Seen Anything Good? Tales from the film festivals ...
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Share your thoughts here on the fare from the New Zealand International Film Festivals 2009.
70 Responses
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And hands up who has never been to a festival film...
I keep meaning to go :-)
Although I did once see a film festival film a couple of weeks before it arrived for the festival by watching it on TV1 one ad-free Sunday morning.
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Tales from film festivals? I'm not sure about the criteria for selection for documentaries, but a very good local documentary that was turned down by the Film Festival screened to an appreciative full house at the Paramount on Saturday.
'A place to stay' is a social/architectural/design history of community in NZ based on Salisbury Garden Court in Wadestown, Wellington. This cluster of 16 houses around a tennis court on a hillside was built by one man in the 1920s. It is still reached by a long steep path up from the road. Over time the community's inhabitants changed including the adult Polish war refugee children in the 1950s, and 'hippies' in the 1970s.
Will be shown again at the Film Archive in 14 August at 12.15 and the Onslow Historical Society on 17 September, and a DVD is also available.
(Disclaimer: was made by my friend Marie Russell, and I had a teeny contribution)
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I enjoy the festival but sometimes have trouble seeing the point of watching a "film" projected from DVD or video. This happens a lot.
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Florian Habicht's Land of the Long White Cloud has a pretty lame title but is a great little film.
And if anyone out there likes Project Runway you'll love The September Issue.
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We haven't had the festival down here yet but people in Auckland have been saying good things about Afghan Star, a doco about Afghanistan's Pop Idol. I think I'll be looking at Che in its four-hours-plus version, Broken Embraces, The Limits of Control, Encounters at the End of the World and Land of the Long White Cloud (Herzog-Habicht overlap), the doco about All Tomorrow's Parties by the guy who made the mindbending Tarnation. Might even sit through The Edge in action just to get to Jimmy Page and Jack White in that guitar doco. Plus, Samson and Delilah has been widely recommended. Curious to see Disgrace and The Baader Meinhof Complex: two great books that probably won't be improved by being filmed. Interested to hear any opinions of Graeme Tuckett's Barry Barclay film.
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I have so far seen three documentaries in the People Who Are Kind of Batshit vein: Big River Man, a long-distance swim down the Amazon into the heart of darkness; The Best Worst Movie, a humourous tale of the cult rejuvenation of crappy horror flick Troll 2; and The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector, which... yeah. My favourite part was Spector taking credit for Martin Scorsese's entire career after the use of 'Be My Baby' in Mean Streets. That man is BONKERS. A genius, but mad as a snake.
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I enjoy the festival but sometimes have trouble seeing the point of watching a "film" projected from DVD or video. This happens a lot.
Well, I don't disagree but if it comes down to a good quality DVD transfer or a shitty, scratchy print (or more likely, the distributor deciding its not financially viable sending a print to the arsehole of the world for a handful of festival screenings) I can live with it.
So far I've seen Red Cliff (John Woo seriously back on form) and Ponyo on The Cliff by The Sea (Miyazaki Hayao never off his -- child-like without being childish or condescending, if that makes any sense), and have come to this conclusion: Japanese film goers have really great taste. Ponyo was the highest grossing film of 2008 in Japan, and both parts of Red Cliff took in over US$50 million.
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We haven't had the festival down here yet but people in Auckland have been saying good things about Afghan Star, a doco about Afghanistan's Pop Idol.
Yes, it is a real treat--and just on the ticket for including in my second year Television course.
I have been in touch with the production company (Havana Marketing), to see when it would be out on DVD. Quite soon in the USA and UK but they asked me if I knew of any potential distributors in NZ. I suggested Real Groovy, Fishpond and Mighty Ape but I would welcome any other suggestions, to pass on to them.
The shitty thing is that if I want to to see any more films, I need to drive up Highway One again. Biill Gosden cancelled the Hamilton festival (after 31 years of festivals), arguing that there wasn't a suitable venue (the Rialto has closed and the Lido in moving in , in late September). There are plenty of available screens, so he has really done us a dirty. Greymouth gets a festival but Hamilton doesn't!!
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I enjoy the festival but sometimes have trouble seeing the point of watching a "film" projected from DVD or video. This happens a lot.
The other thing that happens with DVD/video is that it restricts what we see here in Napier as The Century Theatre where the festival is shown doesn't have the capability. We also seem to miss out on some of the better music movies and at present we don't even know what's going to be shown here this year.
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I know it's not the FF but I just have to say - I'm going to HARRY POTTER tomorrow. Hurray! Sorry. As you were.
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Just back from two docos:
Was highly entertained by "RiP: A remix manifesto" which covers copyright issues in a much (mash?) more lively manner than usual. It's also food for thought in the current discussion around the NZ internet copyright infringement legislation. What are we trying to achieve anyway? Protecting big corporates' profits or encouraging human creativity?
Straight after, dashed down to The Civic to catch "The Cove". Who knew? Director Louie Psihoyos was there for a quick Q&A (despite the film's imminent launch in NYC), saying it was important for him to be here because he sees NZ as being on the frontline of ocean conservation issues.
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It's wonderful that it has been made but personally I couldn't bear to go to The Cove and see and hear all the dolphin murders.
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The shitty thing is that if I want to to see any more films, I need to drive up Highway One again. Biill Gosden cancelled the Hamilton festival (after 31 years of festivals), arguing that there wasn't a suitable venue (the Rialto has closed and the Lido in moving in , in late September). There are plenty of available screens, so he has really done us a dirty. Greymouth gets a festival but Hamilton doesn't!!
Ah, I was wondering why I completely missed it this year. What I love about them is that they bring some seriously good animation. Sad I missed Ponyo, but I in the past I have caught Evangelion 1.0, Steamboy, Paprika and The Triplets of Bellville - one of my all time favourite animated movies.
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If it's all about the crazies for Danielle, it's all about the revolutionaries for me.
I was also at the "RiP: A remix manifesto" screening. Always good to know what the enemy is thinking*. Enough material in there to keep The Scottish Thread death-spiralling for months.
Baader-Meinhof this afternoon. 'Visual acoustics' and 'Flame and Citroen' on Saturday. And then 'Dead Snow' on monday as an antidote to all this high culture.
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Please let us know if Baader-Meinhof is any good Rich. I'll make time to go see it if it's worth seeing (its my area of academic interest), but it involves skipping something that I've already paid for and can't get refunded for.
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The Scottish Thread
Lovin' it...I won't go there, but this reference to it is primo.
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HUGE thanks to Ant Timpson for the movie "event" that was the Troll 2 screening.
Good times. -
Please let us know if Baader-Meinhof is any good Rich. I'll make time to go see it if it's worth seeing (its my area of academic interest), but it involves skipping something that I've already paid for and can't get refunded for.
An awful lot of responsibility to put on my shoulders.....How much did you pay for the other thing?
It's pretty good. First half is a cracker, but it sags a fair bit in the second half (when the main bunch are in jail). The ending seemed a bit weird and abrupt.
Factual accuracy? Don't personally know enough detail about that particular part of European history to venture a definitive opinion. The main events seemed to be pretty faithfully covered, but I'm sure there was a lot of 'filling in the blanks' by the script writers. Whether that 'filling in' accurately captures the actuality or not is something I can't really comment on.
It's certainly worth a look if you can get to it. I suspect it will get a more general release post-festival, but I can't say for sure. It's big-budget and glossy enough for an arthouse run. Lots of beautiful young things running around with not very many clothes on, and lots of guns.
Suggested strapline for the general release:
"The Red Army Faction: bringing sexy terrorism back since ages ago."
its my area of academic interest
What is it you do? You've piqued my curiosity.
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What is it you do? You've piqued my curiosity.
I don't do anything closely related to my area of academic interest. I want to do a PhD on the New Left, most likely in New Zealand history (it hasn't been well done to date). Sadly no great wads of cash have yet fallen from the sky to allow this.
My particular academic interest is why political movements go from non-violent protest methods, to embracing violence and the (often delusional) reasonings for adopting violence. Particularly Students for a Democratic Society and the move to break away into the Weather Underground, but Baader-Meinhof is obviously of interest. What leads to people who have previously been strong advocates of non-violence adopting violence as a method of change?
(Book also awaiting afore-mentioned great wads of cash. Send all donations now...)
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It's pretty good. First half is a cracker, but it sags a fair bit in the second half (when the main bunch are in jail). The ending seemed a bit weird and abrupt.
That's not a bad description of how the actual historical events around them went as well. A very strange group.
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My particular academic interest is why political movements go from non-violent protest methods, to embracing violence and the (often delusional) reasonings for adopting violence. Particularly Students for a Democratic Society and the move to break away into the Weather Underground, but Baader-Meinhof is obviously of interest.
Dunno if anyone needs a spoiler alert for this, but if you do, consider yourself warned:
The first act of the film focuses quite heavily on Ulrike Meinhof, and she is portrayed in the film as moving from a radical, but non-violent position, towards violent 'urban terrorism', making a series of decisions that lead her from the first position to the other. She then seems to go through a crisis of faith and breakdown when she realises what she has become. I've no idea how true to life that transition is, though.
WRT the weather underground - I assume you've seen this, but link embedded just in case you haven't.
It could be argued that the RAF had more of a reason for frustration and a shift to violence than any group in the US did (although from your point of view that probably makes the US groups more interesting). One thing that the film does not really address in any detail is their existence within the broader context of the west german political scene at the time. As I say, it's not something I'm completely up to speed on, but when you have ex-nazi party and ex-SS officers at the highest level of government and industry, you're going to have some pretty good reasons for getting a little pissed off.
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I was at the Baader-Meinhof film too (hi Rich!). I was surprised at how little I noticed the film's length, which is usually a good sign.
Lots of beautiful young things running around with not very many clothes on, and lots of guns.
Our post-film conversation to that effect:
Me: Man, all those revolutionaries were so hot! Surely all of them can't have been that attractive?
Husband: Yeah, I kept thinking "where did all these German models come from? And why are they so angry?"Kyle, I have a boiled-down, semi-serious answer to your larger academic question: there is always a significant proportion of true-believer revolutionaries who are either douchebags or assholes, and although these tendencies may initially be latent, the douchebaggery or assholery comes to the fore eventually, thereby undermining the movement's original goals. (I expect to be footnoted. Heh.)
Last night I saw Soul Power, the film of the Zaire 74 concert timed to coincide with the Foreman-Ali Rumble in the Jungle. It was rad. I will be embroidering 'GFOS' on all of my clothing with silver studs from now on, in a tribute to James Brown's denim jumpsuit.
(I've also seen Afghan Star and Thirst, but this post is quite long enough already.)
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Kyle, I have a boiled-down, semi-serious answer to your larger academic question: there is always a significant proportion of true-believer revolutionaries who are either douchebags or assholes, and although these tendencies may initially be latent, the douchebaggery or assholery comes to the fore eventually, thereby undermining the movement's original goals.
It's a lot more complex than that. Some were douchebags, but not many, most of the douchebags were Trotskyists who were part of the reason SDS split.
In terms of the WU, the people that formed it were intelligent, talented, committed people who felt driven to do things because they came to the conclusion that it was better than the alternative - the ongoing murder in Vietnam. The movie that Rich linked to has one bit where a woman who split early from the WU says (I'll paraphrase) "what is the answer if you believe that something is going on that is so horrific that it must be stopped, and every reasonable legal and illegal means for stopping it has been tried? What do you do?"
It's a clash of 1. people who care too much to not try every method to change the world for the better; vs 2. a state that lost its way and didn't adapt to incorporate their (quite valid) concerns about the what was going on. The two things squeezed together and one of the things that popped out was a violent revolutionary domestic group.
They were also completely fucking bonkers. What they were trying ("Bringing the war home") was never going to work. They took a large chunk of a powerful movement and tossed it in the trash and possibly delayed the end of the war.
Fascinates me though.
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It's a lot more complex than that.
Erm, yes. I was speaking more generally, not just about SDS. Also: kinda joking. (The Asshole/Douchebag Theory of Revolutionary Truebelievers, however, may - seriously - partly explain the second-wave feminist movement in the US. So it's got that going for it.)
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Last night I saw Soul Power, the film of the Zaire 74 concert timed to coincide with the Foreman-Ali Rumble in the Jungle. It was rad
There's an interesting backstory around the footage used for Soul Power, which is basically from the same 450 hours shot by Leon Gast, who was hired to film the concert and boxing event. In a dodgy deal stitched up by Don King and the Zaire President and financiers, about $10million to stage the whole thing, which included building a new runway and hiding the poor areas from road view. The venue was an arena where political prisoners had been housed under the stands, 1,000 prisoners, 100 of whom were randomly executed prior to the event, just as a warning to behave.
The finance deal over the film fell through and Gast fought for 20 years to get rights over the film which he turned into "When We Were Kings", which is an interesting doco too. Not least for Norman Mailer & George Plimpton being a couple of know-all white guys filtering things through their eyes.
BB King was stunning in that film. Hope Soul Power comes to the Palmie festival (if we get one).
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