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Seattle Report
12/31/1969
Fest Fave 'Apart from That' Screening in NYC Tonight
Filed under: Drama, Independent, Seattle, Exhibition, DIY/Filmmaking, Cinematical Indie  When I first saw Randy Walker and Jennifer Shainin's film Apart from That at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2006,. the thing that struck me most was it's transparent honesty. The film was relegated to the "Experimental" category at the fest, a section that tends to be like the grab bags you can buy for fifty cents at a carnival: you never know if you're going to end up with something really nifty -- a mood ring, perhaps, or a cool brainteaser puzzle -- or if you'll get stuck with something vaguely annoying and unpleasant, like one of those Chinese finger handcuffs that squeeze your fingers tighter the more you squirm to get out of them.
Fortunately, Apart from That turned out to be a little gem of a film, and it's gone on to play at a slew of film fests far and wide since Seattle, racking up Walker and Shainin lots of airline miles and acclaim. The film is about loneliness, and the desire for connection and feeling loved and needed, told through the disparate tales of three people; we meet the protagonists at the beginning of the film, as guest of a party, and then the tale unravels from there to show us their disconnected lives, held together only by this common theme.
What makes Apart from That even more interesting is the techniques the filmmakers used in making it. They shot on a schedule of two days on, one day off, and rewrote the script on the off days to accommodate the direction their cast was taking the film -- kind of a bizarre mix of improvisational theater with filmmaking, and all with a cast made up almost entirely of amateur actors, locals from their small Washington town. And somehow, it works.
The film, much to my chagrin, still hasn't been picked up for distribution, but f you live in New York City, and haven't yet had a chance to catch Apart from That at one of its many fest showings, you're in for a treat -- our pals over at indieWIRE are hosting a special screening of the film tonight at 7:30PM EST, at Cinema East Village, 22 East 12th Street. Following the film will be a Q&A with Walker and Shainin, and it should be an interesting Q&A; Shainin and Walker are a delightful pair, and this event will be most enjoyable. It's almost enough to make me wish I was living in NYC in July ... almost. Drag yourself out of your studio apartment and go show some support for indie film, and give Shainin and Walker some love. You'll be glad you did.Permalink | Email this | Comments
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12/31/1969
'Kurt Cobain About A Son' Picked Up By Balcony
Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Seattle, Distribution, Toronto International Film Festival, Cinematical Indie, AFI Dallas  I've now missed seeing A.J. Schnack's film Kurt Cobain About a Son at least three times -- last year at Toronto, and this year at both AFI Dallas and Seattle. But now, thank goodness and all things flannel and depressing, I'll have another chance to see it, and so will you. Over at indieWIRE, Eugene Hernandez posted the other day that Balcony Releasing will debut the film at the IFC Center in New York City on October 3, followed by a Los Angeles opening at the Nuart a few days later. The film will play Seattle, Cobain's hometown, at The Varsity on October 12, and will get a DVD release early next year.
If you're not familiar with the film (read more about it on its official website) it's based on some 25 hours of previously unheard audio interviews with Cobain conducted about a year before Cobain's suicide by Michael Azerrad as research and background for his book Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana. In the interviews, Cobain discusses everything from his childhood, to music, to dealing with fame. I was a little old when Nivrana's album Nevermind came out to start dressing in flannel shirts and ripped jeans, but I've always loved Nirvana's music. Cobain's angst, no doubt, felt very personal to him, but his music conveyed those emotions universally; anyone who's been an adolescent and felt isolated from the status quo could find comfort and commonality in Nirvana's music.
October seems a long way off at the moment, but here's a roundup of write-ups of the film, which is currently sitting at 83% with a smattering of reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, to get you excited about it in the meantime. Oh, and when you're done with that, you can check out Schnacks' blog, All these wonderful things, where his latest post takes on the issue that's been taking the film and book blogging worlds by storm this week: embargoes. It's a well-written piece, so check it out.
"In 'Kurt Cobain About a Son,' Director AJ Schnack takes a fresh approach to non-fiction storytelling, turning the idea of the traditional music doc on its head ..." -- Jonny Leahan for indieWIRE
"It's clear almost immediately that Kurt Cobain: About a Son has little to offer detractors of the deceased Nirvana singer, though AJ Schnack's directorial choices admittedly lend the proceedings a surprisingly artful sort of vibe."
-- Reel Film's Toronto 2006 Update
"This film is not a typical rockumentary full of celebrity and friendly talking heads, archival concert footage or anecdotes and pictures from Kurt's past. What this is, simply, is Kurt Cobain's voice, carrying on an extended conversation." -- Mark Bell, Film Threat
"Impressionistic docu "Kurt Cobain About a Son" is a counterpoint to the iconic late Nirvana rocker's legacy." -- Dennis Harvey, VarietyPermalink | Email this | Comments
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12/31/1969
Police Beat Finally Gets a DVD Release
Filed under: Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Seattle, Distribution, Home Entertainment  It often feels like forever-and-a-day between the time I see a film at a fest, and when it finally sees light of day in a theatrical or DVD release. Such is the case with Police Beat, directed by Robinson Devor and written by Charles Mudede (the same team who just this year brought us an eye-opening look at the sub-culture of people who have sexual relations with animals in the documentary Zoo).
Police Beat was released yesterday on DVD, with Home Vision/ Image Entertainment handling distrib, and can be purchased through the Image Entertainment website (or, if you're local to Seattle, at Scarecrow Video or Broadway Market Video). The film, scripted by Mudede and based off his column of the same name which he writes for Seattle's alterna-weekly, The Stranger, follows an immigrant bike cop around scenic Seattle as he deals with one after another of a series of bizarre crimes (regular readers of Mudede's column will know that, as with many things in life, you just can't make up anything that would be better than the craziness cops deal with on a daily basis) while dealing with the possible break-up of his relationship with his girlfriend, who's gone off on a camping trip with a male "friend."
The film, though relatively low-budget, is full of gorgeous painterly shots of Seattle in the summertime (thanks to DP Sean Kirby, who shot in 35mm scope) and if you live in Seattle or have spent any time there, it's fun to see all the places you hang out in up there on the screen in all that technicolor glory. It also has the distinction of being the sixth film co-produced by Seattle not-for-profit Northwest Film Forum, which does some truly fantastic work supporting indie film and independent filmmakers.
It's great to see this little film getting some distribution at last; it had strong reviews overall, but for a while there I didn't think it would get out there for more people to see it. It's always nice to see the hard work of independent filmmakers pay off, at least a little, and I hope the film will get some strong support in Seattle, where the film was shot in over 100 locations with hundreds of locals. Even if you don't live in Seattle, Police Beat is a good film for indie film fans to see and support.Permalink | Email this | Comments
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12/31/1969
Is Sigourney Weaver Slumming in Snow Cake?
Filed under: Drama, Independent, IFC, Seattle, The Weinstein Co., Oscar Watch, Cinematical Indie  It seems like an eternity since I first saw Snow Cake, starring Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver, at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2006. Finally, the film is actually opening. The film played heavily on the film fest ciricuit last year, opening at Berlin, then hitting a few more international fests before wending its way across the Atlantic to Tribeca, then meandering along to Seattle, Shanghai, Edinburgh and Toronto.
The film stars Rickman (who, I'm starting to think, couldn't turn in a bad performance if he tried) as Alex Hughes, a sullen man with a mysterious past who meets Vivienne (Emily Hampshire), a young hitchhiker, at a truck stop diner, and surprises himself by agreeing to give her a ride to Wawa, Ontario, where she's heading to visit her mother. A tragic car crash kills Vivienne just as they're starting out, leaving the traumatized Alan to deliver the news of her daughter's death to her mother, Linda ( Weaver). As it turns out, Linda is autistic, and doesn't handle the news of Vivienne's death quite the way Alex expected, and he ends up being drawn inexorably into Linda's life. Carrie-Ann Moss has a nice turn as the sexy next door neighbor.Continue reading Is Sigourney Weaver Slumming in Snow Cake? Permalink | Email this | Comments
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12/31/1969
SIFF Review: Cashback
Filed under: Comedy, Independent, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Magnolia, Theatrical Reviews, Festival Reports, Shorts, Seattle, Cinematical Indie 
A couple years ago at the Seattle International Film Festival, I attended a screening of a set of short films. I don't recall now what the topic of the set was, but the funniest of them was a cute little short called Cashback, about a group of hapless night employees at a grocery store and the various ways in which they fight off the relentless boredom of their jobs.
One of the guys -- an aspiring artist -- could stop time. And he used his boring night job to freeze time, turning the customers in the store into models so he could strip them and practice drawing nudes. It was a well-done little short altogether (even nominated for an Oscar), and when the screening was over, they mentioned that it was being made into a feature. Now here we are, two years later, and one of the funniest films I've seen at SIFF this year is Cashback -- the feature-length version ( which had its debut last year at Cannes).
In order to flesh out a short into a feature, you have to add in some details like more plot and characters. The challenge is in taking a well-made short like Cashback (which really stood alone just as it was) and trying to turn it into a bigger story, without losing any of the charm that made the short successful. Writer-director Sean Ellis (who, according to the "trivia" section on the film's IMDb site, wrote the feature-length script in just seven days, including the entire short within the feature ) backs up a little from where he started with his short, fleshing out the back story of the main character, Ben (Sean Biggerstaff, who has kind of a Brit Zach Braff vibe going here), who develops a terrible case of insomnia after a painful breakup with his girlfriend.Continue reading SIFF Review: Cashback Permalink | Email this | Comments
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