HDFest KICKS OFF TONIGHT @ LIVING ROOM THEATERS

Portland certainly has no shortage of film festivals going on throughout the year.  Blink and you've probably missed a few already.  What our town doesn't have many of, however, is an influx of traveling festivals, curated omnibuses of cinematic goodness brought to our fair city from without.  Enter HDFest, a "digital cinema festival" that's crawled all over the globe since its inception some twelve years back.

To quote the statement of purpose from HDFest webpage:

Since 2000, HDFEST has known that high-def and digital cinema are the future of the entertainment industry. Since that time, the festival has been at the heart and core of this revolution. HDFEST has been responsible for numerous historic digital cinema landmark events and technological firsts. Since HDFEST's inception, there have been 23 HDFEST events in 10 cities including LA, NYC, London, Helsinki, Seoul, South Korea and Sydney, Australia.

A still from Leh Wi Tok (Let Us Talk)

Well, add Portland to the above list, as HDFest kicks off this year's series in Portland tonight (5/15) at Living Room Theaters.  Over the course of three nights, the festival will host multiple features, including Amy Alyson Fans, DisCONNECTED and Light of Mine (directed by Portland native, Brett Eichenberger).  HDFest also has several themed showcases in store for PDX audiences: "romantic relationships & intrigue," hd indie shorts, gay-themed shorts, etc.

A still from Two Boys

Of the films that I was able to preview, I most admired fun and playful animated piece, Place Stamp Here.  But I was also taken by the honesty and simplicity of Two Boys, a no-nonsense look at loss that overcomes its lack of visual flair via a commitment to emotional truths.  Le Wi Tok (Let Us Talk), focusing on the healing process in the aftermath of war, was, likewise, gripping to encounter.

A still from Place Stamp Here

HDFest opens tonight, Tuesday, May 15th, at Living Room Theaters.  More info about the festival available here.

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DRAGONSLAYER: A LIVING, BREATHING CAR WRECK OF A FELLOW

Exhibiting far more polish and nuance than its subject probably deserves, Dragonslayer is a drop-dead gorgeous film about one hell of a fuck-up.  The further one gets into the documentary, the more one wants to grab professional skater Josh "Skreech" Sandoval by the shoulders and shake him out of his chronic stupor.

Watching how he becomes "basically homeless," losing his sponsorships while continuing to choose drugs and alcohol over healthy food and behaving boorishly towards his much younger girlfriend, is maddening enough.  But, then, there's the issue of the considerable distance his actions are already putting between him and his 6 month old son.  Sandoval openly admits that he's going to do what he wants to do and hopes that his son won't hate him later for it.  Yeah, good luck with that approach, buddy.

But, even with as unlikeable a character as Sandoval at its center, Dragonslayer is a compulsively watchable 70+ minutes.  A lot of that credit goes to the clever editing scheme at play; the film is divided into a countdown of numbered sequences, each named for one of the ridiculous, half-tossed off sound bites ("Swedish Metal," "Sex Cream," etc.) that Skreech drops on the filmmakers while they follow him about on his waste-oid odyssey.  Each of these beautifully constructed sections could play as a standalone vignette, but stitched together, they form a nimble structure that keeps the film dancing forward, never allowing it to get bogged down in one spot for too long.

Another great thing about the way this film is cut is its emphasis on direct experience (or at least the illusion of direct experience) vs. exposition by its subject.  More times than not, we're allowed to just watch "Skreech" behave, rather than have to listen to him explain his reasons for his behavior.  It's a choice that pulls the viewer in and truly elevates the material, completely sidestepping what might otherwise be reduced to cheap and hideous exploitation; a film about a living, breathing car wreck of a fellow.

Director Tristan Patterson makes an attempt to align the rudderless lifestyle practiced by Sandoval and his friends to the current economic recession.  The film shows "Skreech" and his friends breaking into the backyards of repossessed properties to skate in empty pools.  The comparison falls apart, though, as the focus too often shifts away from the larger context being auditioned in these moments.  Fortunately, the attempt to substantiate such a parallel isn't vital to the film's success; it soars with or without a unified thematic device at play.  This is a really excellent film, just don't expect to love the guy at the center of it all.

Dragonslayer will be released on dvd by First Run Features on Tuesday, May 15th.  More info about the release available here.

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WE'RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BOAT: JAWS @ THE HOLLYWOOD THEATRE & THE 99W DRIVE-IN THEATER

Everybody's favorite cuddly sea creature is returning to the big screen this week at the Hollywood Theatre.  No, not Flipper, Andre or The Little Mermaid; I'm talkin' about Steven Spielberg's 1975 mega-blockbuster Jaws.

Wait, you think the titular fish in that film was the villain?!  C'mon, people, a shark's gotta eat.  It's a matter of life or death and I, for one, don't believe that our buddy Jaws deserved to be hunted down by Mr. Holland and that dude from Blue Thunder just because he had a little snack.

Movie fans in PDX will have a four-day opportunity (beginning tonight and running through Thursday) to check it out at the Hollywood.  And, on Friday night, the 99W Drive-In Theater in Newberg will screen Mr. Spielberg's opus on their large, outdoor screen.

Jaws plays at the Hollywood Theatre on Monday, May 14th through Thursday, May 17th.  More info on showtimes available here.  

The 99W Drive-In in Newberg, Oregon will show the film beginning Friday, May 18th through Sunday, May 20th.  It's not yet been listed on their webpage but there is a Facebook event page for those screenings here (you have to "like" the "Friends of the 99W Drive-in" FB page in order to view that link).

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COLOR ME OBSESSED: 5 QUESTIONS FOR DIRECTOR GORMAN BECHARD

Damn near the top of my list of favorite damaged heroes rests The Replacements.  I stumbled upon the band in the pages of Spin Magazine sometime around 1987 as I was entering high school.  It was a revelation; here was a truly obsession worthy American band, a group of beautiful losers unafraid to rock, but juxtaposed with this swagger was a raw, near-confessional vulnerability in their material that still shakes me to this day.  Critics far and wide declared Paul Westerberg the best songwriter of the 80s; it's something I swallowed wholesale and still believe to be true.  All it takes is a little over 30 minutes time spent listening to their Let It Be or Hootenanny LPs and that conviction rises up anew.

Now, some 20 years after the disintegration of the band, there's a documentary film about them making the rounds.  But, instead of going the all too familiar, paint-by number rock doc route, Color Me Obsessed purposefully eschews the usual collage of band interviews, archival photos and live clips set to a series of the band's greatest hits.  Director Gorman Bechard rejects that formula, putting the focus directly on those affected by the band: the fans, other musicians from the period, and members of the industry who dealt directly with the group.

Don't worry.  This isn't one of those lackluster Classic Albums or Under Review-style documentaries, where the proceedings feel like a cheap cash-in on a great band's legacy.  Bechard's working some fairly conceptual territory here, digging into the myth of the band without demystifying it.  If anything, hearing how the fans still feel about this ragtag group of musical misfits only solidifies their importance within the canon of the 80s underground. 

Bechard was gracious enough to answer a few questions in advance of tomorrow night's screening at the Hollywood Theatre.  Here's what we spoke about:

NICK: You decided somewhere along the line to make a documentary where the subject is absent. But, even with no music, (few) pictures or any video of the band, they’re sort of up front and center, held firmly in the thoughts and memories of the people that you speak to during the film. 
At what point during your creative process did you decide to move more traditional depictions of your subject beyond the periphery? And, having made that decision, how long did it take you to come up with the strategy that you ended up employing? 

GORMAN: Right from the very start. There was never a point in time when I wanted to use the band’s music, or video clips, or to interview the surviving members. I’m not a fan of the traditional VH1 “where are they now” format. Doing a rock doc without the band or music, the first ever, was what turned me on about the project. And I also felt that The Replacements were a band that shot a stereo speaker for 4 minutes for their first music video. This was the perfect concept for them.

NICK: There was a lot of ink spilled about the band during the mid-to-late 80s; they ended up being press darlings rather than the commercial success that so many thought they might become. Even with that knowledge, I was shocked when the film details album by album just how few records the band sold. Did you begin the project with the impression that the band was more successful than what their sales figures betray? 

GORMAN: Actually I thought they had sold even less records. I always knew they weren’t commercially successful. Most of the band I love aren’t. And I do believe they were probably too good for the music buying public on the 80s. That the average listener’s head would explode trying to comprehend the qualities of “Let It Be,” But as someone in the films says, “If Bob Dylan had only sold 100,000 albums, he’d still be Bob Dylan.”
 

 

NICK: Obsession, as denoted by the title of your film, plays a large part in the relationship between The Replacements and the people who appear in your film. Some, like the writer Robert Voedisch, share these really emotionally touching stories about their connections with the band, despite never having forged an actual person-to-person connection with them. Can you share what it was like to stumble upon these moments during production? 
What was the process of finding individuals who weren’t necessarily connected to the group but willing to talk about their relationships to the band’s work? And could you speak a bit about your own attachment to The Replacements (the myth, the music, etc.)?

GORMAN: Voedisch was the true find. He actually wrote to us and said he had a weird story about the Mats, and how as a 14 year old he used to imagine they were his friends on his farm in northern Minnesota. He’d have conversations with them. His interview was amazing. He laid himself emotionally naked. He compared the band to oxygen. That’s how important they are to his life. I remember walking out of the interview and turning to my crew and saying that was the most important interview we’ve done. 
As for me, it really became about how they saved rock n roll. It was 1984. Punk had come and gone, and had turned to new wave. Rock was dying again as it was in 1975. And here come these two bands from Minneapolis, the Mats and Husker Du. And they redefined what a rock band should be. Everything from attitude to what was on record. They just spoke to me in ways I almost can’t explain. Sort of like when you walk into a party and you see a girl across the room, and you know in your heart you’re going to spend the rest of your life with her. That’s what listening to Let It Be for the first time was like for me.

NICK: Over the past several years, there have been a few films (We Jam Econo and Not a Photograph, for instance) documenting the unsung heroes of the 80s independent rock scene. Michael Azerrad’s book, Our Band Could Be Your Life, seems to have paved the way for these reassessments, or at least redirected attention back to the bands highlighted in his book. 
One of your upcoming projects is a film about Husker Dü drummer/songwriter Grant Hart, whose band, like The Replacements, was also profiled in Azerrad’s book. 
Did Our Band Could Be Your Life’s success prefigure at all in your decision to work on these projects? Or were they fueled by other influences?

GORMAN: No, it had nothing to do with the book. I don’t really take on projects ever thinking about whether or not I can sell them. I don’t make films with anyone else in mind other than myself. I make these films for myself. I need to be feel proud of them. I need to feel comfortable signing my name to them. Hopefully other people like them. But if not, it’s okay. So no outside influence. It really comes from what would I like to spend a few years of my life doing. It has to come from an internal passion. All art does. Just as you can never create art with an audience in mind. That’s “product,” not “art.” It’s why most movies are so damn bad. And it’s nothing I’m interested in.

NICK: Are there any other projects you have up your sleeve? A dream project, perhaps?

GORMAN: Well…other than the Grant Hart doc, I’m working on Pizza, A Love Story, about the three famous pizza joints in New Haven (the only real pizza places in the world…yes, I do believe that!), as well as parts two and three to my ALONE trilogy: a horror film called One Night Stand and a dark drama called Broken Side of Time. 
But I guess the dream project which is planned for next year hopefully will be in the animal rights arena. I am an extreme animal rights fanatic, especially dogs. I personally would love to see Michael Vick put in a cage and ripped apart by Pit Bulls. That is his crime. Seems only just and fair. Instead of the ridiculous slap on the wrist he received. It’s pathetic. But I plan to shake up a lot of people with this one. Much like Vick’s fighting dogs, I’ll be going for the throat!

 

Color Me Obsessed plays at the Hollywood Theatre on Tues., May 15th at 6pm.  The School of Rock will be offering up a selection of Replacements covers at the screening.   More info on the program available here.  Additional info about the film and Gorman Bechard's other projects can be found at What Were We Thinking Films.

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THE RAIN FALLS DOWN ON PDX: WEEKEND ROUNDUP FOR 5/11

Here we go again...it's the weekend roundup of films opening in and around PDX.

First up, Cinema 21 hosts Portland's theatrical run of the Norwegian crime-thriller Headhunters.  I'm still kicking myself for not being able to make the press screening for this one.  Dan Halsted, programmer for the Hollywood Theatre and the Grindhouse Film Festival personally chose it for one of his single night PIFF After Dark screenings back in February.  By all accounts from those who attended, it was a unique take on the genre.  Cinema 21's Tom Ranieri commented via e-mail that it's "a lot of fun, some of it gruesome fun certainly."

The NW Film Center continues their month-long Studio Ghibli retrospective, Castles in the Sky: Miyazaki, Takahata, and the Masters of Studio Ghibli, with Kiki's Delivery Service (reviewed here), Only Yesterday and Princess Mononoke.  It's a rare chance to see these films on the big screen; Only Yesterday has never had an official North American release!  And I believe that two out of the three features will be 35mm prints!  More info on the Studio Ghibli series available here.

Over at the Hollywood Theatre, the annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival & CthuluCon runs through the weekend.  Highlights include It's in the Blood, starring Lance Henriksen (Aliens, The Terminator),  and The Horror Express with Christopher Lee (The Wicker Man) and Peter Cushing (Star Wars).  All info pertaining to tickets and passes can be found here.

Living Room Theaters begins showing Jesus Henry Christ with Michael Sheen and Toni Collette today.  They're also getting the magnificent The Deep Blue Sea (reviewed here), which just finished a two week run at Cinema 21.

The Laurelhurst Theater & Pub continues its winning series of classic screenings with John Ford's eternally great 1956 anti-western The Searchers, starring John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter and Natalie Wood.

And, finally, PSU's student-run 5th Avenue Cinema has a three-day screening of Michael Haneke's incredible (as well as incredibly disturbing) 1997 home-invasion classic Funny Games.

A lot on the horizon for next week, including a 35mm print of Jaws at the Hollywood Theater, Cinema Project's latest event (reviewed here), the opening of QDoc (Portland Queer Documentary Festival), HD Fest at the Living Room Theaters, etc.  Keep your eyes on the blog as we'll be following all of these and more over the coming days.

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CINEMA PROJECT presents SHOW & TELL: THE WORK OF DANI LEVENTHAL

Early next week, Cinema Project is bringing a 2-day presentation of video works by New York-based artist Dani Leventhal to Portland.  Harnessing an approach to moving images that points to a background in sculpture and illustration, there's a transparency of origin present within her videos that speaks to strategies based in additive and subtractive processes.  Leventhal gathers materials constantly; the piece 54 Days This Winter 36 Days This Spring for 18 Minutes is the product of an extensive period of videotaping, culling from life the raw materials of her art.  It's the manner in which she then collages these elements into resolutely non-narrative and constantly shifting finished works that makes them uniquely her own. 

A still from Draft 9

Can I tell you specifically what any of the three videos of hers I've seen is about?  Not really; again, we're talking about aggressively non-narrative work here.  But the confounding paths traced within each piece achieve a lot more than just holding one's attention.  Draft 9, for example, inspires both recoil and fascination, offering up disquieting images of taxidermy and roadkill stitched together with visions of geese taking flight over snow covered ground, blended with dives into dense fields of hair and skin, etc.

A still from 54 Days This Winter 36 Days This Spring for 18 Minutes

Maybe it's best to just jump in and experience the works for yourself.  Or defer to Leventhal herself for explanations of intent.  Here's a very good interview with Leventhal about her background, process, and the how the connections that she identifies within the images she films help guide the shapes of the finished pieces.

A still from Hearts are Trump Again

And here's the press release from Cinema Project:
Dani Leventhal’s videos are the result of a commitment to constantly recording her immediate world, carrying her camera with her every­where, often mounted on her bicycle. From this process she stitches images together in a loose essayistic or diaristic style—a montage that takes us on a journey, but with a destination that is anything but clear. The individual shots seem mundane, but together become hyperreal, giving fresh insight into a personal contemporary world. In the award-winning Draft 9, Leventhal cuts between skinned animals, well-fed pets, her grandfather’s Holocaust-tattooed arm, and her own romantic liaisons to create, in the words of critic Genevieve Yue, “something that is extraordinarily immediate, both fresh and painful, hard to watch and yet impossible not to watch.” In Show and Tell in the Land of Milk and Honey, Leventhal juxtaposes bucolic shots of farm life with tales of sexual harassment and sick chickens while living and working in Israel while in 9 Minutes of Kaunaus, she captures the fanta­sies of a wide-eyed boy whose older brother serves in the Israeli army. 

"While Dani is often tagged as a diary filmmaker, the works as a whole complicate that term so much that it becomes ultimately rather unhelpful for understanding her project. At times, her videos can recall the way that Nathaniel Dorsky’s films spin the majestic from the mundane. Like Dorsky, Leventhal seeks out images with singularity and weight, alive to the imme­diacy of the moment—a moment that will never return."
 —Chris Stults 

Cinema Project presents Show & Tell: The Work of Dani Leventhal at the Hollywood Theatre on Tues., May 15th and Wed., May 16th at 7pm.  With the exception of Draft 9, which plays both nights, Tuesday and Wednesday night's programs are made up of entirely different material.   More info on the program available here.


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THE FILMS OF STUDIO GHIBLI: KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE

Early on in Kiki's Delivery Service, Kiki's mother bemoans the loss of her traditions, wondering who will carry on making medicinal potions after she's gone.  An elderly neighbor reminds her that "things change, little by little," setting the stage for Hayao Miyazaki's 1989 animated film; the story of a young woman striking out on her own, seeking to distinguish her life from the ones lived by her parents.  The fact that our young heroine, Kiki, also happens to be a witch, matters to the story but mostly as a textural device, considering that, with or without the magical dressing, the film's basic thrust involves the chronicling of one young woman's exploration of the world and her identity within it.

The film opens right as Kiki has decided that today will be the day she cuts the apron strings and leaves her parent's home.  She's thirteen years old, traditionally the age when young witches go searching for a town to call their own.  Heading off with her familiar, a black cat named Jiji, she flies unsteadily into the future, unaware of the adventures that await her.

Miyazaki keeps the tone light and the pacing unhurried throughout Kiki's Delivery Service.  There are moments when Kiki must rise to the occasion, necessitating the orchestration of a grand action sequence.  But there's also quite a lot of room made in the film for her to simply wander, explore, and contemplate both her surroundings and her prospects.  Surprisingly enough, the story shrugs off the standard girl or boy with powers conventions; no one she encounters seems all that surprised that she can fly on a broomstick, so there's no time wasted on Kiki denying her base self.  This is a film that looks to empower, not shame, its protagonist (and by extension, it's young viewers).

Funny but not without its share of character-building lessons, the film is fashioned out of the same enchanted materials that power most of Studio Ghibli's output.  Exquisite hand-drawn animation blends with imaginative storytelling that's applicable to real life situations, all without pandering to its target audience or relying on the sort of cheap laughs that routinely appear in lesser works by Dreamworks or Disney (fart jokes, anyone?).  Like its youthful central character, Kiki's Delivery Service is a magical creature with a personality all its own.

Kiki's Delivery Service screens as a part of the retrospective series, Castles in the Sky: Miyazaki, Takahata, and the Masters of Studio Ghibli.  More info about the Studio Ghibli series here.
It plays at the NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium (in the Portland Art Museum) on Friday, May 11th at 7pm, Saturday, May 12th at 1pm, and Sunday, May 13th at 1pm.
The film will be presented in the original Japanese w/ English subtitles.  


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