra. And then...the movie freezes up. And we fuck around with getting Vimeo to play it. And we switch to non-HD. And it works some more. The video quality isn't that great, but it's still watchable. And the horny friend is attacked by the Chupacabra-infected ranch owner's daughter. And they accidentally shoot the ranch owner, and the crazy cousin totally non-accidentally drugs the ranger, and the nerd accidentally drives his 4x4 onto Billy Ray's property and...the movie freezes again. And this time they just can't get it to play. So we call it a night. Too bad, because it was looking pretty promising, had a good mix of comedy and horror, and wacky characters that kept your interest even if they were over-the-top, unrealistic, and one-dimensional. But, those are the breaks, and they've become a bit too common at Holehead.

So that was day 2 at Holehead. Only half of it was horror, and only half of that was watchable (but at least WILLOW CREEK was pretty great.)

Total Running Time: 451 minutes (only counting completed programs)
My Total Minutes: 343,396

Jason goes to the Roxie for an H.P. Lovecraft double feature

So after two films at Jewfest, then BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, I skipped over to the Roxie for this double feature of Lovecraftian weirdness (oh yes, this is all on the same day.)

First up, WHISPERER IN DARKNESS, which I had seen just a few months back in Portland at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and Cthulhu-con. Here's what I said then:

And then what might be my favorite film of the festival (at least favorite feature), WHISPERER IN DARKNESS. It's made by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, who earlier had produced the excellent silent version of THE CALL OF CTHULHU (2005.) Since "The Call of Cthulhu" was written in 1928, they adapted it in the style of the time--a silent film. So for WHISPERER IN DARKNESS, they adapted it in the style when it was made--1931. So early talkies, the same year as DRACULA. That's an excellent choice of style (which they've dubbed "Mythoscope.") Professor Albert Wilmarth of Miskatonic University is a folklorist and a skeptic, spending much of his career debunking various legends. But an urgent letter brings him to the woods of Vermont, where he learns something of the truth behind the local legends, with terrifying and sometimes humorous results.

Wow, I was kind of light on the details...and I suppose appropriately so. No spoilers. I will just add that the CGI Mi-go were the one part I didn't quite like, just because it broke the illusion of the 1931 movie. It was very interesting to hear producer Andrew Leman talk about how the original plan was to have fully stop-motion Mi-go, but that would've added about 9 months to the project and they just ran out of time. Fair enough, I still loved it.

And the second show was Stuart Gordon's FROM BEYOND. You know, you can complain all you want about Gordon's not-at-all-serious, irreverent takes on Lovecraft (yes, RE-ANIMATOR is way too jokey compared to the story) but he makes movies that are uniquely his and deliver bizarre thrills (dammit, RE-ANIMATOR is a fine movie and lots of fun, if you just get over yourself and don't expect it to be live the book.) Here he takes FROM BEYOND and makes the unlocked sixth sense as perverted as possible. He makes it a story of a totally Dr. Edward Pretorius pervy, S&M obsessed scientist who wants to unlock the sixth sense of the pineal gland basically because the normal five senses aren't enough to get him off anymore. And it's the story of his lab assistant, Crawford Tillingast (Jeffrey Combs) who is charged with Dr. Pretorius' murder after a creature from beyond bites his freakin' head off. And it's the story of Dr. Katherine McMichaels (Barbara Compton) the hotshot "girl wonder" psychiatrist who examines Crawford and determines they should recreate the experiment to see if he's telling the truth or if he's crazy. Oh yeah, and throw Ken Foree in there as the big brute of a cop who's there for their protection. And let the sleazy wackiness commence! Lots of fun, just don't get hung up on it being a faithful Lovecraft adaptation--it belongs much more to the world of Stuart Gordon.

Total Running Time: 170 minutes
My Total Minutes: 295,958

Jason goes to the Silent Film Festival--Day 2

Saturday was a grueling marathon day in which I entered the Castro Theater about 9:30 am and didn't step outside once until after midnight.

The marathon started with a program of "Tales From The Archives". Fascinating pieces of film restoration, starting with Anne Smatla, the winner of last year's post-doctoral restoration grant. She restored SCREEN SNAPSHOTS #7, one of many "behind the scenes" shorts that mixed skits with an inside look at the studio. This one starred Lloyd Hamilton in blackface(!) being treated as a stranger on set until he washes it off and is once again a recognizable star (yikes!)

Joe Lindner and Heather Olson of the Academy Film Archive (mostly Heather) presented the rest of the restorations. The second restoration was Thanhouser's THE ACTORS CHILDREN, a nearly complete "fragment film" with a few frames too badly decomposed to see (although the scenes in general are intact) and the end missing (although the story is pretty close to resolved). An acting family struggles to make rent, and in fact while mom and dad are looking for work they're evicted and the kids are thrown on the street. But the kids are natural dancing hams and
are taken in by an organ grinder. When they prove successful, they're stolen again by the local theater and put on stage. Meanwhile, mom and dad are fantically searching for them, when he gets a telegram that a wealthy relative died and left him $1 million. Eventually they find their kids on stage, take them back and...the ending is missing.

Then we were treated to a Trailer of POLLY OF THE FOLLIES, a film that is otherwise completely lost. Constance Talmadge in her "best, longest, and DOUBLE role" as both a Ziegfeld engenue and as Cleopatra (there's some time travel involved, at least in the imagination).

Then we got into even smaller fragments, as only a few isolated frames were left of the trailer to Coleen Moore's (star of last year's restoration showcase HER WILD OAT) HAPPINESS AHEAD. Not much to say...just a few frames of Moore.

There was another one...that slips my mind right now. Dangit, again it was just a few frames from a trailer to a lost film.

And finally, we reversed the trend with a fully intact Edison short (but one that was completely unknown) HOW THE HUNGRY MAN WAS FED. A poor, starving man begs for coins, but keeps begging the same people. They switch hats and coats and keep giving him coins until know he has plenty of money for food. So they take him to a fine restaurant and fill his belly, then force him to pay up.

Stephen Horne provide piano accompaniment for the whole program.

Then there wasn't much time to turn the theater over to the next show. First up was a short THEY WOULD ELOPE from the American Biograph company (you can see their logo on set as a copyright protection), directed by D. W. Griffith and starring America's sweetheart Mary Pickford. A young couple in love, but her dad ostensibly doesn't approve. So they decide to run off, and she leaves her parent's a note. Turns out running off doesn't quite work, as they have a variety of transportation troubles, culminating in a capsized canoe. Meanwhile, turns out mom and dad are thrilled their little daughter is getting married, and plan a giant party. They return completely dishevelled after their elopement failure, and are surprised to see a wedding party waiting for them.

And then the feature, another restoration project, BARDELYS THE MAGNIFICENT starring John Gilbert (whose daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandson were in the audience) and directed by King Vidor (their final collaboration). Long thought lost, a print was found and restored by David Shepard last year. It was missing one reel which is filled in with stills and intertitles. The print was found in France and the French intertitles apparently were much different from the original English, which was still available from the MGM archives. Funds have not yet been raised to strike a new 35 mm print, so this restoration was shown on video (BetaSP I think David said, but I could be wrong). Anyway, it still looked great.

John Gilbert plays the titular Bardelys, the greatest lover in all French aristocracy. Such a great lover that his prowess stirs the envy of Count Chatellerault (Roy D'arcy). He has just failed to seduce Lady Roxalanne de Lavedan (Eleanor Boardman), who doesn't spend much time in the royal court, and so isn't much of a liar. When Bardelys mocks Chatellerault's failure at a party, they get into a fight that ends with a bet. If Bardelys cannot get Lady de Lavedan to marry him, Catellerault will get Bardelys's entire estate. It's an outrageous tale that of course involves double-crosses. Bardelys makes it to Lavedan's estate, but is badly injured. Hiding out as the leader of the anti-royal renegades (lucky, since the Lavedans are sympathetic), his "recovery" takes a long time so he can spend more time with Roxalanne. Seduction achieved--almost. Turns out the real rebel leader has a fiancee who writes to him. Roxalanne betrays him to the Royal authorities, where despite his pleas of mistaken identity he's sentenced to death. Carrying out the sentence--Count Chatellerault (Boo! Hiss!) But with a bit of Fairbanksian acrobatics, Bardelys stalls until the king arrives and recognizes him. Chatellarault gets his comeuppance, and Bardelys and Lavedan are married (oh yeah, he had actually fallen in love with her).

The costumes were outrageously foppish, the dialogue was hilariously bawdy (you fight so hard, I'd swear you were fighting for someone else's wife!), and all in all it's a delightfully silly adventure.

Music was again provided by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, who were again awesome.


Next up we went to China for WILD ROSE. But first, there was a special first ever SFSFF "Living Legends" award presentation to Qin Yi, the widow of star Jin Yan, and a famous actress in her own right. She spoke briefly about Jin Yan, his charm, and his perfectionism.

As for the movie, it's a beautiful romance and a great look at pre-WWII China. Particularly, Shanghai--the cosmopolitan city of wealthy businessmen from around the world, and the poor people of the countryside just out of town. One of those country girls is the young, beautiful, and vivacious Xiao Feng, nicknamed the titular Wild Rose (playced by Wang Renmei, nicknamed the "Wildcat"). In the opening shot her adoring father is looking for her while she's sneaking around outside to surprise him. She plays general to all the kids in town, leading them as they pretend to march in the army defending China (and the "Do you love China?/I love mommy!" is adorable in any language). Xiao Feng catches the eye of a handsome artist from Shanghai (Jin Yan, who married Renmei after filming, so there's some real chemistry on screen). When her father runs off, (presumed dead, after fighting with a local bar owner who wanted to marry her) she moves to the city with her artist boyfriend. But her country ways displease his father, and when she can't pass for a cultured city lady, his father (and the source of all his wealth) tells him to either get rid of her or leave. He chooses the latter, and for a summer they live the bohemian lifestyle with another friend of his (a failed artist who now paints billboards). The summer is great, but the winter is impossible. In a moment of weakness she steals a dropped wallet. He takes the rap, and she goes to his father to plead for him to help his son. He insists he has no son, until she agrees to go away and never see him again. Only in a romance like this could a war (the Japanese invasion) be a good thing, as he remembers how she lead the child troops back in her village. Assuming she'd enlist for the love of China, he leaps from his father's comfortable house to join the marching volunteers, and finds her immediately. The ending is very abrupt, perhaps the only weakness in this otherwise beautiful film.

This show featured piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin.


The next show started with another Biograph short by D. W. Griffith, THE VOICE OF THE VIOLIN. A weird story of a music teacher spurned by his lovely student Helen. In despair, he joins an anarchist group and draws the short straw for the mission to bomb the capitalist's house. But when he finds out it's Helen's house, he has a change of heart and now has to stop the bomb.

And that brought us into the world of noir (or proto-noir...at least one of the earliest gangster films), with the feature UNDERWORLD (introduced by Eddie Muller, the Czar of Noir, and host of the excellent Noir City Film Festival in January). Written by Ben Hecht, the Chicago newspaperman who became the greatest noir writer (or writer, period) in Hollywood history. He went on to write SCARFACE, but he won his first Academy Award and the first Academy Award ever for screenwriting for UNDERWORLD. The film was directed by Josef Von Sternberg (THE BLUE ANGEL), and while his visual style was excellent his sentemantility pissed Hecht off so much he insisted his name be removed from the finished film (remember, Hecht went on to win the first screenwriting Oscar ever for a film he wanted to disown, that's how freakin' hard-boiled he was).

It's the Chicago gangster story of Bull Weed, king of the underworld. As the movie opens, he's robbing a bank and is witnessed by a down on-his-luck drunk bum, who insists he's a "Rolls Royce" at keeping quiet. With that line, he earns Bull's friendship and his nickname. Later at the bar Bull lords over the other gangsters, especially rankling Buck Mulligan. Yup, Bull's got the brains (especially with the help of Rolls Royce, who turns out to be a very well-read lawyer) and the brawn to rule the underworld, but like all good gangsters his weakness is his dame. In this case, Feathers, his gal with a penchant for feather boas. For a time it looks like Feathers might be getting a bit too friendly with Rolls, but the bigger problem is the big underworld party where all the rival gangs call a truce for the night. Specifically, the problem is Buck, who tries to force himself on Feathers. In a drunken rage Bull chases Buck all the way to his flower shop Yup, Buck's cover business is a flower shop, where in the back he's planning an arrangement to put on Bull's grave. But Bull guns him down right there in his shop, and even the king of the underworld can't escape the law on something like that. Stewing in prison (BTW, up to this point, every feature included a jail scene. The theme didn't last), Bull is sure Feathers and Rolls are cheating on him and will leave him to hang while they run off together. In reality, they're plotting to bust him out, but their plot is foiled while Bull breaks out on his own. It all leads to a climactic shootout that rivals anything in modern film, and Bull learns his obligatory lesson. Awesome.

Stephen Horne (the indefatigable) returned to do the piano accompaniment.


Once again the next show opened with a Griffith Biograph short, this time THE TRICK THAT FAILED. Mary Pickford is Nellie, a struggling artist who refuses to marry until she proves she's a success. Her wealthy, handsome suitor Billy hatches a plan to pay his servants to go buy up all her paintings. At first she's thrilled and will marry him, until the trick is discovered and she's so offended that she instead accepts the proposal of his rival (a goofy looking, bald man. Ooh, burn on Billy! BTW, an excellent message that even the ugliest man can land Mary Pickford. I'm sure that helped her popularity)

The feature was a Lillian Gish drama, THE WIND. This was Gish's last silent film, and the last film in Hollywood for Swedish director Victor Sjöström. When it was released (in 1928), it was critically mixed and a commercial flop, and ended Gish's relationship with MGM. However, she got the last laugh when it was added to the National Film Registry in 1993. Gish always talked about how this was her hardest film to make, and well in to her 80's and 90's (she lived to be just short of 100) she was touring with this film and others. In those tours the accompaniast was the acclaimed organist Dennis James. For the performance last Saturday, the accompaniast was also acclaimed organist Dennis James on the Mighty Wurlitzer, plus sound effects artists on two wind machines (plus a few other effects, like a cap gun that did a great job of making the audience jump). By the way, Dennis performed for two films of the festival, but was in the audience watching the other 10 (for at least a few, in the row right behind me). He's a fan, he's very personable, and told some funny stories about Lillian Gish (like how she advised him never to get married). He's not just a great musician and silent film accompaniast, he's officially a cool guy.

Now (finally) to the film. Gish plays Letty, a girl from Virginia who's moving out to Texas to live on her cousin's ranch. While still on the train, the fierce winds appear as a character as much as a force of nature. When she arrives, as the beautiful new lady in town she attracts the attention of all the neighbors. That's not so bad. The bad thing is she attracts the wrath of her cousin's wife, Cora. She's not just jealous of the attention her children pay to Letty, she's jealous of the attention her husband pays to her (um...nothing happens. And gross, they're cousins!) She's kicked out of the house with no place to live and the relentless wind driving her madder and madder every minute. She agrees to marriage, but it's a loveless marriage of convenience. At least, it's loveless on her end, he loves her but she's disgusted by him. In a way, her home becomes a prison with the wind as the ever watchful guard (there, I kept the prison theme going one more movie!) Well, there's a climax with yet another suitor who just can't give her up no matter how married she is, and finally she learns to love the wind (after all, any force of nature that will bury a body is a friend of mine).

The version of THE WIND we saw had a happy ending, but an original ending--with Letty going mad and walking off into the wind--is rumored to exist (and there are also rumors that the original "going crazy and walking off into the desert ending is just a rumor and never existed).


And finally, this incredible marathon day (15+ hours without even leaving the theater) came to an end in Russia (and worlds beyond) with AELITA, QUEEN OF MARS. A Soviet scientist intercepts a mysterious radio message, and sets to work decoding it. He quickly discovers it's not from earth, but from Mars, and his mind goes wild searching for answers. Meanwhile, on Mars queen Aelita rules over the totalitarian society/cubist wet dream. Although she's on the throne, a council of elders really rules the society. She watches earth as much as she can, but the council locks her out of the observatory. Meanwhile, they've decided to cut costs they'll keep half of their slave laborers in the refrigerator for later.

So far I've described mostly what's happening on Mars, but actually most of the movie takes place in Moscow. That's because the Mars scenes were awesome, and the Moscow scenes bored and confused me (hey it was late, I hadn't left the theater for 15 hours at this point). There's an affair (I think), some crime trouble...I don't know, eventually the scientist builds his rocket and he and a couple other men travel to Mars, meet queen Aelita, and provoke a Bolshevik Revolution. Damn straight, they turn it into the Soviet Socialist Republic of Mars!

Dennis James was back on the Mighty Wurlitzer (for the Moscow scenes) and a Theremin (for the Mars Scenes), and Mark Goldstein was on Buchla Lightning sticks.

Awesome, and as I drove home, I end the night with this image and thought:

Does Queen Aelita have 3 boobs?

Jason goes to SFIFF--Day 7

One week into the festival. Low on sleep, and we're only halfway through. This is the part where I begin to doubt myself. By midway through the weekend I'll see the light at the end of the tunnel. By this time next week I'll be sad that it's all over...but looking forward to the next big event. Maybe the noir films at the Roxie.

Anyway, two more shows last night, starting with a beautiful and emotional tribute to Les Blank. For those who don't know, Les Blank was a prolific and talented filmmaker who specialized in the sublime beauty of human joy and what inspires it (especially food, music, people, movies, etc.) Sadly, he passed away just under a month ago (on April 7th.) The film world, and the Bay Area have lost an essential voice. But we celebrated his career with this trio of rarely seen

CHRISTOPHER TREE (aka SPONTANEOUS SOUND, 1972...or maybe 1967? IMDb/the SFIFF website say something different than Blank's website): The closest thing to a conventional "experimental" film (I think there's a bit of experimentation in all of Blank's work, but this is closest to what people think of when they think of an experimental film) in the program. No narration, no explanation, no credits at all. Christopher makes music in the middle of a forest with a variety of instruments, but mostly with a huge collection of gongs. The camera maintains a distance, sometimes zooming in and sometimes pulling back behind the trees, to create a voyeuristic state of discovering a man performing to no audience.

CHICKEN REAL (1970): A commissioned industrial film for Holly Farms chicken. Focusing on two of Les Blank's passions--food and music. Hordes of people at a picnic downing mouthfuls of succulent chicken, before we go through the state-of-the-art (for 1970) process at the chicken hatchery all the way through to the "dis-assembly" line. They might have commissioned a standard industrial commercial film, but they got 100% Les Blank style.

SPEND IT ALL (1972...or 1971, another discrepancy on the year. Since Blank's website seems to list the earlier years, this might be the difference between when it was made and when it was first screened to the public): A beautiful, engaging, and loving look at the lives and passions of French-speaking Cajuns in the Louisiana bayou. Again, heavy on food and music, and it has that certain...Les Blankiness about it. He truly knew how to get people to reveal himself. He's never mocking people (even when they're funny.) He's never engaging in mindless hero worship (even when his subjects are freakin' awesome people!) He's getting them to tell their own stories, in a very warm and human way. They're a people who appreciate the enjoyment of life--they work hard enough to enjoy life, but not so hard that they make more money than they can spend--hence the title.

As a bonus, this opens with a very brief history lesson on how the Cajun people came to be. The original French settlers in the Americas set up a colony in what is now Novia Scotia, and called it Acadia (so they were Acadians.) When the English moved in on their territory, they gave the Acadians a choice--renounce their French Catholicism, join with the English, and help fight against England's enemies, or be driven from their territory. Those who agreed became the French speaking Novia Scotians, those who didn't were taken by slave ship to various ports along the coast from Boston to Georgia. They were pretty universally not accepted by the other settlers, and were driven from town to town until they settled in the bayou. "Acadian" became corrupted to "Cajun" and over 200 years they lived mostly in isolation, although their culture welcomed and was enhanced and enriched by other various outcasts--especially runaway slaves. They were very welcoming, and there's something very..."Prend moi tel que je suis" about it.


And then I continued the documentary night with the feature documentary BLACKFISH, about the mistreatment and violent incidents around orcas (killer whales) in captivity. The film opens with a chilling 911 call from SeaWorld Orlando with the words, "A whale has eaten one of the trainers." What follows is an exposé on the industry of orca shows that ultimately makes you sympathize with the orca in the incident. It shows how social, familial, and friendly orcas are in nature (there are no cases of orcas attacking humans in the wild--or so the movie claims). How families are torn apart so that the babies can be stolen for the shows (a simple matter of shipping costs, the babies are easier to ship). How non-family groups of orcas can often get violent with each other, leading to bloody "teeth-raking" attacks (and how the attacked orca can't leave the way-too-small tank and just go to another part of the ocean to avoid them). How the "trainers" are not really marine biologists, they just need to be good swimmers with the guts to get in the water with the orcas and the gutlessness to repeat the company line to the customers (example: They'll say orcas in the wild typically live up to 25-35 years, but ones in captivity live longer due to the great veterinary care. In fact, orcas in the wild have lifespans comparable to humans--up to 100 years for females, usually 50-60 years for males). That's probably the biggest takeaway I got--the "experts" at SeaWorld (and other aquatic parks) are lying to you in order to take your money without you noticing the cruelty. Look, I've seen the shows before. I didn't notice the cruelty before, I just noticed the beautiful, majestic creatures. I've also seen them in the wild, and let me tell you they're 1,000 times more majestic out there. Damn, and I always assumed FREE WILLY was just trite, sentimental claptrap. I might actually have to watch it and give it a chance now.

Total Running Time: 153 minutes
My Total Minutes: 326,254

Jason watches "Into the Wild"

And while walking to the theater, I ran into Cinequest icon Chris Garcia, who informed me that I am "The Man!" I'm sure there's a story behind that, but he had to leave without telling me. Anyway, I'm the man and I don't know why (there are so many possibilities!)

Anyway, this review will by necessity contain minor spoilers, but in the next paragraph. And I assume not much that's not in the John Krakauer book. Anyway, in a nutshell this movie is excellent and deserves the praise it's getting. Particularly the acting of Emile Hirsch as the main character Chris McCandless (aka Alex Supertramp), who wandered into the Alaskan wilderness and starved to death in 1992. The cinematography was also excellent, both the scenery provided by nature and how Sean Penn uses it (and how he uses Hirsch's physicality). Also, Jena Malone was excellent as his sister--the voice of someone who felt most deeply betrayed by his disappearance.

However, since I saw the documentary "Call of the Wild", also about Chris McCandless (and with footage of Sean Penn shooting his movie) I am burdened with extra knowledge, and you will be too if you keep reading this. When I see him poisoned by the wrong wild potatoes, I'm burdened with the knowledge that the biologist form UAF who preliminarily called it plausible has since proven there were no toxins--he simply starved to death. When I see Chris rail against money, I'm burdened with the knowledge that he had $300 in his wallet when he died. When I see him struggle without ID, I'm burdened by knowing that same wallet contained 8 forms of ID. When I see him finally write his real name--not Alex Supertramp--in his final goodbye note, I'm burdened with the knowledge that the AK state troopers struggled for two weeks to identify him, finally sending for dental records from his parents (don't ask how they missed the wallet hidden in a secret pocket in his backpack. For that matter, don't ask how they missed the backpack). To his credit, Penn steers clear of the purposeful suicide interpretation, insisting that Chris always attempted to come back later in the summer and rejoin civilization.

When I get over the "that isn't how it happened" aspect, the lasting effect is still a great movie, and one that makes a specific moral and philosophical point. But it also makes Penn's Chris McCandless a very different person from Ron Lamothe's Chris McCandless. Penn's is a bright, strong kid with too much idealism about nature and solitude, who finds out too late that happiness is only worthwhile if you have someone to share it with. Lamothe's is much more ambiguous, a character who maybe wasn't so idealistic as just adventurous. Someone who didn't want to leave society as much as test himself. And more importantly, maybe someone who didn't really shun his Chris McCandless identity as much as he just liked being Alex Supertramp.

Anyway, I'll just say these are both great movies, but they work better if you watch them in the right order--"Into the Wild" first, and "Call of the Wild" second. I won't say it's unfortunate that I saw them in the wrong order, because I still enjoyed them both. but I'll acknowledge that there is a right order.

Jason goes to Docfest--Day 7

For those keeping score at home, yes I skipped day 6. I was at a top secret film club in...an undisclosed location. This (last Wednesday) was also my last day of Docfest for this year, as I have a more important family obligation.

First up, we started with a short film HANGING DOWNTOWN, a brief profile of Jason Escape, a Boston comedian/magician/escape artist/street performer. As the highlight of his act, he is bound in a strait jacket and tied in thick ropes and then hung upside-down 20 feet in the air as he escapes. Pretty wild act, and a pretty interesting guy.

That was the lead-in to WITHOUT A NET, a term which could describe both the circus acts  and the lives of the various young performers in a "social circus" in the ghetto of Rio de Janiero. The circus tent was put up in an abandoned parking lot (since the making of the movie it has been moved to make way for infrastructure for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, and is also under new management.) The owners run the circus and teach circus performing to the youth in the neighborhood as a way to give them self-confidence and keep them away from the drugs and violence of the favela. It's a nice behind-the-scenes look at making the show, but the show is almost secondary from the difficult lives from which the kids are using the circus as an escape. And, it's important to note, more often than not it's a temporary escape. Some go on to professional careers, but for the most part one year later everyone is still just struggling to survive. In a way, it seems a little naive to think that a circus will somehow solve all their problems. And it doesn't...but it is a rare positive element to their lives, and that's important in and of itself.

And then the second show I caught was MARRIED AND COUNTING, the epic love story of Pat Dwyer and Stephen Mosher. Sweethearts since college (in North Texas) they've been together nearly 25 years. And while there are a few places in the U.S.A. where they can get married, in most states they can't. And even if they did, the federal government under DOMA wouldn't recognize it, nor would it force any other state to recognize it (at the time of the beginning of the film, their home state of New York would recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in other states, but didn't sanction their own--that changes midway through the film.) So they decide to celebrate their 25 years together by getting married in every state that will allow it (note: civil unions don't count) culminating on their 25th anniversary with a wedding in Washington D.C. on the steps of the Supreme Court. But the politics really takes a back seat to the personal. The two of them fretting over being late to the clerk's office in Vermont for their marriage license is no different than any other couple's wedding jitters (well, I guess it's a little difference, because they had to drive to another state.) You could easily call this an example of making the political personal. But for me they do such an amazing job of opening up their lives and love to the audience that it really highlights the absurd injustice of making their personal lives politcal.

And I want to leave it at that (and add a shout-out to George Takei as the narrator.) It's a beautiful, personal story. So the rest of this post just happens to be a related political rant that is my personal view and is far more strident than anything actually in the film.

I support same-sex marriage (in case you couldn't already tell.) And I prefer to call it marriage instead of "civil union" or "domestic partnership." With that said, for many years I have taken the position that those who support the same rights for same-sex couples but want to keep the word "marriage" for heterosexual couples are allies on this issues. Rights are more important than words, and as long as this is still a fight for rights I'm willing to be flexible on the words. If I could snap my fingers and make same-sex civil unions (with all the rights and privileges of marriage, just not the word) the law of the land across the country, I would consider the battle won and not worry about the words. This has been my position for many years, and continues to be my position. But I don't believe it's the ideal, I believe it's a reasonable goal given the current political climate (heck, even George W. Bush has shown acceptance of civil unions.) It's reasonable to believe universal legal status of civil unions--equal to that of marriage--is an achievable goal and we shouldn't let perfect be the enemy of good by insisting on the word "marriage" (even if it's a preferable word.)

With that said, I would ask everyone who backs civil unions but balks at calling same-sex unions "marriages" consider this: Would you back a law that redefines murder so that the killing of an African American is punishable exactly the same as a "real" murder, but is officially called "nigger-killing?" The legal prohibition on nigger-killing would be exactly the same as, and carry the same punishments, as murder, so all the same legal rights and protections exist, the difference is purely in the word that is used. I suspect most of you are offended by my suggestion (if you're not, kindly get the fuck out of here.) I also suspect many of you will (rightly) find fault with my metaphor (for one, "civil union" was never meant as an epithet.) But I offer this example as a simple illustration of the fact that WORDS... ARE... IMPORTANT.

Total Running Time: 168 minutes
My Total Minutes: 304,259

Jason goes to Silentfest--Day 3

This is the big, packed Saturday of the festival

But first, a quick shout-out to my new breakfast spot of the festival--Orphan Andy's. All the food is delicious, the staff is friendly and hilarious. And the pancakes are soooo freakin' fluffy!

Anyway, on to the shows.

First up was a kids (and kids of all ages) program of Walt Disney's LAUGH-O-GRAMS. Before he made it big in Los Angeles, he was working in Kansas City making these cartoons out of a garage. So here we go, all of them were pretty hilarious.

NEWMAN LAUGH-O-GRAMS (1921): This was a reel he made to pitch the idea of Laugh-o-grams to local exhibitor Newman to stick into the newsreels. Some funny lightning sketches, where his hands draw advertising sketches, and then some local topical humor mocking the corruption of the streets and the police force in Kansas City.
THE FOUR MUSICIANS OF BREMEN (1922): A quartet of animals get thrown out of every venue they play, presumably for sucking. They're starving so they try to lure fish with music, but the fish are just too slippery.
CINDERELLA (1922): Pretty cool seeing the fairy godmother turning Cinderella into a flapper girl. Awesome, that was probably my favorite part of the whole series.
GOLDIE LOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS (1922): A rediscovered classic that was hiding in plain site. Once Disney became big, his early laugh-o-grams were re-released by opportunistic distributors, but the names were changed. This one was renamed THE PEROXIDE KID, and was just recently rediscovered as the supposedly lost film.
PUSS IN BOOTS (1922): The boy is trying to get the princess, and his pet cat is trying to get the royal cat, too. So they hatch a mutually beneficial plot that depends on the cat wearing boots.
JACK THE GIANT KILLER (1922): Another renamed, supposedly lost film, this one THE KO KID. Pretty funny the story Jack tells about the giants he defeated.
ALICE'S WONDERLAND (1923): Not technically a laugh-o-gram, but the precursor to Walt's Alice films. Virginia Davis, a 4 year old charmer, walks into the laugh-o-gram studios to see how cartoons are made. After witnessing the magic of Disney and his team, she goes home and dreams herself in cartoon-land. Adorable.

Most of the films were accompanied by Donald Sosin on piano, with percussionist assisting and two amazingly talented kids playing piano for Bremen and Jack the Giant Killer.

Next up was the panel discussion Variations on a Theme: Musicians on the Craft of Composing and Performing for Silent Film. But first the orphan film MUSIC FOR THE SILENT NEWSREELS (1930): Quite a departure for the festival, this was a talkie. But still appropriate. A man at a piano explains the art of Movietone music accompanying the newsreels.

And then moderator Jill Tracy started the event with 4 different interpretations of the same scene--Louise Dresser walking down the street with her Goose, a brief scene from THE GOOSE WOMAN. Donald Sosin played it upbeat. Stephen Horne played it as a dramatic chase. Dennis James played a sorrowful score on the organ. And finally the Alloy Orchestra played it as a weird surreal slapstick scene. Each one worked, and it was a pretty efficient demonstration of how music changes a scene.

And then the conversation began. Like last year, the big contentious issue is new compositions vs. Dennis James' purist historical sentiment that if it's available he'll play the original score and anything else is a departure from that. It's not a question that playing the original score or composing a new score is a stylistic choice. They aren't on the same level--really it should be the choice to play the original score or many different stylistic choices of departure from that. Dennis made the analogy of graffiti. People will talk about the "art" of graffiti, and oftentimes that is completely legitimate art. But they're no longer talking about the building. In the same way (if I understood his analogy correctly), a new score when the original is available isn't an enhancement to the filmmaker's vision--it's a violation and departure from the original vision, and that's true no matter how artistic that is. If you want new silent film scores so badly, why don't you just make new silent films? (To which I answer, I'd love to see new silent films made, and played at this festival. After all it's a silent film festival, not an antique film festival)

The counterpoint is essentially that doing whatever you want with the score is valid, so long as it complements instead of distracting from the film. In honesty, that's my opinion, and I still count myself as one of Dennis James' biggest fans. (By the way, every other Friday at the Stanford Theatre this summer you can see him accompanying Buster Keaton double features.)

It wasn't too surprising to see the discussion between James and Ken Winokur from Alloy Orchestra get heated. That happened last year, too, but was even more tense this year. What was surprising to see Dennis James and Giovanni Spinelli get along so well. Spinelli, of course, did the electric guitar soundtrack to SUNRISE on Thursday, and I don't even have to ask James to know he hated it. But Spinelli made several good points:

1. He knew when he was commissioned to do this score (and solo electric guitar was not his idea, it came from a very well respected archivist) that it would be controversial. In his words, perhaps less of a SUNRISE to his career and more of a HE WHO GETS SLAPPED.
2. His score does not destroy the original score. In that way the graffiti analogy is wrong--graffiti is difficult to remove. His score has existed once so far, and may never be played again. It's incredibly easy to forget it and see SUNRISE with the original score.
3. Maybe he brought some new young people in with the promise of the score, and they got exposed to SUNRISE and now want to see it with the original score as well. In that way

Spinelli nailed it. And by giving James respect, he got respect back. You could've made millions betting on Dennis James + Giovanni Spinelli as the love connection of the festival.

Now more movies, starting with the orphan THE TRIBAL LAW (1912): Really just a fragment of a film. Pretty action packed, I wish the rest existed.

Then we moved to Sweden for THE BLIZZARD (1923): Also known as the Gunnar Hedes Saga, it's a wild romantic melodrama. Growing up, little Gunnar was intrigued by the painting of his grandfather. A poor violinist, he made a fortune herding reindeer and that's how they have the grand estate they do today. But that estate is in trouble, so grown up Gunnar goes herding reindeer to raise money just like his grandfather did. But things go horribly wrong, and he's dragged for miles by a reindeer (in a really impressive, kinda traumatic scene). And although they didn't have the term at the time, he's got a bad case of post traumatic stress disorder. Every animal looks like a reindeer and scares the hell out of him (even cats and dogs). He doesn't even recognize his mother. But maybe true love, and violin music, will bring him back. Ultimately it was the perfect thing to play after the Variations on a Theme program, since it was all about the power of music to move you.

And speaking of music moving you, The Matti Bye Ensemble (quickly becoming my favorite accompanists of the festival) absolutely blew me away with their score again.

Next up was THE GOOSE WOMAN (1925), which I realized a few minutes in I had scene before at Niles. Here's what I said at the time:

Louise Dresser stars as Marie de Nardi aka Mary Holmes aka The Goose Woman. In her youth, she was a famous and beloved opera singer. However, when her son was born she lost her voice. Missing the spotlight, she drowns her sorrows in alcohol, which makes her a pretty terrible mother to her now grown son (that and she doesn't hide the fact that she blames him for destroying her fame). But she sees an opportunity to get back in the spotlight when a murder occurs near her home and the police and the news converge on the neighborhood. She decides to become an important witness, but it turns out her story ends up implicating her son. Eventually (finally) maternal instincts do take over. A pretty wild melodrama.

Well, that's all true. But there's something missing in that. Like the comedy of the reporters, cops, and prosecutor. Or her son's love interest and how the victim was after the same woman. Or how great Stephen Horne's accompaniment was. Okay, that last one is new to this experience, and it was great.

The next show started with the orphan film CHUMMING WITH CHIPMUNKS (1921): Adorable footage of training chipmunks to take nuts from a string. Not much plot, but cute as a pile of cute cuties dipped in cuteness (shut up, it's late at night!)

And then the feature MR. FIX-IT (1918): Douglas Fairbanks! Fairbanks is my homie! And this is one from his pre-swashbuckling career in comedy. He plays Remington, a free-spirited university student in England. His roommate Reginald is American, but his family sent him to England because America is too democratic. Now he has a girlfriend whom he intends to marry, but his parents call him home to get married to the girl they found for him. But seeing as they haven't seen him in 15 years, Remington has a plan to fix it. He'll pretend to be Reginald and go to America, and using his powerful charisma he'll fix everything. And that's what I love about Douglas Fairbanks--he's always confident, in control, charming and athletic as hell. I love they throw in random stunts just to show off his agility (somersault into a bathtub? Jumping down a stairwell?) I love that he fixes not just his roommates dilemma, he fixes everyone's romantic dilemmas, saves a family of children, and pulls the giant stick out of Reginald's family's collective ass. He can fix anything but his own romantic life.

As if that wasn't great enough, Dennis James rocked the Mighty Wurlitzer the whole time.

And finally, the last show of the night, starting with Czar of Noir Eddie Mueller's introduction. He had a lot to say about the star of the last film, Marlene Dietrich. But I'll just leave it at the new word he learned and taught us all--'intrigante.' Meaning one (with the e at the end, specifically a woman) who intrigues. As opposed to a femme fatale who knowingly and intentionally uses her sexuality to destroy men, an intrigante is alluring whether she wants to be or not. And that's Marlene Dietrich...or would be, if her allure wasn't pretty intentional her whole life.
She is, after all, THE WOMAN MEN YEARN FOR (1929): Henry LeBlanc just got married. Not for love, for strategic money interests (i.e., to avoid family bankruptcy). On the train to their honeymoon, he catches a glimpse of Stascha (Dietrich) through a window. She's with an older male companion, but has a look of longing that intrigues Henry. And so he pursues her, even leaving his bride and entering a world of unknown danger. Excellent precursor to noir--hell, it is silent noir. And who really cares what the plot is as long as Marlene Dietrich is the object of men's desires. Just beautiful.

And beautiful as well was the score by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Ochestra.

And that was Saturday. I entered the Castro Theater at about 9:30 in the morning, and didn't leave until 10:30 at night. Not even briefly stepping outside. Instead I was in the mezzanine shopping. And if you're around for the final day of the festival, you should be in the mezzanine shopping, too!

Total Running Time: 378 minutes
My Total Minutes: 243,278

Jason goes to Asianfest--Day 3

Holy crap, I've been way too busy at work. But I've still been going to movies every night, I just haven't had time to write, I'm about 14 movies behind in my write-ups. So here's a quick shot at last weekend at Asianfest:

First up Saturday was the shorts program "Memory Arcade". Here's the rundown, as best as I can remember 5 days later:
"Recollections"--Half narrative, half documentary, about an old man, reflecting on his life as he prepares for the last moments.
"Silence"--Family...cannot speak.
"The Nothing Pill"--A really cool sci-fi thriller about a scientist attempting to isolate a drug that will cure feelings of isolation.
"Cross Fader"--Fun with audio from the radio, and an unmet love connection.
"Dan Carter"--An old discarded answering machine tape tells the story of Dan Carter, his love affair, and his son.
"24 Frames Per Day"--Experimental film, a fixed, time-lapse shot of a door with audio of a strange, slightly racist taxi ride (includes the question "Indian? Red dot Indian or feather Indian?)
"Pierre-Pierrot"--A Laotian man tries to reconnect with his twin. They were separated during the Vietnamese war.
"Dream of Me"--Filmmaker A. Moon learns she had a sister who died. She searches newspapers on microfilm at the library looking for evidence of her.
"The Chestnut Tree"--A Korean animated film about a mother and a daughter and the chestnut tree where they used to play.

Here's a pic of some of the short filmmakers. I lost my notes, but going from memory and the program guide I believe they are Chihiro Wimbush of "Cross Fader", Allen Ho of "Silence", A. Moon of "Dream of Me", Yu Gu of "The Nothing Pill", and David Oh of "Recollections". But I could be wrong:


Next up was a break from movies for a conversation with festival honoree Wayne Wang. More of a clip show than a conversation, New York Times film critic Dennis Lim talked to Wayne briefly before Wayne introduced clips from movies that inspired him. Going back to the European New Wave with Godard, Antonioni, etc. and then the Hong Kong swordplay operas of King Hu. The program started a little late, and the clips were long (~5 minutes each), with left very little time for audience questions. But still, it was pretty fun and I'm now solidly a Wayne Wang fan.

Here's Dennis Lim talking to Wayne Wang.


Next up was a wonderful documentary (and, in fact, I'm writing this so late that I already know it went on to win the jury award for best documentary), "Planet B-Boy". Don't call b-boys "breakdancers" (although that's what they are), because that brings up the negative memories of the exploitation and near destruction of their dance form in the 80's. But check them out now, this is not your silly 80's fad. This is wild, this is amazingly athletic, it's intense, it's an art form, and it's a competition. Specifically, the "Battle of the Year" features b-boy crews from around the world--each national champions, vying to be crowned the greatest in the world. The movie follows around a half-dozen teams (basically the teams favored to win) as they prepare, win their national championships, and arrive in Germany for the competition. We follow the Americans (Knucklehead Zoo--from Las Vegas, it's not just a New York thing anymore), the French team (Phase T, featuring a little kid who's easily the youngest b-boy in the movie), the Japanese team (Icheguki, looking to avenge their embarrassment of the previous year) and two Korean teams (the defending champs automatically get in, and a second up-and-coming crew one their national championship). Actually, the second Korean crew (Last For One) are the most compelling. They're almost all living on the borders of poverty, and look to dancing as a means to economic success (the defending champs, Gamblerz, were featured in a Korean tourism ad and make good money performing). The movie is full of jaw-dropping moves, and a good ol' time. I loved it, even though I know nothing of the b-boy scene (in fact, just getting a taste of it and realizing it's not an 80's joke anymore, is totally worth it). Here's composer Woody Pak, director Benson Lee, and producer Amy Lo:


So from a wild, fun documentary I went to a bitter, depressing documentary. "Behind Forgotten Eyes" tells the story of the "comfort women" enslaved to the Japanese forces during WWII. After the Rape of Nanking, the Japanese military realized something needed to be changed to prevent these rapes. After all, the STD problem was becoming unmanageable. So they built a series of comfort stations brothels, and filled them mostly with Korean girls who were sold into slavery. These women are now in their 80's, and their story has never really been told to the world. They're running out of time, and the Japanese government still hasn't apologized or really acknowledged their existence (the Prime Minister has apologized personally, but the government hasn't officially done anything). The movie interweaves the women's testimony with testimony from Japanese soldiers (most of whom, to their credit, are greatly ashamed after the fact), and Japanese government officials (who are really, really frustrating to listen to). A powerful, and deeply sad movie. Here's a pic of cinematographer/editor Ryan Seales:


And finally, the last show of Saturday was the shorts program "Let's Get Outta Here" (about escaping, or trying to). Here's the rundown:
"Little Forest"--A cool extremely short animated film about a tree, it's roots, and a fierce little girl.
"Souvenirs From Asia"--A complex comedy about Asian adoptees. In this case, the daughter feels like she's shown off like a souvenir. Escape from your family.
"Smile"--Another escape from your family movie. This time, about a Chinese American family and the balance of the two cultures. Don't smile in your family portrait, or you'll be showing off to the Chinese relatives how happy you are.
"Graceland"--Thailand...Elvis impersonator...car. Weird.
"Moon Lady"--Escape from sanity? Or escape from an insane mother.
"Giving Care"--Escaping from poverty, from work, to family. A Filipina woman working in America taking care of an elderly man, can't escape back home to give the same care to her own family.
"Triple 8 Palace"--Escape from prostitution. An immigrant girl, sold into sex work to pay off debts. Can't make enough money if she doesn't go all the way.

Here's a pic of some of the filmmakers. From left to right they are (to the best of my knowledge) Maya Bankovic (cinematographer, "Souvenirs From Asia"), Brent Martin (producer, "Souvenirs From Asia"), Joyce Wong (director, "Souvenirs From Asia"), I don't know her name (Asianfest speaker who led the Q&A), Wendy Cheng (director, "Moon Lady"), and Rinee Shah (director, "Little Forest"):


And that was Saturday at Asianfest.

Jason goes to Docfest--Day 2

The big first weekend begins, starting with GENERAL ORDERS NO. 9. Wow, I don't know what this movie is about. I don't know what the title means, I don't know what the pipe-smoking rabbit on the poster means (although the tagline is "One last trip down the rabbit hole before it's paved over."), and I don't know if this is really a documentary. In fact, I'd characterize it more as a tone poem than a documentary (or even a movie). I do know it's very experimental, using a lot of signs and repetition to drive home the statement that "Deer trail becomes Indian trail becomes county road." It's about Georgia, and about progress, history, and what has been lost. It's got striking cinematography, a hypnotic voiceover, and music that lulled me to sleep a bit too often (at least in the first third). Ultimately, I have absolutely no idea if I even liked it. But I was certainly impressed. A friend mentioned to me that this is exactly what she is afraid TREE OF LIFE would be like (she hasn't seen it). While ultimately I came to like TREE OF LIFE, it was only after thinking about it for a few days. Unfortunately, with the hectic festival pace, I won't be able to do the same for this film. Perhaps this is one to revisit in the hypothetical chance that I have some slow time.

The next show started with the short ROOTS AND HOLLERS, a story of ginseng spanning China to Kentucky. Ginseng is a root that's popular in Chinese culture as a medicine/aphrodisiac. Most ginseng is farmed (oddly enough in Wisconsin), but wild ginseng is far more valuable, currently ~$550/lb (for American ginseng). In China, there's not a lot of wild ginseng left because it has been over-harvested. In America, ginseng grows in Appalachia, and that brings the film to Kentucky. We meet the locals who supplement their income finding and selling (either to local wholesalers, or direct once they get their export license) wild ginseng. For a moment, I confess their southern accent made me think 'redneck hicks' but it quickly becomes clear that these are sharp people who know their business. It's interesting to see how too very different cultures revere this fragile little plant for very different reasons. And before you say "of course, the Americans only revere it for the money" realize that this is supplemental income for people who

love the outdoors and want to make a living on what the land can provide (in the rest of the year they hunt and trap). The big money is in strip mining, which destroys whole mountains of ginseng (and everything else the land can provide).

Then the feature THE GREENHORNS, about young people across the country who have chosen small-scale farming as their livelihood. We meet a lot of interesting people, but it seems to jump around without a whole lot of direction. And I was expecting more about the pitfalls and difficulties first time farmers face. Ultimately, director Severine von Tscharner Fleming tips her hand a bit late into the film, revealing that she is a farmer (and activist). Which confirms what I was fearing--that this is little more than an adulatory advertisement for this kind of lifestyle. Not that it's a bad lifestyle, while I've chosen a different way to make my living I like food and seek out local, organic, sustainable choices. And it's not a really bad movie, I just felt like a better editor could have put a better flowing structure on this and made it much better.

Then the third show of the day, starting with the short JASON MECIER DOES AMY SEDARIS. Jason Mecier is a local artist who does mosaics of celebrities using found/collected objects. His latest series actually invites celebrities to mail him the contents of their junk drawer and he uses that in their mosaic. And he just got Amy Sedaris' junk box, and we get a privileged and humorous look at his process, which ultimately results in this.

As an aside, I have to say that so far this year the shorts and features have been very well matched. And to match this short we have the feature UNLIKELY TREASURES, about collectors. And not just collectors of things that have a market value (coins, rare stamps) but people who feel compelled to collect "worthless" junk--ceramic E.T. figures, buttons, clothespins, staplers. Each collector becomes a curator of his own personal museum, and sometimes those museums get a public display at the City Reliquary in Brooklyn. While the movie doesn't go very far int his direction, there's also a distinct dark side, where collecting becomes problem-level hoarding. One collector mentions that friends who have given up their collections all claim to be much happier afterwards. One talks about how her husband created a spartan "Japanese Room" as a collection-free zone where he could escape. But for the most part, these people seem happy and more or less well adjusted. And who am I to judge? I'm a collector of movie experiences (who obsessively counts every minute he spends watching movies).

Next, Docfest started rocking out with the 25th anniversary screening of the cult classic HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT. Fans (some who look underage) whooping it up and drinking lots of beer in the parking lot before a Judas Priest concert. Wild antics that just look funny today, and Jeff Krulik was there to capture it on video. And while the editing is choppy, that perfectly captures the spirit of the time and place.

Unfortunately, Jeff Krulik's HEAVY METAL PICNIC really needs more editing. The Full Moon Jamboree was a farm party in Potomac Maryland that was so epic it ended up making the evening news. And much of it was recorded using a camcorder and a stolen CBS news microphone. Jeff Krulik and his crew go back to the place and track down a lot of the people who were there. So it becomes not just a look into the crazy metal scene of the 80's, it also becomes a self-conscious nostalgia piece, as people reminisce about how you had to be in the right crowd to get word-of-mouth news, rather than everything posted on Facebook or Twitter. But ultimately it drags on as the same scenes are shown over and over. Example: the CBS news microphone was stolen by a guy who was hired as a security guard. I guess they should have had a guard for him, right?...nice joke, but we don't need to hear it twice. When a bunch of the guys go back to the farm and reminisce, we can have a brief scene of one of them taking a leak. We don't need all of them taking a leak, that just gets tedious.

HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT was 16 minutes, and for what it was that's just the right running time. If you took that same vibe and added an equal amount of "where are they now" footage, you'd have a decent film at 32 minutes. HEAVY METAL PICNIC is 66 minutes, and I think it's about right to call it 50% filler.

And finally, we ended the night with not a documentary, but an 80's New Wave Sing-Along. Free cheap shit booze and a parade of music videos from Devo, The Cure, The Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, Frankie Goes To Hollywood... I drank 6 or 7 glasses of cheap shit whiskey, and sang and danced and shouted jackass comments like all the rest of the idiots in there. And it was great fun...and yes, I am hung over this morning, thanks for asking.

Total Running Time: 419 minutes (note, based on 120 minutes running time for the 80's sing-along, as listed on the festival website. I don't know if that's precise, but it was pretty darn close)
My Total Minutes: 250,721

Jason goes to Silentfest--Closing Night

Hard to believe it's already over. It was a weekend of total, exhausting immersion, now I'm starting to climb back into real life. But first, a full program Sunday:

We start out with Amazing Tales from the Archives II: Kevin Brownlow tells the backstory to the Cinema Event of a Lifetime (or at least next spring)--the restoration of NAPOLEON (I have my tickets, do you?). He spins a truly amazing life story of love of this one movie, searching for every copy available, becoming persona non grata at the Cinematheque, becoming good friends with Abel Gance, and finally prevailing. And it all culminates in the only 4 shows in North America currently scheduled--and they're all in Oakland. Lucky, lucky us!

Now on to the movies, starting with the orphan film TRIBUNE-AMERICAN DREAM PICTURE (1924), which I saw two years ago back in Niles. Here's what I wrote then:

A contest by the Oakland Tribune had people write in with their strange dreams for a chance at a cash prize and having their dream turned into a movie. Mabel Nicholson had a strange dream where she went on a picnic to Marin with her husband and baby. But in San Francisco, they realize the baby basket is empty so they take the ferry back to Oakland (assuming he's still in the car). He's not just in the car, he's driving away.

Damn, I was really bad at just giving away the whole film back then. Here's what I'd say today:

This film comes from a contest by the Oakland Tribune wherein people would write in stories of their strange dream for the chance to win money and have their dream turned into a movie. Mabel Nicholson won with this funny dream about a trip from Oakland to San Francisco and back, with a frantic search for her missing baby!

There, much better.

Anyway, that was the lead-in to the feature, SHOES (1916): A social issue drama by the amazing Lois Weber, America's first big female film director, and one of the best of either gender in any time. Although this film is strident and passionate in its social stance, its greatness comes from the humanity and drama of the characters and the story. Mary MacLaren stars as Eva Meyer, a poor shopgirl supporting her mother, siblings, and ne'er-do-well father on her measly wages. A cabaret singer with clearly impure intentions hangs around the shop, trying to get girls to come top the nightclub and see him. Eva resists, like a good moral woman (or like anyone who doesn't want a life of sexual servitude just to support herself). But her shoes are falling apart, and have been resoled so often they can't take another one. She treads through soaking rainstorms, and endures constant delays in her mother's promise to buy her shoes and her father's promise to get a job. Finally, she has to make a fateful and heartbreaking choice. As I said, the moralizing gets a bit thick, but it's still anchored by excellent drama and a performance that tugs the sympathies effortlessly. And it's a valuable window into the social issues of the day (not that they aren't still relevant in this day).

And of course, Dennis James was awesome on the mighty Wurlitzer organ.

And then we got the Wild and Weird shorts program with the amazing Alloy Orchestra. Their DVD is available from Flicker Alley, and features even more than these shorts.
DREAMS OF A RAREBIT FIEND (1906): Edwin S. Porter (Edison's director, and maker of THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY) creates this live-action special effects piece based on the comic strip by Winsor McKay. Rarebit being a Welsh melted cheese dish, and the "rarebit fiend" being a man who loves it, even though it always gives him strange dreams (to the consternation of his wife).
RED SPECTRE (1907): a Pathé film, in the vein of Méliès, about a demonic magician who wraps up two young women in cloth and makes them disappear in a puff of smoke. But the good spirit comes and brings them back.
THE ACROBATIC FLY (1910): If you get past the animal cruelty of it, these extreme close-up shots of flies glued down by their wings and turning objects (e.g., tiny barbells) over with their feet is really, really cool.
THE THIEVING HAND (1908): A funny piece about a disembodied, kleptomaniac arm and the armless guy who gets it as a prosthetic. He's a good guy, it's just his hand that's evil. It only pre-visioned IDLE HANDS by 91 years.
PRINCESS NICOTINE (1909): The story of the two-lensed camera invented to make this short (shooting simultaneously 180 degrees apart, and superimposing the images) is as fascinating as the result. A smoker interacts with the tiny fairy that lives in his cigar box (and sometimes in a flower).
ARTHÈME SWALLOWS HIS CLARINET (1912): A pretty funny film that's exactly what it's about. Arthème is annoying everyone with his clarinet, and so some jokers drop a piano on him. He's fine, except that his clarinet is jammed into his mouth with the mouthpiece sticking out the back of his head. Yikes!
CAMERAMAN'S REVENGE (1912): An awesome story of romantic trysts, cheating spouses, and public humiliation. Oh yeah, and it's done entirely with stop-motion animated insects. Probably my favorite of the set.
DREAMS OF A RAREBIT FIEND: THE PET (1921): Another rarebit fiend dream, this one actually animated by Winsor McKay himself (by hand, the whole thing. This didn't use cel animation). The fiend dreams that his wife brought home a cute little pet, that starts eating everything until he's as big as the entire city.
FILMSTUDIE (1926): A beautiful, bizarre piece of pure dadaism. If I knew what it was about, that would miss the point. But there sure are a lot of eyes.
LIFE AND DEATH OF 9413, A HOLLYWOOD EXTRA (1928): A humorously dark story of a man dreaming of being a star, but is instead stamped with the number 9413 and is used as an extra until he dies.

Between every short were lantern slides of humorous messages (e.g., "remove your hat" or "the show is half over.") and of course the Alloy Orchestra were great doing new scores (not the ones you'll get on the DVD). After I got my DVD signed by the Alloy Orchestra and David Shepard of Flicker Alley.

The next show started with the final orphan, MADISON NEWS REEL (1932): A series of extremely brief news clips that made me wonder if this was a real newsreel, or some parody. Very odd.

And then we had our Soviet program. The Soviets did some amazing silent film work, and this pair showcased opposite extremes. First CHESS FEVER (1925) was hilarious, slapstick comedy about chess. There's a major tournament, and everyone is watching with great interest, even the kids. Meanwhile at home a man is suffering from Chess Fever, playing a game against himself (Pixar used this gag as the basis of GERI'S GAME some 72 years later). Well, he's so wrapped up in his game he forgets his date with his fiance. She loves him with all her heart, but is afraid he only loves chess. And she might be right. After all he has a few dozen chess books and mini chess sets on him at all times. When he sees a chess-patterned tile floor he walks across it in 2x1 steps (like a knight), etc. Thing is, everyone else loves chess, too. But for her, even if she has thrown him out, he can quit. Very funny.

And the other side of the spectrum is THE NAIL IN THE BOOT (1931): Made as a military film, it was censored by the Soviets and it was over eight years before Mikhail Kalatozov made another film. It was, in fact, criticized that “When making THE NAIL Kalatozov did not apply the revolutionary method of dialectical materialism to his theme, but proceeded from formalistic aestheticism.” More pedestrian criticism was that the plot confused the audience, but I don't really find that credible.

The film was made to promote the message that slipshod work is a danger to the homeland (indeed, the alternate title was THE HOMELAND IS IN DANGER), and tells the story of a soldier dispatched to march to headquarters and call for aid for an armored train under siege. On the way, he's injured by a nail sticking out of the sole of his boot, and doesn't make it in time. The second half is an absolutely fascinating courtroom inquisition where although he's found guilty on his own, he makes an impassioned and convincing plea that the guilt is shared with the workers in the factory who manufactured such a faulty boot.

Stephen Horne, of course, was masterful at both ends of the emotional spectrum.

And finally, we ended the festival with HE WHO GETS SLAPPED (1924): The incomparable Lon Chaney stars as Paul Beaumont, a young scientist working with the support of his friend, Baron Regnard (Marc McDermott). But on the day of his thesis, the Baron double-crosses him and presents Beaumont's work as his own. He objects, the baron calls him crazy and slaps him, eliciting howls of laughter from the normally stone-faced assembly of professors. Humiliated, he returns to the baron's estate to find his bride has left him for the baron. So he leaves the bitter life of scientific pursuits and joins the circus, becoming a highly celebrated clown. He calls himself HE, and his act involves all the other clowns slapping him--an act that has the audience in stitches. He finds his new life, and maybe even a new love in Consuelo (Norma Shearer), the bareback rider and daughter of Count Mancini (who has fallen on hard times). But Consuelo loves her costar Bezano (John Gilbert). And the baron reappears with eyes for Consuelo--a development that Count Mancini finds most favorable. But HE won't let that happen, and will do whatever it takes. For HE who laughs last, laughs best.

What a great way to end the festival. And of course, the Matti Bye Ensemble did an amazing job ending the festival on just the right note. And might I add that I was impressed with the cacophony of their circus scenes. Matti Bye is usually more reserved, letting the silence speak more. But they knew, of course, the right tone for a circus.

By the way, if you want to see more of Mattie Bye, they're playing with Jilly Tracy tomorrow (Tuesday) night at Disco Volante in Oakland.

Total Running Time: 296 minutes
My Total Minutes: 243,574