By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
SIFFing
Seattle has become an annual destination for me… eight years now. It’s one of the most joyous and best programmed fests in the world.
This year has challenged my festival screening system. You know, 16 month olds don’t sleep soundly when daddy is watching indie films until 3am with the crib two feet from the tv.
This year’s experience, so far, has offered three really interesting film ideas. One is from a doc called Circus Dreams. Made by a middle school teacher, the film documents a summer of Circus Smurkus, a professional traveling circus performed by 12-18 year olds. It’s a great story and reminds you of what the NEA should be funding. This is a $1 million a year operation that needs to make that nut in 70 public shows in 3 summer months. They generally are making it, but a $250,000 government grant, it seems, could insure years of operation without quite as much pressure to scrape by. And besides the 28 kids who perform, Smirkis seems to inspire the next generation to see its potential.
As far as filmmaking, this novice does a really fine job of telling the tale without losing the audience with pacing that’s too fast or too slow or by losing track of the story. However – this is the repeating fest movie phenomenon I have been seeing a lot in recent years – you wish she had better equipment… that the film looked as much like a permanent document as her work deserves. It’s great that she did it and for $150,000 spent over 5 years, she did great. But she’s not going back… and anything more than VOD and scholastic distribution, already a hard get for this kind of film, becomes almost impossible when it isn’t glossy.
See the movie when you have a chance. You will be happy you did, unless you are in the mood for brooding Russians.
The other phenomenon, which is hardly new to festival movies, but seems to have become as glossy as Circus Dreams is not, is the “don’t know how to end the sketch” thing. Here’s a fascinating idea… so now let us drag it out on powerful images until the audience is saturated with style… and then leave them to create the third act over their post-screening dinner. Argh!
The third notion is great ideas in the hands of inferior directors. Today’s was a great teen movie for the post-Twilight era. A bunch of good looking teens get into competitive gaming… some mad genius figures out a way to empower them in the real world as they are empowered inside the first-person shooters, racing, and fighting games they are so good at… he seeks to use them to rule the world, but their power is too great and their little teen brains and morals are all that is left between using these powers for good or great evil.
The problem is, this director ain’t Louis Letterier or Michel Hazanavicius or Timur Bekmambetov. It’s some guy who made a low budget thriller with a better idea than its execution.
Kills me.
