Art by Zee

One of the great things about SIFF is that they don’t simply screen movies; they actively promote the development and appreciation of great film in a number of ways. Their educational outreach includes hooking up students and filmmakers for the sort of classroom learning you just can’t get from a textbook both during the annual festival and throughout the year.

Two recent participants in this program were Skateland writer/director Anthony Burns and the film’s director of photography Peter Simonite who were in Seattle to talk about their film.

Skateland is a coming-of-age drama about 19 year old Ritchie Wheeler (Shiloh Fernandez), an aimless young man content with his small town Texas life as the manager of a local skating rink in the early 1980s. He spends his days at work or hanging out with his friends, including girlfriend Michelle (Ashley Greene). Life seems settled for Ritchie until the closing of the rink and a series of personal tragedies force him to have to think about his life in a serious way for the first time. Unlike a number of nostalgia-driven films, Skateland doesn’t just throw a few 80s pop hits on the soundtrack and dress its characters in “quirky” 80s fashions; Burns and his crew do an amazing job of genuinely recreating the look and feel of the times for a story that could have been set anywhere and anytime but manages to be respectful and honest of the time and place within it.

Burns and Simonite spoke to a class of film students from Pierce College eager to learn about the movie making process. Their practical advice included telling students who want to make money to avoid going into film, but they also shared stories from their careers and details about what it’s really like to make a movie.

Burns spoke of how he got involved with Skateland: “I was brought in by some friends of mine that I grew up with. I live in LA and they had a project they hired me to write and we wrote in Austin, Texas, because that’s where we’re from and it caught fire. By the way, 90 percent of this whole film thing is luck. It’s cool to be good, but it’s really about luck and timing, finding that perfect storm and that’s what happened with Skateland. We wrote it and then sent it out to casting agents in LA…and then we got Ashley Greene and all this great talent, which brought in more money.

“It was a summer time film on page but we were going to shoot in late summer and the fall in Shreveport. It gets really cold and so we adjusted the script about a month out in pre-production to make it where it ends around Christmastime, after Thanksgiving. This happens all the time. We were going to push and go shoot in the spring of the next year but we were going to lose crew, we were going to lose the rates we got on our cameras which was crazy because there was a pending SAG strike and the economy went to shit so no one was working, movies were falling apart, so we got this great crew at [a good rate] so it was a perfect storm. We roughed it out and then had about a year of editing. That’s how long editing usually takes, about six months to a year.”

An obviously key element of making a movie is the actual process of filming. Simonite on working with the director as the DP and what he wants from the director for the optimal working environment:

“The main thing is that the director cares about the way it looks. They have some idea of what they might want it to look like and whether that’s still photography or fine art or something that’s original or whatever it is…mainly that they care. And some directors don’t.

I just backed out of a project because after three weeks of prep in talking to the director I realized that she didn’t – the look of it was something that she didn’t care about. It was a comedy so she didn’t really care about contrast and color and at the end of the day I felt like it would just be undermining what I wanted to do.”

Getting a film from concept to completion can be tricky, no matter what one’s level of involvement can be. After a student asked Burns what else he’s written for the screen, he shared a “horror story”:

“I sold a script called ‘The Birthday Party’, it has Kelly Garner in it. She was in Lars and the Real Girl. I sold it and I really needed the money, I was living on my ex-girlfriend’s floor at the time and they’re like, ‘We’ll give you this X amount of dollars if you’ll sign away your rights.’ It was my favorite script at the time, this crazy thriller horror film about a guy who tells a story and you think he’s the good guy but he’s the bad guy. I sold it, they changed the name to Red Velvet and then rewrote the script.

“It’s horrible. With my name on still on it.

“So they sent me the Blu-Ray DVD when it was made because I never went to the opening screening and I threw it on the grill and lit it on fire.”

On satisfactorily completing a film: “The key is that we worked with a really great executive producer that believed in the film and the material. We told him what we needed and we didn’t get everything we wanted but he believed in us.” This, he says, isn’t common, at least not working with the major studios, because movie-making involves so many different people fighting for control of each project.

What makes independent film great is that it allows more freedom but, per Burns, “It’s very risky.”

In fact, he adds: “In this economy, film is risky across the board. If you’re trying to get jobs as director or writer, you’re going up against big time directors. It used to be that there were so many projects that you could get decent jobs and now on studio films it’s almost impossible. Independent film – you can get your film done the right way, but at the same time it’s a good chance that it will never be seen.”

Students also wondered about the educational pathways into movie making. What do you need to study to become a writer or director or camera operator, for example? Per both Burns and Simonite, a career in film really is all about luck and timing. Burns started writing in high school but because he wasn’t initially interested in film, he didn’t seriously start working on screenplays until after college. Simonite started working on films right after completing college but in retrospect wishes he’d taken up the Duplass Brothers’ offer for a job on a film they were working on as PAs in Austin. Going to school does have its advantages: “Your background doesn’t matter at all,” however, says Banks. “It’s what you believe in, your passion and your love for filmmaking.”

Modern technology has done a great deal to democratize movie making. It used to be that to learn about movie making you would go to one of a few select schools or work your way up from the bottom at the studios, but “you can shoot movies for nothing. You can be educated and watch films on your computer. You can take classes everywhere.” Adds Simonite: “You can get yourself a [Canon] 5D [camera] and Final Cut and distribute it online.”

Once a script’s been written and a film’s in the can, so to speak, there’s still more to be done with it. The two spoke of the post-production process and the various roles the director and crew play in completing a movie. The cinematographer’s most important job is to capture all of the scenes and angles that the director and editor will need to put the film together. The editor can be the true hero of any film, poring over footage to construct the story that the director wants to tell. Another key element of film production is the colorization. Skateland was sent to DeLuxe for color work. There the negative was scanned for color processing very dependent on the quality of the original film, another reason for the director to clearly communicate his vision of the film’s visual feel to the camera crew. In tribute to the time the movie is set, Skateland appears on screen in bright, vivid hues.

Simonite talked about the difference between shooting on 35 mm film and shooting digital and why this movie was shot on film: “It’s kind of counter-intuitive, but when you’re shooting on film it’s actually a little bit easier because you have more range. “ Digital formats have improved since their initial introduction, he says, and continue to advance, but film still allows for greater contrast and more detail even when the film will later be edited digitally.

Adds Burns: “It was an early 80s film so we felt like it was wrong to shoot it digitally.”

Post is perhaps the most complex part of movie making, but pre-production has its own challenges. For example, says Burns, “Location scouting, by the way, is the worst thing ever.”

Filming isn’t exactly simple either. There are a number of negotiations that have to be made every day, including working with a crew who have very specific ideas about their roles and responsibilities. Crew members are very often specialists whose primary interest is their own particular role. The same can be said of the cast. The director has to manage any disagreements or difficulties that arise on set between these various groups, including at least one fight between crew members which required Burns to break it up by physically by literally inserting himself between two combatants.

Talking about getting to the point where one will be making these sort of decisions, Burns reiterates that a vital component of being able to make a film is being in the right place at the right time. Getting to know people who are in the business already and can help you find your way in is important as is the simple, but crucial, fact of being in a place where films are being made. Burns tells the story of how Simonite just happened to be in LA on one particular day when someone he knew from shooting another movie called him up and asked him to come do some work on a new film, giving him a credit on a major film simply because he happened to be available on that one particular day.

This luck played a role in Skateland‘s creation, but it was more than luck that turned it into a great film. Burns and his entire cast and crew have managed to put together an engrossing, entertaining story that looks and plays well.

Skateland screens next at SIFF on June 6 at 8:00 pm at Kirkl

In the midst of SIFF 10, it can be easy to forget that there is still more great film out there even beyond the borders of the festival.

One such film is The Living Wake which makes its Seattle premiere at the Grand Illusion on Friday, June 4.

Mike O’Connell stars as K. Roth Binew, genius artist (at least in his own mind, the only place that matters for Mr. Binew), whose philosophy of life is simple. “I drink to bring myself down to the level of the common man. But remember: the common man drinks, so I must drink twice as much!” Jesse Eisenberg is Mills, his very own Boswell, the level-headed foil to his manically overblown friend. O’Connell plays Binew with perfect abandon while Eisenberg’s quiet control helps cement his reputation as a budding cinematic star. The chemistry between leads is believable and keeps the story held together no matter how crazy things get. And things do get crazy.

Egotistical blowhard Binew discovers that he will be dying at the end of the day. What to do? The obvious answer to the question is to get his affairs in order, a mission he accomplishes by swilling Scotch in the back of the bicycle rickshaw on which Mills chauffeurs him around so that he may invite his friends and family to his wake while he’s still on this side of the great divide. Along the way they encounter a number of people nearly as eccentric as he, including a prostitute, a neighbor with whom Binew has been feuding, the childhood nanny Bine

The Living Wake is a great film for a certain type of film fan, the one who appreciates an adventurous approach to movie making. This isn’t “Hollywood quirky” – Binew is barking mad and his adventures on the final day of his life push past ridiculous into total absurdity. Dark humor rules – very dark humor – and there’s nothing like a feel-good ending anywhere in sight. Ridiculousness taken to the edge of extreme is the order of the day in Binew’s world. It’s a thrilling world to visit. Living there might be just a bit too much for most of us to take, but the dying Binew thrives there, very entertainingly so.

Well worth seeing, The Living Wake screens from June 4 through June 10. Director Sol Tyron will be in attendance for screenings from the 4th through the 6th.

(The Sol Tyron produced 2012: Time for Change is also playing locally on June 4th at the Varsity as part of the Seattle Green Festival.)

Lesbian yodeling twins from New Zealand – it sounds like a novelty act but sisters Jools and Lynda Topp are anything but a joke. The two sisters are beloved entertainers back in their homeland where they are known for their music and their live act in which they often perform as characters they’ve created and their TV show that ran for three seasons. Inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame in 2008 and given a lifetime achievement award for songwriting in recognition of the massive impact they’ve had on New Zealand throughout their 25-year-plus career. The Topps are also known for their political activism – they’ve been on the forefront of movements supporting gay rights and Maori land rights and campaigned to keep New Zealand nuclear weapons-free.

Hugely popular in their homeland, the Topp Twins have toured throughout the world and now are being introduced to an even larger audience through the documentary biography of their lives and career, which screened Sunday and Monday at SIFF 10, introducing their film and performing live to enthusiastic full houses.

Lynda and Jools took some time to talk about their film. Both Topp Twins are lively, intelligent, outgoing women whose long experience working together as performers and whose lifetime of sisterhood is immediately obvious. Jools did much of the speaking but both women were eager to talk about their history and their film/

What was the origin of the film?

JT: We’d actually written a comedy movie that’s in another box somewhere and [our manager] said, “I think we’ve got enough material to make a documentary and tell the story of who we are and think about this other movie another time. It’s a concert-driven movie with all our performances and music and songs but it goes away from that. When we sing a song we’ll go away to something that affected us as we were growing up or some political event in New Zealand. It was directed by a Canadian, Lee Ann Pauley, and what happened as we told our life story we realized there was this great parallel in political activity in New Zealand in the time of the Topp Twins. So it’s sort of the political history of New Zealand and our life story. It’s an interesting little documentary because it has two things running in the same time.

What came first for you – the music or the politics?

JT: The music was always there but politics, even from an early age…we grew up on a dairy farm and there was no criteria of “you’re a girl, you have to do this, you’re a boy, you have to do this”. When you’re on the farm if a job had to be done you had to do it.
Everybody bring the hay and milk the cows.

It was like girls can do anything. Growing up, it was girls can do anything. We probably didn’t really understand it at the time but for us it was a great start to our political careers. I think as a little kid it made me feel empowered; you could do whatever your dad thought you could do.

We were always aware of injustice. Even if it was a kid being bullied at school or something, we were always aware of that and we’d either step in or we’d make them our friends. We were twins so there were two of us to deal with.

LT: And our mum, I remember when we were little kids she said this thing to us that probably has kept us in good stead our whole lives. She said you must never hate anybody, you can dislike people, but you can’t hate. Hate is what will destroy you.

JT:They’re in the movie, our mum and dad, and they’re real stars. They’re as honest as the day is long and I think that’s what they taught and instilled into us. That’s why we’re out and proud in New Zealand and they’ve had to deal with a lot, more than most parents because our brother’s gay, too, so the three of us are gay. They’re immensely proud of us and they’re old school, real old school dairy farming country people and they tell their side of the story. They’re really honest, they were a bit freaked out about it to begin with but I think the most important thing is that there is some light at the end of the tunnel for all of the New Zealanders who were a part of that movie, all the fights that we fought, all the political fights – the homosexual law reform bill, the nuclear free issues, Maori land marches, the apartheid in South Africa…

New Zealand was hugely involved in that [protests against apartheid] because we play rugby with the South Africans and we refused to play rugby with them and when they did come there were huge protests. I don’t think any of us could foresee that Nelson Mandela would be released from prison and become president of his country, that was a real bonus.
We won all those battles. It’s not many people who can stand up and say, “Every battle we fought, every protest, every political movement that we were part of – we won.” We’re still nuclear-free and I hope like hell we always will be because we talk about weapons of mass destruction and all those sorts of things in an almost flippant way these days and one of these days, is someone going to press the button?
It’s about being political but it’s also about having fun and that’s what the movie is about. The characters that we play and all the music the play. It’s a juxtaposition of a lot of things going on.

How did you get into performing?

We always sang from when we were little kids. Our mum bought us a ukulele and we’d play it and sing. We sang at parties and home, it was our apprenticeship. And then when we left home we joined the army, the Territorial Army which is part-time soldiers, and we didn’t really want to have that as a career.

LT: It was a free trip to the South Island!

JT: It was a good way to head out of home.

And you know we can stand up and be protestors now; you can’t knock something unless you’ve done it. We’ve been there.

LT: We didn’t want it to be our career. So then we started singing in little cafes and stuff like that and I think we were seen as kind of a bit kooky at the beginning and then there was a lot of political activism that we were involved in and then we’d write songs about that.

JT: A song will really rile people and get them roused up to be part of the whole thing. It’s not about being aggressive – sometimes people will listen to a song rather than listen to someone standing on a box telling them what needs to be done or how it needs to be done.

I think the fact that we’re entertainers, that’s #1. If you’re a good entertainer, then you can get the people inside, you can bring them in. Get them entertained, get them happy and then you can start to say important things and they will listen. If you’re just ramming things down people’s throats, it can backfire.

I think that’s what’s happened for us. The documentary screened in New Zealand and we’re thinking, you know, who’s going to come and see us? We’ve had an amazing career in New Zealand and people come to our live show all the time, but we’re thinking, who’s going to come see the movie? Just about every New Zealander went and saw it. It’s the biggest box office documentary that’s ever screened in New Zealand. Word of mouth got around and the movie has really taken off in New Zealand. And now, which is pretty exciting for us, it’s starting to make an impact overseas. It’s won an award everywhere it’s gone, so we’re pretty excited about it.

LT: The movie’s about honesty. If you actually wanted to say what it’s about, it’s about honesty. It’s about how people feel.

And we’re being honest about our sexuality and how we feel about things in life. It’s a good feeling. People come out of it with a smile on their face and that’s a good feeling.

Has it helped you in your career that you’re sisters?

JT: I think it has, we’re not just sisters, we’re twins. We shared an egg and even now we don’t question why we are. We’re twins and other people are born singular and we don’t know what that’s like at all. I think it’s always important to have someone – if you step forward and make a stand and you know someone’s going to watch your back, it’s a good feeling and I think that we understand each other a lot, we have the same values

We don’t have to rehearse. We just walk up to a gig.

Tonight we’ll be at the movie and they said “would you like to sing?” We have no idea what we’re going to sing but when we walk out there, it’ll come. It’ll be right and proper because we’ll make sure it is. We’re confident about ourselves.

I think the other thing that has made us one of New Zealand’s household names is that we’re confident we can work a crowd. That comes with time and experience and we’ve got a lot of that now. Performing is not just about singing songs, it’s about communicating.

What would you like your legacy to be as performers?

JT: Well, we’re generous with our time and our love.

LT: We’re honest about ourselves and we never hid anything from our audience. The other thing is if you believe in something, just stay with it. Believe in it and do everything and anything that you can to make something happen that you believe in.

What’s really important these days is to try and think we can change the world. It’s just such a big, daunting task, people just give up, they go, “What am I going to be able to do?” and I think the most important thing to do is celebrate who you are. Celebrate your own life. You fill up that well and you can give other people a drink of water. If you get your life, you get yourself, that’s your job. Your job is to find out who you are and become the person you are and be confident, then you can take on the world, then the world doesn’t seem such a daunting task anymore. I think it’s important that you honor yourself and celebrate who you are which is what we’re doing.

By Mike Caccioppoli

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (USA, 2010)

Directed by Ricki Stern & Annie Sundberg

Joan Rivers is quite the woman. I must say that I didn’t have much of an opinion about her before seeing this documentary but now I do. A Piece of Work could refer to her character and it probably does but it also refers to what she is always looking for: work. At 76 years old she’s still going strong but as she shows us at the beginning of the film, her work calendar isn’t always filled up. “This is what fear looks like” she says as she holds up a month with a blank page, it’s so white she has to wear sun glasses to look t it. Rivers has to work. Is it about money? Sometimes, as she has a huge payroll with all of her assistants and writers. She even pays for the children of her staffers to go to private schools. What employer does that these days?

There is no doubt after watching A Piece of Work that Rivers is a workaholic and  a perfectionist. “They only gave me three out of five stars” she tells her assistant as she waves her finger. She was referring to a review of her new play which just opened in London. She knows she can’t take it to New York with lukewarm reviews.  Her manager tells us that she will do anything for work, even playing in a Mormon town in the middle of winter. When she tells a joke about Helen Keller a man heckles her “I have a deaf son.. that’s not funny”, “Shut up you stupid asshole..comedy is about laughing at things so we can deal with them,” Rivers shouts back. Rivers is right but after the show she tells her staff how she feels bad for the man with the deaf son, “Maybe it was cathartic..and now he feels better.”

With A Piece of Work we see aspects of Rivers personality that we haven’t been privy to before. She is brutally honest about her career, her love life (her husband killed himself leaving her and Melissa with nothing) and her fear of being not wanted. Yes even the plastic surgery is talked about. Mostly though the film shows her for the brilliant comedienne she really is. After that heckler throws her off she recovers quickly, “I was lucky to get the audience back” she tells us. I don’t think luck has anything to do with it.

Cairo Time (Canada, 2009)

Directed by Ruba Nadda

Cairo Time could be called the Before Sunrise for the middle aged demographic. The film is about Juliette, played by Patricia Clarkson, a woman who is stuck in Cairo waiting for her diplomat husband to return from Palestine. Shot and acted at such a leisurely pace that it might cause some viewers to fall asleep, I however stayed awake and it was actually worth it. The scenery is beautiful, in fact some of the shots of the pyramids are the best I’ve seen. While in Cairo Juliette is shown around town by Tareq (Alexander Siddig) and they begin to have feelings for each other which could be dicey since Tareq used to work for her husband.

The dialog in Cairo Time is very spare and naturalistic which some might interpret as mundane but in reality it’s the way people usually talk especially when they hardly know each other. “You don’t look like you watch much television,” Patricia says, “I do late at night when I can’t sleep,” responds Tareq. Clarkson is a big reason why the film works as her subtle, underplayed acting style really complements the films pace. She can say so much with a look or a turn of the head. While the film is probably too airy to have the dramatic impact it might want, Clarkson’s performance, along with the chemistry she and Siddig share, are enough to keep us engaged.

The Hedgehog (France, 2009)

Directed by Mona Achache

An 11 year old girl decides that she wants to commit suicide when she turns 12. She films her family on a daily basis with her video camera and at the same time tells us what she’s thinking and why she must end her life. “I don’t want to live life in a fishbowl” she tells us. This is a very smart and intuitive 11 year old and once you can get past her being much smarter than most 11 years olds The Hedgehog becomes an extremely moving and thoughtful film about life and the meaning of death. This is heavy stuff but under the direction of Mona Achache it doesn’t feel that way. The film is funny, joyful and clever and it contains a standout performance by the great Josiane Belasko as the janitor of the building that the girl lives in.

While the girl may be planning her suicide, the film begins to focus on Belasko and her newfound love interest. Portly and not very attractive she feels as though the best of life has passed her by until a Japanese man moves in upstairs. “We can be friends or anything we want” he tells her. She’s both smitten and frightened at the same time. I won’t tell you where the film takes us because the revelation at the end is both surprising and meaningful, bringing everything that has preceded it into sharp focus but I can say that The Hedgehog is both incisive and moving. It’s one of the best films at the festival.

The Dry Land (USA, 2010)

Directed by Ryan Piers Williams

This film is about a man returning home from the Iraq war and the post-traumatic stress disorder that prevents him from “getting on with his life.” We’ve seen this story before in countless films especially from the Vietnam era, but The Dry Land is able to find its own personal touch and the result is a solid debut film from writer/director Ryan Piers Williams. A big reason for the films success are the performances, especially Ryan O’Nan as the vet, and America Ferrera as his wife. I’ve never seen O’Nan before but he brings a brutal honesty to his portrayal of a man who can’t remember the most defining moment in his tour of duty and it’s tearing him apart. Wilmer Valderrama is surprisingly good as a platoon buddy who has his own issues at home.

While the film may go on a bit too long it’s actually preferable to the “easy way out” ending that so many films defer to. The Dry Land knows there is no “happy ending” for a story like this one, and that the war at home may go on as long as the war in Iraq.

Restrepo (USA, 2010)

Directed by Sebastian Junger & Tim Hetherington

Restrepo is one of the most intense documentaries you will ever see. The filmmakers embedded themselves with the soldiers of the Second Platoon in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2008 and the result is a very intimate and harrowing look at the lives of our soldiers during wartime. Restrepo is the outpost named in honor of the fallen Juan Restrepo, one of the platoon’s most loved soldiers. We hear in interviews that were done when the surviving members of the platoon returned home how much he meant to all of them and the pride they took in building the outpost in his name.

The filmmakers got so close to everything that when a battle breaks out we can see and hear the bullets whipping past the soldiers heads. When a Staff Sargent is killed we see his body moments after his death, and watch as a grown man cries like a child over it. “He was the best soldier out there, and if someone like him was killed what lied ahead for the rest of us?” one soldier recollects. While the battle scenes are stunning it’s in the “down time” that we really get a sense of what these guys had to deal with. The local elders in the Korengal Valley where the men are stationed had to be constantly negotiated with in order to keep them on their side. After accidentally killing a cow they have to make amends with the town leaders. The soldiers decide that they can’t give them the money they want so they will just have to settle for the weight of the cow in food. How much did that cow weigh exactly?

Restrepo is not a “political” film, there is no talk about the positives or negatives of why we are there. It simply shows what these soldiers have to do on a daily basis to survive another day.. period. It’s been said that every war film is inherently “anti-war” because they show us the horrors of it. Restrepo is no exception, but in getting so close to the action it also makes it clear that if you are there you don’t have the luxury of such a philosophical debate.

The Dry Land : James comes home to Texas after a tour of duty in Iraq and has an awful time adjusting to civilian life. PTSD has left him angry and prone to violence and life on the home front quickly turns sour. James hooks up with an Army buddy and drives out to Walter Reed to visit an injured comrade, a trip that reveals the truth behind the incident his mind has blocked from his memory, a revelation that may be the catalyst for still more damage. Superb performances from the entire cast, particularly Ryan O’Nan as James, Melissa Leo as his mother Martha, America Ferrera and his wife Sara and a surprising turn from Wilmer Valderrama. May 31 – 1:30 pm – Harvard Exit

Mao’s Last Dancer : Based on his autobiography, this is the true story of Li Cunxin, born in a small Chinese village sent to Madame Mao’s Beijing Dance Academy as an 11 year old. A few years later, he’s become the top dancer at the school and is offered the chance to visit Houston, Texas, and study ballet there for the summer. A growing fondness for America (and a charming young American dancer) makes Li want to stay in America; his refusal to return to China causes an international standoff. A fascinating real-life story made magnificent by some of the most beautiful dancing on film. May 31 3:00 pm – Uptown

Senior Prom : Local filmmaker Nicholas Terry’s debut film is a mockumentary about the drama and passion swirling around Senior Prom. An unscripted cast improv their way through interconnecting storylines that are funny, silly, charming, sweet, ridiculous – just like life. June 1 4:30 pm – SIFF Cinema

Dear Lemon Lima : Vanessa is a sweet, imaginative 13-year-old Yup’ik recently dumped by her pretentious boyfriend Philip who records her life in letters to her imaginary friend, Lemon Lima. After winning a scholarship to the exclusive school where Philip has transformed himself from loser to one of the elite, Vanessa discovers first-hand the power of the clique as she’s cast into the basement of the FUBAR. Gorgeously filmed and filled with a cast of talented, charismatic young performers (and the always wonderful Melissa Leo), Dear Lemon Lima takes the standard “oddball leads the losers to victory” trope and turns it into a sparkling journey of discovery about what’s really important in life. June 1 7:00 pm – Neptune, June 2 4:30 pm – Neptune

Night Train : An archival film from Poland, Night Train is a 1959 thriller in which a murderer, a blond, a rejected lover, a priest, a frustrated lawyer’s wife, a doctor, and an insomniac Holocaust survivor all head for the Baltic shore on the same overnight train, setting into motion a “psychological portrait of hunger and desire.” June 2 9:30 pm – SIFF Cinema

Peepli Live : Natha decides to kill himself to allow his family to hold on to their farm. Word gets out and soon the press have descended, followed by the politicians meaning to use the press to push their own interests. In the midst of the media frenzy, the self-serving motivations of everyone around Natha start to come forward. June 3 6:30 pm – Uptown, June 5 3:30 pm – Uptown

Stolen : It was meant to be a feel good documentary about family reunions in Western Sahara but it turned into an expose about modern slavery. Directors Violeta Ayala and Dan Fallshaw lived their very own real life thriller in securing footage on this shocking story and getting it – and themselves – out of a suddenly very hostile territory.

Conceiving, creating, and completing a film is tough enough for anyone, but imagine doing it all at 17. Director Nicholas Terry has done just that with Senior Prom, a “mockumentary” about the drama and the Drama of high school relationships filmed with a cast made up of his Mountlake Terrace High School classmates.

What inspired you to want to make a movie?

NT: Probably mostly it was my dad. He made a full-length independent film a couple summers ago and it really showed me that it is possible on a small budget to make a full-length film. It really showed me it was possible so then it was just figuring out what I wanted to make.

Did your dad help you with your movie?

NT: Definitely he helped me with some of the preliminary, making sure I knew about story arc and characters and how all of it should interact and then once we got the basic thing done he pretty much let me go to do what I needed to do.

How much of the movie was scripted in advance and how much of it was improv from your actors?

NT: Probably 95 percent was improvised. I wrote a couple lines and the speech that someone reads at the end and that was basically it. Having a spectacular cast was great, the improvisation really helped.

How did you get your cast together?

NT: They were all friends I had in the drama department and most of them were from the Theatre Sports group. I didn’t have auditions or anything, once I created the characters I just the cast the people that were good for the role.

How long did it take to put the whole movie together?

NT: About five and a half months. Started in the middle of summer and ended in December.

What was the longest part of the process?

NT: Probably editing. Because I could film for maybe two hours and then I would edit that footage for six hours. The ratio of filming to editing – editing was definitely a lot more time spent.

What do you think was the most challenging part of putting the movie together?

NT: Probably making sure that all the scenes were going to flow and that the story really makes sense and continues through the plot. Especially with not having a script, I couldn’t just look at the script and be like “Okay, well, I filmed this scene, so we need to get this scene so that the scenes will go together.” I had the storylines written out but I didn’t have specific scenes written down until pretty late in the process. It all flowed together in the end.

Was there a particular reason that you decided to make the film about prom and not some other big event?

NT: Mostly it just seemed like a good idea. There is a lot of drama and a lot of things that happen around prom, like who is going to get asked, who has already been asked, who is dating who, so that led to a lot of really good opportunities to spoof that.

Do you think that prom is something that’s universally understandable to young people?

NT: Definitely. What I wanted to do with the film, especially with the characters, is I wanted to create realistic characters that were somewhat exaggerated but I wanted people of all ages to be able to see the film and either be like, “Oh, I know someone like that now” or “I knew someone like that in high school” or “I was that person in high school” so I’m hoping that people can really connect to the characters and the situations that go on in the film.

Do you have distribution?

NT: Not yet, I’m hoping that something will come up soon. I plan once SIFF’s done to start submitting to other film festivals, hopefully others will see the hopefully good buzz from my movie and offer to have it shown there. That would be awesome. Now that the premiere’s happened I might have another showing at my school or various places that would just let me show it, like the Crest Theater if they would let me show it that would be great because I filmed part of it there. I’ll be looking for opportunities to show it.

For at least the next several years, every time your name comes up people are going to talk about your age. Does that bother you?

NT: It’s a good selling point. I’m 17 years old and made a feature film. If that gets it shown places then, it sounds good to me, I just want people to be able to see it.

By Mike Caccioppoli

Beautiful Darling: The Life and Times of Candy Darling, Andy Warhol Superstar (USA, 2010)

Directed by James Rasin

This documentary blind sided me as I didn’t expect it to be as moving as it is.  Chronicling the life of Candy Darling one of Andy Warhol’s minions, it is told mainly from the point of view of Candy’s longtime friend Jeremiah Newton who met Candy when he was a teenager and helped her with everything she needed. Candy we learn was born James Slattery in Brooklyn but even as a boy she knew it was her destiny to be a girl.

When Darling met Andy Warhol he promised to make her a superstar which is what Candy wanted. She imagined herself to be a leading lady of the silver screen and as we hear from various people including Annie Lebowitz and John Waters she had some real talent. The problem is that Warhol had few resources (he was no Louie B. Mayer, one person says) and a very short attention span when it came to his friends. Even so Candy probably went a lot further than expected, making films with Paul Morrissey and a play with Tennessee Williams.

While much of the information in Beautiful Darling was stuff I didn’t know, the real heart of the story lies with Jeremiah Newton as he attempts to bury Darling’s ashes (she died in 1974 from leukemia) in her home town on Long Island. Listening to Newton talk about her along with readings from Darling’s diary (voiced by Chloe Sevigny) we begin to understand the strife beneath all of that make-up and glamor. Darling was unhappy as a boy and only marginally happier as a girl. With all of the adoration she achieved as part of Warhol’s factory it didn’t satisfy what was truly desired by darling, to be accepted as a woman and loved by a man. For Newton while being accepted by the Factory members was a real kick, he also was never able to get close enough to Darling to truly understand her. As Beautiful Darling so aptly shows us, no amount of success or attention in life can heal the deep wounds of our childhood.

Winter’s Bone (USA, 2010)

Directed by Debra Granik

This harrowing film is about Ree (the amazing Jennifer Lawrence), a 17 year old girl who needs to find her father who jumped bail after being arrested for cooking up meth. If she doesn’t find him she and her family will lose their house which was put up for bail. As she tries to get information from relatives and family friends, she discovers that nobody wants to give her much information because they don’t want the father found. Her attempts to find out where he might be if he’s even alive plunge her deeper and deeper into a mystery that might get her hurt or even killed.

Taking place in the spare, barren Missouri Ozarks Winter’s Bone is a remarkable achievement. The performances are so realistic that at times it feels like we have simply walked in on the real lives of people trying to survive in a part of America that certainly isn’t for the weak and weary. The characters in Winter’s Bone are constantly trying to juggle between supporting their kin and survival and unfortunately survival often wins out. The violence in the film is shocking because it surfaces from such a gritty, natural setting that it feels all too real.

Lawrence is simply outstanding as the resourceful Ree, a girl that has to take care of her mentally incapacitated mother as well as her younger brother and sister. As she desperately tries to find her father we see the devastating toll the meth problem has taken on the lower class in the United States. The film uses Ree’s situation as a microcosm of the larger issue at hand. Left on her own to deal with the possible loss of everything near and dear to her, we can see how our country has left so many people out in the cold with nowhere to turn. Even family has its limitations.

3Some (Spain, 2009)

Directed by Salvador Garcia Ruiz

Three young art students decide to have a relationship in this thought provoking film from director Garcia Ruiz. Unlike many of the recent films I’ve seen where everybody is so unbelievably perfect looking, the people in 3Some are attractive but in a very real way, and the sex is realistically shot as well. This makes it all the more hot and steamy but it also challenges us to think about the problems that might arise from such a relationship. The three young adults seem to be handling their arrangement well enough but there is no getting around the obstacles they face. Just as with a more “conventional” relationship there are issue that arise but of course it’s even more complicated in this situation.

3Some looks at these issues in a very adult manner, and always with an eye on what it takes to make any relationship work. What does a person need from their partner or in this case partners? Be it sexual or career wise how does an emotional relationship feed into those needs and desires? Yes it’s all very complex but can true love between two, or three people overcome those issues? 3Some doesn’t answer these questions in a neat and clean manner but it does make us ponder them long after the film is over.

Hideaway (France, 2009)

Directed by Francois Ozon

Francois Ozon has always made deeply thoughtful and intriguing films and his most recent film Hideaway is no exception. This one is about a woman, who after losing her drug addicted boyfriend to an overdose begins a relationship of sorts with his gay brother. The woman is pregnant and decides to have the baby even though her boyfriend’s mother would rather see her have an abortion.

Spending time in her country home she is visited by her boyfriends brother and he begins to take care of her while also developing a deeper emotional connection. I won’t tell you where Ozon goes with their relationship but I can say it’s in some unexpected directions. The result is a film that challenges the usual “roles” we play in life while throwing in a few curves as well.

Foxes : Alžbeta and her big sister Tina both relocated from their village in Slovakia to cosmopolitan Dublin in the hopes of finding a better life, but even when you can’t go home again, you never really get to leave it, either. Tina, who lives in a nice house with her Irish fiancee, Steve, initially seems the more sympathetic of the pair–she is always eager to help her “Betka” out of the messes she keeps getting herself into–but it soon becomes obvious that the younger woman has reason for her resentments. Bleak, but bracing. May 28 4:00 pm – Harvard Exit [Zee Grega]

Winter’s Bone: Winner of the Grand Jury – Narrative prize as this year’s Sundance festival, this is a thriller about a 17 year old girl searching the Ozarks for her bail-jumping father in an attempt to save the family home. Ree faces tremendous obstacles, including the members of her own family who have no problem doing whatever it takes to stop her. May 28 7:00 pm – Egyptian, May 30 1:30 pm – Egyptian [Zee Grega]

Senior Prom : Local filmmaker Nicholas Terry casts his Mountlake Terrace High School classmates in this “mockumentary” about young love and the massive importance of the big dance. May 28 7:00 pm – SIFF Cinema, June 1 4:30 pm – SIFF Cinema [Zee Grega]

RoboGeisha : RoboGeisha is everything you could ever want in a movie about cybernetic-enhanced geisha assassins. An inspired Midnight Adrenaline selection. May 28, midnight – Egyptian, June 8 10:00 pm, Neptune [Zee Grega]

The Hedgehog : The Hedgehog is a French film about 11-year old Paloma, who decides that growing up in a rich family will never allow her to be the type of person she wants to be. She decides that if she cannot change what she believes is her destiny, that she will kill herself on her 12th birthday. As her legacy in life, she wants to make a film of her last few months, and we see the world through her eyes. Along the way we meet The Hedgehog, the building’s manager/janitor Renee. Paloma dubs Renee as the hedgehog because she’s tough and prickly on the outside but Paloma knows there’s more to her on the inside. A compelling film that will leave you needing an entire box of tissues, this one is well worth watching. May 28 7:00 pm – Uptown Cinemas, May 30 4:00 pm Uptown Cinemas [Patricia Eddy]

Farsan : Josef Fares directed SIFF faves, like Jalla! Jalla!, Kopps and now Farsan. While I haven’t seen his last two films, this was was full of emotion. One of those laugh and cry flicks, the movie revolves around a middle-eastern Swedish immigrant and the people surrounding him. Whether he’s looking for love, helping men be men or finding happiness in unexpected places this heartwarming piece of cinema has shining moments that you’ll talk about long after the movie is over. May 29 9:15 pm – Harvard Exit [barrie arliss]

Mao’s Last Dancer : Bruce Beseford might have been famous for his direction in Driving Miss Daisy, but it’s Mao’s Last Dancer that takes him in a whole new world. This true story, set in the early 80s depicts the china-born ballet star, Li Cunxin, and his dilema between his forced career, his first love and his Communist home. While some of the acting could’ve showed a bit more emotion, it was the dancing that’s the true star of this film. May 29 5:30 pm – Uptown Cinemas [barrie arliss]

Henry of Navarre : Political intrigue in Sixteenth Century France as the future King Henry IV faces intrigues and betrayals a-plenty on his path to assuming the throne. Possibly worth seeing for the costumes along. May 27 9:20 pm – Neptune, May 29 2:00 pm – Neptune, June 12 9:00 pm – SIFF Cinema [Zee Grega]

The Dry Land : Newcomer Ryan O’Nan and cast featuring America Ferrera, Wilmer Valderrama, Ethan Suplee, Jason Ritter, and the always superb Melissa Leo in a film about a soldier having a difficult time readjusting to civilian life after a tour of duty in Iraq. May 29 6:30 pm – Harvard Exit, May 31 1:30 pm – Harvard Exit [Zee Grega]

On the Waterfront : In this archival film from 1954, Marlon Brando gives the performance of his career, no small deal, as a dim former prizefighter developing a conscience. An intense story, an excellent cast, and an exquisite visual appeal are all reasons this movie was well on its way to classic status shortly after its initial premiere. May 30 1:30 pm – Harvard Exit [Zee Grega]

The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls : You might think that a film about twin lesbian yodelers from New Zealand is obviously a fictional feature, but you’d think wrong. Jools and Lynda Topp are very real and their story is a tribute to the power of passion; not only were they inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame, but they were influential in the passing of New Zealand’s homosexual rights reform bill. May 30 7:00 pm – Egyptian, May 31 11:00 am – Egyptian

By Mike Caccioppoli

Lots going on as usual at the Seattle International Film Festival so with the films beginning to pile up I will be short and sweet with the following six reviews.

From Beginning to End (Brazil,2010)

Directed by Aluizio Abranches

This is the kind of film that couldn’t be made in this country. It’s about the deeply romantic, sexual relationship between half-brothers. When they are young boys their mother sees something different about them, about the way they interact with each other. Maybe it’s something, maybe it’s nothing she tells her ex-husband. Well it turns out that it definitely is something. Their relationship becomes intensely sexual after their mom dies and it gets deeper from there.

Director Abranches portrays their “taboo” relationship in a very non-taboo way. He doesn’t wish to judge his characters, in fact he seems to see nothing wrong with their love affair. This will make some people feel uncomfortable and find reasons to tell friends how awful the film is. Even the score is saccharine rich as the brothers make love and look longingly at each other. It is all dome without even a hint of cynicism or sarcasm. Nothing bad happens to teach these awful sinners a lesson either. This film is so not American in so many ways and thank goodness for that.  Yes the scenery is beautiful and so are the actors but there is something to be said for a film where everyone supports and loves each other and nobody is hateful. You probably won’t see me write that last line ever again. The filmmaker curiously dedicates his movie to his parents. Boy it takes brass balls to make a film like this.

Devil’s Town (Serbia,2009)

Directed by Vladimir Paskaljevic

In this dark comedy which satirizes modern day Serbian life, we follow several characters as they live through one very hot miserable day in Belgrade. Most of these people are unlikable in one way or another. There is the aggressive, violent cab driver, the old perverted gynecologist, the spoiled tennis loving daughter of a high class call girl.. etc. They all interconnect in one way or another through tragedy, murder or bizarre sexual relations. The filmmakers sense of humor is quite dark and it often works and there is definitely something seething beneath it all. This is one of those films where you could probably appreciate it more if you understand the political and social targets that the filmmakers are aiming at. There are indeed aiming at something however especially with the consistent tennis theme that permeates the film. The characters are either playing it, wanting to learn it or fascinated by watching it on television. There’s a happy ending to all of this I think as bunnies that are set for execution are released and a little girl finally gets to play tennis.

Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (United Kingdom, 2010)

Directed by Mat Whitecross

Andy Serkis gives a rousing performance as punk rocker Ian Dury in this superb rock biopic. Part All That Jazz, part Tommy but with a style all its own the film captures the measure of this crazy, loving, larger than life man in all his nutty glory. Beginning in the 60′s when Dury was trying to make it with his original band the film takes us on a kaleidoscopic journey through the 70′s and ending in the early 80′s when Dury had made it  from rock bottom to the top and around again. The film makes a sharp connection between Dury’s childhood (he suffered from Polio) and his never ending drive to succeed. Some of the most poignant scenes in the film are father-son related as Dury’s dad tells him that he must “stand on his own” while Dury reminds his own boy that “I’ll always be here, just above your shoulder.”

Visually stunning, and emotional in a blind-siding kind of way, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll pulls no punches in its depiction of a sometimes unstable yet highly talented man. Andy Serkis’ performance has to be seen to be believed, as Dury he’s annoying, captivating, moving, lovable, eccentric and simply brilliant. I knew nothing about Dury coming into this film, but after seeing it I want to know even more. Heck I even want to hear more of his music! Higher praise cannot be given. This film is an instant classic.

Hidden Diary (France/Canada, 2009)

Directed by Julie Lopes-Curval

This wonderful film from the director of Seaside is about the connection between three generations of women. When a daughter who is living in Canada visits her mother and father in France it opens up some old wounds and creates some new ones as well. It all surrounds a diary/cookbook and involves the woman’s grandmother and grandfather. What could have very well played as melodrama is perfectly assembled by director Julie Lopes-Curval.  As the mystery involving what is written in the diary and the disappearance of one of the main characters begins to take focus we also see how the past can create wounds that may never heal. Catherine Deneuve continues to amaze as the often steely mother.

The Freebie (USA, 2010)

Directed by Katie Aselton

A 30 something couple decide to shake up their dead in the water sex life by allowing each other to have a one night stand with the stranger of their choice. They agree to do it then come back together and not talk about it. Do you think it all works out? What sounds like a tacky exercise in film making actually turns out to be a fairly thought provoking movie. Yes they result of the experiment is predictable but the two leads (Dax Sheppard and Katie Aselton) are engaging and real and the film does make some sharp observations about “openness” and how it can be a disguise for genuine honesty. It’s also good to see Sheppard doing something “adult” for once. I knew he had it in him.

Down Terrace (United Kingdom, 2009)

Directed by Ben Wheatley

You certainly have never met a family like this one before. A father and son are released from prison and it doesn’t take long for them to get right back into their lives of crime. Why? Because it’s in their blood. Well not just theirs but moms as well. We start at the beginning of the week and by the weekend several of their friends have been killed and this blue collar organized crime family is just getting started. The violence is depicted in such a realistic, almost nonchalant fashion that it’s truly disturbing. Sprinkle in some dark humor and frighteningly convincing performances and you get a little gem of a movie that really shows how blood is thicker than water.. and downright messy too.

Calling Excited “a relationship movie about premature ejaculation” is a bit like describing Gone with the Wind as a movie about Atlanta. Sure, the subject is raised quite a few times, but if you skipped Excited at SIFF because you thought it was going to be a dumb comedy, you missed a smart, mature film about adult relationships and the lengths to which people go for the sake of love.

Kevin (Cam Cronin) is the owner of a successful golf course, as unfortunate in love as he’s been fortunate in business. He’s not exactly happy about his love life, but he could sure do without the nagging he gets from his overbearing mom, Claire. Gabrielle Rose does a tremendous job of keeping Claire just creepy enough to be believable; she’s so desperate for a grandchild that you’ll find yourself glad that hospitals have security measures in place for their newborns these days. Kevin’s just about given up on love when his ne’er-do-well brother Randy (Paul Skrudland in a pleasantly understated performance) hooks him up with a lovely lady named Hayaam. Warm, witty and charming, Hayaam seems like the perfect match for Kevin, at least until his freak out over his bedroom performance issues turn him into a petulant overgrown child.

Kevin’s not a complete idiot, though he acts like one at times (most notably in an uncomfortably funny scene where he insists on sharing way TMI at Hayaam’s workplace), so he does his best to salvage the shreds of their budding romance. Just when it seems like the course of love might be sailing smoothly for once, Hayaam drops a bombshell that forces Kevin into a position where he not only has to decide what he really wants from a romantic relationship, he has to defend it from his unhinged mother.

Laara Sadiq is perfectly cast as Hayaam; expressive and charismatic, Sadiq gives such rich life to Hayaam that it’s easy to see why he’d be willing to make a fool of himself for the sake of being with her. In town for the festival, Laara Sadiq was happy to speak about her film.

Addressing the issue of the movie’s unfortunate description: That’s what happens with low budget movies. There wasn’t really a publicist attached to it – it was ultra ultra ultra low budget and I guess because of [director] Bruce {Sweeney]’s reputation it’s done as well as it has.

What attracted you to the project?

LS: What attracted me to the project, to be honest, is Bruce. We have a long history; most of us who work with him do. I met Bruce well over twenty years ago. We went to university together. He was doing his Master’s in film at UBC when I was doing my BFA in acting so we met there. I did his very first film Live Bait. I did another tiny part in American Venus, the Rebecca DeMornay film. And then he just called me up, it’s two years ago now, end of the summer, and said “Hey, I’ve got this script and want to shoot this film and there’s this woman in it and can we talk?” We met for coffee and he had a few pages, a few scenes written, and I loved the character right away, a woman my age. Bruce writes character-driven stories and the story really appealed to me, about a woman of a certain age and a guy looking for something and just trying their very best to make something work.

Playing this character, did it feel kind of autobiographical for you, then?

LS: No. I’ve been with someone for 18 years, I have a kid. It didn’t feel autobiographical. What it was was the inner life of this woman at 40. She says she’s 39…the inner life of a woman that age. Hollywood seems to be fixated on–there’s this youth cult–and so a story about someone, a very normal woman of a certain age looking for something, wondering if she’s going to find it, all of those very real human things…So, no, not autobiographical at all, but the emotional life of a woman that age is something that I understand.

On working with Bruce:

Bruce is a good writer so the bones, it’s all there. In the workshop developing process–Bruce does that, that’s how he works–he comes up with skeleton bits of scripted scenes and you workshop and he shoots the workshopping and then he goes away and takes a look at the raw footage and writes some more and comes back with some more pages. Workshop, workshop, develop, develop for a few months so that by the time you get to camera you actually get a script that’s pretty locked in but you’ve worked on it, most of the kinks are worked out.

We worked on it together in terms of “Well, what about this?” His instincts are great but there were some things that I had to offer, too. He would say, “Well, I think she should say this” and I’d say, “I don’t know, Bruce. You’re a middle aged white guy, this woman’s going to come from a slightly different place, so how about if we try this?” Ultimately he knows what he wants so either it works for him or it doesn’t.

He’s someone who’s very clear on what he wants and what his aesthetic is and he’s trying to tell a story.

The thing about working with people you’ve worked with before who you’re comfortable with is that there’s… the sensibilities are similar. You’re speaking the same language, so even if you’re disagreeing over something, you can discuss it in a way that is productive and creative.

How long was the filming process?

LS: We shot in two blocks. It was like two, I’d say 12 – 15 day blocks, two months apart. We did the first chunk in November and took a few months off. In that time Bruce looked at the footage, decided to get rid of some stuff, decided to expand some stuff, finished the script–the script wasn’t entirely finished, we didn’t have an ending yet. The second block was finishing shooting the film but also we shot some stuff, got rid of some stuff, added some augmented scenes. That time was great for Bruce to figure out what we needed.

Really, on a low budget film, too, it was also we were talking practicalities as well. It was people’s scheduling, too.

On the movie’s intimate scenes:

Well, it wasn’t awkward – it’s horrifying as an actor to do that kind of work. It has everything to do with trust. I had never worked with Cam before. I have a long history with Bruce. Bruce is probably one of the few people for whom I would go to those lengths, because I trust him, because I know him, because I have a history with him. Bottom line is as an actor it’s really difficult to do that kind of stuff, to do that intimate work with a camera right there and and crews around, but when you trust the people you’re working with, when you believe and trust in the material…Bruce writes for his actors, so the stuff feels right and you just dive in.

I don’t think it’s easy for anyone to do that kind of intimate work. There’s nothing more horrifying for me as a 40 year old woman to be lying there in front of the camera with my clothes off going, “Oh, god, fuck, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? It’s only for Bruce.” But because I believe in the work and there’s trust…you just kind of go there. That is how the story needs to be told. The work asks for that, for you to go there. It’s always hard, it’s always difficult, it’s always slightly horrifying. That’s where you have to go as an actor, sometimes, and as long as there’s trust, as long as the work is good, you go there.”