Saw 23 films. Went to some good parties. Drank a fair amount of really good whiskey.
Parties: Why am I'm always among the first to start dancing? Even though I'm "on the older side" (aka old), it remains a job I take seriously: getting the party started. It's like setting the table. Someone's gotta do it if people are going to eat. Talk, talk, talk. Who cares? I want to see people losing control. Highlight: dancing like a wild freak with Naomi Wolf, shouting into her ear about cervical orgasms. If you haven't read her book, Vagina, A Biography, get it. Order it. Make it your job to know all about the vagina-brain connection. I'm serious. Assigned reading.
The second half of the festival is always calmer.
When you can really get down to business and see a shitload of films. After half of L.A. has gone back
home. It's all about seeing as many films as possible and finally
spending real time at New Frontier exhibitions. But really, seeing films, taking chances, discovering a subject you had no idea about. A whole new world. Or a new way of seeing the world.
I liked Lovelace, a narrative feature about Linda Lovelace, her relationship with Chuck Traynor and rise to porn stardom. It was directed by Bay Area filmmaker team Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. The structure of the film was effective: taking the audience through the major events in her life and career in the way the public perceived them, then going back to those events to show the abusive relationship behind those same scenes - based on Lovelace's autobiography entitled Ordeal published in 1980 - and her anti-porn activism. The film sparks an important, and relevant dialogue about porn, third wave feminism and domestic abuse. Big congrats to Rob and Jeffrey for an extremely well-executed and moving film. Really well cast and acted by Amanda Seyfried, with Peter Sarsgaard, Hank Azaria, Adam Brody, James Franco, Sharon Stone. The film sold the night of the premiere to RADiUS-TWC. Looking forward to healthy debate on porn. I think Naomi and I disagree about this film.
On the subject...Went from there to Interior. Leather Bar. directed by Travis Mathews and James Franco. The 60 minute hybrid doc/scripted narrative imagines scenes deleted from the 1980 film Cruising starring Al Pacino; it explores homophobia, transgression, radical queer subculture then and now. The piece was all shot in a day and half with both straight and gay men actors. Mathews eloquently spoke in the Q&A about wanting to show "non-simulated sex" in his films, using real sex to tell real stories about the human condition, and the importance of maintaining radical subcultures in a society that values "normalcy." That was the most compelling argument made by the piece, though so much verite footage of filmmakers shooting filmmakers making a film and talking about it was often tedious as fuck. Again, looking forward to more healthy debate about this film and the subject.
The Stuart Hall Project was an unexpected highlight. Directed by veteran British filmmaker John Akomfrah, the film explores the life of the U.K. intellectual and cultural critic Stuart Hall, matching Hall's ideas about the impact of cultural events on individual experience/identity with the music of Miles Davis. This is an absolutely gorgeous film, crafted from 50 years and 8,000 hours of BBC archival footage of historical events and Hall's television program about cultural phenomena. In the Q&A, Akomfrah was extraordinarily articulate about Hall (a friend and great influence), the film, his process, Miles Davis, and his goal of "translating" Hall, who is now in his '80's, to keep alive his contribution to our understanding of self.
Sundance at its best provides a snapshot of the cultural zeitgeist - new questions, new information, new connections, and new enthusiasm about the role of media in catalyzing change. If you are lucky. I was lucky.
Parties: Why am I'm always among the first to start dancing? Even though I'm "on the older side" (aka old), it remains a job I take seriously: getting the party started. It's like setting the table. Someone's gotta do it if people are going to eat. Talk, talk, talk. Who cares? I want to see people losing control. Highlight: dancing like a wild freak with Naomi Wolf, shouting into her ear about cervical orgasms. If you haven't read her book, Vagina, A Biography, get it. Order it. Make it your job to know all about the vagina-brain connection. I'm serious. Assigned reading.
I liked Lovelace, a narrative feature about Linda Lovelace, her relationship with Chuck Traynor and rise to porn stardom. It was directed by Bay Area filmmaker team Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. The structure of the film was effective: taking the audience through the major events in her life and career in the way the public perceived them, then going back to those events to show the abusive relationship behind those same scenes - based on Lovelace's autobiography entitled Ordeal published in 1980 - and her anti-porn activism. The film sparks an important, and relevant dialogue about porn, third wave feminism and domestic abuse. Big congrats to Rob and Jeffrey for an extremely well-executed and moving film. Really well cast and acted by Amanda Seyfried, with Peter Sarsgaard, Hank Azaria, Adam Brody, James Franco, Sharon Stone. The film sold the night of the premiere to RADiUS-TWC. Looking forward to healthy debate on porn. I think Naomi and I disagree about this film.
On the subject...Went from there to Interior. Leather Bar. directed by Travis Mathews and James Franco. The 60 minute hybrid doc/scripted narrative imagines scenes deleted from the 1980 film Cruising starring Al Pacino; it explores homophobia, transgression, radical queer subculture then and now. The piece was all shot in a day and half with both straight and gay men actors. Mathews eloquently spoke in the Q&A about wanting to show "non-simulated sex" in his films, using real sex to tell real stories about the human condition, and the importance of maintaining radical subcultures in a society that values "normalcy." That was the most compelling argument made by the piece, though so much verite footage of filmmakers shooting filmmakers making a film and talking about it was often tedious as fuck. Again, looking forward to more healthy debate about this film and the subject.
The Stuart Hall Project was an unexpected highlight. Directed by veteran British filmmaker John Akomfrah, the film explores the life of the U.K. intellectual and cultural critic Stuart Hall, matching Hall's ideas about the impact of cultural events on individual experience/identity with the music of Miles Davis. This is an absolutely gorgeous film, crafted from 50 years and 8,000 hours of BBC archival footage of historical events and Hall's television program about cultural phenomena. In the Q&A, Akomfrah was extraordinarily articulate about Hall (a friend and great influence), the film, his process, Miles Davis, and his goal of "translating" Hall, who is now in his '80's, to keep alive his contribution to our understanding of self.
Sundance at its best provides a snapshot of the cultural zeitgeist - new questions, new information, new connections, and new enthusiasm about the role of media in catalyzing change. If you are lucky. I was lucky.
Good to hear your take on Sundance Kim!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jill!
ReplyDelete