California Dreams
-
Escape into America: The Eastern Oregon and Indie Memphis Film Festivals
Keeping on top of the media conversation in 2017 has begun to feel more like an exercise in self-harm than consumption. The dirty laundry is exhaustive and exhausting; we are quick to expose and defile, but quicker to move onto the next victimizer, leaving little lasting resolution in the wake of the penultimate upheaval. At the movies, we look for meaning where we can get it. Plots are politicized to the point where the once ghettoized “issue film” is mutating into standard grade. Even if the latest Thor joint is raking it in at the box office, cotton candy escapism […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 21, 2017 -
Exclusive Clip: Mike Ott’s SXSW Comedy Doc, California Dreams
Straight from Berlin, Mike Ott’s California Dreams has its North American premiere at the SXSW premiere on March 11 in the Visions Program. Courtesy of the filmmakers and the Film Sales Company, which is handling world sales, Filmmaker has this exclusive clip from the film. From the filmmakers: In this clip from Mike Ott’s comedy doc California Dreams, various subjects recite monologues at the beginning of the film – all in pursuit of their own dreams. Director Mike Ott’s film is about the dreams we all have — of being something else, or somewhere else, or someone else. Director Bio: […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 9, 2017 -
Trust Fund Kids in Hollywood: Mike Ott on California Dreams
In Mike Ott’s California Dreams (which I reviewed here), five aspiring actors are shown giving auditions and later acting out scenes in a film-within-the-film. Although this nested film is supposed to be a fiction, and also looks like one thanks to the gorgeous work of cinematographer Mike Gioulakis, the script is drawn – or appears to be drawn – directly from the actors’ biographies. One of the fascinating aspects of California Dreams is that Ott never allows you to know for certain how much is real and how much is fabricated. It was therefore a pleasure to be able to […]
by Giovanni Marchini Camia on Feb 15, 2017 -
Berlin Critic’s Notebook #1: somniloquies, El mar la mar, California Dreams
Some lines from Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s somniloquies: “I don’t wanna see your ass, Mrs. Dangerfield.” “Welcome to Midget City. Yes, we built it from the ground up. We have our own police.” “I’ve seen the past. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it! I want the future. The present is squalid!” “Kill the cunt! KILL THE CUNT!!” These are all spoken by Dion McGregor, a musician from New York described in the film’s opening titles as “the world’s most prolific sleep-talker.” Over a period of six years, McGregor’s flatmate recorded hundreds of his elaborate, vividly narrated […]
by Giovanni Marchini Camia on Feb 13, 2017
