seattle international film festival Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's almost time for one of my favorite film fests, the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), which runs a whopping 25 days, from May 24-June 17. Not only is SIFF one of the longest (if not the longest) film festivals on the planet, which is pretty cool, but it's sustained almost entirely by local support, with screenings generally well-attended throughout the fest.

I love this fest not just because it's in Seattle, where I live, which makes it a non-travel fest for me (good thing, since it's so long!), but the atmosphere of the fest is so ... Pacific Northwest. The weather is generally gorgeous -- June is one of the best months to be in Seattle, most of the venues serve popcorn with REAL butter instead of nasty "butter-flavored" grease, and folks are laid-back and friendly. This year SIFF will bring Seattle 405 films, in a sched boasting 48 world premieres and 39 North American premieres.

Teaching at an inner city middle school can be stressful, but Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) handles the kids under his tutelage with ease, engaging them in classroom discussions, bantering about their lives, even coaching the girls' basketball team. He's the kind of teacher you wish all your middle school teachers had been -- interesting, fair, and not condescending to his students just because they're kids. Yes, Dan is the perfect teacher, while he's on the job. It's after work, when he brings out the crack pipe, that his dark side comes out.

Dan, the protangonist of Half Nelson, is living a double life: Responsible schoolteacher by day, crackhead by night. An idealistic young man caught in the throes of a reality he doesn't know how to handle, Dan deals with his stressors by making them go away for awhile. He thinks he's got it all under control, and, like a lot of addicts, maintains the illusion of control on the surface, for awhile -- until the day one of his students, Drey (newcomer Shareeka Epps), walks in on him in the locker room post-game, prone on the floor, crack pipe in hand.

Shanghai Dreams, directed by "Emerging Master" Wang Xiaoshuai, centers on 19-year-old Qinghong (Gao Yuan-yuan), who lives in the rural province of Ghizhou with her parents and younger brother. Qinghong's parents came to this poor region at the behest  of the Communist Chinese government, which encouraged workers to leave the cities in order to settle in, and build up, the poorer regions. They were promised a better life, and instead have had a decade or more of poverty, factory work, and dismal rural living conditions. Qinghong's father, who was initially optimistic and happy to serve China by making the move, has in the ensuing decade grown angry and bitter, blaming his wife for talking him into leaving Shanghai. Qinghong's parents, and the other adults who came to this remote village with them, still think of themselves as being "from Shanghai", to differentiate themselves socially from the locals. The parents dream longingly of the day they will return to Shaghai, while their children have grown up in this place and consider themselves locals, thus adding an interesting layer of conflict to the t ypical teenager-parentual unit head-butting present in almost any film that has an adolescent character.

 

 

When I heard that Mark Mothersbaugh, former DEVO frontman and film and television composer extraordinaire, was coming to the Seattle International Film Festival to teach a Master Class on composing for film, I knew right away that I wanted to score an interview with him. Mothersbaugh was kind enough to sit down with me for almost 40 mintues to chat with me about his days with DEVO, how he transitioned from playing with a band to composing for films, and how life has changed now that he's finally a father.

Cinematical:  I want to start with the obvious topic-- your work with DEVO and how that influenced the work you do today.

Mark Mothersbaugh: Well, DEVO was kind of like – that was the first statement I ever made as an artist, really, that was my first statement ... and in a way I think DEVO influences what I do now because I think of what I do now is permeations on a theme, always. There may be those who say, I don't see a direct link to DEVO, but I maybe – I feel like there's a direct link, even though it's sometimes obscure. I think I'm part of that group of  artists who make their best statements when they're angry young men. I first started writing music with Gerry Casale in 1970, we were art students at Kent State. And our school was closed down because they shot some kids. We were protesting the war in Vietman.

Going to see a French comedy at a film festival can be a dicey proposition. Sometimes they're really funny; other times, the French humor just falls flat with American audiences. In Quatre Etoiles (Four Stars), the humor meter was pretty much on, although certain aspects of the film seemed to rub the liberal Seattle crowd the wrong way.

When Franssou (played by the lovely and very charming Isabelle Carré) inherits €50,000 from an aunt, she's torn over what to do with the windfall. Spend it all traveling around the world? Save it frugally? Her boring, middle-aged boyfriend wants Franssou to buy him a mattress and save the rest. Franssou, wisely, decides instead to dump the boyfriend and take off on a luxurious trip to Cannes, where she holes up in the Ritz Carlton and proceeds to enjoy herself immensely.

When Shawn Wong first penned his novel American Knees way back in 1995, he may or may not have realized that he was writing what would become a classic of Asian American literature. As an undergrad, Wong looked for works by other Asian American authors, and was astounded to realize how few there were. Ultimately Wong, along with some fellow Asian American scholars, edited a compilation called The Big Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian American Writers, which became as noted for an essay by editor Frank Chin about what was and was not true Asian American literature as for the astonishing collection of writings compiled therein.

This background is important to know because American Knees was far more than a steamy tale of relationships between people who happened to be Asian American; beneath that sexy surface, the book is about conflicts and misunderstandings between Asian Americans of different backgrounds, the subjugation of Asian Americans, and the subtleties of racism. Writer-director Eric Byler's film adaptation of the book, titled Americanese, because Byler felt that more people would "get" the intended meaning of the film with the title spelled that way, loses much of the steaminess of the novel, while focusing more strongly on the underlying themes.

Take Romeo and Juliet, blend with a liberal dose of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and what do you get? You get Shinobi, a visually stunning film about the Iga and the Koga, two ninja tribes with magical powers. Sworn enemies, the tribes have nonetheless managed to live at peace with each other thanks to a treaty forbidding them from fighting. That doesn't mean they have to like each other, though. Then one day Oboro (Yukie Nakama), the granddaughter of the matriarch of the Iga clan, happens to meet Gennosuke (Jô Odagiri), the son of the Kouga chief, at the watering hole. For reasons that are never made completely clear (but is love ever really completely clear?) the two fall deeply in forbidden love. The idealistic Gennosuke thinks they can just tell their respective families about their love and all will be well: "Look, Dad, the Iga are nice! I'm in love with one of them!" The more pragmatic Oboro warns Gennosuke that no happiness can come of their love. Guess who's going to be right?

When a film festival has 418 films, you're bound to miss a few you wanted to see. It was a cinematic hydra -- for every film I saw at the Seattle International Film Festival, there were always two more I didn't catch. Here are the seven films I most regret not being able to work into my SIFF-tastic viewing schedule:

• Frostbite - Man, I really wanted to see this film. It had vampires! Really mean ones! In Sweden! Where there's no daylight for part of the year, setting the perfect conditions for a giant vampire party: B.Y.O.B. -- bring your own ... you know.
• Host and Guest - This Korean film, about a cynical intellectual and an evangelist, won the jury prize for Best Director for helmer Dong-Il Sun.  I'll have to keep an eye out at future fests for this one.
• Starfish Hotel -  A Japanese gothic supernatural mystery? Holy geez, how did I miss that one? I overheard someone in the press office talking about how great this film was, but never managed to work it in.
• Beowulf and Grendel - Here I was all set to interview director Sturla Gunnarsson about Beowulf and Grendel, starring Stellan Skarsgärd and Sarah Polley and then I ended up not making the screening due to illess. I'm going to try to track this one down -- maybe it'll be at Toronto in September, and we can review it and do an interview then.
• House of Sand - How did I manage to miss this Brazilian saga about a family of women surviving amid the desolation of the desert -- again? I swear, one day I will see House of Sand, and then I will review it for you. It's on my "things to do before I die list" now, so it's official.
• Who Is Harry Nilsson (and Why is Everybody Talking About Him?) - Who is Harry Nilsson? The Beatles knew who the singer-songwriter was -- he was one of their faves.This film wasn't on my list, until I kept hearing people talking about being excited to see it, and, later, raving about what a fantastic film it was. Now I wish I'd had it on my list.
• We Go Way Back - I really wanted to catch this feature by former Fly Filmmaking Challenge director Lynn Shelton, about a woman confronted by a 13-year-old version of herself. Am going to try to track down a screener of this one. It had great buzz.

Below the fold, the seven films I enjoyed most at SIFF.

Whew. After 25 days of non-stop movie love and insanity, the Seattle International Film Festival has come to a close. I'm feeling a little post-fest letdown today, but it's been a great festival. Here's a roundup of some of the highlights of the fest:

• Cinematical hosted a (very impromptu) meetup at Cafe Vita in Capitol Hill prior to the screening of Sundance fave Quinceañera on Friday night. Enjoying a Seattle coffee and stimulating conversation pre-show were: Stewart Stern (screenwriter of Rebel Without A Cause, one of the founders of The Film School, and all-around lovely person); Jeffrey Wells from Hollywood Elsewhere; several fantastic folks from Americanese, including director Eric Byler, lead actress Allison Sie, script supervisor Cecilia Tsai, and music supervisor Brooke; Quinceañera director Wash Westmoreland, and Joel from Fat Free Film.  Next year, we'll be more organized, plan further in advance, and invite lots more film bloggers and journalists, filmmakers, Cinematical readers and SIFF folk to join us.

We told you earlier that OSS-117: Nest of Spies, The Trials of Darryl Hunt and Full Disclosure won the Golden Space Needle Audience Awards for Feature, Documentary, and Short, respectively, at the 32nd Annual Seattle International Film Festival. For those of you who have been anxiously checking back for the full list of the winners, here they are:

BEST NEW DIRECTOR

Grand Jury Prize: Host & Guest, directed by Shin Dong-il (South Korea)

"For its timely and universal story of two strangers moving towards common ground in an increasingly polarized world, told with great subtlety and emotional honesty."--Jury Statement

Special Jury Prize: Grain in Ear, directed by Zhang Lu (China)

"For its minimal yet exacting portrait of a woman of poverty who chooses to be the agent of her destiny rather than a victim of circumstance, and for its bold juxtaposing of China's harsh realities against the ghosts of Maoist idealism." --Jury Statement

The Jury for the New Directors Showcase Competition was comprised of Scott Foundas (chief film critic and editor for LA Weekly), Caroline Libresco (senior programmer for Sundance Film Festival), and Oscar Torres (actor/writer/producer and winner of SIFF 2005 GSN for Innocent Voices).