The CineVegas Film Festival (June 12-21) celebrated its tenth year in a manner befitting its Sin City setting: a colossal, ten-day jubilee of film and fun. High and low culture rubbed a lot more than just shoulders — among the many special events were not only a screening by contemporary art darling Takashi Murakami on a waterfall at the Wynn Resort but also a fete at Sapphire’s, the self-billed “World’s Largest Adult Entertainment Complex.” And that was just on Monday and Tuesday. Keeping up with the screenings and numerous parties, all while nobly trying to ignore the siren song of the tables, proved to be utterly - and delightfully - impossible.

Not too long ago, holding a film festival in Las Vegas seemed to be a lost cause, but CineVegas artistic director Trevor Groth says that the city’s attitude has gone from “apprehension to excitement.” He explains, “From the beginning we knew that for the festival to succeed it would have to be embraced by locals as well as the film industry. And now in our tenth year I truly believe that this has happened.” Of course, CineVegas is a much-loved destination for members of the film industry as well, and the veritable army of helpful staff members made sure even the most ambitious events ran smoothly. (Full disclosure: I have worked for CineVegas in the past, so I know just how much organizational aptitude this takes.)

CineVegas’ fetish for eclecticism carried over to the slate, a strong group of both independent and studio films from all over the world. New this year was a Pioneer Documentaries section that was evaluated by its own jury, which gave Beautiful Losers the main prize and recognized Hi My Name is Ryan with a special award. Both films focus on artists who buck convention, with directors Aaron Rose and Joshua Leonard’s Losers tracking a semi-organized group of street artists and outsiders that formed in the ‘80s and Ryan, from Paul Eagleston and Stephen Rose, telling the story of its titular hero, the “clown prince” of the Phoenix art scene.

The Grand Jury Prize went to director Rolf Belgum’s She Unfolds By Day, a moving, ethereal look at a son’s attempt to care for his Alzheimer’s-stricken mother. In a matter reminiscent of 2004 CineVegas standout The Talent Given Us, Belgum blurs the lines between fiction and documentary, even using members of his family in the lead roles. Among the other films highlighted by the jury were Rachel Samuels’ neo-noir musical Dark Streets, Bill Pullman’s performance as an addled sci-fi legend in Matthew Wilder’s Your Name Here and Jonás Cuarón‘s beautifully simple Ano Una in the year-old La Promixa Ola selection, which features young Mexican filmmakers. Audience awards went to Jared Drake’s dystopian comedy Visioneers (pictured above) and racehorse documentary Lost in the Fog, from director John Corey.

One of the most discussed films of the festival was writer-director Josh Fox’s Memorial Day, an unblinking examination of modern America’s obsession with documenting itself. There are several reveals throughout the film that would be a shame to give away here, so let’s just say that you will never look at the holiday as simply an excuse for beer and bad behavior again. Between the dizzying handheld camera work and some truly disturbing imagery, there were several walkouts from the film’s world premiere screening -- and a heated discussion afterwards. According to Fox, a theater manager told him, “Audience members were screaming that they were going to ‘sue the Palms’ or actually ‘burn it down if they showed the film a second time.’” While characterizing himself as “surprised” by the strength of the negative response, Fox also seemed sanguine, calling the reaction “appropriately insane.”

That would seem to be the ideal phrase to sum up a stay at CineVegas 2008. Between the thought-provoking films, the all-night parties and the surreal setting, insanity wasn’t just appropriate; it was basically required.

Labels: Festivals

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 7/08/2008 10:54:00 AM Comments (0)

Just past Madison Square Garden, if you can weave through its mass of disoriented tourists, beneath the neon moniker of the New Yorker hotel, you’ll find a disproportionate number of same sex couples, groups of men with distinct fashion sense, packs of women and yet nary a high heel – all them congregating outside the Loews 34th Street movie theater. And if you’re keen enough to glance inside to the lobby, you’ll see why: NewFest, New York City’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Film Festival (June 5-15) is in residence for just over a week in this, its 20th year.

As a gay filmmaker living in New York City, I was eager to take in NewFest’s slate of films. With so much change and progress over the past 20 years, I wondered how NewFest would assert its continued relevance as a means of relaying the gay experience in a city where same sex displays of affection are as common as the rats in the subway, or bagels with lox.

What I found is that this assertion came quickly and with a direct-ness that New York City has earned as one its most defining characteristics. In speaking with the festival’s artistic director, Basil Tsiokos, he cited the fact that as a LGBT festival with a twenty year history, NewFest does not just present films that might cross over with wider, more mainstream audiences, but it cultivates a community – and effectively bringing that community together year after year is at least as essential as picking the next big thing in LGBT film.

Fittingly in this anniversary year, NewFest drew both its community and the next big thing. It became apparent that NewFest’s perennial community had arrived at the opening night gala screening of Tru Loved. The film is a sunny insight into coming-out in a diverse present day LA community, and it proved the perfect pop tart to ignite a giggly crowd ready to celebrate. Reacting like high school students themselves, it was clear that this audience was a special, filled not just with industry and programmers but New Yorkers who are vocal in expressing their affection for what universally draws audiences to the cinema, its evergreen ability to entertain.

It took a little longer to find the next big thing in LGBT film, but it finally came wrapped up as NewFest’s closing night gala film. Were the World Mine (pictured above) is a grounded yet spectacular musical that follows its protagonist Timmy as he’s cast as Puck in his prep school, all male version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Real life mirrors drama as the Shakespearean verse reveals the recipe for a love potion, which Timmy spreads throughout the entire town, transforming its inhabitants into love-struck homosexuals for a brief period before the spell is broken at the play’s performance. Director Thomas Gustafson succeeds where many before him have failed in updating Shakespeare for modern audiences. The film hinges on a young cast who deliver engaging performances most notably Tanner Cohen as Timmy, and Wendy Robie as Ms. Tebbit, the drama teacher. These actors draw us in to the magic of music, love and Shakespearean language, and the film boasts beautiful cinematography and superb art direction.

Rest assured, not all of NewFest focused on high school romance. Winner of the best documentary feature prize Be Like Others chronicles the lives of Iranian men who transition from male to female in order to abide by their country's law, which explicitly bans homosexuality as punishable by death. Pageant, the Audience Award winner for best feature follows contestants for Miss Gay America, and had NewFest’s aforementioned vocal community cheering as if the competing drag queens were standing before them in the flesh. Japan Japan captures the wanderlust of a young Israeli man who dreams of life in Japan. Filmmaker Lior Shamriz distinguishes himself with a quiet style reminiscent of Lynne Ramsay or Sofia Coppola, while he effectively captures the angst of the modern age. Bi the Way a smart and cleverly entertaining doc takes a stab at understanding trends in bi-sexuality in America through the stories of a handful of young people spread out across the nation. These subjects present us with wisdom beyond their years, in understanding that no two minds think alike, and what could be more complex and personal than sexual preference? We can look at data, or read quotes from experts, but until we take the time to stop and examine what’s different and challenging, we haven’t understood much at all. And thus we elucidate the importance of NewFest’s indelible mark on the LGBT, Film and New York communities.

Labels: Festivals

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 7/08/2008 10:45:00 AM Comments (0)

Jodie Foster “came out” during a recent Hollywood Awards ceremony, Gus Van Sant’s feature on the assassination of San Francisco’s gay mayor Harvey Milk is now in production, and gay and lesbian liaisons amongst the older [Ellen Degeneres and Portia de Rossi] and younger star sets [Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson?] are now looked upon with almost avuncular support.

Yet, way before alternative lifestyles tipped their way into the mainstream, there was the Torino International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (April 17-25). A key showcase, Torino supported the early “taboo” efforts of Van Sant and Derek Jarman and introduced local audiences to Todd Haynes, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Now firmly established within the international film calendar, the “little” festival, nestled amidst mountains in the heartland of Italian machismo and primo gelato by filmmakers Ottavio Mai and Giovanni Minerba in 1986, is one of the longest continuously running queer-themed cinematic events in the world.

These days, Torino’s challenge is to balance its programming slate. Being provocative without being preachy or kitschy or dipping too deeply into narrative-light soft-core porn is no easy task for a ‘themed’ festival. Thankfully, for the most part Torino succeeds.

Kicking off the festivities: a blow out river-side fete and screening for Madrid director Juan Flahn’s Chuecatown; a crowd pleaser/family comedy-murder mystery involving real estate value and the mysterious murders of little old ladies. Torino then went on to host a fully international slate of 150 films [plus over 100 shorts].

Replete with a particularly strong documentary section, festival director Minerba and his genial programmers continue to show a keen eye for weird, wonderful and intriguing prospects from all over the world. Favorites included: Julian Cole’s fascinating documentary, With Gilbert and George; Bruce LaBruce’s hilarious gay-zombie feature, Otto; or Up with Dead People (pictured above) and Thomas Gustafson’s Shakespearean musical Were the World Mine.

This year’s special offerings included a tribute to Ms. Foster; John Waters’ megastar Divine, and France’s Sébastien Lifshitz. Even Hong Kong auteur Stanley Kwan and New York based artist-provocateur Terence Koh – screening his epic sex-fest God -- popped into town as special guests.

Although, strangely, there were no Italian films in the main competition, the eleven Jury members, including American director Jamie Babbit (But I’m A Cheerleader), Portugal’s João Pedro Rodrigues (Odete) and Italy’s critic/journalist Pier Maria Bocchi went global, giving special Jury mentions to Germany’s Julia von Heinz’s Was am Ende zählt and France’s Christophe Honoré (for Les Chansons d’amour). But the Ottavio Mai Award for Best Feature Film rightfully went to French director Santiago Otheguy’s breathtaking La León. Featuring a stunning performance by Jorge Román, it’s a simply told and beautifully shot story of one man’s day-to-day struggle against the nature of the world around him.

Documentary honors went to Parvez Sharma’s heavily lauded opus on Muslim sexuality, A Jihad for Love, with Special Mention and an Audience award to Australian Julian Shaw’s Darling! The Pieter Dirk-Uys Story. The solid, if slightly “last season” The Walker, Paul Schrader’s finale of his “gigolo” trilogy, starring Woody Harrelson as the escort of the wives of the Washington political elite, was the closer.

Labels: Festivals

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 7/08/2008 10:18:00 AM Comments (0)

The 2008 Tribeca Film Festival (April 23 – May 4) could best be described as the year it edged closer to finding its niche in the overcrowded festival schedule. Cutting 40 films off of its slate, lowering ticket prices and (this is the biggie) centralizing the festival in Union Square — the first time TFF has had a home base since its first two years when it was in Lower Manhattan — the seventh edition still had its moments of gaudiness. But, for the most part, cineastes actually had something to smile about.

With not much buying happening at Sundance earlier in the year, many were certain that TFF would go by with its usual big-budgeted red carpet premieres (it did: Baby Momma, Speed Racer) and ho-hum indie Sundance rejects. But TFF had a surprising buying surge this year with IFC and Magnolia taking the Spanish thriller La Habitación de Fermat and the Matthew Broderick/Brittney Snow starrer Finding Amanda, respectively. And journalists found a juicy story when Errol Morris admitted that he paid for some of the interviews in his Standard Operating Procedure, which screened at the festival as a sort of sneak peek before its theatrical release.

“I was probably the biggest naysayer years one and two of the festival,” says IFC Films head Jonathan Sehring. “I thought [the festival] was kind of a sham, but I think their programming is very good. They are up against a lot, bookended by Sundance and Cannes with Berlin in there too.”

“Everyone I’ve spoken to shares my feelings that this was a real good one,” says TFF artistic director Peter Scarlet days after the fest wrapped. “I think we smoothed out a lot of the rough edges. Having a central area certainly didn’t hurt and trimming down the program the way we did maybe [hit] just the right size.”

Though many of the premieres had more hype behind them than payoff — James Mottern’s Trucker was a disappointment as was John Walter’s Theater of War, a behind-the-scenes look at The Public Theater’s staging of Mother Courage — there were some films that left the festival stronger than they came into it. The narrative prizewinning Swedish vampire tale Let the Right One In was picked up by Magnolia Films’ genre arm Magnet Releasing, and Brian Hecker’s comedy Bart Got a Room, about a high school student looking for a date to the prom, had a lot of buzz during the festival and as of press time is closing in on a distributor. And while some critics were negative on Richard Ledes’s The Caller, which got the “Made in NY” Narrative Award, I thought it’s neo-noir style and strong performances by Elliot Gould as a private eye and Frank Langella as a whistle-blowing energy exec outweighed its below-average script. Trisha Ziff and Luis Lopez’s entertaining and informative doc Chevolution showed how a photo of the revolutionary Che Guevara has become a profitable gimmick put on everything from T-shirts to coffee-mugs. And Melvin Van Peebles, who came to the festival two years ago as the subject of Joe Angio’s excellent How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (And Enjoy It), returned with his first feature-length film in eight years, Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha (pictured above). Starring the 75-year-old Van Peebles, the picture is part autobiography, part experimental film and part black history. Filled with funny one-liners from Van Peebles’s poetic tongue, it also has an endearing lo-fi quality that’s a joy to watch.

Can TFF keep the momentum going for ’09 and beyond? Scarlett admits there’s no guarantee that the real estate the festival enjoyed in Union Square this year will be available to them next year. But The Caller’s Richard Ledes says that doesn’t matter. The thing that TFF has going for it is New York City. “The level of attention you get here is rare compared to other festivals outside of the biggies,” he says. “You get audiences from all walks of life. You don’t get that throughout most of the country.”

Labels: Festivals

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 7/07/2008 11:40:00 AM Comments (0)