SXSW 2008 Film Festival wrapped up this weekend, leaving in
its wake a single tattered, oh so earnest, snapshot of
Indie filmmaking. If Sundance is the official word on the
state of indie filmmaking, SXSW is what you'll learn going
to your local bar. Getting down with SXSW is what it takes
to get your ear close to the American independent film
underground. Here's a look at the Top 5 Key Trends that
emerged from this year's diverse group of fiction features
and documentaries.
1. Mumblecore is here to stay. Sort of. The relationship
genre for the Facebook generation, 'mumblecore' movies are
about kids who can rarely say what they mean, mean what
they say, or, even, enunciate properly while they are (not)
saying it. The name is somewhat derogatory but it points
nonetheless to the real problems of a generation that has
lost faith in love but remains romantic at heart.
One of the more intriguing entries is Joe Swanberg's NIGHTS
AND WEEKENDS which requires no shaping narrative to step
inside the lives of a young couple facing a long distance
relationship. Basically, the film presents a series of
random snapshots of recognizable relationship moments:
insatiable passion, half-hearted compromise, bickering,
disappointment, excitement—the whole darn grab bag.
NATURAL CAUSES, MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY and THE LOST COAST
all give their own spin to the genre: the first plays it
for comedy; the second weaves in questions of race, class
and urban gentrification; and the last delves into problems
of friendship and sexual identity. All in all, the extremes
of the titles, from the clinically quotidian NATURAL CAUSES
to the elegiac THE LOST COAST, point to a generation firmly
caught between the yearning for the grand gesture and the
limitations of the emoticon.
2. The mockumentary is back with a difference. This genre
comes and goes and Christopher Guest has already perfected
its comic potential, and so, for that matter, have Stephen
Merchant and Ricky Gervais with THE OFFICE (and
franchises). The two mockumentaries at this year's fest
stand out for their determination to let the viewer fret
over their status. Indeed, A NECASSARY DEATH, seemingly the
story of a student film project looking for the perfect
suicidal subject to follow up to the moment of the deed,
holds onto its non-fiction status until the end when it
pulls the rug out from under the viewer.
WOODPECKER falls closer to Guest's terrain, playing out as
a tenderhearted bird-watching comedy. However, the film's
interview subjects are real residents of Brinkley, Arkansas
who the filmmaker interviewed for their thoughts on the
bird-watching craze that engulfed the town when reported
sightings of the ivory-billed woodpecker, long thought to
be extinct, began to circulate.
In both cases, the films are invested in presenting
themselves as reliable, credible documentaries, leaving the
audience to sift through the meaning upturned when their
fiction roots are laid bare. Maybe, the are not even
mockumentaries proper in that they are not as interested in
having fun with the faux documentary genre as they are in
messing with audiences expectations, by being, quite
simply, fake documentaries.
3. Hats Off To The Auteurs Of Yesterday Remember in the
early 90s when every Indie feature was stylistically 6
degrees from Tarantino? Things change. Filmmakers this year
were paying their respects to the canon, both European and
American. Generally, this was evinced by a turn to realism
and naturalism in the majority of films, but on a film by
film basis, a few called up the glorious filmmakers of the
50s and 60s, while still remaining their own inimitable
selves.
In the short competition, Wholpin Award Winner GLORY AT SEA
drew comparisons to Werner Herzog for both its ambitious,
foolish, epic scope and the total commitment exhibited by
its maker and his fearless crew. You have to read the whole
review to get the full story on how this film became a SXSW
legend. Herzog would be proud.
Shot on 16mm, Josh Safdie's THE PLEASURE OF BEING ROBBED
drew rave reviews and comparisons to Robert Bresson, a name
that is not often bandied about when speaking of current
films.
Grand Jury Award winner WELLNESS loosely skirts the surface
of the deep tracks left by SALESMAN, arguably the Maysles
brothers' best work and certainly one damn bleak portrait
of America. Equal parts bravado, delusion, hope and
desperation, WELLNESS offers up the failed and failing
American salesman as the most poignant of all figures. He
is so, not because he has lost faith, but because he has to
keep up the front, even when he no longer believes in
either his product or himself.
4. Docs Love The Young - And The Old Since the success of
previous SXSW entry SPELLBOUND, followed by MAD HOT
BALLROOM, docs on American kids doing their thing have
become a sort of documentary sub-genre. SXSW 2008 offers
FRONTRUNNERS, the story of a high school election at New
York's most prestigious public school. However, YOUNG@HEART
was the fest's feel-good documentary, a look at a senior's
choir devoted to performing rock hits.
The common thread here is that both teens and the elderly
are totally shafted in most mainstream representations: the
former are glorified as brain-dead, oversexed consumers,
full of MSN speak and limited vision; and the latter are
relegated to backdrop decoration, expected to provide
occasional barbs and hilariously eccentric behavior. These
docs do a lot to right that balance of perception, giving
the young and old alike a humanizing look that is woefully
lacking at the multiplex.
5. The War In Iraq: Documentary Wins Playing in the
Premiere category was Kimberly Pierce's eagerly awaited
STOP-LOSS, but anticipation quickly melted into yet another
disappointing feature about the Iraq war.
Fiction features on the subject are floundering, unable to
move past the rather pat assertion that "war is hell" or
bogged down by their blind dedication to their own
even-handedness. I sort of wish this generation had a
Samuel Fuller who could take the topic to town with no
concern for moral or political messages and just let the
situation's own complexities and unanswerables take center
stage.
But where fiction flounders, documentaries flourish, as was
the case with SXSW doc highlight FULL BATTLE RATTLE, a look
at a military training facility in the Mojave Desert that
simulates war conditions for its trainees. Despite the fact
that audiences may have an "Iraq fatigue" brought on by a
saturated documentary slate on the subject, these films
stand as an undeniably strong body of work: well crafted,
informative, intelligent, and emotionally charged.
----------------------------------------------------
Daniel Lafleche is the COO of IPEX TV, the leading
multiplatform B2B Film and Video online marketplace. Daniel
has over 25 years experience in film distribution,
combining film and video licensing with internet media.
IPEX TV specializes in helping indie producers and film and
video distributors take advantage of the web and reach out
to international film license buyers. You can learn more at
http://www.ipexview.com
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