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AFI 2008
By Elizabeth Johnson
AFI FEST, which runs through November 9, is the festival partner of AFM, and the only FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producers Associations) accredited film festival in the United States. Together, AFM and AFI FEST is the only concurrent festival-market event in North America. Last year, 34 films that were official selections at AFI FEST were also represented at the AFM.
The competition films in the narrative and documentary categories. Special screenings
Highlights/Special screenings:
Che
Steven Soderbergh's two-part epic with Benicio Del Toro as the title role, promises dramatic insight into the drives of Che himself, beginning roughly where Motorcycle Diaries left off. We follow Che's instrumental journey with Fidel Castro, Cuban exiles, the overthrow of Cuban dictator Battista, and the trials, setbacks and spread of Communism through Latin America.
Wendy and Lucy
Wendy (Michelle Williams) is poor, traveling to Alaska for seasonal work in the fishing industry. Her only companion is her dog Lucy, but when the dog goes missing, she is forced to open up. Williams' painful and moving performance carries the film. Executive producer Todd Haynes (I'm Not There)
The Brothers Bloom -thriller-comedy (Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel Weisz) Brothers who decide to do one more job, swindling an heiress, before quitting their life of crime for good.
The Soloist (Jamie Foxx) is a gifted violinist and cellist battling schizophrenia, winding up on the streets. After meeting a journalist, he pulls himself out and strives to play at Walt Disney Hall.
A Christmas Tale (with Catherine Deneuve) is a skewed and fun ensemble French movie about a dysfunctional family with axes to grind when three generations of family meet for the last time for the holiday.
Visioneers, the debut movie from brothers Brandon and Jared Drake, is a charming and windy dark comedy about a man who is faced with the problem of his coworkers exploding - literally. Fearing his own life, the movie weaves through his off-center and quirky life.
24 City
A documentary about China's march to a free economy, the changing modern environment from factory and worker to a staple of socialism.
Highlights from the Narrative/ Documentary Competition:
Food Fight
Chris Taylor sets out to prove the axiom right: You are what you eat. This informative doc details America's post-WW II food policy system, its contribution to today's food-related diseases, and the revolution of the American organic revolution with Alice Waters and her restaurant Chez Panisse. See for yourself: Spend on healthy organic rather than health care.
Last Day of Shishmaref
From the Netherlands, the story of the Eskimo Northern Alaskan village threatened to extinction by global warming.
Kassim the Dream
Middle weight champion fighter in the USA from the life of a child soldier in Uganda;
Of All The Things
Winding tale about former hit songwriter Dennis Lambert's 1972 solo album is big in the Philippines. Winner of Audience Award at the Sarasota, Nantucket and Palm Beach Film festivals;
Agile, Mobile, Hostile: A Year With Andre Williams
Pushing 70, it's amazing to see Andre Williams, a musician with hits like "Shake a Tailfeather," still performs. This detailed portrayal of his life-struggle with drugs and virtual obscurity is a sad, cautionary tale, but also provides a motivational insight into an indefatigable character with hopeful stamina.
I think I thought
Matthew Modine's satirical short film on the uselessness of freedom of thought. Amusing statement .
AFM 2008
By Elizabeth Johnson
During the Great Depression, people reveled in the movies. From watching classics like The Wizard of Oz to horrors such as Frankenstein to toe-tapping icons like Shirley Temple, moviegoers could find solace and escape from everyday worries.
Despite the tenuous realities of the current economy, it seems not much has changed in the human psyche's needs for pacification in hard times. The MPAA Entertainment Industry Market Statistics reports that consumers spent more time and money on movies and home entertainment than they had in previous years, and projections show a steady and continued growth in the demand for film content.
American Film Market (AFM), the largest motion picture trade event in the world, aims to provide. Celebrating its 29th anniversary, the kick off on Nov. 5. will screen 513 films, including 102 World Premieres from 22 countries. The market draws entertainment industry insiders from around the world - resolute buyers, enthusiastic sellers and passionate producers, directors and writers - uniting audiences and filmmakers, giving hope and home to the independent film so commerce and creativity can grow and thrive.
It's a lively scene at Loews Santa Monica and Le Merigot Hotel, overlooking the palm-treed beach and the pier. With over 400 production/distribution companies, AFM provides an opportunity to network with 8,000 industry professionals, creatives and executives from all over the world. Tax incentives for film production in states like Louisiana, Michigan, and New Mexico have done wonders to give hope to the industry. According to US Bureau of Labor Statistics, "The film industry increased by roughly 19,000 more jobs."
But while film production may seem like it's growing, the budgets have shrunk dramatically and the DIY moviemaker with lower budgets reigns. The result: A glut of content - more than movie houses can handle - with nowhere to go. More movies, less distributors, less venues.
The statistics for distribution are grim. Out of more than 5,000 indie features submitted to Sun-dance last year, only a 100 were chosen. Out of that, only a handful received the distribution packages they set out to secure. There may be more emerging venues in the marketplace, but the closing or acquisition of half of independent production wings of larger studios has hurt. With private hedge funds disappearing, the wake of WGA strike and the pending actor's strike, it's not just the little films that are hurting. Even Steven Spielberg has now looked outside of Hollywood to Dubai for cash flow in film financing. AFM has emerged as an oasis for having your movie seen, hawking it yourself, booth to booth.
AFM's cutting-edge seminars, conferences and panels aim to address these trends and needs, unique to the independent filmmaker in the face of a weak dollar. There are panels in film financing, online and self-distribution, productions incentives, 3D, and new technologies. Seminars target developing skills for pitching movies, finding global film financing, and creatively using international connections. s WGA, West will have a panel about producing and distributing online content. Film Independent will host a panel on forging beyond tradition methods of distribution and getting your movie seen.
According to Jonathan Wolf, Executive Vice President of IFTA and Managing Director of AFM, "AFM is different than a festival. Its content is uncurated and open to all diversities, showing that there's an audience for every film, large and small."
Morning Light
By Theodore Ott
There are two ways to look at this movie. The choice you make will determine whe-ther you are able to enjoy this movie or just sit in the dark and fume.
Morning Light is the name of both the movie and of a fifty-two foot racing sloop which Roy E. Disney owns and made available to a team of college-age sailors so they could enter the annual TransPac race from California's Newport Beach to Hawaii across more than two thousand miles of open ocean. In a world grown more and more safe and predictable, events like the TransPac provide an opportunity for the fewer and fewer who are willing to measure themselves up against an unforgiving and absolutely unbridled natural world.
A number of young people with sailing backgrounds were summoned to try-outs and fifteen were picked by Executive Producer Roy E. Disney and a team of instructors and experts. The fifteen then winnowed out their number to the eleven who could be supported aboard the boat. That final eleven, using the tools available to any sailors, but entirely by themselves, raced the boat across the Pacific Ocean.
When you're out on the broad, unbroken expanse of the ocean it is a lead pipe certainty that if anything catastrophic should happen, there'd be no one near enough to be of help before help no longer would matter. That is the crux of the challenge that faced these adventurers. Whether it is a good idea for someone who's had all the benefits of a golden, privileged youth to risk throwing away his or her life for such an adventure or not is something each person has to answer for himself. And, then live or die with that answer.
There is a constant tension as the would-be crew members strived to improve their skills and impress their tutors who they believe, will be selecting the final eleven from among their number to race the boat.
In an unanticipated curve ball, Disney and his experts announced that the crew must name their captain and he or she then must name the crew. The wanna-bes ranged in age from eighteen into their early twenties including a Midshipman from the United States Naval Academy, a student from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and students dra-wn from all over. There was even a young man from Australia.
Once the cho-ices were made, Disney and his panel of experts /tutors begin to pull themselves further and further into the background allowing the young people the time to gain the experience and expertise they needed as they left the shores of Southern California behind.
As the day for their departure neared they learned that their chief competition is to be a boat just like theirs but newer and crewed entirely by professional open ocean racers. Theirs was to be a waterborne version of David and Goliath. What makes the audience bond with the youngsters is that even after learning of this monkey wrench in the deal, the crew of Morning Light refused to give in or give up. In fact just the opposite, they redoubled their efforts and committed themselves to strive to make sure that the pros will, at least, know they'd been in a race. Then when, in the course of running the race, they actually pulled ahead. . .
The photography is beautiful and the moments of tension are real, not staged for a camera. In its own way Morning Light reminded me of the first Cinerama movie I ever saw, Windjammer. My dad, a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II and an avid sailor took me and I cannot remember any motion picture experience that so thrilled me. Morning Light while on a smaller scale is still an interesting exploration of humans' challenging of and occasionally winning against, unbridled nature. There's not much that's more exciting than that.
'CHANGELING'
BODY DOUBLE
By Sean Chavel
The title card informs us it's March 9, 1928, and the camera pans down to reveal a very authentic Los Angeles from the past. Clint Eastwood's Chan-geling draws our attention first with the period artifacts such as the Model T cars, the old school phone operating system, the "entertainment" radio, the flapper hats on women, and so on. By the end of the first hour, Eastwood's film becomes a spellbinder that completely wraps us up in its story. An amazing true story based on real events.
Telephone operator supervisor Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie, her career best) is called in for an extra shift, leaving her son at home who looks content enough alone sitting by the radio. Christine returns in the evening to find her son vanished. She calls the police but the same procedure that exists today existed then: You have to wait 24 hours on your missing child before police are willing to step forward onto an investigation.
The media grabs hold of the story which prompts the Los Angeles Police Department to come up with immediate successful results. The child Walter Collins is found a couple of months later, and upon return to the train depot, Christine claims she does not recognize the child as her own. Police Captain Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) insists that she holds the boy and smiles for news cameras. Christine protests, at first with a rational voice and then a slightly brash one, that a mistake has been made and that her son is still out there missing. Captain Jones orders a psychiatrist to make a house call to the Collins home to convince Christine that she is wrong and illogical despite facts that the new Walter is three inches shorter and is uncharacteristically circumcised. The new Walter calls her "Mother." Christine is asked to care for a boy who might have willingly agreed (to whom?) to be an imposter son.
The film's script by J. Michael Straczynski intrepidly recognizes an era when women were seen as empty-headed, over-emotional to a fault and illogical. Instead of taking Christine's word, every man in turn questions her abilities as a responsible mother. And when Christine doesn't back down, the police top dogs have her committed to an asylum as a reprimand for disrespecting the law. Christine has to be vigilant with the chief psychiatrist at the asylum because the slightest display of insolence will enhance her troubles. The film boldly observes a time where men in profession were conceited enough to cling onto their hasty judgments and were stubborn enough to not reverse their erroneous decisions. Acutely the film shows the self-aggrandizing chauvinism at its most evil potential. Here is a time when a challenging woman's vocal dissent would lose her instant credibility.
Truth surfaces as to the real Walter's explanation behind his disappearance, a harrowing abduction that led him to endure a livestock cage. Walter's predicament is just one of many boys just like him, and there's almost a sizable shock as to see how disbelieving police enfor-cers could be to check out and verify this story. This has left Christine, of course, at the mercy of a corrupt system. In Christine's corner is radio personality Rev. Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich, as a prickly but charitable intellectual), whose crusade lends way for Christine's voice to get heard by the public and possibly prompt public vindication. Inglorious loony-bird mother she is not.
The sexually inequality angle is what makes this Eastwood effort his most morally complex and provocative film. The film's structure and pacing is classically arranged with the story unfolding in unhurried and deliberate rhythms. The outrage of the injustice is allowed to congeal naturally without Eastwood letting it get hamstrung. There is no sermonizing or speechifying in the film, but Jolie is allowed one juicy bawl with "I WANT MY SON!" The film has been judged by some as Eastwood's most conventional of recent years, I'm aware of that, but those critics seem be undervaluing the film's powerful refrain on the oppression of female inequality.
How sterling a performance by Jolie playing this woman, who has to carefully walk the line with male authority, keep weeping to a minimum, and project tactfulness but prudence in her pleads. Eastwood's lighting of Jolie is essential, underlining her character's fatigue and thus inciting quick rash and unfair judgments by her antagonists. There are also quite a few desert roads shots that are starkly photographed in a way that evokes vacuity and desolateness - the film's vision of early 20th century California is one of uncultivated and spread apart civilization. Spread apart so that Walter could be anywhere in this vast old California. Eastwood weaves a stellar mystery of a missing child's whereabouts, the sordid boundlessness of egotistical personalities, and the scales of justice that hang questionably imbalanced.
'PRIDE AND GLORY'
DISPERSE, THERE'S NOTHING TO SEE HERE
By Sean Chavel
Pride and Glory is a never-ending parade of cops roughing up and interrogating suspects and witnesses linked to a very convoluted crime. Drugs, money, corrupt cops, the whole gambit. Nothing wrong with familiar material if it's done well, but nothing is fresh in this movie. Not even the talented Edward Norton can bring something to the table, but Jon Voight and Colin Farrell manage to register in a few scenes.
The headline stars of the picture play a family of cops in Washington Heights, New York. They're the Tierney family, but we'll just refer to the actor's names to keep things straight. Norton handles missing person's cases, but after a drug bust gone wrong (the one passage in the film that has a TV reality show urgency), patriarch Voight wants his son Norton to handle an investigation that led to the deaths of several cops. Farrell is the brother-in-law with a shady angle and a secret.
Voight has two memorable scenes, the first involving shaming his own son Norton to take on the case and the second involving getting toasted on Christmas morning in the presence of his granddaughter. You watch a mediocre movie like this and wonder if this one Voight performance will redeem everything. You would think, but Voight's character becomes less engaging and integral to the storyline as the movie passes along. His other son, played by Noah Emmerich, is a hot-headed captain who wants vengeance against the thugs that killed his fellow squad members.
The movie is filled with stagy dialogue scenes of characters expressing disdain towards their subordinates and frustration in regards to their situation. Several cops are uncovered as being unethical, and thus, a corruption plot concedes. The actual construction of the plot is done in a shapeless and negating way, almost as if the film's director Gavin O'Connor ("Miracle") wasn't sure how to unload the plot's revelations to the audience. The results are uncertain and nebulous.
The city itself doesn't appear to be a modern American city. Under populated with marginal pedestrian life, you'd hardly guess this film was shot in contemporary New York. The film has a strange hermetic quality that seems disconnected from any specific time period. If you didn't know who any of these actors were, you'd start wondering if this movie was made in the 70's?, the 80's?, the 90's? - you get the picture. The barebones style is not noir, in fact, there's not enough style nor flair. In fact, director O'Connor seems to be treating this retread story as deadly serious so any heightened artistic style is certainly non-existent.
On occasion, the film contains a scene of undeniable power such as when Farrell's home is visited by a local thug. Farrell has to command him off his property without causing too much of a scene. Come to think of it, Farrell's acting is really good in the second half of the movie. Norton has a few good moments too, but he's too much like… Ed Norton. It makes you wonder when Norton is ever going to stretch again as an actor. Maybe change his hair, his mustache, his vocal inflexion, his accent…. something. It's becoming all too simple to forget what a hot and versatile property Norton was until he started taking acting in too easy a stride.
The conclusion isn't as shocking as it is contrived. Thus becomes a tragedy of fake martyrdom, of a character atoning for his sins in an impossibly "proud" surrender. Nobody surrenders in this world with the knowing outcome they are going to be pipe-beaten to a pulp. However, the most questionable scene of the movie involves a side character: a cop strapped for cash and behind on his house payments decides to rob a convenience store. For a big city cop, is that kind of risk worth such a meager pay-off? You'd think a talented corrupt cop would figure out how to make big money off of more liquid criminals. But that's "Pride and Glory" for you. Trite, blockheaded, self-serious, ludicrous, and - occasionally well-acted.
High School Musical 3
By Kenyth Mogan
The phenomenon that is the Disney's High School Musical franchise releases is installing its third chapter as High School Musical 3: Senior Year in theaters. Where other Disney films have started to lose pizzazz after the second film, and others should have just ended with the first, High School Musical 3 is a high energy / truly outrageous experience that is the perfect goodbye to Ryan (Lucas Grabeel) Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale), Chad (Corbin Bleu), Taylor (Monique Coleman), Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens), and Troy (Zac Effron).
After the final basketball game of the season, Kelsi (Olesya Rulin), the school's troubadour, signs up all of her friends for the spring musical, because, as seniors, it will be the last time they all get to do something together. Though the school's drama queen, Sharpay, had her heart set on doing a one woman show, and most of the seniors that Kelsi signed up have no interest in acting in another musical, Gabriella, with the help of Troy, convinces them that the musical is actually a good, if not fun, idea. With Kelsi as composer and Sharpay's twin brother Ryan as choreographer, the show is set to be the biggest thing East High has ever seen, especially since representatives from Julliard will be handing out a scholarship to one of them at the end of the performance. But the drama on stage is nothing to the drama the student's face in their own real lives. First, there is the event that is every girl's dream, and every boy's nightmare: prom. Then, there are finals and the actual act of graduation; one of the biggest goodbye's in a young person's life. Troy and Gabriella, who spent the first two movies falling in love, now face the choice of separate colleges.
Producers Bill Borden, Barry Rosenbush and writer Peter Barsocchini are the ones responsible for creating High School Musical. The idea began in Borden's living room because he wanted to reintroduce the teen market to the musical genre. But it was director Kenny Ortega who brou-ght the film to life. The story is not a retelling of the first two films. Ortega wanted to make sure that the film would stay true to it's roots, but also wanted the cast to grow up and go through normal adolescence emotions and situations.
Caroline B. Marx was the films costume designer, and helped give the film that certain Broadway magic that made it something absolutely stunning to watch on screen. "I Want it All" is by far the films biggest costume / dance sequence. A fantasy from the frilly fabulous mind of Sharpay, the costumes and make up are very fantastical. David's Bridal and the Men's warehouse played a big part is supplying the prom scene costumes. The entire look of the film was very hip, fun, and comfortable.
Bonie Story, Kenny Ortega and Chucky Klapow return as the film's choreographers and the outcome is, as Sharpay would say, "Fabulous". From the simplistic romance of a waltz in "Can I Have this Dance" to the Broadway inspired "I Want it All" several of the films numbers make you forget you're watching a film as it feels like something you could see only on the great white way. "Now or Never" (the films opening number) and "Scream" stay true to the films theme that mixes theatre and basketball while "The Boys are Back" is an imaginative fantasy set in a junkyard and involves Chad and Troy dancing over a rolling big wheel and sneaking around like ninjas and super heroes. The film's finale "High School Musical" is choreographed like a graduation procession that involves the dancers creating the Wildcat symbol. The film ends with it's six stars stepping forward from the crowd and taking their last bow as the characters that have made them world wide icons.
As Troy says to Gabrielle during a picnic they have in her bedroom: "The last strawberry, could very well be the best out of the batch, but you're never going to know unless you try it." The quote is a perfect metaphor for this film. So, go see it.