Saturday, December 30, 2017

Top 10 Films of 2017 Directed/Co-Directed By Women via Filmmaker Magazine

Friday, November 17, 2017

H2N Review: 195 LEWIS

"Though 195 springs from a very specific culture it isn’t exclusionary, it portrays just another spectrum in the prism of life. The realness- the palpable honesty- of the work makes you sink into your own skin a little bit deeper." - full review @Hammer to Nail






































Saturday, November 4, 2017

Ragtag Cinema: Homebrewed/Most Beautiful Island

One of my favorite films of the year opens this weekend: Most Beautiful Island. I programmed this film in June as part of the Homebrewed series at Ragtag Cinema, the series finale & an incredible directorial debut!

Part psychological horror, part social issue thriller, part clawing NY portraiture the film's narrative is hard to write about because there is a slow growing tension that builds throughout; each scene and detail is a deliberate, thoughtful step towards the climax. In short, Luciana is a recent immigrant to NY, taking on shady Craigslist gigs in order to scrape by. Her shrouded past is hinted at, guilt and shame seem to haunt her very being. Slowly moments of eerie-ness start to creep in blurring the lines of reality and supernatural in a way similar to (unfortunately) Polanski's film Repulsion (an influence confirmed by Director, Writer Star Ana Asensio during our post-film Skype Q&A). One fateful job sends Luciana into a dark Manhattan basement where a high stakes game of fear and fate leaves the audience on the edge of their seat.



The Q&A with Asensio following the screening was everything I ever wanted in a Q&A! Asensio arrived on screen late- thanks to a sick child- apologizing profusely but quickly able to pivot into film talk. One audience question was about the children in the film- babysitter one of the jobs taken on by Luciana and also one of the few professions often offered to undocumented workers. The audience member wanted to know how Asensio was able to get such a pure performance out of the kids, a question the Director seemed so excited to be asked knowing full well the difficulty that child actors can bring. She said she added an arm cast to one of the children, giving him a prop to diffuse the awkwardness of a film set: misdirection directing, so smart!


Being Asensio's directorial debut, one that she wrote and starred in as well, I asked a lot about her approach to filmmaking; how does one direct while in front of the camera? Coming from a career in stage acting, Asensio said she treated the experience much like a theater set, knowing her relation to the things and people around her while keeping in mind a general sense of the camera's frame. We also talked briefly about the film being shot on 16mm film, a ri$ky undertaking that gave the film a dreamy Cassavetes veneer and a feeling of an old New York, slightly displacing the film in time and aesthetically adding to the hazy unease. Asensio admitted that some reshoots were done digitally but processed to match the film stock, a smooth, imperceptible transition that made me wonder why more people don't try this hack? Or maybe they secretly are...?


At one point in Asensio's life she found herself between visas in New York City, a precarious position that caused her to have to live partly underground, job to job. One particular job sent her into a party at a house that just didn't feel right; she wanted to leave, she felt unsafe. This is the core of Most Beautiful Island, this feeling of being suffocated in the name of possibility. Embarking on a new life isn't just a haphazard choice it is a decision that quite often brings with it risk and fear: in some cases there isn't even a choice. Seeing this film and hearing the truth behind it makes it even more harrowing and vital. Most Beautiful Island isn't just a masterful horror film it is also a window into a human life behind a political issue whose rhetoric has moved so far beyond reality that one could say it is encroaching on real life acts of horror...

Thursday, November 2, 2017

Ragtag Cinema: Homebrewed/Princess Cyd

Back in June one Wednesday evening via Skype, Director Stephen Cone asserted that he isn't afraid of casting directors or professional actors, an obvious declaration when watching his work- especially his most recent character driven Princess Cyd. In his films, Cone's precise writing is made into flesh through a sublime collaboration with his actors to the point that sometimes one forgets the entire film is a fantasy and not just a dreamy drop into someone's reality.


The seed of the main character, Miranda, was the near 70 year old spiritual novelist Marilynne Robinson. Cone wondered about her, her sex life, her life in general and wondered what types of conflict would arise if she were forced to face her own opposite. In the film, this opposite takes the form of Miranda's sexually precocious niece, teenaged Cyd, left motherless after a tragic family incident. The story then flourishes outward from this conceit; a coming of age film- as a teen and also into middle age- exploring conflicts and holding space for possibility, understanding and love.

Cone's film explores, as one audience member put it, "the female psyche" as it deeply searches for self in the world one is forced to (or is it one chooses to?) navigate. Princess Cyd oddly reminded me of a Victorian novel as it used densely layered, pointed dialogue to unearth the origins of antiquated ideals, unravel societal/social expectations all while searching for a way towards a sense of self or towards "alternative" ways of being in the world, especially as women.


This classical feeling in the script translated visually too as slow motion, extremely measured zooms, gardens and silent zephyrs elevated the contemporary moments of life into near oil paintings of lush composition. Cyd's slow moving figure amongst roses as a harp whispered in the background allowed for the scene to become isolated in time, giving a pause that beckons calm contemplation but also to somehow show that these moments are found in everyday life if we choose. The world is chaotic but these scenes of pure beauty, breathe and contentment- almost transcendence- do exist if we let them.


At its heart, Princess Cyd is another film in Cone's career that extends the drama of character driven theater to the screen, but this time making a giant leap into a signature lexicon that explores the limits & possibilities of film anew. Cone uses the medium in all of its aspects- music, time, writing, acting etc.- to slow down life, to look deeply into the fleeting moments, relationships and decisions that occur throughout using film to crafts sentences- or even words- in the biography of his characters. One begins to wonder whether larger forces are at play in the universe or if each movement is a calculated choice; the film isn't a narrative, it is an unfolding of humanity.

Princess Cyd opens in NYC on November 3rd and in LA on December 1st, with more cities TBA. The Museum of the Moving Image will be hosting mid-career retrospective of Cone's films November 3-12th, more info can be found here!

Monday, October 9, 2017

Ragtag Cinema: Homebrewed/Sylvio



So far behind on these things...this happened in June! But these films I programmed back then are starting to trickle out into the world now so what better time to revisit the Homebrewed line up!


Basically Director Albert Birney is Sylvio, which was quickly revealed as he toured the audience around his apartment via Skype following a screening of his film at Ragtag Cinema on June 14th. We saw his plants, the artwork on his walls, we even got to meet the beloved Herbert Herpels (Sylvio's avatar/puppet the ape creates for his own short films- yes, Sylivio too is an indie film director). We met 1 of 3 Herberts actually, the original hailing from behind a thrift store counter display, which, as Birney pointed out, is where the fancy stuff always go to gather dust. Some distant relative of Birney's apparently sat in the audience too- a step relative of an actor in the film also somehow related to Birney?! Basically the screening felt like we were in his Baltimore apartment catching up on lost time.


I told him that when I first read a review of his film Sylvio the reviewer couldn't tell if they were being trolled the entire time while watching it; the writer conditioned to heightened, undecipherable levels of irony in so much contemporary culture. But my reaction was the exact opposite. A sincerity cooed on screen in a way that I think many a cynical film critic is unable to recognize in this world of sneers and long distant likes. Sylvio is a large hearted story of an artist struggling against the realities of the world, trying to make sense of his non-sensical surroundings- like cubicles and viral videos and debt collectors. It just happens that this artist is an ape. An ape that remains relatively mute throughout, harkening back to the wonders of silent film acting.


In talking with Birney one realizes that his film is most definitely sincere, crafting a childlike wonder and whimsy leaning towards a hopeful honesty. Other sincere films like Follow That Bird and Pee-Wee's Big Adventure acted as major inspirations, also leading to talk of a Sylvio sequel in which Sylvio embarks on a quest/road trip to find a missing Herbert Herpels! An ape/human/artist/metaphor for a simpler life/silent film actor, I feel like Sylvio becomes what you need him to be for you, a sweet, styled look at a creative heart beating in the chaotic ways of modern life. Sylvio will have a one week screening at Nitehawk Cinema (Brooklyn, NY) starting on Oct 12th 2017.












Sunday, July 9, 2017

Ragtag Cinema: Homebrewed/Hunter Gatherer

Hunter Gatherer is the type of film that sucks the air out of the room and replaces it with a heavy & warm contemplative humanity- like the most intimate hug- which, it turns out, is a description of the film's director as well. Following the screening of the film at Ragtag Cinema on June 7th, director Josh Locy Skyped in with our Missouri audience from his sun drenched Westcoast room to discuss this gem of a film. He beamed from the screen to a shell shocked crowd still trying to process the simultaneously languid & intense film that they just experienced.

Locy's film stands out for many reasons; it is full of tenderness (Locy noting that films like Love Story were a source of inspiration), it's set in an urban truth flirting with magical realism, there is a complete lack of curse words throughout, the soundtrack a haunting, breathy smooth saxophone (which Locy likened to a 90s Cinemax movie- in the most unexpected/beautiful way possible!), surreal symbolic sequences lap at the edges of scenes. But, for me, the thing that stood out the most in Locy's filmic universe were the things missing.

Large chunks of the action went unsaid; the main character had been in prison, the reason never divulged, a chance romantic encounter skips the courtship and resumes in the bedroom. The film skirts around a place and time but smoothly floats above the need for precision. I asked Locy about this decision to withhold so much of the film's details and his answer speaks to an auteur in the making.



His response was that he wanted the audience to be forced to engage. He wanted us to have to fill in the blanks, pushing us a little closer into the story, to piece it together and remain active as we course through the lives of these rich, complicated characters. So often filmmakers tend to spell out every detail to their audiences; creating awkward backstory, or a radio blasting exposition, or a one sided phone call of answers to unheard questions: many filmmakers- fiction and documentary- seem to be stuck in this narrative rut. I feel like true auteurs are able to use all of the tools they have to imply. Writing and art direction (the latter Locy's entry point into the film industry acting as art director on such films as Cold Weather) can convey so much, an interested audience can glean from everything they are given. Locy's distinct and exacting hand makes ever decision in this film a perfect experience.



We ended the Q&A with a question from the audience about Locy's next projects which might include a "Bass fishing noir" (!) and a biblical based tale of deceit. Though these themes should sound absolutely terrifying, especially next to each other, I have complete faith that at the hands & mind of Locy no one should be afraid. Hunter Gatherer is now available on Netflix.

Saturday, June 10, 2017

Homebrewed

Homebrewed is an annual showcase of American, independent cinema that takes place each Wednesday in June at Ragtag Cinema in Columbia MO, a place that I can be found selling tickets on weekends and, more recently, up in the projection booth learning the ins and outs of DCPs & light dimming. This year I was asked to program the series, a totally unexpected honor! My line up is one of humanism with a twisted strange, each film an outpouring of heart but with a turn of uniqueness in form or character. I am extremely proud of this line up and cannot wait to Skype with the directors after the screenings! This article is a great pice about the line up! And more info can be found at Ragtag Cinema's website!


6/7 Hunter Gatherer (Skype: Josh Locy, Director)

When middle-aged Ashley (Andre Royo, The Wire) returns home after a stint in prison nothing is as he left it; his clothes are out of style, his girlfriend has moved on. After befriending young Jeremy, an equally wayward soul, the unlikely pair embark on a new business venture, searching the neighborhood for dead refrigerators to dispose of for profit. First-time director Josh Locy spins a sweet tale set in the streets of an unnamed urban sprawl, filled with touching, offbeat characters cast to perfection. Viewed through a tilted beauty and eccentric charm, Hunter Gatherer feels oddly disconnected from this world while evoking a very real-life take on day-to-day hustle.


6/14 Sylvio (Skype: Albert Birney, Co-Director)

Sylvio is a lowly cubicle drone at a debt-collection agency, residing alone in the city of Baltimore. Each night he comes home to work on his lifelong passion project: a series of heart-warming puppet shows performed for no one in particular. Sylvio is also an ape. With hints of pure DIY magic, silent-film comedies and an echo of buddy film tropes, Sylvio is a sincere endorsement of real-life connection; a deep exploration of what it means to be a true artist in a digital age of viral doom. Highly stylized and humming to a killer indie-pop soundtrack, it is the kind of movie that makes you smile but that also makes you think about what matters most. (P.S. There may or may not be Sylvio face masks distributed at this screening...wink)




6/21 Princess Cyd (Skype: Stephen Cone, Director)

Like a Victorian bildungsroman, maturation and expectation intersect throughout Princess Cyd, exposed in revealing moments of dialogue as sharp as it is fruitful. Aunt Miranda, a middle aged author/academic, resides in Chicago. Her niece, soccer playing, sun-bathing, sexually precocious teenaged Cyd, decides to visit for the summer from South Carolina. Over the course of their time together the two tacitly explore the essence of identity, discovering much about one another but even more about themselves. A finely acted film that unfolds, play-like, Cyd transcends simple narrative, musing on the metaphysical as it effortlessly glides through issues of desire, fate and faith. A relatable, lovable cross generational family drama with a welcoming edge of inquiry.




6/28 Most Beautiful Island (Skype: Ana Asensio, Director & Star)

After a devastating personal tragedy in her home country, Luciana flees to New York City, piecing together an undocumented life of odd jobs and decrepit apartments. When her friend gives her a lead on a gig Luciana enters into the strange depths of the city literally becoming a player in a deadly game of nightmarish proportions. Shot with a masterful, lush eye on 16mm film, the aura of the city emerges, an organism teeming with lives seen and unseen. Part genre thriller (think Reservoir Dogs) and part social issue thriller (think Get Out), Most Beautiful Island exposes the surreal lengths some go to for opportunity. A startling debut feature equally as powerful as it is edge-of-seat entertaining.

Monday, May 8, 2017

H2N Film Review: PREVENGE

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Art: Rashid Johnson, Antoine's Organ

I'd never been to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, MO until a friend guided me there on a recent sunny day, the kind of day one shouldn't be in a museum but that my fair skin, intolerance of heat, and ability to competitively sweat found welcome. Wandering around the museum I was struck by a few Francis Bacon's, the out of focus, figurative painter whose work tends to look the way I feel if awake after 1:30am. But it was one piece in the museum that literally stopped me in my slow, gallery paced tracks: Antoine's Organ by Rashid Johnson.

From floor to ceiling, a living, breathing, resonating sculpture beckoned from within the space; an installation combining video, music, horticulture, literature as object and more. A metal grid (think more sturdy garage/dorm shelving) stacked high created spaces for objects to sit and purely exist, waiting for one to come along and infer their meaning. Chunks of shea butter carved into totems, nearby the oily boxes the medium came in, small monitors with early video pieces of Johnson's, large potted plants reaching for the light, neon tubes illuminating, a pristine, shining upright piano slowly becoming visible in the heart of the sculpture as one's eyes start to un-focus through the jumble of symbols. The whole thing was an organism whose identity was sculpted by those around it, whose presence was acknowledged by interaction. It was like I was meeting a new person, trying to uncover the chosen signifiers that they chose to define themselves- my introduction so aptly interrupted by a security guard ("Can I touch that button hanging there that looks like it wants to speak to me?" "No. Thanks for asking."). Seeing museum go-ers engage and uncover was incredible. Seeing this piece in the Midwest was also incredible, a far contextual cry from Hauser & Wirth in Chelsea NYC where it previously exhibited...


This is, literally, a vital work of contemporary art. Its plants produce oxygen. Its piano, music. Its symbols must be put together by a human being trying to understand the overwhelming complexity of the thing they encounter, watching others as they do the same, learning about ones own preconceived ideas in the process. This piece of art is a reminder that there is humanity in understanding, and that this understanding can be found in beauty, history and experience. So rarely does contemporary art face reality in such a stunning, bold, lush vision- it's not merely a must see, it's a must breathe, listen, taste, feel and, most importantly, live. On view until May 21st.
























(photo credits, top to bottom: 1, 2, 3)

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Books: Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

George Saunders’ first novel isn’t quite a novel. It is a mix of soliloquies, disembodied dialogues, historical annotations and a poetic expression of wild & free imagination that (responsibly) sets the mind free from reason in a heartfelt and humanistic way. While reading, one is allowed to experience the realm of the unreal that is creativity, a realm that also tends to exist as a space to question the real world from which it has sprung. In the footsteps of Kurt Vonnegut, Saunders has always been a master of the wry hopeful tone and, like the later years of Grandpa Kurt, Lincoln in the Bardo uses the paranormal/supernatural to make for an even more emboldened exploration of possibility. A better world can be imagined and sometimes to see that we must look beyond what we know as reality. Bardo vibrates with an otherworldliness that ones imagination must engage with to envision the mysteries of the living world and a better future beyond for it.




I don’t want to give too much detail in terms of narrative, I want to remain vague so readers can experience reading the book like I did- a destabilization that makes one re-read a passage, think about it, breathe in the ether it creates. The book coaxes readers down a very precise written path, each step building upon the next, each piece so intentional that the absence of a single word would change the fates of the book entirely. It begins with the death of Willie Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s son. Then it veers into a ghostly post-death existence following those trapped in the graveyard beside young Willie Lincoln, their free indirect discourse floats through the text with a quick, stage-like bounce. They comment on their experiences both in and out of death, acting as mediums between worlds and between people. Following this strange and dreamy account of the state of things are historical quotations. Personal letters, books on the Civil War, diary entries are excerpted in succession, painting a picture of what first hand accounts, historians and authors believe to be the reality of the moments surrounding Willie’s passing. These conflicting accounts of time and space completely shake the foundation of truth: the moon was either full or not yet full, according to what source you look towards the waxing and waning is wildly different. The parallels that Saunders silently draws between the unknowingness of history and our own current wavering media reality leaves an indelible mark on ones understanding of perception. But, in true Saunders fashion, the book does not proseyltize its own intelligence, nor does it condemn or judge. The book coos into a humanistic comedy with little boundaries between anyone and anything, evolving into a utopia of timeless empathy.



Once I heard Saunders speak at a now extinct Midtown Barnes & Noble on his nonfiction essay about Dubai. He spoke of the cynicism he approached the place with, a cynicism that immediately melted when encountering a young boy witness snow for the first time. A manufactured snow being pumped into a resort that housed a desert ice castle. It is this feeling of strange beauty in existence that is the soul of Saunders’ work. Even though we live in a world that we choose to adorn with odd ideas of status, trend and politics, it is still a world we inhabit together, whether it be on the page or off it. Saunders draws no boundaries between the little boy awed by his first snow, the ghosts of the Civil War dead, the President of the United States of America or the reader & the writer. Bardo reminds that we are all human beings vying for love, peace and respect, however misguided our means to get these things sometimes are.




By opening ourselves up to Saunders’ visions of an afterlife, of the “Bardo” (a term for the Tibetan, limbo-like place between life and death), we let our imagination co-mingle with his imagination. In some ways it is like a dark children’s book (something Saunders’ has approached before with 2005’s novella The Brief But Frightening Reign of Phil), more than a foray into the supernatural, where the limits of possibility aren’t yet completely defined so we approach the world with an open heart and mind, letting our adult experiences melt away in a loving positivity. In a time of fake news, alternative facts and the ever expanding chasm between American experiences, Lincoln in the Bardo is a reminder that this feeling of divide and helplessness has plagued the nation before but it is creativity, thoughtfulness and the belief in good that was able to end it.

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Spring/Summer!

Where have I been? I was wrapped in the hectic glow and loudness of True/False Film Fest for the past 2 years! Last year I acted as Music Director (little did you know there is an entire music festival humming under the crafted non-fiction film line up!) and Media Curator (overseeing the VR Arcade, everyone's favorite documentary game show Gimme Truth!, film programming & a whole lot more!). Am I only now emerging from some sort of post-fest cocoon? Perhaps. But I am emerging to tell of new & exciting things!



1. Citizen Jane Film Festival is another incredible film fest housed in Columbia MO. It began at Stephens College, the second oldest female college in the US and a school that is home to a stellar screenwriting program! CJ is a Women's Film Festival that showcases features and shorts directed by women, inviting representatives from the films to attend and share their work in person. There is also a Summit curated around a current women-in-film related theme and the Film School, a day long event of talks & panels that also explore the contemporary film landscape through female eyes. In addition there are parties, music and a general loving vibe of creative minds and hearts working to make their stories seen! This year is the 10th year anniversary of the fest and MY FIRST YEAR AS FEATURE FILM PROGRAMMER! The incredible Barbie Banks took over as Executive Director last year and I am more than excited to grow Citizen Jane into something new for the community- both locally and as part of the larger conversation of women in visual storytelling! The 2017 fest takes place October 26-29th, hope to see you there! (psssst, our submissions are still open! And, according to Movie Maker we are worth submitting to! Yay!)


2. True/False's sister org Ragtag Cinema is a lovely arthouse theater whose box office I have been known to work at quite often!  And I love it! I love it so much that when I was asked if I would like to program their Homebrewed series- the best of new American indie film- I was beyond flattered & excited! The series takes place each Wednesday in June and features a different film each week, seeking out those budding auteurs who are taking risks to craft bold new visions of what true independent filmmaking can be. After each screening, we Skype in with the directors to discuss the film with the audience, giving more perspective on process, production and other areas of interest. I've been busily watching screeners and am (hopefully) very close to the final line up- everyone, cross your fingers! Suggestions are welcome too of course! I know there are always tons of hidden gems waiting to find an audience!: donna[at]ragtagcinema[dot]org


























3. Also, with some breathing room, I am hoping to be back in the writing/blogging saddle so stay tuned!