SoCal Independent Film Festival - Night 1
I had planned to post only once regarding the film festival, but I just got an offer that I can’t refuse for dinner and will tease you with what I have ready to publish right now - details on Night 1 of the festival.
I suppose I should start by telling you about the festival itself. The festival was started by Brian Barsuglia to show independent films here in Orange County. Normally, you would have to drive to Los Angeles to see most independent films, and there were no film festivals dedicated to independent films. So, Brian and Vince Lara decided to start their own. They have collaborated on other artistic projects in the past (including one movie project where I was killed*) so last year when the first film festival was held and Vince asked if I would sell tickets I said “Yes” immediately. These two guys are a powerhouse; talented, creative, imaginative, full of vision and drive, and working with them is inspirational. What I got from last year’s festival was four days of fun, getting to meet filmmakers and movie fans, and getting to see some great movies. More than anything, it was great to work with two people who have such passion for independent film and who are working hard to build a festival where independent filmmakers can get exposure to producers, distributors, agents, and other industry professionals, while also creating an event where the filmmakers can easily interact with the audience. At the closing party last year I volunteered to do anything I could to help them with this year’s event,
You are probably expecting a blow-by-blow description of the inner workings of the festival itself, but like last year I was working the front door, selling tickets, signing in the press, and directing the filmmakers to the sign in room table. What I have to offer instead is a diary of my volunteer experience and my feelings and impressions over the last few days. I will post an entry later detailing the films themselves, but for now, here is the report of how I spent my last five days….
Program 1 was a free event with some pretty heavy movies, the new Robert Cray video for his song “Twenty”, “Lucky”, a British/South African short about an AIDS orphan who forges a unique bond with a racist Indian woman, and “Between Iraq and a Hard Place”, a documentary focusing on the experiences of soldiers returning from war.
There is a local professor who also teaches a class at a local high school that sent his students to the film festival for extra credit. A group of five kids showed up, looking nervous as they had never been to a film festival before and really didn’t know how it worked or what to expect. A couple of them left early – they had their ticket to prove they were there – and after the movies were over I talked to the remaining three kids and they were excited about what they had just seen! I encouraged them to come back…
Working at the front with me was DJ, a friend of a friend who I always enjoy talking to as she is sweet and wonderful, and probably the best read person I know, as well as being more knowledgeable about movies than any person I know. It was great to hang out with her and talk movies and books for over an hour. This is the beauty of a film festival, talking movies with other fans, learning about actors and movies that you haven’t yet heard of or had the chance to explore.
The conversation turned interesting when an actor associated with the event came to hang out with us and he began to talk about how he can tell that a movie is directed by the writer, and even more so when the same person also tackles the editing. This actor does both stage and screen acting, and was pointing out that a writer who chooses to direct his own movie knows his vision, and will usually add too many images and not cut enough dialog and scenery out where it needs to be cut, as he is trying to convey that vision and begins to believe that all the scenes, all the dialog, and all the images are important to realize that vision. He contrasted these screenwriters to play writers, where the writer creates a story, hands it off to a director and walks away from it. The director adds his own vision, the actors add their own interpretation, and the final product is only recognized by the play writer because he knows the basic plot as the story has been transformed by the input of the other artists who added their own influences to the original script.
DJ and I had been discussing the distribution of Asian film in the US. My notes are jumbled, but one thing that stands out is that I think we were having different conversations because you can’t talk about “Asian” film, you have to break the distribution issues down to the genre. Art house films by certain directors get released immediately, but other films are released here years after they are released in the US. My favourite example is “Hero”, which I owned on DVD a year before its theatrical release, which confused me and caused me to pay attention to Asian release dates here. Our actor friend returned, and it turns out he is a huge Asian film fan as well, The conversation turned to script reading for a while, then it came back to Asian film. He reads many great scripts waiting to be picked up, but Hollywood is constantly remaking Asian films (The Deception, a remake of Internal Affairs being the latest example) His thought is that there are more than enough interesting stories being written here in the US, but it is much cheaper and more cost effective to remake a proven idea than to create one from scratch.
More conversation with DJ about females in film (yes, we started by discussing my last post on Omkara and the depiction of women in movies), and the conversation turned to women filmmakers. I mentioned Kartik’s article on desitrain regarding Indian filmmakers making similar movies to Persian filmmakers, and she said “Samira, Muuuh”, and I responded “The Apple”. I can’t pronounce Samira Makhmalbaf’s last name without looking at it on a page first. But, all she had to say was “Samira” and I knew of who she was talking about and the direction the conversation was going to head, once again thrilled to be surrounded with people who share the same references and who are passionate about the same movies. The conversation got better as we discussed whether Mira Nair, Deepta Mehta and Gurinder Chata are considered Indian filmmakers or International filmmakers, the constraints that female filmmakers in Iran face in what they can portray in their movies and how they can deal with such strong themes in such constrictive environments, and the lack of Persian cinema released in North America since President Ahmadinejad took office.
The evening ended late as the team that made Between Iraq and a Hard Place moved to the media room to continue talking to the attendees. I say continue because there was a Q&A with the filmmakers after the movie, but so many people wanted to meet with and continue discussing the movie with the filmmakers….
There are few things that make me happier than good conversation. This night will always be remembered as a happy night….
* Shameless plug. Dementia: An Experiment in Terror was just released on DVD. You can buy it here. Look closely and don’t blink because if you are wondering what I look like, I am the girl getting shot in the head in two flashback scenes….If you are in the US, you can also add Dementia to your myspace friend’s list at dementiathemovie.
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[...] The cinema fanatics site, PFC, has a detailed coverage on the Independent Film Festival that took place in Southern California, while there’s Full2Faltu with his review on Ahista Ahista where he gives the movie an 8 out of a 10. Wow! [...]
Ohh wow thanks a lot T! A fantastic article. The point raised by your actor friend is indeed very interesting, Not to mention the female filmakers, but i still believe that female filmakers(atleast from india) are so very into themselves and their struggles that they think it is only their prerogative that they have to make female-oriented movies. By female oriented movies i mean the struggle a female goes thru and eventually how she overcomes it. Nah Mira nair, Gurinder Chada, etc..Grow up!!
Eagerly waiting for the second part T!
Viewing Bend it like Beckham the first time, I was very impressed. That is, until I learned that originally, Keira Knightley and the female lead(doctor on ER now I think) were supposed to be lesbians in the original script. Certainly would have made for a much more interesting script than another oppressed Indian youngster escapes old fashioned and narrow-minded immigrant parents through music/sport/non-indian vocation. Still, it was a good movie, so I paid no attention to the woulda coulda aspect of it.
Then came, “Amritsar to LA Balle Balle”. Need I say more?
Btw, Infernal Affairs is being remade as the Departed, not the deception. Also, Marty Scorcese had no idea that the film was a remake, he came on board after reading the script. I have no doubt that his version will not be some straight american translation, although the trailer certainly seems to pick out iconic “Infernal Affairs” shots.
Mira Nair has done nothing but exoticize India and everything Indian-related has followed through since. Case-in-point is Monsoon Wedding.
The whole child molesting thing seemed too forced, uncomfortable and trite, as if the director herself looked away like every indian over 30 does when that scene appears on screen.
Interestingly enough, Lucky is also a selection in the National Geographic AllRoads film festival to be held in LA on the 25th of Sept. (Shameless plug. I intern for the festival) I haven’t seen it yet, but people tell me its great. Do check out AllRoads though, they were the first to screen films like Paradise Now and Tsotsi (believe that won the foreign oscar last year) in 2005 in America.
Sumeet - As a woman, I seek out movies made by female filmmakers. I want to hear these stories. That said, any movie that is preachy or self-indulgent is a boor, regardless of who made it….
Anangbhai - I loved Bend it Like Beckham, but never thought of it as an Indian film. It is an often told story, only this time it was set with an Indian cast. In fact, the basic story was repeated this last spring in “Goal!”, another movie I liked, but with a Mexican twist. I am glad they left the love story out of Bend it Like Beckham, it always bothers me when someone decides that a simple story needs to be spiced up by adding relationships between two characters. I am glad that they removed the love story from the movie and focused on the basic story instead….
Thank’s for pointing out my typo! Typing “Deception” instead of “The Departed” is almost unforgivable as the correct title is listed on the home page!
I have never sat through “Monsoon Wedding”, for many reasons, mainly it just didn’t interest me. I don’t think I will ever be able to finish this movie. I am curious, as a non-Indian, how Indians view expatriate/foreign born filmmakers. Are they still considered Indian, or associated with the countries they live and work in or were born in?
Everyone I know who saw “Lucky” loved the movie and were very moved by it. It took the Best Short Film award at the SoCal, and I can’t wait to see it. If I am not working that weekend, I may make a couple of programs at the AllRoads; the “Women Hold Up Half the Sky” program looks amazing, and one of the movies in the program is Sa’ah, a movie I am dying to see.
I will finish up the SoCal wrap-up tomorrow. Today was my first day back at work and I am still trying to catch up….
Well, as an expatriate who left the country at the age of 13, I wouldn’t know much about what people back home think of people like me who want to make films.
I do know this, I would rather watch Jay Chandrashekhar direct a beer movie, or M. Night Shyamalamadingalong direct another horror film, than watch another boring ass indian-american comedy with kal penn and russell peters in it about some indian dudes who are either conflicted, trying to find love, or having some kind of a crisis, which apparently has something to do with them being indian. Apparently, non indians don’t have identity crises in their lives, so its special when an indian does.
I hate it even more when indians try to misappropriate directors like Chandrashekar and Shyamalan “batting one for the team” and try to claim them as their own. I doubt those two give a damn about india or indian americans, and why should they? They weren’t born there, so why this expectation that they would care much about the country, other than a mild interest in visiting it as a tourist.
As for most Indian american filmmakers I’ve seen so far, its nothing special. Most of them are weekend warriors, engineers or doctors who managed to scrape together money from relatives or other businessmen they know to make a trite, uninteresting comedy/dramedy/saga/epic etc.
I do believe that any change that will come will come from the other side of the pond, and not from here. Most of us who want to make films are here for all the wrong reasons, or have made money doing things that aren’t even remotely involve films or film production, yet think they have the chops to cut it as an actor/director/writer/producer (add as many credits as you want).
The reason I say that real change will come from the UK is because they’ve already had their indian invasion in music. (This won’t make sense to you unless you know a little bit about desi (not indian) music). While we’re getting the first exposure to groups like the Rishi Rich collective, Raghav (ugh..), they’ve already moved on to the next big thing.
This is turning into a speech. Last thing, we’re too spread out into the states to ever make any kind of lasting impression. Not unless you want to get out from under the Indian-American/Desi banner and actually work towards making a good movie, and forget about the rest.
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Independent Film Festival - Night 1 : PassionForCinema, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.