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AFIFest

Close – End of childhood innocence

January 25, 2023 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

Coming of age can open the world in new ways, but at what price? In Lukas Dhont’s Close (which is Belgium’s entry for Oscar consideration) we watch a sudden and tragic shift from the idyllic world of childhood to thechallenging world of trying to fit in to the expectations of society. The film has been shortlisted for Best International Feature.

Thirteen year olds Léo (Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (Gustav De Waele) are best friends. We first see them as they spend a summer day running through the commercial flower field that Léo’s parent work. They have sleepovers where they unconscientiously sleep side by side. They tell each other stories. Léo sheds tears as he listens to Rémi masterfully play his oboe. Theirs is a Edenic existence that exemplifies the innocence of childhood.

When school starts, they head off to their new school together. As the camera moves back, we see that they are alone in the crowd of other kids they don’t know. They are physically demonstrative of their emotional closeness. Then one day at recess, a girl asks Léo, “Are you two together?” That question changes everything.

Léo is now aware that there are social expectations at play. He immediately begins to create distance between himself and Rémi, who until now has been his most intimate friend. He begins to avoid Rémi, leaving Rémi even more alone in this new environment. Léo joins the hockey team as a way of proving his masculinity, even though it is new and awkward for him.

On a school field trip tragedy happens. Rémi is dead. The school is distraught. We watch as grief counselors help the children address their grief. But Léo remains silent and stoic. His grief is put on hold, because how can he deal with such feelings—including guilt—without looking unmasculine.

The only other person who might understand is Rémi’s mother Sophie (Émilie Dequenne). But how can he go to her when he feels like he is so much at fault for what has happened? Sophie is also struggling to find answers and comfort in the aftermath of Rémi’s death. She feels as if she has lost two sons, because early in the film she calls Léo, the “son of my heart”. It is the tentative reaching out of these two people that will open the possibility of healing.

Dhont draws on his own experience of growing up queer, but he is careful not to label the boys’ relationship as anything other than childhood friendship. It is the very threat of labeling that pushes Léo to separate himself from his friend and soulmate. To further prove he doesn’t fit such a label, Léo goes out for hockey. Hockey is convenient because not only is it considered manly, but he is able to hide. He wears a uniform, so he is an indistinguishable part of a group. He is masked, and in a sense, caged.

This is a film that focuses on isolation. Adolescence is often a time when the perceived conflicts of social expectation cause changes in the way we see the world. Léo by distancing himself from Rémi isolates them both. Rémi is abandoned. Léo, even as he tries to fit in, is still cut off from meaningful relationship—certainly from anything as meaningful as he has shared with Rémi. That isolation proves deadly for Rémi. It also is totally stifling for Léo in his grief.

Léo’s entry into adolescence turned out to be an expulsion from the Eden he had known with Rémi. He will never be able to go back. It will be challenging for him to move into his new world. It will be even harder if he is only allows his perceived role to define him.

Photos courtesy of A24.

Filed Under: AFIFest, Film, Reviews Tagged With: Belgium, coming-of-age, Official Oscar entry, Oscar shortlist

The Eternal Mother – Ghost of love

December 1, 2022 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

“Happy memories here. Other memories here.”

Joanna Hogg’s The Eternal Daughter is a film that is bound to memory—of times past, of love, of relationship. It is dark and moody attempt to uncover the mystery of a mother/daughter bond that seems a bit cold and distant. It is styled as a gothic ghost story, but we discover that what haunts us most deeply may not be a phantom, but what haunts us from within.

The tone of the film is set as we watch a taxi traveling through the fog on a lonely road with somewhat spooky music as background. It certainly has a Hitchcockian feel as the tracking shot goes on. When we move inside the cab we find Julie Hart and her mother Rosalind (both played by Tilda Swinton). Their destination is a Welsh hotel where Rosalind stayed as a child during the blitz, when it was her aunt’s estate. The driver tells a story of seeing a face in the window of the hotel, even though there was no one there.

At the hotel, there seems to have been some mix up in the reservation and Julie needs to spend time getting the proper room, although it seems like they are the only two staying there. Julie is trying to write a film about her mother’s life and has brought her here to hear and record her memories of that time. Each day they have an ongoing conversation in which each is a bit distant from the other. It is not that they don’t love each other, but rather that they have never learned how to express that love.

There is not a great deal of plot or conflict. This is a story that develops through quiet moments. The emptiness of the hotel reflects the relationship the two women are striving to explore. It is more than just trying to get the information Julie needs for her script. She wants to have a better understanding of her mother because their lives are so bound together. Who Julie is depends on who her mother is, and vice versa.

That mother/daughter bond is very much what Hogg is exploring in this film. Although so much of their lives has overlapped, they have each lived in very different times. The generational gap has shaped each to see and remember the world in different ways. The difficulty of the relationship makes this a very universal story, especially for mothers and daughters, but for other close relationships as well. The discomfort that Julie and Rosalind struggle with is something that we may all deal with at times. It could become something that haunts us if we never overcome it.

The Eternal Daughter is due out in theaters soon.

Photos courtesy of A24 Films.

Filed Under: AFIFest, Film, Reviews Tagged With: AFIFest, ghost story, gothic, mother/daughter relationshp

EO – Four-legged Odysseus

November 28, 2022 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

Aesop told fables with animals to teach about human nature. In the Torah we find a story of Balaam and his donkey in which the donkey sees what Balaam cannot. EO is the story of a donkey, but it is also a story about us. EO is Poland’s entry for Best International Feature Oscar consideration.

Director Jerzy Skolimowski has created in EO a fitting homage to Robert Bresson’s 1966 film Au hasard Balthazar. Knowledge of Au hasard Balthazar is not needed to appreciate this film, but those familiar with it will find their viewing of this film enhanced. The Bresson film was viewed by many as reflecting the suffering of Christ. EO is not a remake, but it certainly has thematic resonance.

EO is a trained donkey who has spent his life performing in a circus. When animal rights group force the circus to quit using animals, EO is sent away from the only home he’s known and the woman who loves him. Thus begins this four-legged Odysseus’s journey. Along the way he’ll encounter kind people and cruel people. He will walk through the valley of the shadow of death. He will escape danger. He’ll be rescued. He’ll be beaten. He encounters an Italian priest and a countess. He becomes a soccer mascot, and then a scapegoat to soccer rowdies. He carries burdens, and he lives freely.

This is not so much a movie we watch as a movie we feel. It is emotionally evocative. We fear for EO. We rejoice when he finds love. Whereas Au hasard Balthazar focused more on the human cruelty that the donkey encountered, EO mixes cruelty with kindness, humor, indifference, and fear. Sort of like what life is like for us all.

EO is not fable or metaphor, but we connect with the donkey in such a way that we feel we know his life—because the various events, challenges, and people that make up this journey are so like what we face in our own. By the end, that emotional connection we have developed will lead us to consider even deeply existential questions of our world—ones we share with animals such as EO.

EO is in limited release.

Photos courtesy of Janus Films.

Filed Under: AFIFest, Film, Reviews Tagged With: homage, Official Oscar entry, Poland

Godland – Faithless mission

November 24, 2022 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

“I’m full of shit. Pray for me.”

Godland, written and directed by Hlynur Pálmason, has an interesting “inspired by” designation. We’re told that a box of old photographic plates was found in Iceland, and the story is inspired by those early photos. The story that develops from those plates is filled with light and darkness, beauty and shadows.

Lucas (Elliot Crosset Hove), a young Danish priest, is sent to Iceland to build a church in a remote part of the island and photograph its people. Before he goes, the bishop warns him that Iceland is not like Denmark. He is told he will have to adapt to their ways. The bishop reminds him of the Apostles who took the Gospel to all the world.

Rather than going directly to the location of the new church, he lands on the opposite side of the island and sets off with a guide, Ragnar (Ingvar Sigurdsson), and an interpreter on a grueling journey that shows him the ruggedness and the beauty of Iceland. But that journey is more that Lucas anticipated, almost killing him before it’s completed.

He awakens in a farmhouse where the new church is being built. We now begin to see how little attention Lucas paid to the bishop’s instructions. Although many of the people are bilingual, most prefer speaking Icelandic. Lucas doesn’t want to bother learning the language or the customs of the people. He is also very standoffish, not taking part in the building, only watching as others work. He fails to make any real connection with the people, except perhaps the farmer’s elder daughter who was born in Denmark and longs to return.

Lucas’s real passion has been taking pictures, some of people, but most of the “terrible beauty” of the landscape. He is far more concerned about his photography equipment than the large cross that has come with him from Denmark. On the journey, the cross is lost fording a river—a clue to what is going on within Lucas.

At one point Ragnar, who serves as an adversary to Lucas, asks “How can I become a man of God?” This puts the focus on Lucas and his role as a priest, that he does so poorly. There are various religious discussions and acts that come up through the film. The highlight of this is when Ragnar goes through a litany of confessions that increasingly challenge Lucas. In each, Lucas fails to do what we would expect from a priest. He seems to feel privileged because of his ordination, but perhaps more so because he is Danish. We see in him the kind of colonialism that the church has often represented in its missionary work.

Although we expect Lucas to be the one to lead lost souls to God, we see instead that Lucas is the one who is lost. He has lost sight not only of his mission, but of his faith and morality as well.

Photos courtesy of Janus Films.

Filed Under: AFIFest, Film, Reviews Tagged With: colonialism, Denmark, Iceland, missionary, photography

No Bears – In search of freedom

November 15, 2022 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

What do you do if the government forbids you from making films? If you are Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, you make films about not being able to make films. The most recent of these films is No Bear. Sadly, it may be the last for some time.

In 2010, Panahi was charged with making propaganda against the Iranian government. He was forbidden to leave Iran, banned from making films for twenty years, and sentenced to six years in prison, but the prison term was put on hold. In the meantime, he has been making films that reflect the oppression of the society by focusing on bits of his story. These films include This Is Not a Film, 3 Faces and Taxi. Earlier this year, when he went to protest the imprisonment of other artists, Panahi was forced to begin serving his sentence.

In No Bears, Panahi has gone to a remote village near the Turkish border to be near the making of his newest film. He isn’t on location, rather he is directing from his computer (at least when he has a cell connection). The film is to be about people trying to get out of the country, and involves actors who are trying to get out of the country. The proximity of the border is a reminder to him that it would be easy to sneak out of Iran and be free to make films.

Meanwhile, he gets embroiled in a feud in the village that is focused on a young woman who was promised to a man at her birth. But she and the boy she loves want to run off to find freedom. The various village traditions that come into play have a farcical quality to them, but they also serve as a structure for the people’s lives—for better or worse. It may allow us to consider our own traditions and structures in daily lives.

Even as the film blends fiction and reality, it reflects the daily tensions of life in Iran. The fact that Panahi has been making films in spite of the prohibition imposed on him is a reminder of the need for people to express themselves. And for Panahi, it does not seem an option whether or not to make films. He is compelled to show the world, but more importantly, I think, his fellow Iranians, what is happening around them. He does it in a usually lighthearted way, but it is also very serious.

There is a scene that I think is telling about his need to document Iranian society. One night after his assistant delivers a hard drive with the day’s rushes from the shooting, Panahi gives him a ride back. One the way the assistant directs him to a lonely spot that smugglers use to bring in contraband. He points to a Turkish city a couple kilometers away. He tells Panahi how much easier it would be to make his films if he were there. Panahi asks where the border is, he’s told “you’re standing on it.” He immediately takes a step back. It seems unthinkable for him to not stay in his country in spite of the hardships the government has imposed. It is only by being there, that he seems to feel empowered to speak. Even though for the next few years that voice will have to remain silent.

Filed Under: AFIFest, Film, Reviews Tagged With: AFIFest, Iran

AFIFest 2022 – AFI Conservatory Showcase

November 14, 2022 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

The AFI Conservatory is one of the premier film schools in the world. Its alumni/ae are always represented in each year’s Oscar nominations. As part of AFIFest, there are a number of programs to showcase the short films of recent graduates. It could well be that some of these young filmmakers will bring exciting new stories to our screens in the years to come. I’ll note the director of the films, but in reality these are team projects with Fellows from different disciplines in the filmmaking process. That is a reminder that all films are the creation of many people working together.

Dave the Fiancé, directed by Andrew Jasperson, was a fun film about a young man who is trying to fit in with his in-laws to be, when something goes terribly wrong. He feels guilty and a bit chagrined with the family’s efforts to cover it all up. Nice humor as he tries to deal with people with a much different morality than he has.

Soredia, directed by Julia Ponce Diaz¸ follows a young French woman who is taking a trip to the mountains with friends, although she is a bit of an outsider. She has a growing obsession with her new friend.

The Portrait

The Portrait, directed by Razzaaq Boykin, was a very interesting riff on the Dorian Gray story.  We watch as the Dorian and his portrait go through various emotions.

Under the Roses, directed by Henry Wolf, a lawyer going through a divorce goes to visit an old girlfriend. We see the ways each is struggling with their relationship with their children.

Fire Born, directed by Daniel Carsenty, is the story of a rookie police officer whose mother was killed in a police shooting. She is confronted with a situation that could change many lives.

Suck Hard

Suck Hard, directed by Eva Neuwirth, watches a high school girl trying to cope with a breakup and move on. But how can she put on a brave face when returning her boyfriend’s stuff?

Kissy and the Shark, directed by Lola Blanche Higgins, tells of a girl who lives in poverty near the port with her grandmother and very sick mother. When she comes across an injured shark on the shore, she brings it home to try to save it. It provides her with an interesting discovery about life and death.

Desert Dream

Desert Dream, directed by Dante Jiayu Liu, shows a Korean student who has just been suspended from his American school and about to be deported. He spends what time he has left here living out his dream of being a cowboy.

Lane Five, directed by Matthew Sliger, a young woman is struggling to care for her father with advancing dementia. When he gets carried away with his story of bowling a 300 game, he goes off to recreate his memory. Finding them provides a chance to bond anew.

Zenaida, directed by San-San Onglatco, is the story of an undocumented Filipino-Muslim who works as a caregiver for an aging diva with dementia. He borrows some of her dazzling wardrobe to use in his drag act. But when she mistakes him for a thief, a strange twist is involved.

The Basics of Love

The Basics of Love, directed by Joshua Nathan, shows us Lefty and Liz, co-workers who spend their day in a garbage truck, and the friendship they share. When they get caught in a dangerous robbery, perhaps they will discover there is more than friendship involved.

All of these films show off the skills that the filmmakers (from all the disciplines) have developed at AFI Conservatory. My favorites among the ones I saw were The Portrait, Dave the Fiancé, and Desert Dream. It is a pleasure to see the future as it begins to unfold.

Filed Under: AFIFest, Film Festivals Tagged With: AFIFest2022, shorts

The Corridors of Power – Upstander or bystander?

November 12, 2022 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

Why is there still genocide? Supposedly the nations of the world have said “Never again.” And yet, it continues in so many places while the world stands by and watches—often wringing our hands nervously. Israeli documentarian Dror Moreh’s The Corridors of Power offers us a compelling look at US foreign policy vis à vis genocide since the end of the Cold War. He does so with compelling interviews with many people within several administrations who were in the rooms where the decisions of action or inaction were being made.

Following the Holocaust, one of the early acts of the United Nations was to adopt The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It creates an obligation on nations to act when genocide is happening. This film focuses on the US since the fall of the Soviet Union because at that point, America was left as the sole global superpower. Yet only occasionally has the US acted to stop genocide.

The film includes genocides in Iraq and Somalia (under the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations), the Balkans, Bosnia, and Rwanda (under the Clinton administration), and Libya and Syria (under the Obama administration) In a Q&A at AFI Fest, Moreh noted that his beginning point for this film was wondering why the US acted in Libya, but not Syria. While he may seem to have a thesis that the US should act to stop genocides when they are discovered, he also shows that the decisions to act or not are complex.

It was educational to watch the evolution of President Clinton on this question. Early in his administration, he would constantly seek consensus on these questions. It was only after a few years that he took it upon himself to make a clear decision to act.

Moreh has interviewed a who’s who of US political power, including Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, Hilary Clinton, James Baker, Michael Mullin, Wesley Clark, Leon Panetta, Paul Wolfowitz, Anthony Blinken, John Shattuck and many others who speak about the situations and what went into the decisions that were made.

The real star, however, is Samantha Power. Power won the Pulitzer Prize for her book A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. She recounts her early involvement as a reporter during the Balkan civil wars and how that pointed her to focus on genocide and human rights. She went on to serve on President Obama’s National Security Council, and then as Ambassador to the UN. Power was in many ways the moral conscience in the discussion of responding to genocide. She constantly made the case that people and nations need to be “upstanders” rather than “bystanders”. This is seen especially in archival footage of her in the Security Council verbally shaming the Russian and Chinese for vetoing action.

We see in the film that the question to respond is not as simple as we might think. There are questions of morality, of practicality, and of politics, both domestic and geopolitical. The film really focuses on the White House and what happened there. It doesn’t really get into other political questions. For example, he noted that in regard to action in Syria, President Obama felt he needed Congressional authorization. However, we don’t see anything about the resistance he faced in getting that authorization. There were also other nations that were also failing to act in that situation, as well as the power of Russia and China to block action in the UN.

It should be noted that there are brutal scenes in the film. It includes archival footage of horrific scenes from Rwanda and Bosnia. It is not just the dead bodies (of which there are many) but also film of the actual murdering of civilians. It is terrible to watch—but perhaps that is the point: we need to see it; to turn away is a moral failing.

Moreh noted in the Q&A that he felt that those who were interviewed had heavy consciences about the issue and their part in the decisions that were made. It is not so much a matter of guilt as perhaps a feeling of helplessness. There are so many factors involved in the issue that we may feel that the issue is just too hard to deal with. And yet, the words need to continue to be said: Never again! And we need as the people of the world to be upstanders.

Filed Under: AFIFest, Film, Reviews Tagged With: Bosnian War, documentary, genocide, libya, Rwanda, Syria, US government

Petite Maman – Childhood magic

May 6, 2022 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

The innocence of childhood may present an opportunity for magic to happen. The openness of a child can allow for things that we might think impossible. If we allow ourselves to be carried along in that openness and innocence, we may find ourselves enchanted by Petite Maman, from Céline Sciamma.

[Note: It is impossible to talk about the film without a key plot point, that could be considered a spoiler. So, if you want to experience that discovery unhindered, you should come back to this review after watching the film.]

We first meet eight year old Nelly as she goes around the nursing home saying a final goodbye to the friends she’s made there. Nelly’s grandmother has died, so Nelly won’t be coming back. She and her parents now must go to her mother’s country home to clean it out. A short way in, the task is too much for her mother’s grief and she leaves during the night, leaving Nelly and her father with the task.

Nelly remembers her mother telling about a hut she built in the woods when she was Nelly’s age. Nelly goes into the woods and discovers another little girl, Monica, the same age as she, building a hut. When Monica invites her to her house, they end up at Nelly’s grandmother’s house, where Nelly finds her grandmother, thirty years younger. Nelly (and we) quickly realizes that in some way she has met her mother as a child. The two girls share their days and have sleep overs at each other’s homes (the same house with different decors).

Monica’s ninth birthday is coming up, but she is scheduled to have surgery to prevent a condition that her mother (Nelly’s grandmother) suffers from. The night before the surgery, Nelly spends the night at Monica’s house, where she confides what she knows about her mother’s life.

The film is not so much about time travel as it is a magical bending of time to allow the two little girls to find a special, mystical bond—a bond that is more like sisters than mother and daughter. We delight in the ways they share their lives in the way that only children can do. They live in neither past nor future, but in the very present moment.

Nelly knew that her mother often seemed melancholy. She feared that her mother was like that because of her. In this setting, Nelly gets to see a very different picture of her mother, and begins to know that the two are bonded by a love that has no real parallel.

Sciamma (Tomboy, Water Lilies) is not new to coming-of-age stories. She enters into the children’s lives to find the innocence and wonder we often lose as adults. The girls find joy in building a hut, going on the lake, making pancakes—the carefree life of childhood. The parents in the story have other things on their minds. Nelly’s mother is grieving and has to deal with the overwhelming work of cleaning out a house. Monica’s mother worries about her daughter’s health as she faces an operation.

Sciamma keeps the story focused through the eyes of the girl. As she shares her days with her “little mama”, she begins to understand a bit more about the mother she has known. And she learns that they are connected in an amazing way.

Of course, I watch the film as an adult—filled with worries about many things. But in the brief (72 minute) time of entering Nelly’s life, I get to remember a little of the magic of that time. And perhaps the adult Monica will get that chance to remember as well.

Based on my viewing of this film at AFI Fest, I included it in my Darrel’s Dozen for last year.

Petite Maman is showing in select theaters.

Photos courtesy of Neon.

Filed Under: AFIFest, Film, Reviews Tagged With: family drama, French, magical realism, mother/daughter relationshp, time travel

Jockey – Riding into the sunset

December 29, 2021 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

“These horses will run till they drop. You have to tell a horse it’s time to stop.”

Many people want to pass on a legacy. It is more than just wanting to give something of value to a future generation. It can be a validation of one’s life. It can be something that lives on after us. Jockey, from director and co-writer Clint Bentley, centers on just what that can mean—for the giver and the receiver.

Jackson Silva (Clifton Collins, Jr.) has spent his life riding. Now his aging body is not as up to the task as it used to be. He’s hoping to get one more season in. When Ruth Wilkes (Molly Parker), the trainer he’s been close to through his career, finds a special horse, it may be their ticket to a new level. For Jackson, it would be the capstone on his career. But is he up to bringing the horse along?

Meanwhile, a young jockey, Gabriel Boullait (Moises Arias) seems to be paying a lot of attention to Jackson. When they speak, Gabriel claims to be Jackson’s son. Jackson dismisses the idea. But after a while, the thought grows on him, and he takes Gabriel under his wing to help him develop as a jockey. I’m often a sucker for father/son stories. This one has an interesting twist that comes into play. What is this relationship, really? Is it really a father/son dynamic? From whose perspective?

Bentley grew up “behind the barns” of the racing circuit. His father was a jockey and then a trainer. He wanted to capture the reality of that world. To do so, he uses some non-professional actors—real people from that world. Some of the interesting scenes include when these jockeys relate the litanies of their injuries, or briefly seeing a local pastor leading them in prayer to start the day.

Jackson is a man who is facing his mortality from the perspective of being a jockey. That is who he is. When the day comes that he will no longer be able to ride, what will become of him? We see in Jackson and the other jockeys that it is not the injuries or aging that kill their careers, it is fear. Once fear takes hold, they cannot ride as well ever again.

As his symptoms worsen (and we learn there is more here than just an aging body), can he manage that one last big ride to secure his legacy? Or is his legacy something bigger than winning a race?

The film has many scenes shot at sunrise and at sunset. That sets the tone of what this story is telling us. The sun is setting on Jackson’s career, but it may be the dawn for Gabriel. The passage from dusk to dawn may be Jackson’s real legacy.

Jockey is showing in select theaters

Photos courtesy of Sony Picture Classics.

Filed Under: AFIFest, Film, Reviews Tagged With: aging, father/son relationship, horseracing

Sunday at AFI Fest 2021

November 17, 2021 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

How strange that AFI Fest 2021 is already coming to an end. But perhaps next year the festival will be able to move back to a weeklong fully in person event. Still, it is important to thank the staff and volunteers for the work they did to make this such a wonderful—and safe—experience. And of course, I’m thankful that they grant me so much access to these wonderful films.

Do you remember going to movies full of viewers that becomes a common experience? We are reminded of that experience in Zhang Yimou’s One Second. Set in the Cultural Revolution, a man who has escaped from a labor camp is desperate to see a newsreel that has a brief onscreen appearance of his daughter. In the first town he’s in, the movie is finished, and the film is to be transported to the next town. But a girl steals one of the cans of film and the man chases her down to retrieve it, since the film won’t be shown if incomplete. The first part of the film is a humorous back and forth of the two of them taking the film from each other. When The film gets to the next town, one can (the one with the newsreel) has come loose and been dragged along the road. At first the projectionist cancels the movie, but the community is heartbroken. Soon they are all working together to save the damaged reel.

This is a story that reflects our love of cinema—even if it is Party propaganda. When the film eventually play, the audience sings along. This is more than just watching the moving shadows on a wall. This is an event that touches the whole community. There is certainly something to be said for watching this film in a theater with other people rather than sitting at home. It is also a story of family—not just the basic meaning of family, but also the family we can become with others.

Clint Bentley, director of Jockey, grew up in the world of horseracing. He hadn’t seen a film that accurately captures that world, so he made one. Jackson Silva is an aging jockey whose body is beginning to betray him. He hopes for one last great horse. Ruth, a trainer with whom he’s close, has a new horse that might be great for the two of them. But Gabriel, a young rookie jockey shows up, claiming to be Jackson’s son. At first, Jackson denies it could be true, but the idea warms on him, giving him a chance of a legacy beyond racing.

I’m something of a sucker for father/son stories. This one has an interesting twist in it. But it is also something of a meditation of mortality, as seen as the end of the life that Jackson has always known. The film is filled with scenes at sunset and sunrise (mostly sunsets) with beautiful skies. We understand that this is both a sunset and a dawn for Jackson and Gabriel. Jockey won the Audience Award for narrative films and opens in US theaters December 29.

Holy Emy, from director Araceli Lemos, is the story of two Filipina sisters in Greece whose mother was forced to return to the Philippines. Emy, the younger, has a special ability that her mother had. At times she cries blood. And she has the power to heal. Her sister Teresa tries to keep this hidden, so Emy won’t be taken advantage of. But a pseudo-mother who lives across the hall, has her eye on them. She knows that something is going on with Emy, and believes they have to baptize her to keep the devil at bay. Teresa is also dealing with a sudden pregnancy and a boyfriend who is more interested in what Emy can do than being a father.

This is a film that is filled with the color red—often blood. It also has a good deal of religious imagery and language. Yet, for all that religious feel, I never felt the film got to the serious religious questions that such a story raises. It seems to want a humanitarian basis for the use of such an ability, but it never seems to quite fit with what we are watching.

And we finish up with a few more shorts.

Johnson Cheng gives us Only the Moon Stands Still, a story of three generations of Chinese women in a failing dance ballroom. The ballroom may be closing, but for the youngest of the three the world may be opening up—if she’s willing to let her mother push her out of the nest. Only the Moon Stand Still won the Audience Award for short films. (22 minutes)

In Motorcyclist’s Happiness Won’t Fit into His Suit, Gabriel Herrera uses a motorcyclist to create a metaphorical reenactment of the hubris of colonialists. A bit too artsy for my taste. (10 minutes)

Sales per Hour, from Michelle Uranowitz and Daniel Jaffe, is set in a retail clothing boutique. The staff works at upselling through the day. But when they discover a sexual encounter in the dressing room, they face a dilemma about what they are willing to allow to keep sales moving.

Filed Under: AFIFest, Film, Film Festivals Tagged With: China, Greece, Healing, horseracing, movies about movies, shorts

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