Jason goes to SFIAAFF--Wednesday, March 16

Another day, another two movies.

First up, the short SLAYING THE DRAGON RELOADED. It's a brief, densely packed look at stereotypes of Asian women in Hollywood. It's really an update of a longer documentary SLAYING THE DRAGON made back in 1988 (note: I haven't seen the original). Partially it's an update for younger students (and it is intended for classroom viewing) who don't know the older movies, and partially it's to show that not much has improved. The best part is early on showing clips of older movies side by side with clips from recent movies, showing that portrayals haven't evolved at all. But to play devil's advocate, I wondered how much was just an example of a greater dearth of good writing in Hollywood, and it's just more glaring when filtered through a minority (especially minority woman) viewpoint. Movies got dinged both for stereotypes (either submissive, servile Asian women, or dangerous, hyper-sexualized dragon ladies) and for avoiding all elements of race (in essence, making every culture "white" regardless of skin color). It's a fine line to walk between the two--to acknowledge and portray race and cultural backgrounds but not fall into stereotypes. And in defense of bad writers everywhere (and I feel I'm qualified to defend us), good writing is hard! That's why there's so little of it.

Next up was the feature documentary (although still brief, at just 58 minutes) ANNA MAY WONG: IN HER OWN WORDS. I love Anna May, especially since I've become more of a silent film aficionado while watching films and volunteering at the Niles Film Museum (where I saw TOLL OF THE SEA last May). I can confirm that A) that movie is still powerful, and B) she still has a ton of fans.

As for the movie, it was fascinating and moving. Partly a celebration of her accomplishments, partly a lament at the racist times that didn't allow her to express her full potential often enough (particularly heartbreaking is her unsuccessful campaign to star in THE GOOD EARTH). The great treat here is that it's based mostly on Wong's own correspondence (hence the, "IN HER OWN WORDS" in the title). And those words, and her cabaret act, are recreated by actress Doan Ly, who was a treat. If it's too late to give Anna May Wong the career she deserved, we can at least celebrate the career she had. And the world needs more Anna May Wong impersonators.

So then I caught the excellent but depressing tale of a North Korean defector, DANCE TOWN. Jung-Nim Rhee lives in North Korea with her doting husband, who has connections to bring beauty products and adult videos from South Korea. Unfortunately, a neighbor rats them out, and the have to flee. Or at least, she flees, gets to a Chinese boat that her husband has arranged for her, and defects to South Korea. He promises to join her later, but it's pretty clear that he was caught and won't be joining her until the afterlife. In South Korea, she has a hell of a time. First the interview is unexpectedly harsh, then suddenly they're nice, set her up in an apartment with a stipend, and welcome her as a South Korean citizen. But that's not all it's cracked up to be. She has little support system and works in a laundry. She's moved from one apartment to another, along with an elderly woman and a crippled man (an excellent cross-section of the people society would like to keep out of the spotlight). She has a couple of overly-aggressive suitors, but is basically all alone without her husband. An excellently made, very sad movie that certainly doesn't paint South Korea in a very flattering light.

And that was Wednesday at SFIAAFF

Total Running Time:182 minutes
My Total Minutes: 229,416

Jason goes to SFIAAFF--Tuesday, March 15

And please indulge me, I must start with a little rant about the new audience award voting protocol. For as long as I've been going, SFIAAFF has followed the same protocol as the majority of festivals--rate each film on a scale of 1 (unwatchable crap) to 5 (unforgettable masterpiece). Now I have my beef with reducing all the complicated emotions and reactions I have to a mere number, but I'm generally okay with that (after all, I have this blog to explore and explain my reaction). But this year they've changed to simply voting "Yes" or "No." I suppose I could just drop a racist tweet and be done with it. But the question on the ballots is not, "Did you like it? Yes or No." The ballot specifically asks, "Should it win [the audience award]? Yes or No." Those are very different questions. I can like many (even most) movies, but only my favorite should win. Therefore I should really only answer "yes" for my favorite, and "no" for all others. Problem is, I won't know my favorite until the end of the festival. All I can state early on is my favorite so far. Later on in the festival I'm sure I will vote "no" on a movie I liked more than one I voted "yes" for, simply because I saw an even better movie in between. And that's wrong, it biases the voting towards movies that play earlier in the festival. At least for me, but maybe I'm over-thinking it. I'd be interested in seeing if that's true for others. Hypothesis: movies that play multiple times will have better scores earlier in the festival. Since I don't have access to the ballots, I humbly ask (but don't expect) someone with access to check on that and report back to me.

Anyway, on to the movies, starting with the documentary OPEN SEASON. In November of 2004, Chai Vang, a truck driver and hunter in Wisconsin, shot 8 white hunters, killing 6. His (unsuccessful) legal defense was self-defense, that they were harassing him as he was trying to leave their property (after he unknowingly trespassed), and that one of them shot first (an unproven point). The documentary is a brisk 57 minutes, but packs a heck of a lot in there from both sides. Charges of racism, denials, reaction of the Hmong community, questions of the fairness of the trial (a media-saturated venue, an all white jury), etc. But ultimately it lets the audience decide. Or in my case, it lets the audience be a little overwhelmed and bewildered. Nothing (short of the white hunters shooting first--and at him, not just a warning shot) justifies the murder of 6 people and attempted murder of 2 more. On the other hands, the stories of racism both before and after the incident paint a picture that this sort of incident was inevitable, it was just a question of when. Like I said, the movie is brief, and there's a lot of low-def footage that isn't that great, but easily forgivable. But it is pretty remarkable how much the movie throws at you in just 57 minutes. And it's remarkable how they managed to get extensive comments from all sides in the story. So often these documentaries have a point of view that's determined by who will talk to the filmmakers, and maybe they only have one token dissenting view. It's refreshing to see a documentary that has innumerable interviews from both points of view--something that pretty much all documentary filmmakers claim they want, but so few achieve.

Then after a leisurely beer (I'm finally recovered enough from the Cinequest closing party Saturday night to drink again), I caught the shorts program Play/House. The theme being family life, I guess.
FIRECRACKER: The struggles of an Indian in Texas trying to raise the money to bring his family over to be with him.
ANDY: I saw this at Indiefest. A little boy plays in the mall, helps his mom try on makeup, and has an odd encounter in the bathroom.
ONCE UPON A ROOFTOP: A documentary look at the rooftop shanties and impoverished people living there in Hong Kong.
WITHHOLDING: A double tragedy strikes a family, as an actress arrives at the hospital where her dad is recovering from a heart attack and receives a phone call delivering more bad news. She just has to find a way to deliver the news without further devastating her mother.
TOP SPIN: Ariel Hsing totally kicks ass! She's a 14 (now 15) ping pong phenom, on a mission to crush the competition and be the first American girl to make a living at it.

Total Running Time: 134 minutes
My Total Minutes: 229,234

Jason goes to SFIAAFF--Monday, Mar 14

Which I think is day 5. Obviously I've been at Cinequest instead, but the SF International Asian American Film Festival can be happy with having as much of me as I can give. Anyway, 2 movies Monday night.

I started the festival with a Japanese movie, ABRAXAS. Jonen is a punk rocker turned Buddhist monk and quite possibly completely insane. He totally freezes up giving a career day speech at school, and babbles about how there is no future and shrimps molt for life. It's quite a scandal amongst the small-town gossips. But he discusses it with his master, and decides he wants to sing again. As in put on a rock show. See, the world is full of noise, but pleasing noise is called music. By embracing your noise you turn it into music. Well, his master is totally behind him when the plan is to do a show in Tokyo, but when he decides it has to be in their small town, there's just a little hesitation. The story is well put together, and not so much about the plot exactly but using it as a point to explore past and future, life and death, loyalty, family, and just about anything else. But all done with a combination of sincerity and breezy humor that makes it all very enjoyable. An I suppose if your nature is that of a punk rocker, the Zen thing is to be a punk rocker.

Then I caught one film (the only I'll manage to catch) in their Southeast Asian horror retrospective. That movie was AFFLICTION (YANGGAW), from the Philippines. It starts with a portrait of a poor but loving family, their trials, their volleyball rivalry with their neighbors, a poor but pleasant rural life. Then there's an incident when a thief is nearly beaten to death, and then the family's daughter Amor is afflicted with a poison of the soul that turns her into a demon. But, of course, the family defends and protects her, for as long as they can. Highly melodramatic (especially the ending), but also effective as a horror film. It's cheaply made, and poorly lit and shot (or perhaps just poorly projected on the digital copy they had), and drags at times. I can't say it was a really bad film, but I was hoping for something better.

And so my Asianfest (SFIAFF, whatever you wanna call it) begins...

Total Running Time: 197 minutes
My Total Minutes: 229,100

Jason apologizes to the Cinequest movies he didn't see

I would've liked to have seen them all, but until they take my advice and make Cinequest a full month instead of just 2 weeks, it's impossible. So since it's shorter to list the movies I didn't see, here they are. The features:

3 BACKYARDS

ALL THAT REMAINS

AMONG US

APART TOGETHER

BACK TO LIFE (VUELVE A LA VIDA)

BARDSONGS

CEREMONY

DESERT FLOWER

DESERT RAIN

EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE

THE HAPPY HOUSEWIFE (DE GELUKKIGE HUISVROUW)

A KISS AND A PROMISE

KOSMOS

THE LIFE OF FISH

LIMBO

THE LITTLE ROOM (LA PETITE CHAMBRE)

MADLY IN LOVE

MAMAS & PAPAS

ONE DAY LESS (UN DIA MENOS)

OXYGEN (ADEM)

A PERFECT SOLDIER

PIRAN - PIRANO

PURE

PUSH: MADISON VS MADISON

RAAVANAN

RED LIGHT REVOLUTION

RESTIVE

ROAD TO LAS VEGAS

SECOND-STORY MAN

SINESTESIA

SNOW

SODANKYLA FOREVER - THE CENTURY OF CINEMA

TOMORROW WILL BE BETTER (JUTRO BEDZIE LEPIEJ)

TROUBLEMAKER

WAR GAMES AND THE MAN WHO STOPPED THEM

Also, BI, DON'T BE AFRAID, which I have tickets to see at SFIAFF, and the following movies for which I have screeners but haven't watched:

AMERICA

COPACABANA

LIVING IN SEDUCED CIRCUMSTANCES

MAMMA GOGO

MYSTICO FANTASTICO!

POTICHE

And the shorts:

3 HOURS

THE BANANA MONOLOGUES

THE CASSAVA METAPHOR

CONUNDRUM

DEARLY DEPARTED

A DOCTOR'S JOB! (UNA CARRERITA, DOCTOR!)

THE EAGLEMAN STAG

THE EXTREME NATURE OF BATS

A FAMILY PORTRAIT

FIVE PROOF

HOP THE TWIG

IN A FOREST

JIMBO

LIVING FOR 32

LOOP PLANES

THE LOVE SONG OF ISKRA PRUFROCK

MARGARITA

MICROWORLDS: THE UNSEEN WORLD BENEATH OUR FEET

NO ROBOTS

ON THE TABLE (SOBRE LA MESA)

PHYSICS OF SURFING: UNDERSTANDING THE PLANET’S WAVES

THE POOL PARTY

SUNDAY'S BEST

TERREBONNE

TOP SPIN

THE VACATION OF DEATH

THE VILLAGE

I'm sure those were all the best movies at Cinequest, and I'm only fooling myself into thinking I saw the best ones. Someday I might have a chance to see these, too. Again, I'm sorry I couldn't see everything.

Jason goes to Cinequest--Encore Day

But wait, there's more! I know, I already wrote up "Closing Night" but Cinequest doesn't end there. Last year they started Encore Day, where jury winners and audience award contenders get an extra showing. Like last year, attendance is a little light. Everyone is hungover from the party the night before, and it's just a bunch of bleary-eyed celluloid addicts dragging themselves around for one last fix. Yup, that's me. Crack addicts don't stop smoking crack just because they're exhausted to the point of physical collapse, and neither should I.

First up, DREAMING NICARAGUA, a charming documentary about extreme poverty in the third world. Wait, did I say "charming" and "poverty"? Yes...and I meant it. Jafet, an arts teacher, travels the area and inspires children to express themselves. Highlight is clearly Nauri, who wants to host a television show so she interviews her neighbors. There's something weird about such an innocent child interviewing women about the difficulty of being a single mother living in poverty (a very, very common occurrence). The other children are adorable, too, and the movie is deliciously and colorfully shot, showing beauty can exist anywhere, certainly uncorrelated with wealth.

Then I checked out VILLAGE WITHOUT WOMEN. In a tiny little village in Serbia, there's just a few guys (3 brothers and an old neighbor) and no women. Also no running water, but lets focus on the important things. The Serbian women have moved away, so maybe Albanian women can fill in. The movie follows them through their days (lots of shaving scenes, I have to assume director Srdjan Sarenac just thinks shaving is enormously cinematic) and through their efforts to import an Albanian wife. It's a funny, weird look at a funny, weird spot on earth and a funny, weird way to live. Oh, and the ending scene, although completely out of nowhere, was totally awesome.

Next up, yet another documentary, IRENA SENDLER: IN THE NAME OF THEIR MOTHERS. Irena Sendler was a social worker in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. There, her and a small group of women outsmarted the entire Nazi regime, smuggling Jews (mostly children) out of the ghetto and into safe houses. Overall, they saved some 2,500 Jewish children, and after the war she was rewarded...with decades of harassment by the communist authorities. Just a truly remarkable woman. As for the movie...this is the kind of documentary that has such a great protagonist that as long as you don't screw it up, you'll have a good movie. Mary Skinner has created a great movie, brisk (only about an hour long) but in depth and moving.

Then I caught MAKE A MOVIE LIKE SPIKE. Two friends--Luis and Ronald--are joining the Marines. They've been friends practically forever, and Luis wants to be a filmmaker, like his idol Spike Lee. So he's documenting their adventures as they prepare to leave for boot camp and then Afghanistan. A vacation in Cancun (they can't let Afghanistan be their first time outside of the U.S.), a night of debauchery in L.A., and lots and lots of mugging for the camera. But somewhere around all the mugging and horseplay, there's a real compelling story of friendship and war, and things get disconcertingly serious once they're actually in battle.

And finally, I ended the night with ROSA MORENA, a wonderfully made story of generally good people doing something morally questionable. Thomas is a wealthy architect with baby fever. He wants to adopt, but he can't. You see, in his home of Denmark a single gay man can't adopt. Of course, he could adopt a baby in Brazil, where he has friends living there and working for a charity organization. But you know what's easier than going through all the legal hurdles? Just making an arrangement with a pregnant woman to adopt her child. So he meets Maria, beautiful, poor, pregnant, and already has more kids than she can care for. They make an arrangement, where she'll declare that he's the father, and she'll give up any claims on the baby, and he'll take her back to Denmark. Of course, he has to stay with her and make sure she behaves (no alcohol) during the pregnancy. And for the health of beautiful newborn Rosa, she really should breastfeed for the first 3 months. In fact, the whole situation is beginning to look disconcertingly like a normal family, not just a business arrangement. It's a hot-button moral issue, but the magic is how it's treated with such a delicate, light touch that you sympathize with everyone involved, even when they're doing things that are objectionable.

And that's it. I'm done. Between the hangover and the exhaustion, no matter how much fun I had I am sooooo ready for Cinequest to be over...so I can get to the SF International Asian American Film Festival.

Total Running Time: 374 minutes

My Total Minutes: 228,903

Jason goes to Cinequest--Closing Night

Okay, lots of movies to get through from the weekend. Let's jump right in

First up, WITH LOVE...FROM THE AGE OF REASON. Sophie Marceau stars as Margaret (changed from her birth name, the more provincial Marguerite), a hard-charging take-no-prisoners career woman about to celebrate her 40th birthday. And as a present she gets a package, delivered by an old notary. It's a letter, or rather a series of letters, from herself, at age 7. As a precocious child, she knew that 7 was the age of reason and 40 is the silly age, where she cares about stuff she shouldn't care about. If you can buy the conceit (and it's a pretty big one), that a seven year old could be wise enough to write all those letters to her future self, then it's a wonderful story of remembering your inner child, reconnecting with your dreams, and rediscovering what's really important. If you don't buy the conceit, you're a cynical fucking bastard. Normally, I'm a cynical fucking bastard, but I have to admit this is the first movie at Cinequest that actually made me cry. I don't know if it's just the sleep deprivation and constant onslaught of film had weakened me, but this totally broke through my defenses. Anyway, in the interest of science, I call on any 7 year olds reading this to a) don't tell your parents I cursed earlier, and b) write letters to yourself at 40, then open them 33 years later. E-mail me and let me know how that goes. I'm sure my response will be..."what the hell are you babbling about!?"

So then I caught Shorts Program 3: Lost and Found. I actually saw all the shorts programs except for the student shorts and one of the 3D programs (and there's some shorts that played with features I missed). That's more than I usually do, but the shorts have been pretty kick-ass this year.

PROTECT THE NATION: A story of a young boy, a good Samaritan, and xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

THE GAME: Little boys play a game on the beach in Italy. Whoever's coin attracts a bug first, he gets all the other kids coins. Innocent play, with just a reminder at the end of a not-so-innocent bigger world.

SON OF NONE: Adventures of a Liberian orphan chasing a goat.

NORTH ATLANTIC: A pilot off course, and the air traffic controller who talks to him. Based on a true, and very moving, story.

ALMARITSU: A young boy apprentices with a junk collector, and makes the world more amazing, beautiful, and whimsical.

HANGNAIL: A man and a woman have an argument in the bathroom--she in the shower, he on the toilet. Painful secrets are exposed. And as a technical achievement, it's an impressive accomplishment--12 minutes in a single shot, on 35 mm. Very impressive.

Then I caught the crowd-pleasing and amusing young love story from Norway, THE LIVERPOOL GOALIE. Jo is a timid little boy who survives school by doing bully Tom Erik's homework. And then a new girl comes to school, Mari, who is just as good as he is at math, plus she's a soccer player. So he pretends to be a little tougher than he really is to try and impress her, and of course he fails miserably right up until the point where he succeeds. Stories of first young loves are kind of a staple of film (and especially film festivals), so it's really tempting to dismiss this as an enjoyable trifle but 'seen it before.' But the fact is that just doesn't matter, I've seen it before but it's still well done, enjoyable, and still fresh.

And finally we ended the night with SOUL SURFER, a movie that I feel bad about not liking more. Bethany Hamilton has certainly lived an inspiring life (although she's barely past 20, so there's a lot more left to do). She grew up in Hawaii with surfer parents, spent so much time in the water that her mom joked that she's a mermaid, and dreamed of being a professional surfer. And then a shark bit off her arm. And she was rushed to the hospital, lost 60% of her blood, but survived and even returned to surfing. She was an active Christian to begin with, but after a brief scene of shaken faith, she goes on a journey that reaffirms her faith and finds a greater purpose in being an inspiration of triumph over adversity--something far more important than being a surfer.

Okay, so I said I wanted to like this movie more. Fact is, as an atheist I was uncomfortable with all the religious stuff. I know that's my problem, and that really is Bethany's character, so it would've been totally false to keep Jesus out of the movie. But there's so much of it there that it felt it would fit in better in a revivalist tent than in a cineplex (BTW, I hope this movie is shown to Christian youth groups, and it inspires them. That's their audience, not me). Beyond that, it's a pretty standard sports movie + triumph over adversity. There's the doubt, there's the learning to do everything with only one arm, there's the realignment of perspective, there's the sport training montage, there's even the bitchy rival villain (who's really okay, since she's the only one who doesn't treat Bethany any differently, and gets redeemed at the end). I don't know exactly how closely everything followed the actual events. If they followed real events very faithfully, all I can say is, "Stupid reality! Stop being so cliche!"

So after the movie Bethany Hamilton received the Life of a Maverick award and star AnnaSophia Robb received the Emerging Maverick award. Seeing them both on stage was kinda weird--AnnaSophia is about half the size of Bethany...and she (AnnaSophia) has two arms. Talk about breaking the illusion!

I wonder how many people applauding afterwards were snarky assholes like me thinking, 'Look what I can do. I can clap because I have two hands!'

Okay, enough of that. As I said, given her life story I really wish I liked this movie more.

So then I went to the after party and indulged my inner cynical bastard with about a metric ton of hard liquor and hung out with all the cool kids table at the after party. The highlight was chatting with Kurt Kuenne, who hasn't had a movie in Cinequest for a couple of years, but as far as the CQrati are concerned is still a totally bitchin' rock star from Mars. I got the scoop about his new feature film SHUFFLE, which sounds awesome (but no spoilers here) and is looking to premiere this summer. Hopefully it'll come back around to Cinequest next year, or at least play somewhere in the Bay Area.

Total Running Time: 410 minutes

My Total Minutes: 228,529

Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 11

The pen-penultimate day. That is, penultimate to the closing night gala, which itself is penultimate to the encore day (which one might describe as post-ultimate?) Umm...I got nothing, let's review the movies.

First up was QUESTION IN DETAILS, which was a surprising little treat. A man and a woman--Zoli and Eszti--meet and have one date. Or part of a date. They quickly realize they're not meant for each other, and so they just start talking like real people. They do go back to her place, just to continue talking, and her brother shows up and joins the conversation. And I can't really describe this more without giving away spoilers. It's hard to describe what's so surprising and thrilling about watching three people speak in one room--at least not without giving anything away. And certainly independent film fans have seen "3 people in one room talking" fail plenty of times. Just trust me, it works this time.

Then I popped over to the California for a nearly packed house to see NOSFERATU with Dennis James on the mighty Wurlitzer. I've already described at least one part of why I love this movie so much. And yeah, it's still awesome. Still quite possibly my favorite movie ever. And only better with Dennis James rocking the score. Awesome.

Then I had to book it back to the Camera 12 to get into TOGETHERNESS SUPREME just as the opening credits were rolling. Kamau is an artist living in Kibera, East Africa's largest shantytown. He has talent, but he's under the thumb of his father--the drunk landlord whom everyone hates. He takes care of a little boy CJ who was hit by a car, heroically running him to the hospital. CJ is fine, and Kamau meets Alice, a pretty little nurse and pastor's daughter. Meanwhile Otieno enlists Kamau into the Orange Democratic Movement, a hopeful, youth-based campaign for reform (of course, Kamau keeps it a secret that his father is from the tribe of greedy bastards supposedly ruining the country). And then Otieno, one suave, charming guy, catches his eye on Alice as well. A love triangle, a tribal conflict triangle, and political intrigue, all leading up to an explosive election day. It's an exciting story, and a very personal one with fully fleshed out, flawed but sympathetic characters (based on real people and real events). And it's shot beautifully.

And finally, after a couple of drinks at the packed Maverick Meetup, I caught the midnight screening of Shorts Program 5: Mindbenders. Yeah, fucked-up movies!

41: An Audio tour of a museum, with a little TMI.

BY A HAIR: A hilarious (or should I say "hair-larious?" Answer: No I shouldn't, that's stupid) story of a guy who wakes up with a hairy pimple, tries to tweeze out the hair, but it just keeps coming. Kinda reminded me of Don Hertzfeldt's WISDOM TEETH.

INTERVIEW: Okay, I admit I was drifting in and out of consciousness for this one. And investigator interviews a psycho...I think?

LANDPARTIE: Awesome POV shot of a zombie invasion, through the eyes of a guy who just got bit.

OUT OF NOWHERE: I had a weird sense of déjà vu watching this. Repetitions and variations, where people don't seem to remember what happened before.
THE STORY OF MY LIFE: If you meet someone who knows you from birth and can recap all your secrets (even the ones you didn't know) in 5 minutes...look out.
LAVAN: There is only one right way to shave that prisoner. Learn it!! A story about mental torture.

Total Running Time: 381

My Total Minutes: 228,119