sundance 2006 - Zoael

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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 <strong>2006</strong> 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.
BY PETER ROSENTHAL SEDUCTIVELY ATMOSPHERIC Find Love, authored and directed by Erica Dunton, is another fine production effort from the LaSalle- Holland production stable with Gill Holland and Matt Parker presiding. Find Love captures, over a 24-hour period, the chance encounter of two twenty-somethings, believably portrayed by Christian Camergao and Alexie Gilmore. This film explores the surface of things. It hovers around the edges of fleeting moments, and dances lightly around the notion of any substance, like the incomplete impressions left by names carried in trendoid magazines such as Surface, Wallpaper, Face and Self. At the moment you realize, as a spectator, that you are never going to find out anything substantial about these characters, who they really are, what they care about, what they believe in, what they intend to do with their lives—when you 29 SLAMDANCE <strong>2006</strong> Can’t Get Enough Love? Will Christian Camergao and Alexie Gilmore Find Love? realize that there isn’t a compelling reason to connect emotionally with them- that’s when you “get” the portrait of shallow, self centered, me-centric adults in the making, searching for something real to latch onto. A solid example of effective filmmaking is the peek-a-boo into the psyche, a glimpse into the search that seems to be going on underneath the surface of this generation of adults. The film portrays the struggle and torment that lurks within emotionally vacuous characters, rudderlessly adrift, looking for the meaning of love, clueless to understand what is important along the way of life’s unfolding mysteries. Find Love achieves its texture and life with its shaky camera style, its muted color palette, and the mesmerizing soundtrack created by the music collaboration of Michael Termante, the film’s composer and Mum, the European electronica band described as somewhere between Reykjovik and Berlin. (www.fat-cat.co.uk)
Page 1: SUNDANCE INSTITUTE 25th • SLAMDAN
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