Greenwich Street was my address in the late seventies,
when it was a dark and empty NYC zone. The outpost of the city, a place where
rats didn’t run away because it was their domain, theirs and some humans who
looked like they were straight out of casting central for Road Warrior. The
neighborhood was cinema verite. Greenwich St. 2003: street fair so
packed with people, activities, banners, balloons, food and dogs that it was
gelling with resonant frequency like fluid. This is all thanks to a film
festival created to boost our post-disaster morale, and give us an opportunity
to see some darned good films that may have otherwise slipped through the
cracks
FEATURES:
MC5, the
Detroit rock band that inspired punk, hardcore and noise metal, has earned the
reverence reserved for those seminal creators, artists that really have
something "new under the sun". They were outrageous. Fred
"Sonic" Smith said that they could clear the room in less than five
minutes, which is precisely how they knew that they were on to something. They
toppled over the edge of the socially acceptable behavior from the 60’s, scared
a lot of parents and cops, and left indelible marks all over a generation of
kids that was ready to "move on". Their Radical Revolution was one of
the mind, a conceptual revolution that opened doors of perception to another
level. A lot of people got it, explaining their huge following. With John
Sinclair, their manager and the founder of the White Panthers Party, they sent
chills up the spines of the ignorant or confused. But, underneath it all
"… they just wanted to look as Cool as the Black Panthers".
Throughout this well-done documentary directed by David C. Thomas, MC5: A
True Testimonial,
their inspiration bridges the decades, as a historical testimonial as well as a
step-by-step how-to.
John Murlowski’s feature, Black Cadillac
style=’font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Verdana’>, is a true story about one
unforgettable one-night-stand, the big sound of the motor, the crunchy snow,
the ominous tone and the unexpected details that can alter the course of a life
forever. This film delivers a tale of that moment when the ordinary becomes the
extraordinary.
Eric
Clapton and Friends
(documentary–feature, Jana Bokova Dir.) shows that you cannot miss with a
famous rocker documentary. This one, like most rocker documentaries, deprives
us of hearing at least a few songs from beginning to end. Great music should
not be doled out in mini bites.
SHORTS:
Hey is Dee Dee Home (documentary–feature, Lech Kowalski Dir.) feeds
right into the endless appetite for rockers telling how it really was, the raw
and gritty truth of it all, the abuse and the betrayals, as told by Dee Dee
Ramone. He recently departed the rock world by way of a drug overdose. Sadly,
in the film he spoke extensively about kicking the habit. I liked the way this
one-man-testimonial was lit and shot, formal and casual, offsetting Dee Dee’
style=’font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Verdana’>s uniquely "rocker" way
with the language.
Remember Black and White Shorts
style=’font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Verdana’>? The mainstay of independent
filmmaking is so easily lost in the shuffle of splashy color and big budgets.
This was some extraordinary filmmaking. The screening started with a bit of a
blooper since the Tribeca Film Festival intro clip was flopped on the reel,
good for a laugh and a pause to re-roll. I looked back to the projection booth
to watch the projectionist scramble, and there, back row center, is Francis Ford
Coppola with a couple of kids. They were in for a treat!
Empty, was a seat-of the-pants tale by Micah Herman,
exquisitely filmed WW2 tale of escape and terror involving a Jew, a Russian and
a disgruntled Nazi, all trying to evade the madness of war.
Drop, by Robert Mowen, followed a cyber water drop through the
filmmaker’s psychedelic cyber universe, black and white, of course, but with a
moment of color surprise.
Then there was the divine La Puppe,
style=’font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Verdana’> Timothy Greenberg’s wonderfully
written French-accented tale told in black and white stills. A real
knee-slapper, this is a deeply personal tale told by a floppy, stuffed toy
puppy caught in a bit of a time warp. Who says that you cannot make cinema with
stills? It always comes down to the writing. Alain Robbe-Grillet would have
been proud.
Anthony Byrne’s Meeting Che Guevara and the Man from
Maybury Hill,
like its title, takes you on an esoteric ride someplace quirky where Jeremy
Irons exists to reassure you that this is really just a movie.
Nights Like These is a
little black and white "noir" tale about a dissatisfied shadow. Gadi
Harel’s little movie is very informative about what our shadows do while we are
sleeping. Did you know that they have their clubs and meeting places, perhaps
even a code of ethics?
With Paso del Norte, Roberto Rochin, the motion-control guy for Frieda,
turns that skill into poetry. This, non-linear sequel to his Un Pedazo de
style=’font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Verdana’> Noche
style=’font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Verdana’>(Festival de Venecia ’95),
style=’font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Verdana’> explores the urban struggle in
Mexico as a metaphor for the real value of life.
style=’font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Verdana’>Shown both at Sundance and Tribeca
this year, the fabulous and unforgettable short film by Uri Bar-On titled 72
Virgins. Here, our
filmmaker asks some 20 or so wholesome and intelligent people whether they
would perform a sex act on a specific world leader if it would guarantee peace
in the Middle East. A man-on-the-street survey served up dry with a twist. |
