sundance 2006 - Zoael

A Rambunctious
Twelve Year-Old
BY SANDY MANDELBERGER
IT BEGAN AS A THORN IN
Robert Redford’s side.The erstwhile
Sundance Kid once described the
anarchic upstart Slamdance as “a parasite.”
Founded by disgruntled filmmakers
who were not accepted into the
Sundance program, the event has, in
the past decade, become a respectable
sidekick to the major extravaganza,
with savvy distributors and programmers
sampling its line-up to yield a few
golden nuggets. After all, last year
Sundance rejected the documentary
Mad Hot Ballroom, which did screen
at Slamdance, becoming one of the big
indie hits of the past year.
This year’s Festival may yield similar
treasures. The event kicks off on
January 19th with the U.S. Premiere of
controversial photographer/director
director Larry Clark’s latest film
Wassup Rockers. The film is a skateboarding
odyssey about a group of
Latino teens who leave their East Los
Angeles neighborhood to explore the
wilds of Beverly Hills. Clark, whose
photographic and film portraits of teen
subculture have often been criticized
as nothing more than soft core pornography,
will be present at the Festival to
confront both supporters and skeptics.
Slamdance presents a tight program
of 26 feature films (twenty in competition
and six special screenings) and
BY CHRISTINA KOTLAR
TODD ROHAL WROTE AND DIRECTED FOUR
short films before his first feature, The
Guatemalan Handshake. While the synopsis—which
includes unrelated characters and events,
from turkey legs to a sideways sunrise to wild boy
scouts, culminating in a massive demolition
derby—may not satisfy the filmgoer’s expectations for
what the movie is about, it’s not meant to be mysterious-it’s
just not something that can be summed up in
one sentence. But that’s what Rohal is banking on.
His earlier shorts Knuckleface Jones screened at
Slamdance (2001) and Hillbilly Robot at SxSW and
the New York Undergound Film Festival (2002) had
similar reactions from film reviewers whereas both
films somehow defied the explanation of what the
SLAMDANCE 2006
has become a truly international event
with films coming from countries as far
as Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Cuba,
Egypt, Poland and South Korea. The
core, however, remains American
independents. “Slamdance 12 will celebrate,
as always, our original mission
of showcasing emerging filmmaking
talent,” states Peter Baxter, Slamdance
president and co-founder.
The Festival received a staggering
3000 feature and short film submissions,
almost as many as the Sundance
Film Festival, demonstrating that a
slot in Park City, at either event, has
become a major priority for both
American and international filmmakers.
Most films are having their world
premieres at the event, further inflaming
a must-see impulse by distributors,
programmers and hip moviegoers
interested in the next big thing.
Slamdance hosts a special out-ofcompetition
section of several highly
anticipated films, including the world
premieres of Letters from the Other
Side, a documentary about video letters
that are carried across the U.S./Mexico
border, directed by Heather Courtney;
The Limbo Room, a bracing drama
about real or assumed sexual harassment,
written and directed by Debra
Eisenstad; and Neo Ned, the story of an
Aryan Brother neo-Nazi skinhead who
drifts into a romance with a black girl,
directed by Van Fischer.
28
The heart of the Festival remains its
Narrative and Documentary Feature
competitions. American dramatic features
that are on the radar include the
world premieres of Elliot Lester’s Love Is
the Drug, about the tragic turn at a high
school graduation that forever changes
the lives of five friends; Paul Gordon’s
Motorcycle, the saga of a young man and
two young women whose lives intersect
through their prized motorcycle; and
Lynn Shelton’s We Go Way Back, a
clever fantasy drama about a young
woman who confronts her 13-year-old
self, leading to a journey of self-discovery.
American documentary films,
undergoing a major renaissance, are
among the Festival’s most anticipated
titles, including B.I.K.E by Jacob
Septimus and Anthony Howard, the
behind-the-scenes portrait of an exclusive
underground bike club;
Downtown Locals by Robin and Rory
Muir, a portrait of six unique performers
on New York City’s subway system;
Forgiving Dr. Mengele by Bob
Hercules and Cheri Pugh, the story of
an Auschwitz survivor’s controversial
decision to forgive the notorious Nazi
war criminal that caused a firestorm of
criticism; and The Holy Modal
Rounders: Bound to Lose by Sam
Wainwright Douglas and Paul Lovelace,
a look at the ups and downs of the legendary
hippie band with appearances
by Sam Shepard and Dennis Hopper.
movie is, with one reviewer likening it to visual “non
sequiturs piling up on one another to create a hysterically
bizarre effect—where description is difficult
and explanation perhaps impossible.”
As Rohal explains it, his films are “similar to your
favorite record albums. What is it that makes it great
to you and how is it that you relate to the music and
lyric experience? Film should be such an experience.
What you’re seeing and hearing will be determined
by how you interpret things, how your brain is wired
and if we’re on the same wavelength.”
Originally from Columbus, Ohio, graduated from
Ohio University (where he discovered the works of
George Kuchar) and film experience firmly
entrenched in Baltimore, may be clues to where
Rohal draws from a well of idiosyncrasies, meanwhile
fine-tuning a penchant for filming complex
scenes on numerous locations on a shoestring budg-
Love
Notes
Guatemalan Feast for the Senses,
A Handshake for theBrain
SOME HIGH-POWERED
talent from the worlds of
film, television and music
combine forces in the teen
thriller, Love is the Drug, having
its World Premiere in the Narrative
Features Competition section at
the Slamdance Film Festival.
The film is the feature debut
of music video director Elliot
Lester, who has directed awardwinning
videos for current teen
idols Jessica Simpson, Hillary
Duff and Mandy Moore. This is
a stylish look at a high school
graduation party gone terribly
wrong.
John Patrick Amedori, a rising
teenage heartthrob, is the charismatic
lead.
The film’s other major
Hollywood connection is screenwriter
Wesley Strick, whose film
credits include such gems as
Cape Fear and The Glass House.
Strick, who was originally
tapped to direct, has written an
involving and twisty plot that is
enhanced by the tight visual
skills of the director. This
Hollywood-indie mix, produced
by Burbank-based Alpine
Pictures and Box Office
Productions, could turn out to
be the major find of the
Slamdance Film Festival.
et. Shot in 35mm in an anamorphic format, Rohal
readily admits that his films are visually sensual.
Nevertheless, he’s confident that international audiences,
whose sensibilities also depend on their own
particular upbringing, will find that the feelings and
emotions in the story when combined with visuals
and sound, will be equal to an indie film experience.
Hence, the “feast for the senses and challenges for
the brain” tagline, “You have to pay attention to
everything that’s going on. It may not appear to
mean anything at first but then it connects. Expect
the unexpected,” Rohal said.
Expect the unexpected. I wouldn’t expect anything
less at Slamdance.
At the Slamdance awards party, The Guatemalan
Handshake was presented a “Special Jury Prize”
given away for the first time in the Festival’s 12-year
history.