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Slamdance Film Festival

Slamdance 2020 – A few final films

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As I finish up my Slamdance viewing, I want to thank the festival for giving me access to all these films. I always enjoy covering Slamdance, in part because it pushes me beyond my comfort zone at times. The films here are always very diverse, just as the festival wants them to be. That means, some films won’t click with me, others I’ll appreciate because of the passion of the filmmakers, and some will bring me joy in various ways.

The films I’m finishing up with are all award winners. Some were already on my watch list, but I hadn’t gotten to them. Some were added because of the awards. Here is a link to all of the awards.

The Civil Dead, directed by Clay Tatum and Whitmer Thomas, won the Audience Award for Narrative Feature. When his wife is out of town for a few days, Clay, an unmotivated photographer encounters Whit, an old school friend, but it turns out Whit is really a ghost. Since Clay is the only person who can see or hear him, Whit sticks to Clay like glue out of loneliness, and begins a haunting relationship. This becomes a humorous horror story—with there being horrors both for Clay and Whit.

The George Starks Spirit of Sundance Prize was awarded to Sasha Levinson, who directed Sylvie of The Sunshine State. This is a documentary that Levinson made of her life with her 2nd grade daughter Sylvie. The idea was to see what their everyday life was like, but soon after they started the COVID lockdowns began. In part the film becomes a chronicle of the early months of dealing with the pandemic, but it is also about the evolving relationship between mother and daughter (and Sylvie’s father who lives elsewhere). Obviously a very personal project, but also very universal.

And there are, of course, some more shorts to note.

Oldboy’s Apples (seven minutes), directed by Brad Hock, received Honorable Mention among Animated Shorts. It uses stop motion puppets to create a world of magical realism in a tale about a demon, a rat, and a dog in relationship to a special apple.

Selahy (My Weapon) (14 minutes), directed by Alaa Zabara, received Honorable Mention in the Unstoppable category. It’s the story of a deaf girl in the midst of a war zone in Yemen. She sees the world in a different way through a video camera her photographer brother gave to her. When he goes out to document the war, she does her own recording of what is happening, but she doesn’t hear what is coming.

Another wonderful festival comes to a close.

Slamdance 2022 – Still more to see

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As Slamdance Film Festival continues, I’ve spent some time with some of the features that are part of the festival.

Paris Is in Harlem, directed by Christina Kallas, is a collection of intertwining stories that take place in the day before the Cabaret Law (which prohibited dancing in bars and restaurants and was mainly used to harass minority establishments and jazz clubs). There are people with various problems and conflicts that all end up at Paris Blues Jazz Club. Jazz permeates the film, not just in the club, but all around the city. A very pleasant celebration of a place and the music that drives it. Paris Is in Harlem is part of the Breakout section.

Underdog, from director Tommy Hyde, is a documentary about a Vermont dairy farmer whose real passion is dog mushing. His dream is to run his dogs at a race in Alaska, but the finances of this farming operation make that difficult. This is a man who says he’s never been away from the farm for longer than five days in his life. But in spite of the difficulty of trying to hold on to his farm, when he’s on the sled behind his dogs, we see that pure joy looks like.

In Retrograde, directed by Adrian Murray, a young woman gets a ticket she believes she doesn’t deserve. Her battle to fight the ticket affects her work and her relationship with her new housemate, who was in the car, but can’t corroborate her version of events. The ticket makes her feel powerless and becomes completely disruptive of her life. Perhaps when it is all behind her, she can move on. Retrograde is part of the Breakout section.

Be Right Back, directed by Frauke Havermann, gives us a bizarre collection of people living in the woods, each with their own routines and idiosyncrasies. When their food disappears, they each head into the forest, but it only gets stranger. This is very interesting visually. Be Right Back is part of the Breakout section.

Slamdance 2022 – Unstoppable lives

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Slamdance is intentional about inclusiveness. That is especially evident through their “Unstoppable” sections for both feature films and shorts. These films are built around the way people face struggles in life—often because of various disabilities—and find meaning in lives that many would find impossible. Today I’m going to look at some of the Unstoppable films. A reminder: You can still watch these films with a $10 festival pass through February 6.

Poppy, from director Linda Niccol, is the story of a young woman with Down Syndrome who wants to become an auto mechanic. Her brother, who runs a garage where she helps out, is reluctant to take her on as an apprentice. The brother is filled with guilt over the accident that killed their parents, and is spiraling into alcoholism. Meanwhile, Poppy is falling in love with a local busker. The key here is that Poppy is really a normal teenager. Certainly, Down Syndrome is a part of who she is, but that is really only one part of her, as we see. The various problems that arise in the film are cleared up a bit to easily, but it makes for a pleasing story that reminds us that there is always more to someone than how we first see them.

Straighten Up and Fly Right, directed by Kristen Abate and Steven Tenenbaum, shows us how much of a struggle life can sometimes be. A woman with Ankylosing Spondylitis, a crippling form of arthritis, spends her life hunched over, always looking at the ground. She is in pain that she treats with pills and weed. She walks dogs for a living. She is depressed and resentful. When she is sent to a new client, she discovers someone as bent over as she. Through this, and some other encounters with people who are kind (or learn to be), she begins to grow and to see herself as having value for who she is. This is a story that asks us to consider how the world sees people—how we see people who are different.

Among the Unstoppable shorts, I found what may be the real diamond of the festival: Freebird (6 minutes), directed by Michael Joseph McDonald, Joe Bluhm, and Nick Herd. This is an excellent example of what a short film can be. In those few minutes, this animated film shows us 45 years in the life of a man with Down Syndrome. This animated film is touching, emotionally satisfying, and challenging without being confrontational. It reminds us that people are of value not for what they can or cannot do (and as we see, many people with disabilities are capable of great things). Their real value is simply that they are. The Jordan Hart song “Freedom” that provides the music of the film serves to tie it all together.

In My Brother Is Deaf (11 minutes) by Peter Hoffman Kimball, is a brief story of a family dealing with a child who is deaf, as told by his five year old big brother. It is more than learning sign language or the idea of cochlear implants. It really boils down to that they want to be able to tell the child they love him, and they want him to be able to share himself.

Jamiesonshine (5 minutes), from Phoebe Jane Hart and Jamieson Hart¸ takes us into the world of schizophrenia. Phoebe Hart tells the story of dealing with her brother Jamieson who struggles with the dark world of schizophrenia. It is a story that is told with love, but it is a love that carries a great deal of pain.

All of these films are currently playing at Slamdance 2022.

Slamdance 2022 – Let’s watch some docs

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Today’s report on the Slamdance Film Festival looks at some documentary features. These three films all have different vibes, from chaotic, to mellow, to socially engaged. A reminder, the festival this year is entirely online. You can get a festival pass for only $10 that lets you watch as many films as you like through February 6.

Forget Me Not, directed by Olivier Bernier, is the story of the Bernier family as they struggle to get the best possible education for their son Emilio, who has Down Syndrome. The New York City School System is said to be the most segregated school system in the country for children with disabilities. The Berniers want Emilio to be in inclusive settings, around children that are not disabled. There are good reasons for this. But will the bureaucracy agree? This is a well done exploration of the issue facing special needs children. Is it better to have them in smaller segregated schools, or will they learn better amidst a broader school population?

Ferroequinology, directed by Alex Nevill, shows us two photographers with a fascination with railroads. One creates a photo-journal of a passenger train voyage focusing of the community of people on the train. The other seeks rural settings to wait (sometimes in vain) for a freight train to come through. In a world where most people are in a hurry to get somewhere or do something, these two have opted to take a slower pace. While the film focuses on the photographers, we note that the filmmaker also has a good eye for the beauty of railroads.

Doggy Love, directed by Mahmoud Ghaffari, shows us Yanni and Aslan, two people who work together in a dog shelter in Iran. Aslan is in love with Yanni, but she doesn’t reciprocate. This is a country where dogs are not valued. They are considered dirty, diseased, and even viewed as against the Islamic faith. This is not the kind of humane animal shelter we imagine. It is chaotic. The two have few resources to feed or care for the dogs—and it leads to problems that might upset many viewers.

All of these films are currently airing at Slamdance ’22.

Slamdance 2022 – Sampling shorts

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One of the parts I love about film festivals is the chance to watch shorts. Slamdance Film Festival has so many to choose from. I dipped into three of the short films sections for just a sampling of each.

Animation shorts:

Sensual Pill (4 minutes), by director Sam 3, is a fast-paced trip all over our planet using time-lapse satellite photography and Google Earth. It is a wonderful job of editing to give us a chance to see bits of our home, even if the frenetic pace doesn’t let us focus on any one thing for long.

(Cathedral) (7 minutes), by director James Bascara, is a computed animated journey through a canyon as we follow a seemingly unending trail of ants.

Crumbs of Life (7 minutes), by director Kararzyna Miechowicz, is a surreal story of a woman and her yeti-like mate, a TV reporter who grows a life-draining growth after being spat on by a pony. Yeah, it’s strange, but oddly engaging.

Open One’s Mouth (5 minutes) by director Akane Murata, is all about the art. There is neither plot nor characters. This is more a work of modern art than surrealism.

Documentary shorts:

No Soy Óscar (15 minutes), from director Jon Ayon, is a look at the US-Mexico border area. Ayon, a first-generation Latinx father, is fascinated by a news story of Óscar Alberto Maritínez Ramírez and his 23 month old daughter who drowned together in the Rio Grande. He travels to various points of the border, only identifying them by the name of the indigenous peoples who never ceded the land that is now divided into two nations.

Gladiolus (6 minutes), from director Azedeh Navai, is a very brief overview of how the flower came to be popular in Iran since 1950, becoming a symbol of celebration, and then later, a popular decoration for graves.

Telos or Bust (12 minutes), from director Brad Abrahams, is a look at some of the people of small town Mt. Shasta, California, and their beliefs about the spiritual and metaphysical nature of the mountain they believe is the location of a portal to an underworld filled with immortals. Lots of New Age spirituality here, but very interesting people.

A Table Is as Good as Nine Lives (12 minutes), from director Christina Leonardi, uses home movie footage and narration by elder family members to create a piece of oral history spanning several generations.

Unstoppable shorts (featuring stories [either narrative or documentary] of people facing the hurdles of life):

Signs and Gestures (13 minutes), from director Itandehui Jansen, is a feel good story of a young blind woman who is going to meet a man from a dating app. She hasn’t mentioned on her profile that she’s blind. When she arrives, there is another problem, he never mentioned that he only spoke sign language. Can love bloom?

Ipseity – Marisa’s Story (5 mintues), from director Nicholas Stachurski, is the story of a young mother who gives us much of what we might call beauty. When she was 18 she lost all her hair to alopecia. Now, because she has the BRCA breast cancer gene, she has opted for mastectomy. Just as she felt she found a new beauty when she lost her hair, she now expects that her life will find new value after her surgery.

Imperfect – But aren’t we all?

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“. . . The assumption when folks see my chair is that I won’t be able to do things before they assume I will be able to do things.”

Acting is a very demanding profession. Actors become another person in the eyes of the audience. It is challenging. Even more so when part of who you are as a person is the label “disabled”. Imperfect, from directors Regan Linton and Brian Malone, is a behind the scenes look at the Phamaly Theater Company’s 2019 production of Chicago—a production that features actors living with disabilities.

This is not a show that is done to give disabled people a sense of accomplishment. These are professional actors, some with years of experience, who come together over a number of weeks to put on performances of a very challenging musical. Phamaly, based in Denver, provides a unique venue for actors who may well be overlooked by other theaters.

Regan Linton (who co-directs the film) spent a year at Phamaly as the Artistic Director. She and all the actors each deal with various disabilities. There are those who have been paralyzed in accidents, people who are blind, people with MS, Parkinson’s, and cerebral palsy. There are people at various points on the autism spectrum.

This film takes us into the auditions, rehearsals, and eventually the performance of Chicago. Each step of the way also gives us a chance to meet some of these actors and help us see beyond their disabilities.

It’s important to note that the disabled are very underrepresented in films and TV. One study found only two percent of TV characters had a disability. Even when a character is disabled, they are rarely played by a disabled actor.  As a society we tend to make disabilities invisible—perhaps because we don’t want to think about what that would be like for ourselves. Such ableist attitudes push such people out of our thoughts, and thus out of our lives.

Slamdance film festival is active in giving voice to the disabled in their selection process. They include special “Unstoppable” sections (one for feature films, one for shorts) that focus on films by and about disabled people. Imperfect, is not in those sections, but is included in the documentary film section.

Imperfect is screening though the very affordable ($10 for a festival pass) Slamdance Film Festival from January 27 through February 6. Passes available at Slamdance.com.

Photos courtesy of Fast Forward Films.

Reporting from Slamdance – The Winners Are…

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Now that the 2021 version of the Slamdance Film Festival is over, it is time to look back at some of the best films that played at the festival. The festival included 25 feature films and 107 shorts. Of course, the festival this year was almost completely virtual (the opening night and closing night films played at drive-ins), but the festival provided excellent Q&As with filmmakers to go along with the screenings. My thanks for the organizers and sponsors, and especially the filmmakers, for the wonderful experience of this year’s Slamdance.

Slamdance has several juries that gave out awards. There are also audience awards based on ratings made after viewing the films. And I’ll include my on top films as well. This year’s winners:

Jury Awards | Narrative Features

  • Narrative Feature Grand Jury Prize: Taipei Suicide Story directed by KEFF (Taiwan)
  •  Honorable Mention: ​A Family directed by Jayden Stevens (Australia)

Jury Awards | Documentary Features

  • Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize: CODE NAME: Nagasaki directed by Fredrik S. Hana (Austria)

Jury Awards | Breakout Features

  • Breakout Grand Jury Prize: No Trace directed by Simon Lavoie (Canada)
  • Honorable Mention: A Black Rift Begins to Yawn directed by Matthew Wade (USA)
     

Jury Awards | Documentary Shorts

  • Documentary Short Grand Jury Prize: Unforgivable directed by Marlén Viñayo (El Salvador)
  •  Honorable Mention: ​Ain’t No Time for Women directed by Sarra El Abed (Canada)
     

Jury Awards | Unstoppable Shorts presented by Hulu

  • Unstoppable Grand Jury Prize: The Bin directed by Jocelyn Tamayao (Philippines)
  • Honorable Mention: Feeling Through directed by Doug Roland (USA)
  • Honorable Mention: Full Picture directed by Jacob Reed (USA)
     

Jury Awards – Narrative Shorts

  • Narrative Shorts Grand Jury Prize: ​In France Michelle is a Man’s Name directed by Em Weinstein (USA)
  • Honorable Mention: ​MADA (Mother) directed by Joseph Douglas Elmhirst (USA)
  • Honorable Mention: Delimitation directed by Tereza Vejvodova (Czech Republic)
     

Jury Awards – Experimental Shorts

  • Grand Jury Prize: ​Passage directed by Ann Oren (Germany)
  • Honorable Mention: Mountain Lodge directed by Jordan Wong (USA)
     

Jury Awards – Animated Shorts

  • Grand Jury Prize: ​Return to the Peach Blossom Wonderland directed by Haomin Peng, Yue Huang, Yuchao Luo (China)
  •  Honorable Mention: ​Lizard Ladder directed by Ted Wiggin (USA)

Slamdance Acting Award

  • Tender Huang​ from the film Taipei Suicide Story​ (Taiwan)
  • Honorable mention: ​Michelle Uranowitz of the film The Ultimate (by Lou Fescano)(USA)

Audience Awards Winners:

  •  Best Narrative Feature: Taipei Suicide Story directed by KEFF (Taiwan)
  •  Documentary Feature: Holy Frit directed by Justin Monroe (USA)
  •  Episodic: The Little Broomstick Rider directed by Matteo Bernardini (Italy)

The AGBO Fellowship Award Winner, presented by Joe and Anthony Russo

  • Agnieszka Polska, director of Hurrah, We Are Still Alive! (Poland)

Slamdance Founder Award Winner

  • Award Winner: Tilane Jones, President of ARRAY (USA)

George Starks Spirit of Slamdance Award Winner

  • Award Winner: Chelsea Christer, director of Bleeding Audio (USA)
  •  Honorable Mention: Mohammad Mohammadian, director of LIFE (Iran) 

Creative Future Innovation Award Winner

  •  Opera by Erick Oh

My own favorites were Holy Frit, directed by Justin Monroe; Opera, directed by Erick Oh; Taipei Suicide Story, directed by KEFF; Feeling Through, directed by Doug Roland; and 18th & Grand: The Olympic Auditorium Story, directed by Stephen DeBro.

Reporting from Slamdance – “Unstoppable” filmmakers (part 2)

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Diversity is being recognized as an important goal in the film industry. Many voices and many perspectives are needed in every art form, and that is very true of film. This year’s Slamdance Film Festival has made an express effort to bring the idea of ablism and the perspective of people with disabilities (PWD). There is a special section of shorts called “Unstoppable” that focuses on films by or about peoples with disabilities. It has a wide range of styles, tones, and content. There are documentaries, music videos, and narrative films. There are 22 films in the section, so I’ve divided my comments into two reports. This is the second report. The earlier report can be seen here. The Unstoppable section is presented by Hulu.

On the Outs. (37 minutes, directed by Jordan Melograna). This documentary follows three inmates with disabilities as they prepare for their release and reenter the world. One has mental illness, one has brain damage and has had hip replacement, one has visual impairment. Their disabilities certainly complicate the process, but even more that film shows the way the system falls far short of preparing even those without disabilities for a time after their sentence.

Safety Net. (12 minutes, directed by Anthea Williams.) A thirteen year old boy living with a disability has just entered emergency care after his mother was arrested. He is staying in a seedy motel with a guardian present. The first guardian is compassionate and encouraging. The relief guardian is stern and demanding. The boy’s future may well depend on this care and which guardian will dominate his time.

Single. (16 minutes, directed by Ashley Eakin). A young woman born with one arm faces the world with an attitude. She doesn’t want to be pitied or thought of as disabled. She responds to most people with anger when they note her missing arm. She’s been set up on a blind date, and discovers that her date only has one hand. She is irate at the person who set them up. Her date convinces hre to come to his rooftop and throw eggs at the wall to take out her anger at all those who have slighted her. A good therapy session for her.

Stilts. (7 minutes, directed by Dylan Holmes Williams) A young man who, like the rest of his family, lives with very large stilts attached to his legs. Because he’s so tall, he can’t get through an exit to the outside world. He seeks surgery to remove the stilts and be set free.

The Bin. (15 minute, directed by Jocelyn Tamayao). A father and his hearing impaired son are at odds over getting cochlear implants versus using sign language. The father wants to make his son “normal”; the son wants to live his own kind of normal.

The Co-op. (7 minutes, directed by Cameron S. Mitchell). A thief attempts to hold up a market late at night, but his plans hit a snag when the store is filled with PWD.

Union. (19 minutes, directed by Julia Neill). During the Civil War a woman returns home for Christmas, she brings with her a Union soldier to meet her family. They met when she, a surgeon, amputated his arm. Now they come for her father’s blessing. But how does he know the man will be able to take care of her? Perhaps it is his own insecurities that cause him to hesitate.

Unspoken. (27 minutes, directed by Emma Zurcher-Long, Julia Ngeow, and Geneva Peschka). Emma Zurcher-Long is a fourteen year old girl with autism. After years of not being able to communicate, it was discovered she could write using a keyboard. She shares information about her world and how it differs from ours. She breaks down the stereotypes and prejudices that surround her.

Verisimilitude.  (14 minutes, directed by David Proud). An actress who can’t get roles because she is in a wheelchair is hired for a movie to teach an abled actor how to act disabled. There are also several abled extras in wheelchairs. This film serves as a bit of judgment on an industry that often fails to see beyond a first appearance.

Road to Zion. (16 Minutes, directed by Andrew Reid). A undocumented Jamaican young man and his family (which includes a brother with a intellectual disability) struggle to make ends meet. Without a green card it is hard to get the kind of job that will bring the money his family needs. A local drug dealer makes it know he can work for him. What will he do to take care of his family?

A truly appreciate Slamdance and Hulu for making this special section possible. Of course, not everything suited my taste, but the voice that comes through from many of these shorts is important. It also shows how valuable it is to have diversity in filmmaking.

My top favorite from the section is Feeling Through. Others that I deeply appreciate are How Much Am I Worth?, On the Outs, and Unspoken.

Reporting from Slamdance – a Sampling of Narrative Shorts

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Narrative shorts are films that are storytelling stripped down to the essentials. You don’t have time in shorts to develop side plots or bring in very many characters. You just put the story out there to be enjoyed or thought about. As I’ve had time, I’ve looked at a few of the narrative shorts that are part of the Slamdance Film Festival this year. Here are a few of my thoughts.

Autoscopy. (14 minutes, directed by Claes Nordwall). A young man goes into the woods with sound equipment capturing the sounds of nature. Along the way he finds an abandoned floatation chamber that leads him to a trippy chance to look at himself.

Blue. (15 minutes, directed by Ali Şenses). A man walks through the city carrying a paint bucket and a long-handled brush. As he walks the handle of the brush hits everything, making noises. Until he hits a particular piece of fence that makes the sound he’s been searching for.

Each Other. (6 minutes, directed by Oskar Weimar). This is more dance that story. A very limber naked man emerges from a tree and seeks to understand what his place in the world is. Cow? Chicken? Something else?

Trammel. (11 minutes, directed by Christopher Bell). A solitary man comes in to the local pharmacy to talk to his friend behind the counter. He tells his stories. We may or may not believe him. The key question I asked myself during this film is what assumptions I made about the man based on his appearance and his stories.

Inside the Storm. (14 minutes, directed by Daniel Bloom). A man who has had a break up goes to visit a friend he hasn’t seen in a long time. The man isn’t in a healthy place. I found it a bit hard to watch for the ways he seemed to be degrading himself.

Returning. (14 minutes, directed by Lucy Bridger). A retired teacher, whose husband is away for a few days, deals with a man helping her with her garden. It’s interesting how much we learn about the married couple and the desires and frustrations the woman experiences.

 Mada (Mother). (20 minutes, directed by Joseph Douglas Elmhirst). A young woman in rural Jamaica has conflict with her devout mother over allowing her son to play with a doll. The grandmother wants them to go to church so they don’t fall into the wrong paths. But we see both women are seeking what is best for the boy, even if they have very different ideas of what that is.

Young Forever. (15 minutes, directed by Stevie Szerlip). A Korean woman in Los Angeles, struggles with a pyramid cosmetic sales program, gambling, debt, and loss. Her sales pitch is about getting away from stress, but her life is filled with it.

There. (29 minutes, directed by Wu Yu Fen). An Indonesian caregiver mourns “Grandpa”, whom she has been taking care of. She is now planning to return to Indonesia to care for her ailing mother. But with Grandpa’s children all working abroad, there are few people around to mourn Grandpa at his funeral. The key contrast is seen in the care the woman has for the deceased in her prayer by herself as opposed to the prayer cried by the professional mourner.

Reporting from Slamdance – Narrative Features (Part 1)

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I want to use this report to touch on a few of the films that are part of the Narrative Feature section at the Slamdance Film Festival. I’ve got to admit that as I’ve been focusing on shorts for a bit, it took a bit of a mental shift to wait for a story to develop. But watching films is sort of like riding a bike, it comes back to you quickly.

A film with a somewhat off-putting title was far more engaging than I expected. Taipei Suicide Story, directed by KEFF, takes place in a specialty hotel—it caters to people who want to die. The desk clerk is informed by one of the cleaning crew that there is a guest in one of the rooms who has been there a week and still alive. When he goes up and finds a young woman who explains that when she arrived, she knew that everyone there was like her, so she no longer felt alone. She no longer needed to die, but she also didn’t want to live. He tells here she has one last night to either die or leave. As the night progresses, the two spend some time together talking—connecting. Will this be the push she needs to end it all or to choose life? How will her decision affect the clerk?

While the film is very brief for a feature (48 minutes), it pulls us into the strange world of the hotel. The daily cleaning service is obviously much different than the hotels we visit. There are some bits of very dark humor that just show up as seemingly throwaway lines. (She’s contemplating buying some instant noodles, and he suggests there are healthier options.) But mostly we are drawn to these two people who are meeting on what may be the last day they will be together. I was a little surprised how much I liked this.

In A Brixton Tale matters of race and class complicate a relationship between two young people. Leah, a young vlogger from a well-to-do family connects with Benji, a shy black young man from the Barrier Block. and uses Benji as the subject of a videoed documentary on Brixton. They become close and are falling in love. But when Benji sees the way she’s edited his life, he feels (rightfully so) that he’s been used. When someone posts a sex video of Leah online, she and Benji seek revenge, and the violence ends up greater than they had planned, but given their social disparity we know that Benji will pay the price.

There are levels here. The film is a minor indictment of voyeuristic filmmaking that wants to show a gritty side of life that the filmmakers are not part of. When we see Leah’s film exhibited to a very upscale crowd, we know that they care more about the quality of the film that the quality of life that Benji lives. It also points out the discrepancy of hope for the two characters, especially when legal troubles come. A Brixton Tale is making its world premiere at Slamdance.

The Polish film Hurrah, We Are Still Alive, directed by Agnieszka Polska, is a noirish story of a group of “socially engaged” filmmakers who are in a holding pattern as they await the return of “the director”. Even in his absence, he seems to have some effect on what is going on in their lives. In part this is because he has taken some of the money left with the group by the Movement (a revolutionary organization) to “invest” to finance his movie about Rosa Luxemburg.  When a woman from the Movement shows up wanting the money, she reconnects with one of the actresses. Some cowboy police officers are also threatening the group. But we also know that an enforcer is being called in—from two different directions.

There is a certain Waiting for Godot vibe to this plot, but without bowler hats or the existential reflection. But there is a sense that all these people are lost and floundering in the director’s absence. It has places where it gets a bit to artsy (especially a few interludes with a rose and blood in the early part of the film that don’t seem to fit with anything). But the noirish feel is well done.

Photos courtesy of Slamdance Film Festival.