DURHAM — The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival remained a four day event perfect for people that want to want to watch movies and not deal with hurdles, hassles and hype. The half dozen screens are all within a single complex so once you arrived in downtown Durham, you’re not having to base screening choices on bus schedules and traffic patterns. The parking deck across the street charged only $2 a day for festivalgoers. You know how much it’ll cost you to park your car across that street at the New York Film Festival? Your $2 won’t cover the time it takes to warn the audience to turn off their cellphones. People attending the festival aren’t hung up on parties and swag shacks for the stars. This is all about a weekend appreciating some of the best documentaries on big screens instead of a streaming service.
This year’s festival brought together over 70 world premieres, North American premieres and the cream of recent festivals. Even with a jump start of watching sneaks of a half a dozen titles, I still missed so many titles that people swore were great. But I didn’t feel like I’d chose wrongly in my selections so much as knowing that there too much goodness to absorb on the schedule. There was still more pork for one fork
My intake started with the short Kiss the Paper. Director and cameraperson Fiona Otway follows Alan Runfeldt around his letterpress workshop. He prints the old fashion way by putting letters together. It’s like the press shop at Williamsburg except with a Jerry Jeff Walker sticker on a cabinet. The movie about a traditionalist worked well with Eating Alabama. This film is the natural progression from King Corn and Food Inc. Can you really eat all farm fresh untouched by Frankenstein hormone science and pesticide genetic tinkering? Director Andrew Beck Grace and his wife proclaim that they will spend the next year only eating food that’s grown and raised in Alabama. This quickly proves to be a frustrating experience as there’s no much offered at local farmers markets that’s really that local. He gets involved with CSAs and growing veggies in his front yard. Is it really enough to give them a well balanced diet? What must they do to make their own bread? Ultimately the film dwells upon his own family since his great grandfather was a farmer. Why do people move away from the land? What does it take to survive as a farmer and someone not eager to have everything that goes in their mouth made from corn syrup? He also learns the joy of sharing the harvest with friends. After the screening, I cornered Grace for a quick chat about eating right.
Young Bird Season is a cinema verite account of a pigeon racing club in Braintree, Mass. Nellie Kluz hangs out with the guys at their club while the trailer filled with pigeons are taken off to Pennsylvania to be released. Thanks to computer technology, they can now properly register when a pigeon has returned to its coop after a flight across New England. I still want to know how much the pigeon release trailer cost. The view of it releasing the pigeons was a rush to the eyes. Nation is what would happen of Nike hired Jim Jaramusch to do their next ad campaign. It follows a mysterious young man for 40 minutes while he trains for an unexplained event. The long shots showed off the Catalonian countryside which was good on the big screen since it was hard to figure out what the hell was happening besides a guy doing a lot of roadwork and real leaps. Is he training for the Olympics or some extreme sport competition? There’s finally a payoff at the bullring which is interesting except we still have no insight into the guy. Director Homer Etmainan keeps his camera so far back that it feels like a stalkermentry. Did the guy know he’s in this movie?
Friday night originally seemed like it was going to be a painful choice between Marley, the documentary about musical legend Bob Marley and Samsara, the sequel to Baraka. Luckily I was able to catch Marley early. If you own a copy of Bob Marley’s Legend on CD, you need to watch the film. It breaks down his life, his religion, his impact and his iconic status. Marley had to deal with the fact that his father was a 61 year old white married Englishman and his mother a 16 year old island native. Turns out his mom wasn’t the only teenager in the area knocked up by Mr. Marley. Bob was raised in the intense Trenchtown neighborhood in Jamaica. The only thing going for him was his music. He brought his reggae sounds to the world along with his dreadlocks. He quickly proved to be a political force in his violent homeland as he did his best to make his fellow Jamaicans stop a bit of the violence. This also led to an assassination attempt. The performance footage show that he was a force of nature who was only stopped by cancer.
Samsara was the proper choice to catch on the big screen since Director Ron Fricke and Producer Mark Magidson sent a glorious 35mm print of the film that was shot on 70mm. I know the movie industry is all over going about turn all HD Video, but this is a movie that needs the dream state flicking that comes from watch a movie and not viewing big TV. There’s no plot to the film that is a visual tour of the world and people within it. Like Baraka, it’s a religious experience as the sounds and images flow over your eyes and ears. This is an E-Ticket ride through the motions around us. They tweak the footage of cities so that nightscapes look like videogame graphics. NASA should put this movie in space probes so that distant cultures can gets a glimpse of what we’re about. If Samsara comes to a real movie theater (one that has film projectors and not video projectors), go see it on the big screen. You should see it either way, but video doesn’t give you the persistence of memory brain buzz.
Mr. Cao Goes to Washington follows the end of a Congressman’s time under the Capitol Dome. Joseph Cao was elected to Congress from a district in New Orleans that was known for electing black democrats. Cao was a Republican born in Vietnam. He got lucky when the incumbent was busted hiding around $90,000 in his freezer. Cao became a marked man by his own party when he voted for the first draft of healthcare reform. He knew his district needed this kind of help. Even though he voted against the final healthcare reform bill, the damage was done. He was branded a RINO. Director S. Leo Chiang gets a tight view of Cao struggling to raise funds and support for his reelection. This is the price of daring to be bipartisan in a world where Republican pundits want to eat their own. I sat down during breakfast with Chiang to discuss the film with Chiang. Mr. Cao is already scheduled to air on PBS before the election.
This year’s festival had two films about Iceland yet neither featured Bjork. I Send You This Place sends Andrea Sisson and Peter Ohs to the island nation to work for 10 months. Even in a remote snow covered landscape, Sisson can’t escape her brother’s issues back in Ohio. It’s an odd travelogue mixed with an airy psychodrama. There was something oddly charming about Andrea in the icy environment. The stylish edge to the cinematography and the sound mix engages the eyes and ears. The big shock comes when she cuts her hair. At the end of the film, I felt like I knew her which made it a bit startling when we bumped into her while getting a drink. It was sort of hard to ask any questions cause she’d already said so much on the screen. I ended up asking about the big red headphones she wore on the island.
Chasing Ice returned me to the freezing Iceland. The camera locks on the glaciers that are melting at an alarming rate. James Balog is a National Geographic photographer who wants to capture the receding nature of the ice formations in a way that will make people understand that Climate Change is happening. He sets up the Extreme Ice Survey. They position time lapse cameras in Iceland, Greenland, Montana (Glacier National Park) and Alaska. The time lapse shots of the receding ice is remarkable. However the reason to haul yourself down to the theater to watch this huge is the big finale when they capture a massive glacier cracking off into the ocean. How massive? A chunk of ice the size of lower Manhattan is unleashed. Nothing you see in The Avengers will match the destructive beauty of this moment. If you’re a documentary filmmaker, there’s no greater piece of footage than Fox News‘ Sean Hannity blowing hard. He’s the perfect doughboy douchebag with his pompous attitude billowing from his cheeks. Watching him claim what you’ve just seen is a lie is priceless. He popped up in enough films at Full Frame to get him declared the Jessica Chastain of documentaries.
Big Boys Gone Bananas!* is a nightmare film for documentary filmmakers. Fredrik Gertten made a documentary about the lawsuit against Dole Food won by Nicaraguan banana pickers. It featured the head of the company explaining at the trial that he knew a pesticide could cause workers in the fields to go sterile, but he didn’t care. Dole went on a full out attack on the movie and Gertten even though they hadn’t seen it. They fought its screening at the Los Angeles Film Festival which was forced to read a statement to the audience that the film is a lie. It’s a sad moment in kowtowing. Dole digs into the national media to intimidate newspaper and tv reporters to debase the film. They want to sue Gertten into submission and poverty. Luckily Gertten isn’t going to cower and beg. He goes back to Sweden and plays offense against the billion dollar corporation. What’s fearful is how lazy today’s working journalist have become. They’ve been trained to not upset advertisers. They have no problem rewriting a company’s press release and declare it a news story. We live in scary times where corporations are not only people – they are Gods that don’t want to be questioned.
Girl Model is the dirty side of America’s Next Top Model. Teenage Nadya is plucked from a giant model competition in Siberia to get a contract and a plane ticket to Japan for stardom. Things don’t turn out so great as the Japanese fashion crowd aren’t too overwhelmed by her. She does have the good fortune to be represented by an agency run by a guy named Messiah. The story isn’t just about her. Ashley is the scout that found her. She’s an ex-model who recruits around Russia. She’s a complex person when she share home videos from a decade earlier when she hated modeling. Yet now she’s luring other girls into the career. She doesn’t seem to care too much that poor Nadya is lost in Japan. Her big magazine model moment is unintentionally funny.
Bones Brigade: An Autobiography is also a story of an former star recruiting young kids except with a much better result. As his career as a pro skateboarder came to an end, Stacey Peralta located a group of young kids to compete for his company Powell Peralta. He brought together teens that became legends including Steve Caballero, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, Rodney Mullen and Tony Hawk. They became the Bones Brigade. Their early days marked the dark days for skateboarding when parks were torn up and competitions faded from the calendars. The group stuck together for nearly a decade until the sport revived in the early ’90s with the arrival of the X Games. The unexpected star of the documentary is Rodney Mullen, the freestyle skate superstar. He’s poignant when talking about his isolation in Florida where he perfected his techniques. He dominated competitions when with the Brigade winning 34 of 35. Things do get intense for him between his controlling father and the pressure to be at the top of the mountain for so long. What’s really interesting about this documentary is that nobody claims Peralta ruined their childhood by taking them on the road for competition. Nobody is being interviewed in jail. The kids are alright for once. There’s plenty of video of a young Tony Hawk tackling halfpipes. You’ll be amazed at what a scrawny kid could do on wheels. When Peralta puts together the DVD, he better have the complete Animal Chin as a bonus feature.
Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet makes the case that he was the last great heavy metal guitarist when the genre wasn’t nostalgia. He was about to become a star as David Lee Roth’s band when he was robbed of his muscle control by ALS. He does find ways to maintain his creative outlets. The most reassuring story is when his girlfriend points out that ALS has not robbed him of his ability to get laid. CatCam was a major crowd pleaser as a geek puts a camera on his cat’s collar to discover his feline’s secret life. Santa Land is a touching tale of senior citizens in Florida who have accepted the challenge to be Santa by growing real beards.
I’m not sure if I’m supposed to review The Invisible War since it was hinted that the film was embargoed. But it is an extremely important documentary as it deals rape in the military. There are numerous accounts of female not merely being sexually attacked, but being charged with adultery for daring to report it. What’s worse is that the military’s “defense” is telling female soldiers to never walk alone. Always walk with someone you trust, the official posters insist. A few of stories involve the women being raped by people they thought they could trust. So much for that piece of military intelligence. This is an issue that needs to be addressed with more than a “zero tolerance” press release. Remember that a judge ruled that being raped is an occupational hazard of being in the military.
Herman’s House examines the relationship between Herman Wallace and Jackie Sumell. He’s a Black Panther originally arrested for robbery, but now serving for the murder of a prison guard at Lousiana’s Angola Prison. Hermans spent most of his time in solitary confinement since the early ’70s.Jackie’s a New York based artist who has made her latest project creating a house for Herman. She wants him to see his life isn’t stuck inside a 6″‘x9’ cell. We get to listen and read their relationship since Angola isn’t allowing cameras inside the tight cell space. Jackie moves down to New Orleans to find the property that will work for Herman’s dream home. I had a chance to discuss the film with director Angad Singh Bhalla after we finished talking about the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Radio Unnameable makes the case that Bob Fass is not only a counterculture icon, but the father of the flash mob. Fass pioneered being the overnight DJ on New York’s WBAI-FM in the early ’60s. This was a time when radio stations shut down when they figured their listeners had gone to bed. Bob wisely pointed out that Manhattan was a city that doesn’t sleep. Why deny these people the airwaves? His program was freeform with a mixture of music, talk and news. He pioneered the career of Howard Stern including having naked people in his studio. He had an engineer devise a way to have 10 people on the phone at once to create mini-townhalls on the dial. Bob Dylan didn’t mind dropping by the studio. Musically Fass helped launch Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Mr. Bojangles” with repeated plays. Fass pondered the popularity of his show so he came up with the idea of having listeners all show up at JFK airport for a party. After talking about it on the air for a few days, JFK found itself the host to an unexpected giant shindig. You can’t pull that social stunt anymore without getting stuck on the Do Not Fly list. Fass’ attempt to bring the same fun to Grand Central Station a few months later wasn’t such a happy time since anarchists gave the NYPD a reason to knock heads when cleaning house. There’s amazing footage of the violence in progress. Fass became a major source of information during and after the ’68 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Things got nasty and the station was taken off the air for over two months. Fass would eventually return, but he wasn’t given the same shift slots. He’s still on the air at WBAI-FM, but only one night for three hours. Directors Jessica Wolfson and Paul Lovelace sat down to answer questions before their world premiere.
Beauty is Embarrassing proved to be a bizarre delight as it followed artist and puppeteer Wayne White through his creative life. White is best known by a generation for his work on Pee Wee’s Playhouse. Besides his production design, Wayne pulled the strings on Randy and Dirty Dog. He went on to direct music videos for Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time” and the Smashing Pumpkin’s “Tonight.” Currently he takes old landscape paintings and adds 3-D words. He’s also been making huge puppets. The movie also gives an insight to his marriage to fellow artist Mimi Pond. She’s best known for writing the Simpsons Christmas special. Beauty is a brighter version of Crumb. We had to lure director Neil Berkeley and Wayne White out of the theater showing the film for this talk.. We get to the root of the amount of dope smoked while working on Pee Wee’s Playhouse. He admits they were high unlike anyone connected to a Sid and Marty Krofft production. We hopefully expose a bitter feud between Mimi Pond and Jennifer Tilly. There’s good news for people in the Roanoke, Virginia area who want to see Wayne at work. Strangely enough a week later, the venue hosted Brian Henson’s improv adult puppet show Stuffed and Unstrung that featured Alison Mork, the hands and voice of Chairry. Maybe next April Paul Reubens will be in the Bull City for Full Frame? There’s also me hinting that someone ought to make a mini-series documentary dealing with the major cartoonists that contributed to Raw Magazine.
NOTE TO MICHAEL MOORE
This is just to remind Michael Moore of our conversation during your Skype session about changes to the Documentary Oscar voting that you’re supposed to look into revoking the Oscar win for the fictional Hellstrom Chronicles and gets a lifetime achievement Oscar to either D.A. Pennebaker or Albert Maysles. You’ve been given a challenge to further establish the documentary branch isn’t a kid’s table when it comes to Oscar night or at least the dinner for the lifetime award winners.
NOT ENOUGH TIME
There are quite a few films I couldn’t see, but were raved about to me by people. Here’s an incomplete list of films that had great buzz: Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, Ethel, The House I Live In, The Imposter, Putin’s Kiss, Trash Dance and The Waiting Room.
WHOOPS
I’d like to apologize to Full Frame honoree Stanley Nelson for asking him when ESPN was replaying his documentary. Turns out I was thinking Nelson George who made The Announcement. At least I didn’t ask him when he was reuniting with his twin brother to tour as Nelson once more. I’d also like to apologize to Nelson George for thinking The Announcement was about LeBron James taking his talents to South Beach instead of Magic Johnson’s news that he was HIV positive.
DVD SHELF
Car 54 Where Are You? The Complete Second Season wraps up the legendary New York City cop series. How can that be? How can a show so hilarious have only last two seasons when According to Jim dragged out for eight seasons? Car 54 didn’t pull in the audience like creator’s Sgt. Bilko. Guess this could be viewed as the original Arrested Development. Sadly enough since there wasn’t a Facebook in 1963, it was impossible for fans to save the show with coordinated campaign. The show focused on the 53rd Precinct in the Bronx where strange troubles roamed the neighborhood. The main protection was Car 54 manned by Joe E. Ross (Hong Kong Phooey) and Fred Gwynne (The Munsters). Ross is a screw up and Gwynne is smart, but insecure. Also causing trouble is Al Lewis (The Munsters). These are the final 30 episodes. “Hail to the Chief” has the duo assigned to escort the President of USA from Idlewild to the UN. Can they do this without an international incident? “One Sleepy Person” has Gwynne staying over with Ross and his wife (Bea Pons). Things are fine until circumstances make it seem like Gwynne is having an affair with Ross’ wife. “Here comes Charlie” stars Larry Storch as a troublesome drunk that the boys want to reform. They do their best to clean him up and get him a job, but nothing works out right since booze sneaks into the workplace. Storch proves he can get drunk just talking about taking shots at various bars in the neighborhood. “The Biggest Day of the Year” has things snowball when a rumor grows that the day is going to be a big event. It’s so sad knowing this is the last Car 54 boxset. The video transfers are clean enough to be used as evidence that people were foolish to have not watched Car 54. This was a show that made the Bronx known for more than just Yankee Stadium. Gwynne and Lewis would team up for The Munsters which also only lasted two seasons.
VEGA$: The Third Season, Volume One starts what tragically became the final season of Dan Tanna (SWAT‘s Robert Urich) on the TV. Why weren’t people loving the Middle School Vegas excitement? Tanna was Michael Mann’s greatest fictional creation outside of Michael Mann. They did their best to create a sensational 11 episodes to launch the season. “Aloha, You’re Dead” has Tanna kidnapped and hypnotised. What do his captors want him to do? It’s not squawk like a chicken when someone says egg. He’s being programmed to kill Philip Roth (Some Like It Hot‘s Tony Curtis). Who would be behind such an evil plot? How about Lorne Greene dressed up like Mr. Roarke from Fantasy Island)? He’s reunited with his Bonanza son Pernell Roberts. There’s even more star power with John Saxon (Enter the Dragon) and Barbara Parkins (Valley of the Dolls). Trouble comes to the office when a killer wants Bea (Phyllis Davis) in “Black Cat Killer.” Among the guest stars is Victor Buono (Batman‘s King Tut). “Love Affair” makes Tanna get romantic with a woman (Priscilla Barnes) that’s working as a hooker. Her pimp isn’t happy that his employee is giving it away for free. Can Tanna hold off the fury of Dick Sargent (Bewitched). Bubba Smith (Police Academy) gets tangled in “A Deadly Victim.” “A Christmas Story” has Dan introduced to his daughter that’s Jill Whelan. But wait, she’s Captain Stubbing’s daughter on The Love Boat. This is so wrong. “Murder by Mirrors” lets Bea spot a homicide while flying over a neighborhood. However there doesn’t seem to be a body when Patrick Macnee (The Avengers) gives a tour of his house. Once more we get a collection of episodes that have as many great stars as headliners in the casinos on the strip. No news when the final installment will arrive.
Kojak: Season Four contains the penultimate beat of NYC’s greatest bald justice. Lt. Theo Kojak (Telly Savalas) is back with his badass unit that includes the nimble Crocker (Kevin Dobson), the frumpy Stavros (George Savalas) and the confident Capt. O’Neil (Dan Frazer). “The Birthday Party” busts a gang member after a robbery that turned into murder. While being processed in the office, the gang member overhears talk of Kojak’s niece’s birthday party. He figures the best way to get out of jail is to have his guys on the outside kidnap the girl. He communicates this plan during his one phone call to his guys on the outside. He speaks in Greek thinking nobody would know, but Stavros is in the room. Trouble is can he admit to hearing this information? Richard Gere (Pretty Woman) is an evil punk kid. Speaking of the hooker movie, Hector Elizondo is in “A Need to Know.” He plays a child molester with diplomatic immunity. Kojak won’t put up with this in his America. “A Hair-Trigger Away” is star packed with Lynn Redgrave, Morgan Fairchild, Irene Cara, Dan Hedaya and Dominic Chianese (The Sopranos). “Black Thorn” pricks us with NFL Hall of Famer Rosie Grier return as a private eye. Also filling your peepers is Danny Aiello and Swoosie Kurtz. Fringe fans will get to see a young Blair Brown in “Where Do You Go When You Have Nowhere to Go.” “When You Hear the Beep, Drop Dead” rings up Joe Turkel (The Shining and Bladerunner). Prepare to be amazed when Christopher Walken (Annie Hall) graces us in “Kiss It All Goodbye.” Only one Season Five is left to put all the Kojak action out on DVD.
Fantasy Island: The Complete Second Season is my fantasy since it’s been six years since season one was released. Fantasy Island dates back to a time when network TV cared about Saturday night viewers. For millions of people who weren’t out at Studio 54 or their nearest roller disco, they turned on their Sony Trinitron to watch Mr. Roarke (Ricardo Montalban) and Tattoo (Herve Villechaize) grant aging celebrities their ultimate fantasy. This is what people did before they had to dance or date a Kardashian to keep up an active TV career. The season starts right with “The Sheikh” that teams up Sid Haig and Cassandra Peterson (Elvira). They are background for Arte Johnson’s dream of having a harem although he ends up falling for Georgia Engel (The Mary Tyler Moore Show). “The War Games/Queen of the Boston Bruisers” makes Don DeFore (Hazel) the father of Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek: The Next Generation). “The Appointment / Mr. Tattoo” is a semi-crossover when Fred Gandy is part of a showgirls dream to meet and marry a millionaire. He’s not Gopher from The Love Boat, but a songwriter wanting to charm Barbi Benton and Connie Stevens with his talent. Tattoo is the one in charge of setting up this fantasy. “The Island of Lost Women/The Flight of the Yellow Bird” is a delight to Mad Men fans as Mr. Cooper steps off the plane. Robert Morse craves to visit an island only populated by women since he’d spent a year underwater as part of a submarine crew. Michelle Pfeiffer is one of the amazons that want the new man. Peter Graves (Mission: Impossible) tracks down Bigfoot. “Charlie’s Cherubs/Stalag 3” brings us Yvonne De Carlo (The Munsters). “The Stripper/The Boxer” trunks up Chuck McCann (Far Out Space Nuts), Ben Murphy (Gemini Man) Forrest Tucker (F Troop) and Mamie Van Doren. “Pentagram/ A Little Ball/ The Casting Director” brings fantasies to Phyllis Davis (Vega$), Ben Davidson (Behind the Green Door), Lisa Hartman (Mike’s College Dorm Fridge), Florence Henderson (The Brady Bunch), Don Knotts (Three’s Company), Cesar Romero (Batman), John Saxon and Abe Vigoda (Fish). “Birthday Party / Ghostbreaker” busts wide open with Annette Funicello (Beach Party), Ken Berry (F Troop) and Larry Storch (F Troop too). Fred Gandy returns in “The Comic/ Golden Hour” with Toni Tennille and Michael Parks (Kill Bill). What ’70s show isn’t complete from a visit with Regis Philbin, Billy Barty and Red Buttons as found in “Cornelius and Alphonse/ The Choice?” More Love Boat crossover hits with Ted Lange and Jill Whelan as part of “Amusement Park/ Rock Stars.” Scott Baio wants to be a singing star like Anson Williams. Fantasy Island is such addictive kitsch. You should save this boxset for your Saturday night viewing since the networks don’t care if you tune into them. The show lasted for seven seasons so only five more boxsets. Smiles everyone! Smiles!
Here’s a little Scott Baio love for you.
A Mother’s Love is from the director of Diary of a Tired Black Man. Tim Alexander focuses on Regina Reynolds (Rolanda Watts). She’s forgotten to also be a wife and mother to her family. Her husband (Julian Starks) doesn’t want to divorce her. He’s still in love with her. The daughter (Filth to Ashes, Flesh to Dust‘s Salina Duplessis) has a major drug issue, but mom doesn’t seem to want to clean up the kid. The only hope to save this family is Regina’s mom (Amentha Dymally) taking control of the house and getting her daughter and granddaughter back on the right track. The film won a Dove seal of approval including a 5 Dove rating so it’s perfect for any relatives that desire inspirational. movies on DVD night. Dymally is an inspiration since she’s been acting for a while including roles on The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., Room 222 and Mayberry R.F.D.. Rolanda Watts is best known for her talkshow fittingly called Rolanda. The Vanessa Williams on the box is not the decrowned Miss America, but the actress that played Rhonda Blair on Melrose Place. Alexander keeps his message tight within the story while giving his actors space to explore their character’s issues.
Comments: None
Leave a Reply |